League of Legends: It’s Always Sunny in Demacia

By Jason Harper (Hhean), OnRPG DotA Reporter

 

 

Welcome summoners, to the patch v1.0.0.121 article for League of Legends, the game that provides eternal sunshine to a spotless mind. This patch includes an improved Yorick, multiple rune purchases and Leona, The Radiant Dawn.

 

Leona is a pure tank, capable of taking a good deal of damage while using a number of crowd control abilities to lock down the enemy team. She plays similarly to other pure tanks, and any Amumu or Jarvan player will feel very at home while playing her.

 

Unlike the other characters released recently, Leona doesn’t really have a gimmick. She doesn’t even use some sort of bizarre sun resource mechanic, and instead relies on her trusty mana bar. She does however, have the widest array of crowd control methods available to any single character in the game. Though each one is rather weak individually, she can be really difficult to shake off due to the diversity of her toolkit.

 

Her passive, Sunlight, will mark a target after she uses an ability. These marks will be expended when an allied champion damages the marked target, causing bonus damage. This functions much like Lux’s passive, but she cannot trigger it herself. This makes Leona very poor at functioning alone, but adds a moderate amount of damage to her team when working with someone else. While this is fits with a tank thematically, it does limit her laning options if you want to maximize her effectiveness, since it means she must have a partner in order to get any use out of this passive.

 

 

Her main combo is to begin charging Eclipse [W], fire a Zenith Blade [E] in the direction of the enemy carry, then tap Shield of Daybreak [Q] immediately after the free hit Zenith Blade triggers, which will immediately reset the attack animation to trigger the stun. A slightly easier variation is to use the Shield of Daybreak before using Zenith Blade, and using the free hit as a stun. This guarantees the stun, but lowers her damage output slightly. Dropping her ultimate, Solar Flare [R] just behind an enemy after the stun wears off is a great way of extending this combo, even more so if you can use it to tag multiple enemies in the blast.

 

It’s worth noting that it isn’t always a good idea to open with Eclipse, because it will give away what you’re planning. The enemy will have just under 3 seconds to react (The actual charge is 3 seconds, but they won’t be able to move after being rooted by the Zenith Blade, so it gives them less time overall) to what you’re planning, and given how flashy the effect is, you might as well display a giant neon sign over your head saying “I’M ABOUT TO GANK YOU WITH MY TEAM”. If you can help it, try to charge in a bush or around corners to avoid giving the game away.

 

Shield of Daybreak’s stun is rather limited, having only a 1.25 second duration that doesn’t scale with level and can only be used in melee range. Once you’ve invested in cooldown though, it can be used quite frequently. It can get down to being used every 4.8 seconds, which if you factor in the stun duration, means that Leona can keep someone out of a quarter of the total time of a fight using that one ability alone.

 

At level 1, pick up Shield of Daybreak. Although Eclipse works better for early farm, Shield of Daybreak is better for early team fights in the jungle, or to help set up early ganks in a lane. At level 2, grab Zenith Blade. Level 3 is Eclipse time. From there, I’ve been leveling based on the overall aggression in game. If you’re sitting in the lane a fair bit, you will need Eclipse leveled to survive the beating you’ll take while trying to get last hits, and also to try and get some measure of farm using the large blast. If there’s plenty of ganks and counter ganks going on, then focus more on Shield of Daybreak if you feel the reduced cooldown will allow you to use it in extended fights. Whichever you don’t level, take the other second, leaving Zenith Blade for last.

 

Start out with a Regrowth Pendant and a Health Potion. Your main goal early game is to get a Philosopher’s Stone and Heart of Gold as quickly as possible to compensate for her awful farming capabilities. From there, she needs a good balance of cooldown reduction and whatever resistances she’ll need to counter the enemy team. While 40% reduction cooldown is ideal, 25% can be obtained without sacrificing any durability or using runes/masteries.

