Time to get your Poro on!

The New Summoners Rift Map

So many updates!

So, since it's the game I play the most I figured I would get into League of Legends again as my first post.
There were like a gazillion changes made to everything! 

Let's go...

The look

SR got a major makeover and now it's so pretty! I know a lot of people didn't like the changes made but since they have been implemented not only has my skill increased massively but I also enjoy just being in it.
The last map was messy. The brushes needed a trim, the jungle buffs were a bit boring and everything was as dark as it was miserable.

So what kind of makeover was implemented?
Well not only is the clarity increased and new, more realistic textures implemented but the style overall was changed completely.

Have a look:

Pretty huh!

As you can see in the bottom right the map is now a lot clearer too which makes it easier to call those incoming ganks or take advantage of enemy champion location.

A lot of work went into achieving the desired look. With the previous map being a lot harsher with solid lines, a more natural look was achieved by implementing in more natural 'objects' and using hand painting to create the textures.

As i said earlier, the Jungle buffs were also changed massively in visual respects. 

Here's a complete video covering all of the new changes to SR. It's well worth checking it out.

Final thought?
LOVE IT!
First time I went into the new map I was certain I wanted to witness two things; baron and dragon spawn.
It was a bit weird at first but now I couldn't imagine playing on the old map.
Well played Riot

Hexakill - League of Legends

Hexakill

The current featured gameplay mode is causing quite the storm over the rift.
This mode is really exciting, not only does it interrupt the harmony that is a 5v5 game but its pushing harder teamplays and compositions.
Im super stoked, not only because there are 6 of us that play the game together but its also my birthday tomorrow, so im spending the entire evening with my Hexateam in search of a Hexakill.

Adding in the additional player opens up so many opportunities that players are keen to try new set-ups and break free of the norms for a little while.
Will you have 2 junglers controlling half the map each? or maybe even a support in the mid to keep that mage as uber as possible?
Maybe you want to go 1 per lane with three in the jungle, one jungler per lane? It doesn't matter as thats the fun of Hexakill.
With an extra champ on your team you can push for an earlier Baron or an early gank across two lanes.

I haven't been crowned with a Hexakill yet but i'll keep switching up the teams and comps until i do.
One of my favourite things to do when in queued with 4 of my friends, is set up the MultiUlti where all champs have similar ults - AOE, World Ults etc and lay it on them in one beautifully choreographed killing spree.
My team comp for this evening while ill stream on my Twitch channel - (apologies for the lacking of streams btw, im in the process of sorting my pc out, getting a better cam and upgrading my Twitch account)

Top- Malphite
Mid- Ziggs
Mid Support - Soraka
ADC- Sivir
ADC Support- Orianna
Jungler -  Amumu

Notice something?
Sivir Ult+ Orianna shield + Malphite + Malphite ult + Amumu ult + Ori Ult + +Ziggs Ult + Soroka Ult = The Ace +1

Mathematical perfection.

So, strap in, grab a drink (because its my birthday n'all) and enjoy it while it lasts -2nd March, its all 5's again.

Peace out all!

Calling the Shots

The other day i was playing Nami Support, SR Normal queue with 2 friends.
I was bossing it. We won the lane, i set up almost all of the kills, i assisted and warded and any other responsibility that falls upon the support.
And then when i told the team not to go to Baron the mid laner questioned:
"Since when did a support start calling the shots?"

I think its a real shame that players still look down on the support role especially considering its the support that controls the bot lane. Its the support who alerts and wards. Its the support who sets up the kills...

I found it so infuriating that my role, that i was playing really well was being belittled and considered undervalued by another member of the team.

Just wondered why it is that people think like that i guess?

Support has recently become one of my favourite roles and i tend to roll Lux, Nami or Thresh depending on my adc. I tend to win my lane as a support because i co-ordinate myself to work with the adc. I communicate to the best i can and never flame.
I support and do it well and ill be damned if the team heads for a Baron 18 minutes in with the whole enemy team up and in the mid lane.

Luckily, i was teamed with the majority.

Keep sharing the love for supports everwhere!

Peace.

Fan-art Possible Support/ AP carry

I stumbled upon this incredible character concept art on DeviantArt by user RiyokuSakimori.
Her name is Vanity with her story surrounding the myths and legends of The Looking Glass

     I could see this champion as a support, a cross between Janna and Sona.
She hasn't had the honor of being graced with abilities yet although Mind Control, Siren Scream, Soul Crush and some uber stun ulti would make this champ UNSTOPPABLE.
Could you imagine scaling her as an AP carry?

Champion Rotation

So this weeks selection is pretty awesome.
I always take the opportunity to try out the free champs as you never know who you are going to like.
Ive also found that if i try a champ out and i hate playing them, i know how they work. So, when i get laned against them i know how long their 'taunt' lasts for or what level they will be picking up that shield.
You should know your enemy as much as possible and this way is free and fun too!

