League of Legends

[DisturbedSwan]

One of my longest running New Years Resolutions is to get into a MOBA.

 

For the last 5-6 years this has always been my sole resolution but I've never quite managed it. I had DotA 2 installed on Steam for a really long time, likewise with Heroes of the Storm - Blizzard's MOBA -  just after it released on Battle.net, but I'd just never got round to trying them. I'm not really sure why but every time I'd think about playing them I just couldn't motivate myself enough to actually invest the time to learning a whole new game genre and all its intricate mind-bending mechanics.

 

Last year I ended up uninstalling both DotA 2 and HotS, I just didn't think I'd ever realistically get time for them so I deleted them to save on HDD space. Fast forward to last week and I saw one of iJustine's videos where she goes to a local LoL tournament to support her sisters boyfriend, couple this with an ad somewhere that I stumbled across for LoL and an old Eurogamer video where Chris Bratt visits Riot Games' HQ in LA and I found myself sitting at the LoL website. Fuck it I thought and began the download.

 

I'd heard from lots of folks across the net that it's quite a toxic place to play and I need to be at least a bit clued up on the game so I don't piss others off and let them down when I'm playing, so I searched YT and found the two videos below - which were incredibly helpful - and then took to the in-game tutorials.

 

 

 

The in-game tutorials take you through a basic match, step by step, holding your hand the whole way and making sure you know what everything does. There's 3 game modes: Summoner's Rift, ARAM and Twisted Treeline. Summoner's Rift is the default 3-lane 5 v 5 setup, Twisted Treeline is 3 v 3 on a smaller map with more a more confusing lane layout and ARAM is a 5v5 straight up team deathmatch/battle scenario without any lanes, towers etc. to worry about.

 

I'll stick to Summoner's Rift for now. You start out at your base in the left corner of the map, here you'll find a CS type map where you buy starting equipment like Swords, boots, potions etc. that improve your character, next you pick a lane - top, mid or bottom - and go about protecting/patrolling it like a hawk. Dotted along these lanes are sets of turrets, when an enemy gets close it will shoot them and protect you, so both your and the oppositions first goal is to take these turrets out to weaken the opposition.

 

To confuse matters even more there are these folks called 'Junglers' which roam in between lanes in the jungle areas. These folks level up and strengthen their character all in the Jungle then pop out of the darkness to surprise unsuspecting players in lanes at the right moment and do some damage.

 

As you play your in-game rank goes up (not related to your account rank) when farming minions (AKA cannon fodder) which makes your character stronger and earns you lots more gold. When farming these minions if you encounter an enemy team member you take them on, and if low on health you retreat to the safety of your turret and either heal or 'recall' - heading back to your base to heal.

 

So as the game progresses your team and the opposition will gradually get stronger and stronger, the ultimate goal is to eventually reach the oppositions base and take out all their inhibitors, therefore winning the game. 

 

Another point of confusion is the 'Champions' - there's over 100 to choose from with 10 on a weekly free rotation. It definitely helps not being asked to choose between the entire roster but just these 10. Ashe is apparently a really good starter so initially I tried her, then Morgana, before eventually finding my 'main' - Miss Fortune (pictured below).

 

 

She's this bad ass red-headed Pirate lady with dual pistols. Whichever Champion you choose you'll have Q, W, E and R attack ability with B being used to recall, D and F being reserved for spells and 1, 2 being used for potions and beacons, all these have cooldown timers. The Left mouse button is used to aim ability cones and the right to attack enemies and generally move about the map.

 

I'm not sure what else to add but the game is free, you pay to unlock Champions, skins, loot boxes etc. in the store but some are also available to purchase with the in-game currency you accrue when you level up. There's also a LoL mobile variant called 'Arena of Valor' made by LoL's parent company - so it's very similar - available on the App Store. 

 

It runs on a Potato as well, so if anyone fancies trying it give me a shout.

[Whiskey_chaser]

Good luck, you'll need it! Never played League of Legends but spent nearly 300 hours on Smite on PS4. 

 

And remember - nothing beats a good gank!

[DisturbedSwan]

Wow that's impressive @Chimay well if you fancy jumping on with me sometime give me a shout  I'm sure lots of tactics/techniques etc. will carry over.

 

I have to say I didn't even consider Smite when I chose to play a MOBA, I guess it would've made more sense to play DOTA 2 as all the Champions are free in that as well as the game, but something about LoL just spoke to me more.

 

This may sound silly but up until earlier today I've purely been playing against bots as one of the videos recommended doing this and learning the game before jumping into facing real humans.