 

For her Masteries, I’ve been switching between a 0/21/9 page and a 0/9/21 page, depending on team composition. The former allows her to take more punishment, while the latter allows her to spew out more crowd control, and also means you don’t have to sacrifice so much gold if you’re looking to hit the cooldown reduction cap. For Runes I’ve been using my stock tank page – Armour Marks, Dodge Seals, Magic Resist Glyphs and Health Quintessences. If you can fit some cooldown in there, go ahead.

 

 

Leona is a difficult champion to judge. I think she suffers a good deal from the same issues Renekton had at launch – a great toolkit, but not so great numbers to back it up. Her abilities feel satisfying to use, with great sound and visuals, but nothing really happens after she uses them. Her farming capability is atrocious; I’ve never seen a Leona, played by myself or anyone else I’ve queued with, break 100 creep kills in a match. Her damage output is also terrible; I’ve seen Leona be outclassed by Soraka when reviewing post-game damage charts. While I understand tanks aren’t meant to do damage, her crowd control as a whole is still lacking by comparison with Amumu, who also has a higher damage output by comparison.

 

Her other real issue is that with poor jungling speed and low solo lane capability, I can’t think where to put her in a team composition. The best place to put her would be to replace your support in bottom with her, since she’s not going to take any farm away from your AD carry. This would mean you’d either have to have your support jungling (Which narrows it down to Nunu) or taking a solo lane (Meaning it would have to be someone like Orianna, Lux or Zilean). However, given her limited harass, this would leave the carry less able to farm as they have to actually commit to getting rid of enemies themselves.

 

While I don’t think she’s the worst tank pick, I do think she’s going to need some buffs in order to be competitive.

 

 

On the topic of buffs – Yorick. Sweet monkey Jesus, Yorick. He’s become an absolute beast. He’s got great damage, great sustain and can take hits from multiple enemies at once without much trouble. Stick him in a solo lane, level him up and watch the enemy team get ripped to shreds. He’s looking like the game’s new Jax, swinging from useless to overpowered on a patch by patch basis.

 

On the other end of things, the nerf to Ashe has been a long time coming. She’s been a first ban / first pick since ranked play was implemented, near enough. The added cooldown to her Enchanted Crystal Arrow is going to help stop random arrow spam winning lanes from across the map, and maybe encourage her players to be a bit more careful when using it. Not a major nerf, but a perfectly understandable one in just the right area.

 

Buh-Bye AP Alistar! Well, that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but he’s been slammed pretty hard these past patches. His ratios have taken a 30% cut in the past month, which is a sizable bite into the cow’s damage output. Will he be seen less in competitive play? Doubtful, since he’s still a great tank, just one that’s now not so capable of stomping you into the ground as he was.

 

The new UI for custom game creation makes playing scrims much easier, and the new Quit button is a godsend for when you get one of the numerous bugs that can crop up when hosting a private match. This, combined with the new ability to buy multiple runes from the shop in a single go make the client that little bit more user friendly.

 

To discuss some of the changes yourselves, post in the massive League of Legends thread in the free to play MMOs section. If you haven’t tried League of Legends yet, now is the perfect time.

Conquer Online – 8 Years Later

By Remko Molenaar (Proxzor), OnRPG Guest Writer

 

 

General Introduction of Conquer Online.

Conquer Online is a free-to-play 2.5D MMORPG developed by TQ Digital Entertainment. The game is set in the world of ancient China. The game is playable in different languages such as English, Chinese, French, Japanese and Spanish.

 

 

This game has been out for a while now but deserves another look at it. The game released back in the year of 2003 and it is still being actively played by a lot of people, and it currently has more than 10 million registered users around the world.

 

First Impressions

When I first started up the game launcher I could pick three options. These three options were “High Definition”, “Standard Definition” And “Low Definition” meaning that everyone can play this game no matter how bad your computer is. After I chose my option, I got at the server select menu, where I could choose for a specific server. There are just the normal servers to play on but there are also ‘Classic’ and ‘World PK’ servers to choose from.

 

The Classic consist the following changes from the original servers:

1. No Shopping Mall
2. No Battle Power System
3. No DB Leveling
4. No DB Socketing for “non-weapon” gear or the 2nd socket for weapons
5. No Talismans
6. Toxic Fog is removed from the Ninja skills
7. Gems drop rate from monsters increased
8. PK is allowed in Twin City.
9. Equipment Bonus Quests are removed.

