League of Draven

I know it might be a little late for me to post this, but I had to considering I found the image today. League of Draven is another great meme inspired by LoL, and a personal favorite of mine. I have no idea where it came from, but every single time I get smashed by a brilliant Draven in the lane I am reminded of it.

Whoever made this, I salute you. You are a genius.

It's surprisingly rare to see a veteran Draven in the lane, I think the axe catching mechanic makes it difficult for a lot of players to get good at him. However, on the rare occasion I come across one- I'm usually not prepared to deal with his ridiculous damage output.

I guess this post should be considered a hype up to Draven, because I want to see more people using him. Hopefully not everyone can play him well enough to ruin my matches.

I really love Wukong.

My new crush, Wukong is a hilarious champion. You can put out a lot of damage, even as a tank. But the best part involves juking the entire enemy team with your invisibility. It's even better when you just press 's' to stand still and watch everyone run off searching for you. Yesterday, a fed Darius even used his ultimate on my clone. Won us a teamfight.

3 people at bot. Our jungler thinks ganking top is a higher priority, obviously.

I don't know about you folks out there, but I jump from champion to champion every game- fitting whichever role the team needs. So when I actually buy a new hero to play, it's frustrating when nobody lets me go to the right lane.

Infact, I just played a game as support Wu. No it's not very good at all, if you were wondering. What's even worse is the guy who went top fed the enemy top laner, who just happened to be Wukong. Having an enemy champ on 10-3 gank your lane 15 minutes into the game isn't pleasant. The worst part of all though, is knowing if I'd been sent to top lane, things would of turned out very differently.

Sona died, oh yes she did.

I still don't think I've played any character nearly as much as Talon. I must of racked up 200+ games on that guy pre-nerf. Won at least 150 of them, too. Now you have to take him mid as a counter, so I don't get to play him that often at all.

Do you guys have stints where you play the same champ repeatedly? Or do you just switch every game? I know people who stick to both, the more experienced players seem to prefer switching frequently, because they know all the characters too well.

Zed, the master of shadows.

The next champion to be released to League is Zed. I'm going to buy him immediately. It looks like he'll be wielding the flippin' ninja buff, along with a hefty amount of burst. Since he was trained by the same master as Shen and it ended very badly, I'm assuming Zed will provide a tankyish role just like his rival. Since he brings damage to the table, he'll be played top or jungle, and maybe a few people might even try to support on him.

Regardless, I'll be buying him. I need a new bruiser for top lane. Take a look at his abilities, they sound very interesting yet annoying for the opponent.

Abilities:

• Contempt for the Weak (Passive): Whenever Zed attacks an enemy below 50% Health, he deals an additional 8% of their maximum Health as magic damage. This effect has a short cooldown.
• Razor Shuriken: Zed and his shadow both throw their shurikens, dealing physical damage to any target they pass through. Each Shuriken deals less damage to targets beyond the first.
• Living Shadow: Zed’s shadow dashes forward, remaining in place for a short duration. Zed’s shadow will duplicate his spells. Activating Living Shadow again while his shadow is active will cause Zed to switch positions with his shadow. If both Zed and his shadow strike the same target with Razor Shurikens or Shadow Slash, Zed re-gains some energy and the target suffers an additional effect: Razor Shurikens deal additional bonus damage and the slow from Shadow Slash is dramatically increased.
• Shadow Slash: Zed and his shadow both create a burst of shadow, dealing physical damage to nearby enemies. Zed’s Shadow Slash slightly reduces the cooldown of Living Shadow by for each unit struck. The shadow’s Shadow Slash briefly slows enemies.
• Death Mark: Zed sinks into the shadows and dashes to his target, dealing physical damage. He also spawns a Living Shadow beyond the target, which duplicates his spells and marks the target. After 3 seconds, the mark will detonate, dealing physical damage based on the damage dealt to the target by Zed and his shadow while the mark was active. Zed can reactivate this ability to switch positions with this shadow.

From reading his abilities all I can think is it's going to be really frustrating to counter him in the lane. I wonder how short the cooldown on his passive will be, it sounds very useful. When he gets fed, he'll be able to carry hard. His lore is very interesting, and I wonder if you'll be able to pick up some bonus effects by killing Shen on the opposite team.


Lore:

Zed is the first ninja in 200 years to unlock the ancient, forbidden ways. He defied his clan and master, casting off the balance and discipline that had shackled him all his life. Zed now offers power to those who embrace knowledge of the shadows, and slays those who cling to ignorance.

An orphan, Zed was taken in and trained by a great ninja master. Only one other student appeared to be Zed's equal - the master's son, Shen. It seemed Zed could never win the favor of the master, as every match between the rivals ended in a draw. Frustrated and jealous, he sought an advantage. The young ninja ventured into a sealed part of the clan's temple, where he found an ornate, foreboding box. Sensing the dark knowledge within, Zed knew he should not open it, but he peered inside nonetheless. In an instant, shadows touched his mind, revealing techniques that had long been hidden. Now armed with a secret edge, he challenged Shen, and this time he defeated the master's son. He expected praise and recognition in his moment of victory, but somehow the master knew Zed had used forbidden ways, and banished him.

