LoL: Thoughts on the League

To Riot,

I say this with the utmost sincerity when I say that League of Legends is my second favorite game. Ever. This is (in my opinion) quite an accomplishment. You've gotten me to spend money on a free game (something I almost never do) you've convinced me that multiplayer games dont always need hats (although maybe they should have them anyway) and of course, 5v5 is still a big match, no matter how much MAG fan-boys say otherwise. With this in mind, I would like to give a few suggestions that I fell would make the League more interesting, and more fun.

• New maps/gametypes over new champions. Saying this I mean one thing: The League has enough champions. This isn't to say that you shouldn't ever make new ones, no, I simply mean that new types (IE Dominion) makes the game much more interesting. I would also suggest, say making a 'random' playlist for sinlgeplayer people or arranged team (only including Treeline if its 3 or less people) this gives the feeling of, I don't know what to play a good answer.
• Focus on new effects for  champions. Now, I hope I'm not the only one to have noticed this, but there is a tendency to "borrow" moves from other champions (you know how similar the ultimate's of Nunu, Amumu, and Gailo are all so similar?) I know that it must be hard to bring new innovations into the League (such as Cho's feast of Viktor's ability to out-range everything with the point-anywhere lazer) but I know you can! Stop borrowing simple moves from other champions, we got enough make the new ones really special.
• Think of some new features to add. I've heard of the possibility of voice chat, to adding more customization (I'm not saying hats, but...) think of more ways to make the League more unique, the introduction of new runes (such as life steal) has been a great idea, but try to build that even farther.

With this in mind, I'll step off my soapbox. I know that this is just a cute little message from a blog that only gets about 3 views a day (unless I post on that day) and have no pull on your own world. But, as a member of your community and someone truly devoted to a small bunch of games, I hope you find this insight useful, if you find it.

With best regards,

--Santa

LoL: A Farewell To Cheap Getwaways

Well, I got on the League today and found that something I had been fearing for the last month has finally come true: the refunding of Dodge runes. For everyone except me, this is most likely a good thing, but have you ever stopped to think about what has happened?

Well, League of Legends is a bit more fair now, Jax could be a monster to kill....

but I lost what I loved most! My ability to dodge random attacks! One time, by the undying power of the lulz gods, I dodged Cait's ultimate. The rage the followed was enough to kill 20 men. To this day I have no idea how I exactly managed to do this feat. Maybe Riot thought, that'd be pretty funny if that kid just made that Cait explode with rage.

Dodging was an odd ability. With my measly 6.75% dodge, I did manage to avoid a good bit of damage. It basically blocks out 6.75% of all melee attack damage, when you consider, because 6.75% of attacks automatically miss. This gives the advantage to someone in a team fight, or when you just so happen to run away (I can't tell you the number of times I've been called a hacker when avoiding melee attacks and running)

Now we find ourselves at the beginning of a new era, an era where I can no longer just parry blows with no thought at all. The rise of new runes, and a completely revised way of playing. I've been using dodge runes for half a year, and I say now that I will deeply miss all of the times I pissed off Teemo.

Well, I guess I'm going to have to buy something defensive-- stupid Banshee's Veil costing so much gold.

But nothing feels better than avoiding a Cho'Gath feast, eh?

However something does hang on my mind, and its mostly within Riot's recent updates. Saying this I mean that we have seen about 10 new champions with only one major change, being the Jungle in Classic. With the rise of season 2, I can only stop to wonder if the League is moving too quickly. I seem to only be really good at Dominion, but there's no championship for that. I'd love to see more features (Like a new gametype and Voice Chat which could be implemented in 2012) since Dominion, although very fun, isn't very good for some champions. Riot certainly is on the right track, and has achieved magic with this game, its not very often that I have multiple games that I want to play at the same time, and the League has kept me on my toes for the last couple months. I can only hope that Riot will stop to think that maybe a champion every week is maybe a bit too much, and will instead put a little more time into actual gameplay, and not champions. God forbid we get another release like Volibear, super OP or a champion like Rumble, who I haven't seen played in just about 100 games. Just something to think about.

--Santa