This being said, it really looks like they care for the community to make this server specifically for a certain group of old school players.

 

Classes

When you have chosen your server it is time to pick a class. Every class is specialized in different weapons, armor and skills. The following classes are currently in the game:

 

Ninja

The Ninja is a mysterious class, they are cloaked in the shadow with the most devastating attacks. But have the lowest defense and health. The Ninja can equip an exclusive weapon, the ‘katana’, these Japanese made swords make the ninja possess that highest attack speed among the melee classes in the game. The special of this class is Poison Star; this skill makes it more difficult for their opponent to drink potions.

 

Archer

The Archer is the master of the bow, they are not only able to shoot enemies at a distance, but also can engage multiple targets as well. The Archer is the only class available that is able to use the bow and arrow. Their special ability is ‘flying.’ This unique ability makes them fly in the sky and immune to physical attacks.

 

Fire Taoist

The Fire Taoists is a mage class available in the game. As the name of the class tells you, this class is specialized in Fire attacks. They do not mainly use a weapon but they prefer the Backsword. The Special of this class is the further they are away of the target, the more damage they deal.

 

 

Monk

Monks, also known as Saints, are the support class in this game. They are known for their powerful martial and buff skills, so they are a helpful member of every team. They are specialized to help the group as much as possible by wielding skills such as dispels, auras and buffs.

 

Water Taoist

The Water Taoist is the healer class. They are entrusted with spell such as heal, cure and revive. Like the Fire Taoist, the Water Taoist uses the Backsword as well. Their Special is nothing different than that from the Fire Taoist. The further they are away of the target the more damage they deal.

 

 

 

Warrior

The warriors can wield a wide range of weapons. They are also the only class able to equip a shield for bonus defense. The warrior can use every weapon in the game except for the bow and backsword. The warriors are also wearing the heaviest and strongest armor in the game. Their special is ‘Superman’. When activated their attacks deal more damage to the target.

At level 15, you are able to get a class promotion. With this promotion you will get a new title, enhanced attributes and you are able to learn new skills!

 

Character Customization

When you have selected your gender it’s time to customize your character. The only thing you can customize at first is the size of your character. If you want additional customization options you will have to visit various NPCs in the city in order to change your body size, avatar, hairstyle and the color of your hair.

 

 

Gameplay

Normally in a game, you walk to your destination. In Conquer Online however, walking is too slow and there is an option to jump! You practically just leap forward to your destination instead of walking. This game is entrusted with a ‘Path Finding’ feature as well. Whenever you are lost, you can use this option to automatically walk to your desired NPC. From the moment you start your character you get a quest. You can look up this quest in the quest list. In this panel, you are able to see which quests you currently have, what the target is, and your reward. In this quest panel you are able to see which quests are available to you and which quests you have done. There are also daily quests that you can do every day. These daily quests mostly consist of PvP quests.

Attacking a target is very simple; when you click on the target you will auto attack the target. You can however assign a skill on the Right mouse button. This feature will use your assigned spell on the target. If you use more skills you can put these on the action bar. The XP bar around your health bar fills during combat. Once the bar is fully loaded you are able to use a XP skill. Every class has a different XP skill suiting their class’s strengths.

 

 

The user interface is clean and simple; you can find everything on the bottom of the screen and have some small information at the top left like the coordinates, fps and latency.

PVP

Most MMORPGs are based around PvE, however Conquer Online is mostly based around PvP. The biggest aspect of the game is PvP. There are different Tournaments being hosted daily and there is even an arena. It is also possible to challenge another guild and have a guild war.

PK or player killing is also a major feature in this game.

There are four different PK Modes in the game. You can switch to the mode you want to PK in at the bottom of your screen on the action bar.

