League of Legends: Best. Patch. Ever.

So, I haven’t played LoL in what seems like a month now, and that’s probably how long its been. But, feeling like I had betrayed my lovely old game, I started the update, and then quickly went to TF2OP to see if anyone had made me an offer on my unusual. But, the update was over after 30 minutes or so, and I got on what seemed like a completely different world to me.

And by different world, I of course mean I watched the suggested game. I have to admit, I’m liking the new spectate mode; reminds me of Replay Mode in TF2, but somewhat better and worse at the same time. Since you can’t record, I suppose it makes Spectate mode a little less… enjoyable. However, I find it to have a better range of tools. I can only hope that Valve takes a cue from Riot, and vice versa. But, this isn’t the only thing I can to talk to you kids about.

So, in this big old patch preview for Darius I couldn’t help but notice that they didn’t do one thing that I didn’t like. I couldn’t believe it. A big increase of frame rates (something that I really could use) pretty much a lot better graphics even on super low settings, minion kills in the upper right corner, making Ashe look not completely stupid. I couldn’t believe it. I think riot read my blog. I’m so proud of Riot. Thank you so much for listening to the community. Still waiting for the Heimerdinger update though.

In the near(ish) future I do plan on getting back into the League. But for now TF2 has its lovingly strong wrap of hats on me tight, and I don’t think its planning on letting me go soon. When I get the Sunbeams hat, maybe I can finally take a break. My goal is getting close, why give up now?

That reminds me. 

This is the last needed post of the blogging run from my AP Lang and Composition class. Its over kids. But, this doesn't mean that it ends here. This blog is now my own project, and I'm not feeling like ending it. So, I want to hear from you guys some suggestions as to what you want me to do. Leave me a comment. Vote in the poll. This is our blog now. I may not post for a couple of days coming up here, but please feel free to leave some. I will read it, and will consider it.

Thanks, and have fun.

--Santa

 

League of Legends: Updates Inbound

Touching base quickly with League of Legends before this new update comes out, we’re seeing 5 major things:

• Spectator mode—this is the one I’ve been wanting. Now I finally have the power to just sit back and watch my friends screw up, instead of me having to be there too. It works out for everyone. What I didn’t get from Riot’s video is if they’re going to include with that a recording feature, something that I’d really want to make videos on LoL in the near future.

• Buffs to both Master Yi and Ryze—I’m not sure why Riot has chosen to punish the desciples of Summoner’s Rift, but I guess I’ll just go back to TF2.

• Tank/Supports getting more magic resist—this includes: Alistar, Amumu, Leona, Taric and Nunu. It’s your lucky day, kids!

• Changes to AP items—For a full list of changes watch the viedo, but I can tell you that Deathfire Grasp, Morello’s Evil Tome and Will of the ancients are all on the change list.

• Heracrim—The new champion. Half man, half horse, all played in jungle by Phreak.

Well, it looks like a new, adventurous update for everyone involved. I’m going back to TF2 for now kids, see you later.

--Santa

Riot: Stop Change My AD Carries!

Did I Mention She's Got A Fairy, and Can Turn People Into Animals? That Too.

Once again we see the release of a new champion by the name of Lulu, who just so happens to be a support-AP-jungling hybrid. Maybe I’m just behind on the times, but I think Phreak would play Annie in the Jungle, so my opinion doesn’t really matter. Besides what I feel is another new champion who will soon be nerfed to the point that they will no longer be played, I found something else about this patch to be completely appalling: the weakening of lifesteal items.

Perhaps appalling is too strong of a word, perhaps ‘completely confused by’ is better.  Personally I thought the Bloodthirster (which is the main weapon that has been affected) has gone down from 12% to 10% at beginning stacks, and now give .2% lifesteal per kill, leading up to a max stacking of 20% lifesteal and no change to the overall damage. To even it up a bit, Bloodthirsters no longer drop all their stacks on death, only half. Now, I do admit that when I rolled Graves with two Bloodthirsters I got pretty gruesome, and I remember what happened when people who had skills AND good computers would use the might of two Bloodthirsters against me. Yes, it was a bad place, but that doesn’t mean… okay I give in. I’ll deal with my 40% if it means that I’ll have a chance to finally kill Caitlyn in my lane.

So maybe I started nagging too early, oh wait, what’s this? Changing to that Blue Golem Buff… regeneration down to only 1% instead of 1.5?! NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

--Santa

UPDATES

I was really busy yesterday, praying to every omnipotent being I could think of in hopes that they could possibly bring up my precious item server on TF2, but Robin Walker (God of Hats), Gabe Newell (God of Delays) or Andrew Hussie (God of useless killings) failed to answered my call, so I just ended up doing nothing all day except watching random YouTube videos and eating canned pudding, so my Tuesday had effectively become my normal Saturday. But you haven’t come here to read my endless bantering about how Canned-Pudi Inc. is sure to be worth 10 times the amount Apple is wo TF@ no you came here to read about my useless opinion!