 

And oh boy, jesus fucking christ, I was having a great time against the bots but against humans it is nothing less than phenomenal. So incredibly fun, so incredibly tense and you're always having to think ahead whether to retreat or go for the kill, look in bushes and be wary of Junglers, studying the map to make sure a group of the opposition aren't making a massive flanking manoevre. And the team fights, jesus fucking christ, it is absolutely MENTAL and so incredibly exhilarating to see all that craziness on screen, the only downside is I sometime lose where my character is in battle and get killed before I know what's gone on  but that's all part of the learning process.

 

We won the first game and I got a B score for playing my main, which is pretty good I thought, then the second game we lost but I got an A- so I guess it wasn't me that let the side down? So yeah pretty chuffed with that, I've now got the sudden urge to play it all night, goddamn that's some crack level addictive shit.

[Whiskey_chaser]

Glad your enjoying it @Blakey! There's a hell of a learning curve, but if you can get a good group of people playing together and get half decent with a few characters you'll have a great time. Just ride the rough with the smooth - just as you start to think you're good you'll find yourself up against a team that really knows what it's doing and it's soul destroying 

[DisturbedSwan]

Just an update.

 

I've been playing a whole lot of this, since PSN wouldn't work for me on Thursday I skipped MGSU and played about 7 hours that day including my evening sesh.

 

Still not put a penny into it, so feeling a little guilty about that considering I've probably put in 20-30 hours by now.

 

In some ways it's reminiscent of my fighting game experience. I found myself searching forums and videos wondering if I should be trying to learn 2 Champs per role (ADC/Mid/Top/Sup/Jungler) to make sure if I'm called upon to fulfil a certain role when I eventually get to ranked I won't mess up spectacularly. 

 

Like the FGC there's so many tier lists and counter lists, who is best against x and y champ and in which scenario. With LoL you also have to watch out for the most 'banned' champs in Ranked as it's pretty pointless getting good at a Champ if they're going to be banned all the time.

 

So I've kind of got confused. I'm still playing Miss Fortune but I've been giving other characters a go to see if I bond with them to mixed results, I think the only one I bonded with and think I can do a competent job with is Brand, everyone else I felt like I was letting the side down really.

 

Even with my main - Miss Fortune - I haven't been doing fantastically, I don't want to be that guy that blames all his team mates, so I'll say I haven't been brilliant at all, but in certain games when you've got no support in the bottom lane it's not exactly surprising that I've been ganked from all directions. I was getting A-'s at the beginning of my PvP odyssey but now I'm getting C/C-'s so it's not exactly plain sailing with my main at all, still got an awful lot to learn.

 

I need to do more research into the items in the store too, I'm using guides on Moba Fire and other helpful sites to let me pick the 'optimal' items every time I get the chance to use the shop when I die, but then I've watched other videos which say you should be predicting the way the game is going and buying items accordingly rather than reacting, but the item store is so big that I don't really know what'll be incredibly useful unless I'm told. I hope this will all come naturally with time.

 

I need to learn when to travel out my lane and abandon the 'lane phase' as well. I seem to focus too much on this phase and am still slaying minions when everyone else is seemingly roaming about the entire map.

 

It's still a 30-40 hour journey until I get to ranked. I hope to be proficient enough in at least the ADC and Support roles by then, I think learning anymore may be overkill at this time. I did buy a Jungler in Warwick but yeah I think it's best to stick with Brand in support and Miss Fortune in ADC for now.

 

The depth is insane. I often describe it to my old man when he oversees me playing it as a moving chess match, it's crazy how deep it is. I lay awake in bed at night thinking about strategies and the best ways to snowball a match in my teams favour as ADC.

[DisturbedSwan]

Watched a lot of the LoL EU League Championship Series over the weekend and it has taught me a hell of a lot more about the game I wasn’t even aware of.

 

At certain points during the match these Dragons and Barons spawn in certain places in the jungle, before I watched the eSports tourney I just gave them no thought at all and left them to the Junglers to deal with. But after watching the tourney and realising how pivotal they were at giving your team a constant stream off buffs throughout the match - with the Elder Dragon giving the biggest buff in the game - I prioritised them much more and always had them in mind.

 

Another thing the tourney taught me was how important the Control Wards are. I barely used them at all before the tourney but now I’m always placing them at key junctions to save me from getting ganked by junglers.

 

It’s crazy how many games play out in the eSports series too. Each team has a coach and I can definitely see how some teams set out plays or probably have playbooks with a structured list of areas to prioritise and when to ‘snowball’ the game to make a play for the enemies Nexus and hopefully win it.

