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| Quote: Pre-Posting Edit: This ended up much longer than i had expected it to, the short version is basically, i've started playing League of Legends and find it rather fun. If anyone else plays or wants to play then you can add me via "SethAnub1s". You can register and download the game (for free) here. This is the American version of the game (not the EU version in my initial clicky below), it doesn't really make a difference with a decent internet connection. Hopefully i'll see you in game | |
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Anyone used to play this mod from Warcraft 3?
Anyhow, i've just started playing League of Legends which is essentially a clone with updated Torchlight style graphics. It's free to play and the development team (Riot Games) consist of some of the original DotA people and someone on the Warcraft 3: Frozen Throne dev. team IIRC.
Basically the game is a blend of RPG and Real Time Tactics/Strategy where teams of 5 Champions set out to destroy the enemies' base across the map. In between you and their base are lines of turrets and every 30 seconds a wave of "minions" (cannon fodder) spawns at either side's base and make their way to the opposite end. Your task is to support your minions by helping them take out enemy minions, champions and turrets along the way to push into their territory, ultimately culminating in you destroying their "Nexus" and winning the game.
Obviously as with most RTSs the premise is rather simple but the scope of the game is very large. In total there are 45 Champions each with their own "abilities", the Champions can roughly divided into the following "classes":
Assassin's specialise in taking out other champions, either by having a high damage burst to quickly kill them off or by helping disable them with Stun or Slow for the aforementioned/other teammates.
Support characters who range from your typical healers to crowd controllers to even one who constructs defensive turrets.
Warrior/Tank classes who are best for pushing through enemy turrets removing anything in the way.
Each of these can either be Ranged, Melee and/or Casters and most characters can generally fall between two classes allowing for customisation and variety.
During the course of the game your champion levels up (through being near combat) and thus you can further enhance their abilities and improve their effectiveness. A gold system is also implemented for each kill you perform and lets you buy items which can increase your stats in various different ways, adding to the number of possible builds and variations.
On the Free Download version of the game you don't get access to all 45 champions but a selection of roughly 7 which changes each week. IMO this gives newer players more incentive to play and try out newer champions whilst at the same time giving a level playing field if almost everyone has to play with a character they haven't fully grasped. On the whole the Champions appear to be carefully balanced and lots of thought seems to go into it with tweaks to certain abilities in every patch.
The main reason why i liked the game however was the inclusion of a "Practice Mode" where you can play against bots. It may sound like a relatively simple inclusion and one you'd expect from an RTS but due to it originating as a mod, there are other clones out there which don't feature one (i'll cover that later). Basically the practice mode allows you to pick a champion and then get to know their abilities whilst learning how to play the game at the same time. The bots also have limited difficulties ranging from "New Player" and "Easy" although i've not necessarily found a difference between the two, encouraging you to play online with other people when you're confident enough.
The other reason which makes the game enjoyable is that each game, be it Practice or a proper match nets you "XP" and "IP" (Influence Points) although Practice matches give you 35% less. The former is just a ranking system of sorts to judge skill level and match you to players of other levels but the levelling system also contributes to the "Persistant Levelling" side of the game in the form of various Masteries and Runes/Glyphs/Seals you can pick. The former is a kin to an RPG skill tree which gives small bonuses to your champion in the form of Armor, Mana or reduced Cooldowns etc. whilst the latter are items which do the same thing... the bonuses aren't very large but obviously after stacks they become useful enough that it might give you the edge needed to survive/kill someone, but not significant enough such that you're overpowered.
The IP system is the other thing that makes the game enjoyable (IMO), basically this is essentially currency for the online store. There you can buy various things like the Runes (etc.) but the main draw is the other Champions which are locked. The prices aren't absurd either, i've played about 15-20 matches and have already unlocked 2 characters to permanently use. To put into context, each Practice game nets you 51IP whilst a Public Match ranges from either 60IP-80IP for a win/loss respectively... the main benefits however come from either your first win of the day which nets you ~150IP and streaks for finishing games (will talk about this later). Ultimately i earn about 70IP for a loss and 100IP for a win, Characters cost either 450, 1350, 3150 and 6300 IP with prices generally dependent on difficulty (i.e. the cheapest ones are the easiest for new players to use, and hence unlock). What this means is that if you play the game long enough you could essentially unlock every character in the game for free.
Every game (almost) has its faults however and League of Legends is no different to any other DotA clone. This comes in the form of the community, it's not terribly bad mind you and i've never personally come across anyone being a complete ass however there are many childish players who end up either complaining or insulting teammates when losing and/or ultimately quitting the game, leading to a huge imbalance (people who are disconnect by accident or on purpose are not allowed to find another match for a while but are given the option to reconnect). This also stems from the fact that the game isn't necessarily easy to learn, you can understand the objective but you need to experience playing against people to understand the various tactics and plays that people do and thus newcomers can end up a bit lost during the match. However if you persevere the game can be very rewarding, I've had multiple games with complete strangers where we've been able to roughly coordinate ourselves and the game was very enjoyable even if we lost.
Anyhow, if anyone plays or wants to play then feel free to add me, username: SethAnub1s. Although i play on the American servers (didn't realise until after unlocking a character), however i've never experienced any noticeable/affecting lag and usually am the first one to connect to the game
. You'll have to sign up here instead (as opposed to the link i initially gave which was for the EU version).----
There's another DotA clone out there called Heroes of Newerth which is currently in open beta, i tried it out after a few games of League of Legends but i couldn't pick it up. Graphically it's much darker, more akin to Warcraft 3 and/or Diablo 3 which wasn't offputting, but wasn't as fun to look at as LoL.
However there were two big things which put me off spending more time with it, the first was that there was a huge roster of champions to choose from the get go, i believe they say around 70... the problem was that this, coupled with the second problem, the lack of any sort of Practice Mode, meant you were thrown in the deep end right from the get-go. I didn't have any time to get to know any of the characters and/or their abilities/strengths/weaknesses and i ended up being essentially really rubbish. Not to mention that whilst you can sort the games to find ones for "Newbies Only", generally these are populated by somewhat experienced players to have merely lost a lot of matches thus having a similar rating to you.
Anyhow, sorry for the long post... it initially started out as merely just a "Who's playing this thread" and kind of turned into a mini review
. Congrats if you actually managed to read all of it though 
.