Today we’ll be touching base on the following subjects

• Team Fortress 2 (Hats and Other items)
• League of Legends (Free Champion Rotation & new skins)
• Homestuck
• State of Santa's Workshop

Let me just get out my trusty name-drawing hat, this is gonna require me drawing out something special... Homestuck? Nah, not going to start there, we'll just go in the order of the list.

Team Fortress 2

All right, for all of you following the TF2 blog (linked here) should know that Valve loves to act like busy little bees, in the form of adding new items, going back to about a week ago, Valve has added a ring for Valentine's Day, simply called the "Something Special for Someone Special" to the Mann Co. Store. The ring is a cute misc item for $100 bucks, but can't be traded, and comes with a free thing of gift wrap and  name tag, for gifting to that special someone, and upon gifting, everyone on TF2 is sent the message of love that had just happened. So beautiful, no? Other items include the Snapped Pupil for Demoman (A picture of his good eye, taped over his eye patch) and a Boombox, the Boston Boom-Bringer, to replace the Scout's pack and to bring some much needed beats to Teufort civillans.

League of Legends

A bit of old news for anyone who does follow Leage of Legends, but its always nice to see who's FTP this week.

• Kassadin- Void Guy, quite annoying when he teleports to you and launches goop on you
• Master Yi- PRO
• Rammus- Spikey the Armadillo
• Singed- WW's best bud, and a lunatic
• Taric- Opals are so fabulous
• Malzahar- I HAVE A WALL AND A TARANTULA AS A PET. DON'T MESS WITH ME
• Miss Fortune- "Pirate Hunter" who's dad was totally not killed by Gangplank
• Caitlyn- All sheriffs have top hats, all top hats are purple. This is final.
• Talon- Absolutely nothing like Ezio from Assassin's Creed. Totally.
• Fizz- Self-Explanatory

Along with the free rotation, Riot has left us with a forum post as to how they choose their free champions, check it out. We also see some new skins, a very women-empowering NSFW skin that will definitely win Vayne Tramp-Of-the-Year. But, there's also a new skin for Ryze, which scares me to no end. But, that's no different from normal.

Homestuck

I'm completely caught up on Homestuck, into act 6, and almost understand whats going on. Seriously, so many little children, so little time. I got to say, Hussie is magic, and I'm just talking about his lips (which have the power to kill all the heroes who have ever existed.)

Here in the Workshop

Recently I hit 1,500 views, actually I'm at a bit above 1,650 but I forgot to make a post for 1,500. All I have to say is, thanks. I didn't imagine a blog that's just a cute little project from my AP class would end up actually being a legitimate source for learning (or for anyone looking up Jax for whatever reason, which alone has gotten nearly 900 views.) But, if you take out Jax's one post, I'm at like 750, which still beats everyone else in the class by like 10 fold. So thank you everyone for making this little project into something a bit bigger. For anyone who does red this blog, please take a bit of time and vote on what you'd like to see more of, I will respond to you guys. Feel free to comment as well.

T. Hanks

--Santa

LoL: Why Do Women Ride on Boars? Real men In Bikinis

Real men wear bikinis during winter

Guess what?

Yes, we've seen the two facts of the internet coming true once again!

1. All women have unbelievably scantily-clad.
2. All men are perverts.

I cant seem to fathom why "Sejuani: The Winters Wrath" would be out wearing her lingere bikini during winter. Maybe thats why she's so wrathful-- she's really cold.

As seen in this champion spotlight it looks like we're in for what I've dubbed Riot Sickness: Where characters upon release have unbelievable amounts of power, and then get nerfed in the next few patches. It happens to just about every champion upon release: probably because the make them so OP for Phreak to dominate everything in the Spotlight (nobody can be that good at everything, right?) and then to just get people to spend their monies on RP so Riot makes oodles of cash just for putting out a Potemkin of a new champion. Remember Rumble? Still in the Champion's Orphanarium, because NOBODY PLAYS HIM. If Rumble was a summoner, he'd probably summon Heimerdinger. Oh the sweet irony.

So maybe I'm just out of the loop or something, but here's what I think: What if we took new champion, and made them WEAKER on release. I can't be bothered to go back over all of the release notes to find that one champion who was BUFFED upon release, mostly because I don't care. I've got better things to do. I'll get back on the League when things cool dow, or maybe I'll play some bot games. I could always use a gret game going 55/0/73. Those are the best.

--Santa

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