The four different modes to choose from are:

PK: You will be able to attack monsters and players.
Team: Slay monsters and other players that are not in your current team or guild.
Peace: You can only slay monsters.
Capture: You can slay monsters and are able to attack criminals (pkers with a record demonstrated by their blue or black names)

There is also a Jail in this game. Players who have earned over 100 PK Points will be jailed if they get killed. You can get out of Jail if you pay 500,000 Silver, however if you don’t feel like paying up you can always sit your time out and do some mining in the meantime.

Crafting

Crafting really improves the game play and helps build up the economy in a game. Conquer Online has an unique crafting system like no other game has seen before. You are not going to beat your opponents without some properly crafted equipment. It really makes a difference! I find crafting an important feature in a game and Conquer Online has polished this pretty well.

In this game you can randomly find a ‘Meteor.’ This meteor is a purple shiny stone you can get by killing monsters. Or you can buy them from NPC or fellow players. These meteors can be used to upgrade your equipment. Besides upgrading equipment, these meteors are also used for quest items, color customization, and divorce stones.

To upgrade your item with a meteor you have to see Artisan Wind. He charges you 1 Meteor to perform his upgrading service. Upgrading your equipment is a risk because it may be able to fail, and you may need more meteors then you might have planned. The higher level the item, the lower chance that he will be able to upgrade it. If you however do not want to risk losing your precious shiny balls you will have to go to the Equipment Blacksmith in the market. He has a 100% success rate in upgrading your items.

In addition to this, there are gems of various elements ingame used to imbue certain elements into your equipment. Through the Gem Composing feature, you can combine gems to produce much more valuable combination gems to really make your equipment shine. Items can also be socketed through the Socketsmith. This is done through the use of the ‘Dragon Ball’ item. For each additional socket you wish to add to an item, the number of dragon balls increases greatly.

Social Interaction

This game has a ‘Mentor’ feature to help new players get into the game. This feature lets you have a Mentor that will guide you into the world of Conquer Online! The Mentor can claim contribution from his apprentices. He can gain experience when his apprentice is grinding or share blessings when his apprentice activates a prayer stone. When an apprentice gets a +1 item dropped by monsters, the Mentor will receive a contribution point. When you reach 100 contribution points, the mentor is rewarded with a +1 stone. The only limitation on the mentor system is that the Master must be 30 levels above his apprentices.

Unlike many MMORPGs in this game you can actually get married. If you love having a nagging wife yelling at you to put the trash outside, then you can get one in game as well!

 

 

It is also possible to join or create a guild. In order to create a guild you have to be Level 90 or above. If you are then you can find the Guild Director in Twin City and pay him 1,000,000 Silver to setup a guild. There are currently 17 guild ranks with different privileges that can be used, and some ranks have a limit. There are also different donation types to allow players to contribute money to their guild.

Graphics

The game was released in the year 2003. Back in that year the graphics were impressive. They have been upgrading it since but Conquer has fallen behind more modern mmorpg releases.

 

The game still does its best to compete with the special effects surrounding skills. The spells in this game really shine and at least you won’t have to worry about your computer not being able to handle the game’s graphics.

 

 

Conclusion

After 8 years Conquer Online is still growing by the day. This game keeps getting updated every week and still has expansions coming out every year. The community is really big and mature and is willing to help you with every question you have. It’s not a top notch mmorpg and it may not be the prettiest among them, but this game has plenty of features to get you hooked for quite some time. If you love to PvP I would advise you to give it a shot.

 

Pros:

– Unique gameplay
– Superb PvP
– Great support.
– Crafting

Cons:

– Graphics outdated
– May feel grindy
– Armor hasn’t changed after all these years
– Jail

Picaroon  – The Age of Online Empires

By Neil Kewn (Murxidon) – OnRPG Journalist

 

 

Picaroon isn’t your average strategy game. Half real time strategy, half MMO – it’s an online game that strives to be different in a space populated by cookie cutter titles. Mixing traditional base building and resource gathering with competitive multiplayer, quests and trade, Picaroon is a feature packed merger of all your favourite RTS mechanics.  Sounds great in premise, but is Picaroon a complete package of powerful playing styles or a convoluted concoction that should be avoided?

