Yearly Archives: 2011

League of Legends Season 1 Championship!

League of Legends Season 1 Championship!

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

 

 

The time is finally here! After over a year of patches, balancing, item releases, champion releases, League of Legends is finally bringing an end to their initial season… with a bang! Beginning this weekend, June 18th, League of Legends will be holding its season 1 championship finals at Sweden’s Dreamhack convention.

 

 

What is DreamHack?

 

DreamHack can only be described as the world’s largest LAN party. Held annually in Sweden, DreamHack plays host to over 200,000 gamers and offers fun for all ages and gaming for all hours of the day. This year many Esports will be holding huge events, including League of Legend’s Season 1 finals!

 

 

The LoL Championship

 

8 teams from around the world, including 3 North American, 3 European, and 2 South East Asian, will battle it out for supremacy. $100,000 in cash is at stake, so expect to see some of the most intense deathmatches in LoL history beginning early Saturday morning. Be sure to tune in at leagueoflegends.com for live feeds, commentary including ESL Shoutcasters, post-game analysis, and daily recaps as some of the world’s greatest summoners go head to head for the title of LoL royalty. OnRPG will be sure to host any great news about this event as we receive it.

 

 

What does this mean for the rest of us though? The end of season 1 naturally suggests the beginning of season 2! With it comes three new champions showcased in our E3 video HERE. Also the recent graphical and skill based remakes of champions is only the beginning. League of Legends intends to completely outdo itself with new skins, better balancing, more interesting hero mechanics, and much more. Our own Jason Harper has been commissioned to write much more often to cover all the exciting changes coming. As a fellow summoner (DizzyPW), I look forward to meeting you all in the battlefield as a bright future dawns soon with League of Legends’ Season 2.

Meta’s Verse: Top 10 CoH Issues List Part 1

Meta’s Verse: Top 10 CoH Issues List Part 1

by Meticulous Meta, OnRPG Journalist

 

 

Meta’s favorite 10 City of Heroes issues of doom! Ok, not really doom. Unlike the crazy time we’ve been having! I don’t know if anyone has noticed but Praetoria has been invading. They knocked out power for a few days at my house. I hope everyone reading this made it through safely. Unfortunately I, (the player) have missed out on getting the Defender of Primal Earth badge because of a lack of internet. Sadface. But nevermind that! We have an awesome list of awesomeness to go through! You know how it goes, a breakdown of Issues starting from 10 and going to 1. And if you didn’t know that…well you do now. I hope you find it enjoyable and educational!

 

10. Issue 9: Breakthrough

 

 

Some people may try to argue that Breakthrough should be higher on the list simply because of the introduction of the invention system. And I won’t deny that the invention system is huge. It really is massive. Everyone takes advantage of it in their own way. I prefer to wait until I’m already level 50 to use Invention Origin (IO) enhancements. But I know a lot of people who use them earlier. Issue 9 also brought consignment houses into the game. Giving us a market we never had before. Other major parts of the release included the Statesman’s Task Force, the funniest of all the task forces. Hamidon breaks through into the Rogue Isles, and a whole bunch of badges. (74 of them) Issue 9 went live on May 1, 2007.

 

9. Issue 3: A Council of War

 

 

Even though this was actually before my time I think Issue 3 was one of the big ones. It gave us the Council, several Giant Monsters, Epic Power Pools, and Epic Archetypes. What does that mean in English? The Council enemy group came into being and drove out the 5th Column. Which I think is my favorite of all the storylines going on. And it has Nazis. Who doesn’t love/hate those guys? Kheldians were also introduced. Doesn’t every comic universe need some alien action? These are good guys, well mostly good. They have a fantastic and complex story. Epic Power Pools gave end game life a bit of a charge. Though I have to wonder what life was like without them. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t look forward to unlocking them as part of their drive to keep leveling. Issue 3 also saw a lot of small changes to powers and other places throughout the world. Issue 3 was released January 4th, 2005.