Humiliated, the young ninja wandered for years. His bitterness turned to ambition, and he began to train others in the style of the shadows. As his power grew, so did his circle of followers, but he knew that without the box, his technique would never be perfect. One day, Zed looked at his followers and saw that his students were now an army. He led them back to the temple to claim his prize. At the gates, he was surprised to find the old master waiting, receiving Zed and his disciples as if they were welcome guests. The old man laid his sword at Zed's feet, declaring that he had failed Zed as his master. By banishing his former student, the master had doomed Zed to the shadows, instead of leading him to the balanced path. The old man implored Zed to enter the temple, destroy the box, and lead his followers to balance. The dark ninja followed the master inside. Moments later, the assembled ninjas heard Zed cry out in pain. Mysteriously, he emerged unscathed, and threw the severed head of the master at Shen's feet. Screaming in rage, Zed commanded his followers to slaughter the master's students and seize the box.

That day, the old ninja order fell. Though many students died, some escaped thanks to Shen's heroic efforts. Now the temple is a dark training ground for the Order of the Shadow. Zed rules as the Order's master, and his edict is simple: perfect one's technique, and kill all ninjas who refuse to embrace the shadows.

''Balance is a lie - we are the true ninjas.''
-Zed

We need poll votes!

I've been collecting data since the beginning of this site. Eventually, in a few months I'll be posting the results for everyone to see what kind of statistics we have.

I've been asking general questions about League of Legends, such as how often people play dominion. The answers so far have shed some light on a few questions I've had. So far this site has had a lot of reception and I hope to keep it that way.

Recently we've been having an issue with the system, and none of the votes are registering properly. I'm working on getting it fixed, so bear with me. I'm not a genius coder; or even a coder at all. I'm just a guy who loves playing games. I feel writing about them is a rewarding way to spend my time.

The polls are on the top right of the blog, so if you enjoy my content; cement your appreciation by taking the time to vote! Thank you to all the voters so far.

Tips

Anyone like the new tips that have been implemented? All of my friends hate them, and go out of their way to make fun of them.

At the moment, they've stopped appearing at the beginning of the game, and can only be seen during the loading screen. Which is good, because I dislike the font anyway.

I'm sure Riot added these to the game purely to inspire a little friendly chatter between teams at the beginning of the game, and enlighten a few idiots at the same time. As of yet I haven't seen a tip I didn't already know; but it does seem to bring some conversation into play so I assume it's succeeding.

This new feature is a nice touch regardless, if you like them be sure to post! Anyway, everyone get some League on the go and remember to have fun! Yes, even if you're losing. Play some singed, flip some baddies, feel like a troll.

Love you guys!

I feel Riot need to improve the matchmaking.

I'm sure the message in this post may be flawed, but I stand behind it just the same. I've done a little reading and Riot's matchmaking system is designed to keep you at a ratio of 1:1 in wins and losses. Obviously, an exemplary player will be able to retain more wins than losses. On paper, this process sounds very logical. In reality, I find the matchups you can get often turn out to be unfair for both sides.

Wondering whether I'll get a balanced game or not.

I find myself in more games where we either crush the enemy team, or they crush us. It's guaranteed that one team will always outplay the other; the main variable being the champions picked and how they work against each other. However, what I find myself incredibly frustrated with at the moment is the lack of LoL matches that are closely contested. To illuminate, I mean there are few games that are completely even on both sides. This is due to one team usually having distinctly worse players on one team, whilst the other has exemplary co-ordination and teamwork.

The problem is simple. Once you start to pull ahead in victories, in ranked or normal- the players you get matched with start to get considerably worse until you start losing again. You may notice this especially after a win streak. Suddenly, all the teams you get are either incompetent. Either that, or the enemy team is superior.

There are too many deciding factors that affect a LoL game to recite reliably. Player skill, champion selection, summoner spells, how well each player is feeling; to name a few. Anyway, despite this I still cannot commend the fact that once you win enough, the system tries to force some losses on you.

Sometimes the only way is to play with 4 of your friends.

I cannot provide any reliable solution to this issue, but I do believe Riot could implement a better matchmaking system. One that doesn't allow you to win and lose by mixing up the teams you play with, but one that tries to more frequently give you a fair shake. A system that tries to create equal teams every game. Ultimately, there's no way it could be entirely trustworthy; but it would mean you would get a fun and contested game more often.

My opinion is based on the fact that I would prefer a LoL match where it's close, instead of winning or losing by a landslide. Obviously since the nature of League of Legends is to snowball, unfair matches are always going to happen. I'm even impressed by how little snowball there is in comparison to all the other Moba games. However, my experience on other games is you get a better chance at having a fair shot at victory.

To everyone reading this post, please comment with your opinions and ideas on the matter, whether you believe my observations are accurate or not. I would like input on the matter myself, since I'm not really too sure if I have all the facts straight.