Rengar. The beast of the jungle, i love this champ but have never played him. Similar to the MF and Cait story, i am loyal to Kha'Zix. He is one of my friends favourite champions though so i might ask for some lessons on the almighty cat soon!








Kha'Zix is my jungler. I can always count on him. He is pretty weak sauce until level 6 when he evolves but when he does he is just this incredible beautiful, ugly butterfly beast that elegantly jumps and rips the shit out of you. One to play. Not easy to master. Alex Ich videos have come in muchos handy - Pentakill anyone?




I have never played Rammus. Bad i know, but im not into tanky champs. Also, i feel highly let down by riot that there isnt a Sonic skin for Rammus :( And now that ive said it, you all feel just as bummed out as i do.



This little flying bastard has been the bane of many of my adc games. He cranks it up hard late game so the only way you're going to win is by going all out aggressive early on.








I was told the other day that Taric is a support that i need to try in preparation for ranked games. I tend to take an AP carry support so i can scale later game but the flames i get for picking a Lux over a champ that can offer its adc sustain in lane is pretty consistent.



Ive never tried playing Udyr... i used to think he was a bear. He is not, apparently he is a dude in a bear suit? Im not sure. Evil champ if fed. I'll definitely try him out one day but not my type of champ at the moment.

Aaaaah, Lux. Such an uber champ! Ive play her at least once a day and all those that haven't tried her.. why the f' not?


I'm a Miss Fortune fan and as these two counter in lane i decided to stay loyal to MF. But, one of my friends is AMAZEBALLS at Caitlyn plays and watching him play has given me the buzz over Caitlyn, i brought her the other day and cant wait to land some of those incredible ulti's



This fishy little bastard. Its no surprise he is banned in so many ranked games now. I hate laning against this guy in the mid lane. He's jumpy and solid as a rock. And his uber ult isnt easy to dodge either. This is one of the only champs i haven't learnt to play despite the fact that he is my ultimate nemesis, but since he is free - ill be taking Fizz for a spin around the mid lane as soon as i can!



Ive given Ahri a go and she packs a massive punch on top of her charm. She is fast and quirky but she needs more range before ill play her seriously.

League Placements

So, it finally happened... i've been placed in ranked.

I lost 8 out of 10 matches and went in to Bronze III.
I play at a higher level than this, when i queue with my friends who are Silver I/II I get laned against Silvers/ Golds who have played many more games than i have and i can still totally hold my own.

But, you cant win every game, someone always has to lose. Sometimes you can get queued with trolls or people that go AFK or those that just really really suck at that lane/ champ/ team composition/ game in general. Its all irrelevant though, none of it matters because you can just come out of the game, click Play and go into a brand new match with brand new people and a brand new chance to win.

So, im really excited to burn through the ranks.
Now that ive been placed ill be turning away from normal games and focusing on just ranked games unless the whole group is on, in which case we'll be a 5 man premade and bossing it.

I found this really funny post from a member on the LoL forums 'Katsuhayabi' explaining the Division V in each League using potatoes to symbolise the Ranks - http://forums.euw.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=1358115

So, i think it'll be a little while before i'm in the LCS or before someone pays me to play but im having fun playing the game, developing my skills and being part of this awesome yet sometimes 'troll'y' community.

Gl all, HF.

One To Watch Out For...

So today i checked out  Fnatics xPeke bossing up the mid lane on his Twitch stream - Solo queue, SR (Summoners Rift) as Gragas.
But, the player of the match was not Xpeke as you might assume but their Thresh, Acc name - KissMyHero.
I checked out his LolKing stats and is currently Diamond Ranked, but this guy was setting up kills and plays like he was Ed-freaking-ward!

I would definitely keep an eye out :)

Now check out xPeke bossing Orianna in the midlane: http://www.twitch.tv/xpeke
Enjoy
x

Tickets for EU LCS Now Available! Holy Shiz Niz!