 

8. Issue 12: The Midnight Hour

 

 

The Midnight Squad is an exclusive group of heroes who deal with magic and the occult and have access to one of the types of time travel. This power is utilized to take people back in time to ancient Rome where something unusual is happening in the town of Cimerora. Issue 12 also brought Epic Archetypes to villains. Though the story wasn’t new, getting to be a member of Arachnos was. As with Kheldians, the Soldiers of Arachnos have a story of their own which you get to live out as your hero progresses towards endgame. The issue also brought out some power proliferation, allowing more archetypes to have powersets that were already in the game. This round included Plant Control for Controllers and Earth Control for Dominators. While all of this was awesome, and I do love Cimerora, the single most important part of I12 was the increase in character slots on a server to 36. And I’m willing to admit, I want more. Issue 12 went live May 20th, 2008.

 

7. Issue 16: Power Spectrum

 

 

As the name suggests, the big part of this release was power customization. Never before could we pick the colors for our powers. Or a few new alternate animations for powers. As huge as this expansion was, I think the big game changer this time around was Super Sidekicking and the opening of hazard zones to all levels. It made finding a team easier than ever before. And you never had to worry about finding someone in the right level range to be sidekicked to. Issue 16 was released August 5th, 2009.

 

6. Issue 11: A Stitch In Time

 

 

Ouroboros emerged as more than just a symbol. Now it had taken on the power to control and play around with timelines. I mean, watching over time to make sure no abuses are made. Yes, that’s it. With Ouroboros came the ability to go back to missions you may have missed in lower levels. Along with the opening of Ouroboros came weapon customization, the introduction of Dual Blades, Willpower powersets, and rare purple inventions. Personally I love my purples, they give you a great Inf boost if you sell them, or you can use them and get fantastic boosts from them. A ton of new hair styles were released for both men and women along with some other small changes. Even though Issue 11 came out November 28th, 2007 I am still trying to get a dual blades character leveled.

 

5…

 

Oh, I’m going to make you wait to see the rest of the list! Yeah, I’m a tease like that. But I promise it won’t be weeks upon weeks. Only a week, I swear. I’ll hijack Statesman’s ship if I have to in order to bring the next article on time! So, tune in next week to find out what my top 5 favorite Issues are!

Prime World

Prime World is a DotA inspired game with beautiful lush environments, intense strategic combat, and a myriad of champions and skills to equp yourself with. The game is not content to stop there though, and Prime World offers empire building elements in which you can construct super castles that mine resources, unlocking more and more of the game’s endless nuisances.

Features

Upgradable Champions: As you fight, your champions gain new powers and skills to carry with them into the next battle.

Castle Creation: Use your spoils of war to build elaborate castles with servants that will gather resources to futher expand upon your empire!

Hero Connection System: Male and Female champions can work together to receive special benefits. The power of love just might overcome death in Prime World.

Non-Combat Support: Tired of getting beat down in battle? Unleash your quick wits in challenging puzzle mini-games to create powerful support scrolls to be used by your front line champions.

Interactive Social Community: Invite your friends over to your castle and give them a tour. Or browse wares and skill books among the player community shops.

Dungeon Siege III

Enter a world torn assunder by dark arts and suspicion. The Kingdom of Ehb was once a proud beacon light for the world. Under the watch of their supreme monarch and the 10th Legion, Ehb set the bar of which all other nations acquired to become.

 

However, tensions between the Monarch and 10th Legion rose as the Legion’s power continued to grow. Finally, the powder keg was set when the Monarch was murdered under myseterious circumstances. The people rose up against the 10th Legion and few among the Legion escaped.

 

Now the Church, led by Jeyne Kassynder, has taken up arms to conquer all the remnants of Ehb and destroy the last of the 10th Legion. Rise up as one of the descendants of the 10th Legion to take back the kingdom that is rightfully yours!

 

Features

Multiplayer: Take up arms with up to 4 friends as your hack and slash your way through armies of undead and mystical creatures.

 

Fluid Online Multiplayer: Jump in and out of your friend’s gaming world at any time. No obligations required, the difficulty will adjust accordingly!

 

Dynamic Storyline: The world and environment around you changes to match your decisions in the story.