 

A self-proclaimed MMORTS, fans of the heralded Age of Empires series, turn-based juggernaut Civilization or the underappreciated Anno 1404 will all find something to like in Picaroon. You are given a small island to build, maintain and control with objectives to complete along the way. Coming off the back of the social video game boom brought on by Facebook, those who have fallen under its spell will find much familiarity in Picaroon.

 

Picaroon’s small download makes me wonder why it wasn’t a browser-based game in the first place. Playing online games at work is all the rage these days, and the game’s management and base-building aspect would be well suited to the casual audience.  There are three different game types to choose from. The first is a classic setup with a fixed time limit and frantic end-game, the second is a quick skirmish that lasts just a few hours and the final mode offers an endless, persistent game for die hard strategists. Picaroon isn’t a casual affair though, there’s depth and strategy that will appeal to the most hardcore of players, but it’s welcoming to those who don’t have a lot of spare time to watch their empire rise.

 

Developing your settlement is the first order of business. Constructing farms, mines and other buildings helps increase the number of resources available in your pool. Many are required to progress to the next level of the tiered construction tree, with the most advanced buildings at the top. These bring a whole host of new and powerful building options, unit types and game enhancements. A text-based tutorial guides you through the majority of Picaroon’s features, helping you get well acquainted with the game.

 

Once you’re happy with the progression of your settlement, it’s time to build defences and forge an army. Naval warfare is an extremely important part of Picaroon, and it’s wise to begin building ships and forming fleets as soon possible as new players are only protected from attacks for the first 72 hours. Discovering and colonizing new settlements is necessary for growth, and whilst you start off small it won’t be long until you have control over a number of islands. Having ample protection across the board isn’t easy so it’s wise to build the strongest defences on your most valuable islands. There are a good number of different ships available. Bombers, scouts, submarines – there’s a vessel for every occasion, each have their own advantages and disadvantages. Forming powerful and varied fleets to work in any given situation is a challenge.

 

Questing rewards you with “specials” and other goodies. A dedicated questing panel lists available tasks and their requirements. The majority of them are basic (building a mill, attacking a pirate ship, etc.) and act as a helpful guide in growing your settlements whilst rewarding you with helpful items. The use of cards known as “specials” adds another strategic element. These one-shot deals can profoundly affect anything from construction times, to ship accuracy, to population growth.  Specials are awarded through questing and can also be bought in special packs from the in-game store.

 

A grid overlay displays your settlements and the location of your units. With a 40×40 grid to contend with, even a simple game of Picaroon is a vast one. Players are always on the lookout for new settlements to colonize, and they are usually more than willing to take yours if it is not defended. This is where Alliances come in. Players can form their own guilds and recruit other players in an attempt to garner a foothold on a certain area. Strength is certainly in numbers when it comes to conquering other player’s settlements and the inevitable task of defending your own.

 

A small cash shop is used to fund the game. Using a currency known as “Doubloons”, players can purchase the aforementioned premium Specials Packs. Packs range from fleet transportation speed buffs to stat increases to help protect your settlement if you are away for the weekend. It isn’t a necessity to indulge in such luxury but there is a clear advantage to those who do. Endgame is where the most action is. Those who have donated resources to the Home Nation across the course of a game are rewarded with the most hi-tech, advanced equipment and units available. Anything from advanced submarines to nuclear weapons, it’s worth gifting any remaining resources for the chance to wheel out the big guns in the final days of play, especially if you’re not interested in the Picaroon store.

 

Unfortunately not everything is as polished as the engine room of my Heavy Bombship. The user interface is poor. Cluttered, ugly menu screens and dreadful navigation mechanics take the shine off the game. Picaroon falls short in the graphics department too. Settlements consist of several huts and buildings, with little or no activity from the population you strive to appease. Textures are bland and of low quality, with water effects sadly lacking. Not such a surprise considering the small download, but the overall presentation of the game becomes an eyesore after a while.

 

Nevertheless, Picaroon succeeds in standing out amongst the pack. It may lack polish, but the fundamentals are there and its strong, addictive gameplay should evolve over time and keep those already playing interested. An enjoyable game in need of some slight refinement, Picaroon is a title that will appeal to both casual and non-casual real time strategy fans. Climb aboard.