I am completely bummed that i wont be going to this as the line-ups are amazing! But, nonetheless i am totally stoked that ill be watching it live from home! Only i get to watch it in my pyjamas with a massive bowl of popcorn!
So here are the matches:

Date	Game Time	Matchups	Cost	Buy Link
Jan 14	19:00 CET	FNC vs GMB | CW vs ALL | LD vs KMT | ALL vs FNC | GMB vs CW | SK vs ALT	€10	Buy Now
Jan 15	19:00 CET	LD vs ALL | FNC vs SK | ALT vs GMB | CW vs SK | KMT vs ALT	€10	Buy Now
Jan 16	19:00 CET	SK vs LD | ALT vs FNC | KMT vs CW | GMB vs LD | ALL vs KMT	€10	Buy Now
Jan 23	19:00 CET	ALT vs ALL | KMT vs LD | CW vs ALT | GMB vs SK	€10	Buy Now
Jan 24	19:00 CET	ALL vs CW | KMT vs GMB | FNC vs LD | ALT vs SK	€10	Buy Now
Jan 30	19:00 CET	GMB vs ALL | KMT vs FNC | LD vs SK | CW vs FNC	€10	Buy Now
Jan 31	19:00 CET	ALL vs SK | LD vs CW | SK vs KMT | GMB vs FNC	€10	Buy Now
Feb 6	19:00 CET	FNC vs ALL | ALT vs KMT | CW vs GMB | LD vs ALT	€10	Buy Now
Feb 7	19:00 CET	SK vs CW | LD vs GMB | FNC vs KMT | ALL vs ALT	€10	Buy Now

And seriously, at 10 Euros a ticket... you would be craaaazy not to pick one up!

This year the LCS shall be held in Cologne, Germany (poor UK *sob* we never get anything cool!)

The only reason i wont be attending the Esporting event of the year is that i am off to Thailand later in the year and spent all my monies :( maybe next year though!

So, here is a link to the site - as you can see i stole the table and the images (naughty) so << that counts as referencing it right? What a pain...

http://euw.lolesports.com/articles/tickets-2014-eu-lcs-sale-now

So, best Cosplay and giant foam fingers at the ready, and remember - Keep Calm and AD Carry On!

All i want for Christmas

So, who knew? Sivir is hot.

Not this one -
Don't even get me started on this skin, she looks like an outcast from Planet of the friggin Apes.
Has anyone ever actually purchased this?

Im talking about the new Snowstorm Sivir skin....

Tada! - bangin right!

So happy Sivir went under the 'pen' and had a facelift, and after bossing her abilities she deserves it!
I said before i had never shown much interest in the champion and now she is one of my favourite AD Carries, Blitzcrank pulls can suck me and my super shield and super buffy buffness.

That's one bangin boomerang (and its a snowflake! :D )


In game:

I'll see you all in champ select, with ADC on copy and one hell of a skin.

Peace.

League of Legends Patch 3.14 - IMO...

League of Legends Patch 3.14 - IMO...

So i wanted to discuss the changes made to League of Legends in the new 3.14 patch.
Riot gave League a complete overhaul in the new patch and as they put it 'tidied up' which was a little overdue IMO.
The majority of the changes made are awesome and will have some serious effects on the general gameplay and tendencies of the players.
Obviously, im not going to go through every change, just the major ones :D

So lets begin with the Champ overhauls:

Gragas:
So Riot wanted to increase 'Gragas's fighting strategy in close combat as opposed to tossing out a barrel whenever the cooldown finished. To do this, Body Slam now deals full damage to all targets hit.
Gragas always annoyed me in his range, as it is much longer than most AP carries, this with his regeneration makes him a hard carry to lane against. Thankfully Riot also reduced the range on his barrels [queue 'phew']



Sivir
Since the patch, Sivir has become one of my favourite AD carries, and provided an AP champ goes top, has bossed mid lane a few times under the control of my cruelty and keyboard.
So the buff to Boomerang Blade was well deserved as i always felt like Sivir needed a bit more 'POW' in order for me to really get into the champ. She now has such intense wave clear and lane control and in ARAM...owns it.
Also, the redo of Sivirs image was long awaited and i LOVE the new Sivir. Although her skins... they could really do with a facelift, especially in comparison to how hot the other female champs are. Its only fair she looks like a boss now that she bosses her lane.


One of the biggest changes in the game is the approach to the Support role (one of my favourites) It often annoyed me at the lack of grats a supp would get, especially when you have been setting up kills from the get go. They are often under appreciated. Because of this i tend to turn any support into a Carry as soon as possible, but always leaving one slot for wards.

Sona
Before the patch id often rock the mid lane with her as the AP carry.
Not too easy since the patch, but as Riot put it 'Crescendo and Hymn of Valor would rock just a little too hard' so unfortunately, Sona got nerfed... but the added AP ratio that allows Sona to scale better late game means that she can turn AP carry too... just a little later than the rest.

Nami
Nami is one of my favourite champs. Unfortunately her damage was a bit weak, i enjoyed her utility and with Aqua Prison she can totally hold a lane while the Carry is off shopping.
Unfortunately, Riot reduced the ability power ratio of Aqua Prison and Tidal Wave, but its all forgiven with the buff they did on he Surging Tides and Ebb & Flow. Since the patch i have seen Nami heal like a trooper... like AP Yi. (but lets not mention that.... the OP bastad.)

ITEMS (Because that Rabadons looks... fetching.)