 

It is just crazy mind blowing how much stuff there is to think about in a match with the amount of gold you’re earning, how strong certain champions are in the 3 match phases - early, mid and late - and how you can find yourself getting stomped by the same champ you were stomping in the early stages or vice versa.

 

And it still absolutely boggles my mind that THIS IS FREE. Like, it is insane, and it hasn’t even held its hand out and asked for my cash yet, I’ve been able to ‘buy’ a handful of champions with the Blue Essence currency in game and haven’t spent a penny - I think I will do soon though, I’ve got my eye on some Champs that are part of the meta right now.

 

I’ve changed my main now as well, I kept letting the team down with Miss Fortune and got accused numerous times of ‘feeding’ the other team with kills so I have stuck with Brand (pic below) ever since I gave him a go on Friday/Saturday and have been doing really well. I think the support role suits me more than the ADC anyway to be honest.

 

 

I really do think folks that like Overwatch would like this. Initially I didn’t feel that way, and they are very different games in lots of ways don’t get wrong. But when the team fighting goes down it does remind me of an Isometric OW in lots of ways and the mad scrambles at the end of Payload matches or Defence of a point.

 

I’ve cancelled the next two games I had on order because I’ve got this to play and MGSU to finish. DMC HD Collection and Bravo Team both cancelled for an F2P game?! Yep, bananas.

[DisturbedSwan]

 

 

It’s basically where a jungler (a role in the team where you patrol the jungle, killing the jungle creatures that spawn to level up and meander in between the three lanes) flanks and attacks unsuspecting adc’s, mid’s, supports or top laners (ADC = Attack damage carry - bottom lane, Mid - middle lane, Top - Top lane, support - supports the ADC in bot lane).

 

They use all these terms in the Pro eSports tourney’s too, I promise I’m not making it up 

[DisturbedSwan]

Just another update, can’t believe I’ve been playing this since Feb 26th  the time has flown by.

 

Probably around 60 hours in now, been playing a lot at weekends and about 2/3 hours every night. Sitting at Level 23 so I’m pretty close to hitting the Level 30 cap to unlock ranked play, although I think I still need to improve a lot before I commit to ranked play.

 

I’ve unlocked about 18 Champs now too, so 2 more to hit the ranked requirement of 20. What has amazed me though is how many I’ve unlocked by just earning the in-game currency, when you hear it’s an f2p game you constantly think you’ve got to get your wallet out all the time but it is quite refreshing to be given so much currency and champs for free through natural progression.

 

I’ve still only spent £15 so far, for 60 hours of fun and it still feels like I’m barely out of kindergarten in the scheme of things. I may buy a few more champs when pay day rolls around but I’m happy with th ones I’ve got at the moment.

 

I’ve made it a priority to get used to all the different rolls with one or two characters and I think I’m about there. Teemo and Sion Top, Anivia and Zoe mid, Miss Fortune and Tristana ADC and Morgana, Janna and Brand Support.

 

I feel confident with all those above in my abilities, I mean I’m still nowhere near fantastic and I still have an awful lot to learn about what items to pick up when and in certain situations from the store and various other aspects of the game but I’m getting there gradually I feel.

 

Recently I’ve been playing with folks from some Discord channels which has added a cool social element to it that wasn’t necessarily there when playing with randoms. It also ups the nerves though as I don’t want to let the team down and look like a cunt, but thems the breaks.

[DisturbedSwan]

First ever S rank 

 

 

God I love Morgana.

[DisturbedSwan]

LoL Worlds S1 v LoL Worlds S7 ?

[DisturbedSwan]

Went back to this again recently and realised I haven't updated this thread for quite some time.

 

In the LoL eSports world a European team (Fnatic) got all the way to the Worlds 2018 Final last year

 

 

And a European team (G2 Esports) won MSI for the first time ever:

 

 

As for myself, since going back I've just been dossing about doing Normal Unranked Draft Pick games and spending almost all my time playing Top lane with Teemo (pictured below). He's a long-range Champion with a poison dart as a weapon

 

 

 

Usually tanks go top lane so he's a bit out of leftfield and often underestimated, he can be incredibly annoying to play against. 

 

Not got a lot else to say about the game itself that has already been said, but it is truly amazing and probably the MP game I've put the most hours in - possibly ever - but definitely in the last 5 years.

[DisturbedSwan]

 

[DisturbedSwan]

 

[DisturbedSwan]

I missed this earlier but the regional open beta opened for iOS here on the 12th December.

 

 

 

Played a few games tonight on the iPad and they’ve absolutely nailed it, feels just like League and the Controls are pretty damn good for a touchscreen experience.