 

Huge Variety of Skills: From magic to weaponry, Dungeon Siege has a huge array of weapons and magic as your disposal. Mix and match to find what works best for you.

 

 

Cultures Online

Cultures Online takes the tried and true browser empire building model and gives it a chibi twist. Take control of a Viking village in this gorgeous cell-shaded strategy game. Only the brightest of Viking leaders will survive to enjoy the new age of prosperity in Europe.

Features

Deep Hero Customization: Each hero is unique, specializing in various combat styles. In order to conquer your foes, you will need to understand these strengths and weaknesses and command your heroes appropriately. From equipment to formations, the choice if yours.

Technology Tree: A Viking can’t stay primitive forever and expect to keep Europe quaking in fear. Use your resources to progress your technology tree, unlocking new buildings.. and weapons!

Tribe System: A Viking knows he is nothing without a good man to cover his flank. Form together with your friends to make a tribe and wage war or seek rare treasures together.

Large World Map: All of the Eurasian continent can be at your command, if you wield the power to control it.

RPG Elements: You can customize your heroes through leveling as well as assigning them to various tasks, ensuring unique progress for each hero.

League of Legends: I, Orianna

League of Legends: I, Orianna

by Jason Harper (Hhean), OnRPG Journalist

 

 

Greetings fellow summoners! This is the patch v1.0.0.118b article for League of Legends, the game that is very GLaD to see you. This patch includes multiple mastery pages, name changes, and Orianna, the Lady of Clockwork.

 

Orianna is mage/support focusing on controlling the space around her through the use of her unique spell casting mechanic known as “The Ball”. If you enjoy the play style of Lux, Zilean or Karma, you’ll quickly fall into the mentality needed to play her.

 

The Ball is the basis of all Orianna’s abilities, and is exactly what it sounds like – a big, floating metal ball that slams your foes in the face. These abilities either move The Ball in some way, or project an area of effect from the ball itself. Command: Attack [Q], for example, will move The Ball from its current location to a place of your choosing, injuring any enemy unit caught in its path. Unless you move The Ball onto a friendly target using Command: Protect [E], or go outside The Ball’s range, it will stay where you left it. This allows her to attack from all sorts of creative directions, as provided Orianna keeps mobile, she can have The Ball attack an enemy from almost any direction, provided you have set its origin point in advance.

 

 

One thing I think I’ll bring up before I continue discussing the champion further – her damage output is nothing special, but her abilities have more utility than you would think at a glance. The main focus of her game is not really to kill the enemy, but to control space, and dictate where the champions in the game move. This isn’t just through the use of her ability to speed up allies and slow down enemies, but by putting the ball in places that are problematic for your enemies, and beneficial for allies. Few people are stupid enough to stand close to The Ball after a few painful lessons, so they will always be standing where the ball isn’t. This allows you to force people into bad positions ripe for a ganking just through the use of The Ball’s own area of control.

 

Her main trick during the early game, when her moderate mana pool stops her from getting really creative with her abilities, is to smack people with a combination of Command: Attack, and Command: Dissonance [W]. While it may seem tempting to immediately slam Alt+E to get The Ball to return to you with Command: Protect, and net you a bit of extra damage, bear in mind this will sacrifice The Ball’s position. Wherever it is, the enemy won’t go, so by returning it to Orianna, you are sacrificing a key part of her control game. Most of the time, I leave The Ball sitting somewhere near the enemy’s minion wave during laning, making their minion farm far more difficult.

 

 

Later on in the match, when you’re doing more than simply dueling your foes, Command: Protect really comes into its own. Latch it onto an ally as they charge in, Command: Dissonance around them as their enemies counter attack, then Command: Shockwave [R] everyone nearby right back into melee as they try to flee from the onslaught. From there you can simply keep pummeling them with Command: Attack until there’s not a single unbroken bone remaining in their shattered husks.

 

Don’t forget that while Command: Shockwave is a positional tool, it’s also a low cost AoE nuke on a fairly short cooldown for an ultimate. Feel free to use it any time you want to blow someone up, not just for clever set ups and team fights. It also can be used as an escape tool, throwing enemies away from you, as often as it can be used to drag people into AoE death traps.