IMPORTANT: The word 'hat' is now searchable in the shop.... in case Raba/Death/Cap is too much.

Dorans Blade:
Reduced down from 475 to 440 (thanks for the extra pot Riot ;)   )

Oracles now removed...
(Sob) But.... the Teemo shrooms!

Support Items

Like i mentioned before, Supports have now been changed pretty drastically.... and im loving it.
So the following items have been put in for Supports:
I wont put in all the stats, just the GOLD Per... passives (as that's whats important...right?)

Spellthiefs Edge:
Basic attacks against Champs grants 4 gold up to once every ten seconds per enemy. Killing a minion disables this for 10 seconds.

Ancient Coin
Being near a minion death grants 2 gold (without taking the killing blow on minion)

Relic Shield
Basic attacks execute minions below 200 health. Killing a minion heals the nearest allied champion for 2% of your maximum health and grants them the bounty plus 5 gold

Honestly... i think the last one sucks.... the carries can get their own damn gold. My personal favourite is Ancient Coin... mainly due to laziness.

These new items, means that the Supports dont have to worry about gold and desperately trying to afford boots after they have stocked up on wards.

Wards


One of the biggest changes in the game is the approach to vision and wards... this is what Riot said..

"Support players were often expected to shoulder the warding burden on the map. With these changes, we want to encourage all players on the team to participate in providing vision for their team. We also want to introduce more dynamic gameplay within the vision system and most of our underlying changes reflect this philosophy."

I personally love this approach. I was often tired of the warding responsibility to fall onto the support champs, especially when building into a carry end game.

The Sight Wards, newly names Stealth Wards have had a bit of a nerf, each player can now only carry 3 Stealth Wards at a time. This was Riots way of making the players think harder on the placement and strategic benefit of warding.

Vision Wards received the largest makeover with them no longer being stealthed.
All champions can see vision wards even in bushes, but they have now become 'infinite wards' until taken out. They now have 5 health (what a boss.) have been reduced to 1 per player and and decreased in gold cost to 100 gold.

Riot have now added in TRINKETS!
Which we are all super duper excited about!
Not only are they freeeeee (because we all love a bargain) but they have their own special slot too!


So 3 trinkets were placed into the game:

Warding Totem: Stealth Ward that lasts for 60 seconds
Scrying Orb: Reveals a location within 1100 range for 1 second
Sweeping Lens: Reveals and disables nearby hidden; wards, traps and devices for 4 seconds.

The trinket of choice appears to be Warding Totem at the moment, but i think this will change over time as players become more conscious of their uses and take more notice of the wards/ trinkets their enemies or allies are taking and their enemies abilities (example: Nidalee traps, Teemo Shrooms etc.)

For a cool guide on the new LoL trinkets click.... here -->>> http://gamerexp.com/league-of-legends-trinket-system-explanation/

Summoners Rift Changes

Anyone else noticed the haircut its had?
I definitely prefer this, it makes you think more about your champ positioning and ward placement.

Jungle

One of the reasons that jungling was one of my least favourite roles was the difficulty in keeping up in level and gold especially if you unsuccessfully gank!
With the new patch making the jungle creeps scale in gold worth and XP worth makes junglers stay with and ahead of the team.
Riot have also placed in a new Jungle Camp: Wight... although... he is all alone... maybe a mini White Riot?

Map Objectives

So there were a few changes to Dragon to stop him from 'game changing' early game and falling off end game. So now dragon constantly levels. Boom.

I personally like the decreased respawn time of the Inhibitors, often a complete game changer, players are now forced to rethink their pushing strategy and map objectives a bit more.

IMO:

So that's just a few of the updates from patch 3.14
Much of it was very welcomed, some not so much, but it all amounts to a serious game changer. Now the game is focused even more so on skill, strategy and timing than it is 'right place right time'
Its much cleaner now with some serious updates on the 'little guys' and not so much of a 'clusterfuck' of OP champs, silly ward placement and greedy Baron rushing'

With the norm now being mid champs to play as supports i guess a lot of the League Community are 50/50 on the dis/adv of this. Will supports be pushed out altogether and make way for the new AP Carry/ Support?

Supports main focus was on their utility rather than damage. But damage counts for a lot in lane.
Most champs have some form of utility & CC (crowd control) I think these changes are going to force the bot lane in a couple of ways. With aggressive mid laners like Lux, Orianna, Annie etc the combined utility and damage will force that duo to push the lane so aggressively. With Utility and Tanks like Leona, Thresh.... the focus will be on going for the kills, durability and out lasting your opponents in lane. Because of the potential to storm late game as a Support turned AP carry turned 'UNSTOPPABLE' this is the future of the Support role and i cant wait ;)

See you all on the playing field.

GG Riot.