 

Graphics – 3
Controls – 3
Features – 4
Customization – 4
Community – 3

Early Access: Realm of the Titans Titan Skills

By Darren Henderson (DizzyPW), OnRPG Editor-in-Chief

 

 

 

This is DizzyPW and I’m back with another look at the exciting features of Aeria Game’s upcoming MOBA, Realm of the Titans. In my last article I introduced what ROTT does well in terms of standard features among the MOBA genre. However now it’s time to go into the details of the Titan Skill System, a signature system that really sets ROTT apart from the competition.

 

 

A common issue in League of Legends and other MOBAs is the inability to properly plan out the use of your ‘summoner’ type skills for random match ups in the match making system. In these games you enter a match with 1 or 2 skills at your disposal and are stuck with them for the remainder of the arena battle.

 

Realm of the Titans reinvents this system by introducing exchangeable Titan Skills. Though you can only have one skill active at a time, you have the option of changing it out for one of 25 Titan Skills every 150 seconds. I really fell in love with this system as it allows you to change out your Titan Skill to adjust to an ever changing situation. I’ll explain more on potential tactics involved with this system after introducing you to all 25 Titan Skills!

 

Titan Skill List

 

 

Meditation- When marked as in a non-combat state, your passive mana regen increases.

 

Heal- Recover a portion of your personal hp over the course of 20 seconds.

 

Unstable Shield- Shields damage to a set limit. If this limit is reached during the duration, the shield explodes, causing aoe damage to all nearby enemies.

 

Iron Will- Increases Defense. Defense increases more as your hp gets closer to 0.

 

Logistics Master- This one requires a bit of explaining. There are neutral shops on both Omeka Divide and Titan’s Eye set in between the main lanes. Since you can’t ‘blue pill’ or teleport back to your core base without a scroll in this game, these shops become vital for upgrading your items while losing minimal experience from minion farming. However since both sides can access these shops, it tends to become a place of intense battle in higher skill level games. The Logistics Master skill makes these shops even more vital as it allows you to gain a massive increase to hp and mp regen while standing within range of neutral shops.

 

The Power Set (added passives to basic skills):

 

Thunder- Gives your skills a chance of causing aoe damage

 

Lifesteal- Adds hp lifesteal effects to your skills

 

Ice- Adds a slowing effect to all your skills

 

Sapping- Adds a mana burn effect to your skills. A portion of the mana burned from the enemy is converted into hp damage to the enemy as well.

 

Corrosive- Adds a defensive reduction hex to your skills. This hex can stack multiple times, excellent for rapid fire combo skills.

 

-End Power Set

 

Assault- Bonus Damage and adds a chance to stun when an enemy is stuck multiple times in rapid succession.

 

Fireball- Long Range sniping attack. Does less damage as it travels through enemies on the way to the target.

 

 

Teleport- After a short casting time, allows you to teleport to your team’s furthest controlled building on a given lane.

 

Frenzy- Increased attack speed and movement speed at the cost of defense.

 

Redemption- Reduces Revival Time.

 

Aura of Ruin- Reduces Magic Resistance of all enemies within 950 units. Does not stack with teammates using Aura of Ruin.

 

Group Heal- Instantly heals your teammates by a small amount.

 

Weak Point- Attacks cause additional damage to creeps (minions).

 

Marking Trap- Allows you to lay traps around the map. Enemies who step on them take noticeable damage over time and reveal their visibility to the enemy team for a short period.

 

Power Transfer- Steals enemy’s mana and converts it into your hero’s hp.

 

Stealth- Go invisible after a short ritual. When you exist stealth, movement speed is increased for half the duration that you were in stealth.

 

Purify- Defensively can be used to remove debuffs against your team. Offensively it can strip enemy’s buffs away.

 

Divine Blessing- 1.5s invincibility. However you are unable to move or attack for this duration.