 

 

A few small notes on interesting tricks/gimmicks Orianna can pull. The Ball gives you vision, so it will allow you to scout entry paths to lanes, check inside bushes and behind walls. While that seems fairly obvious, remember that your enemies now can’t see The Ball if its inside a bush or behind a wall, so they will have no idea what angle they are about to be hit from. Also remember that while Command: Attack has a 900 unit range, The Ball won’t return to you until you leave somewhere around the 1100 mark. This gives you plenty of room to manuever, and allows The Ball to travel at around a distance of 2000 units, provided you’re between it and the enemy. When not in a fight, and when you have the mana for it, use Command: Dissonance to speed yourself up as you move around the map. This can also be used to escape ganks if you hit both yourself and an enemy with it, slowing them and speeding up yourself.

 

At level 1, grab Command: Attack. Without it, you’re not going to be able to move The Ball around. Pick up Command: Dissonance at level 2 to increase your zoning, harass and escape capabilities. If your positional game isn’t going well, or you’re in a side lane and feel you need to protect your ally, pick up Command: Protect at level 3. Otherwise, wait until level 4. Her leveling priority is Command: Shockwave > Command: Attack > Command: Dissonance > Command: Protect.

 

Start out with a Sapphire Crystal, and build to a Catalyst the Protector. From there it’s a free for all. I build her to maximize AP, mana and cooldowns. Ionian boots, Rod of Ages, Banshee’s Veil, Rabadon’s Deathcap, Lichebane, Void Staff, Morello’s Evil tome, and Guardian Angel are my usual spread of items I consider building on her. In games where she’s going to be used more heavily as a support than a mage, I would highly recommend putting her in a side lane with some philosopher’s stones, allowing her to gain gold while she allows a carry to farm the minions around her. An amusing gimmick on her is combining Command: Dissonance with Shurelya’s Reverie for mega speed boosts to your team.

 

 

For her Masteries, go with the standard 9/0/21 all mages use. For her runes you’re going to need some magic penetration marks, and some mana regeneration per level seals. After that, it’s really your choice. I’m using flat health quintessences and magic resistance per level glyphs for some added survivability, but I’ve heard of plenty of different options for her than those two.

 

Orianna, as I think I’ve made more than apparent by now, is a control machine. She’s a good choice if you’re lacking both a mage and a support on your team, and need someone to half fill both roles. My main problem though is Zilean is an absolute monster at the moment, and fits into the same category, so she is going against some pretty stiff competition. Still, even if you don’t normally like this sort of character, I would give her a go during free rotation, simply to see the unique Ball mechanic in action. If nothing else, Xepherous deserves a good pat on the back for her clever design, even if she isn’t the most effective of characters out there.

 

This patch includes a feature I’ve wanted since beta – Multiple Mastery pages. I swear, when I saw that included in the patch notes I got up and danced around my room in joy (Okay, I didn’t really, but I did do a short Numa Numa tribute, because I’m a terrible nerd). Gone are my days of slamming in masteries as quickly as possible any time I changed character, desperately trying not to get screwed by that damn clock, drum beats counting down to my inevitable demise. Instead I can now take my time and talk over my team what’s going to be needed in our overall composition before I calmly set up my character in a matter of seconds.

 

 

What I love even more about this is Riot didn’t make this a feature we had to pay for. Ten mastery pages, all completely for free was above and beyond what I was expecting. They could quite easily have gone for the money grubbing route here, but instead said “Nope, let’s give our community something that won’t cause a thousand angry threads on our forums”, and for that I’m exceedingly thankful.

 

What you are going to have to pay for though is the new name changing feature, which is really par for the course these days. If World of Warcraft can get away with this sort of stuff in a subscription based game, I’m not against Riot deciding this is a function worth paying for. This feature also means I can finally get that name I’ve always wanted – Buttmonkey404, of course.

 

Keep up to date on all our League of Legends updates! We will be featuring another E3 video soon, focusing on the new spectator mode.

 

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.