 

Bulwork- Greatly reduces ranged physical damage

 

Insight- Gains vision of targets you attack for a short period of time. Useful for artillery champions trying to scout as well as blocking enemies from returning to stealth.

 

 

Tactics and Balance

 

While some Titan Skills seem stronger than others, there is much in place to make nearly every Titan Skill available useful at some point. The way this is done is with cooldowns and mana costs associated with each skill. Some very powerful skills like Divine Blessing have much longer cooldowns than others like the “Power Set” that are quite spammable. The high mana cost associated with skills make powerful Titan Skills like Fireball less viable on melee dps heroes but much more attractive on ranged magic heroes. Thankfully the Titan Skills are neatly organized into the categories of offense, defense, and utility to make them easier to find in the heat of battle. Although not currently implemented, the production team was very open to our idea of introducing a hotkey feature to quickly cycle between Titan Skills so hopefully we will see this in the near future following launch.

 

 

There were many tactics that we found to be quite useful during our hands on preview of the game. In long games tanky dps characters seemed to rule the battlefield. By taking the Ice Power on our support champions, we learned it became increasingly easy to shut these heroes down by blocking them from reaching their targets. This would force tanks to switch away from skills like Iron Will to Purify in order to maintain their effectiveness, which would at the same time lower their defense and make them much easier to harass in poking battles.

 

Stealth combined with the purchase of wards was also invaluable for gaining superior map awareness of the jungle. It also makes opponents weary of using the neutral shops to heal as stealthed champions could spot enemies on their way to the shop via wards and set up an invisible ambush for them while they were scrolling through the shop’s item list.

 

 

Aura of Ruin combined with Unstable Shield on our squishies provided an excellent counter measure to heavily melee dps focused teams. The decreased magic defense from Aura really made the unstable shield pack a punch when it went off, as well as giving our mages an edge in an otherwise unfair battle.

 

Sapping Power and Weak Point also proved to be very powerful early game Titan Skills. Sapping Power was great for disabling dangerous enemy carries by adding additional harass to not only their mana supply, but also their hp (which is quite low early game). Weak Point was an excellent skill for high damage heroes to bring as the creep waves in Realm of the Titans are formidable foes and last hitting them is a high skill based endeavor. The extra damage from Weak Point made this process much more accessible, particularly for heroes with attack animations you weren’t used to yet.

 

Amping

 

Although there is much I don’t have time to cover in the world of Titan Skills, this article would not be complete without a basic introduction into the process of Amping. For those familiar with League of Legends‘ Mastery System, this is probably the closest to an equivalent you will find in ROTT.

 

Amping is the process of increasing the utility or power of an individual Titan Skill. This is done through the acquisition of elemental stones acquired either through a treasure box reward given at the end of a ranked match or by purchase through battle points earned over the course of many arena battles.

 

 

There are 4 elements and 1 Core Element involved and 7 total slots available to amp each Titan Skill. Depending on the element you place into your Titan Skill, different results will occur! This is best demonstrated with a couple examples:

 

Thunder Power

 

Thunder Power, the Titan Skill associated with adding an aoe damage to your basic skills, has many utility buffs available if amped. The elemental stones can be used to grant it an increased aoe range, bonus damage to the aoe damage, or even an increased chance of activating when using a skill. If you slot the rare Core Element into Thunder Power, it will give the skill a 10% increased chance to activate following each failed activation while using a skill. Thus if you didn’t get your aoe effect to appear when using a skill 9 times in a row, it would be nearly a 100% bet that it will happen on the 10^th skill.

 

Fireball

 

Fireball is a very offensive artillery focused Titan Skill and its amping options reflect that. Elemental stones can be used to increase the maximum damage of the fireball, increase the distance that the fireball can be fired from, or lower the cooldown following each use of the fireball. The Core Element allows the fireball to penetrate units and continue forward, though the total damage is reduced by half on each enemy impact.

 

 

I would love to talk more about ROTT but NuttyKitten and Platypus are demanding I go with them to Harry Potter right this instant. I guess my discussion of the different Heroes will have to wait until next time! Look forward to the conclusion and ColbyCheeze’s first impressions video later next week!