PBE 3.8 Notes

Via LeagueCraft:

Jungle
Wolves

• Initial spawn time increased to 1:55 from 1:45
• Respawn time reduced to 50 seconds from 60

Wraiths

• Initial spawn time increased to 1:55 from 1:45

Golems

• Initial spawn time increased to 1:55 from 1:45
• Respawn time reduced to 50 seconds from 60

Ancient Golem

• Base Experience granted increased to 275 from 220
• Now plays a particle effect to show who the buff transferred to

Lizard Elder

• Base Experience granted increased to 275 from 220
• Now plays a particle effect to show who the buff transferred to

We’ve increased the initial spawn times of jungle creeps to get rid of the frustrating experience advantage players could get by killing certain jungle monsters before laning phase begins. This was a much requested change from a lot of pro teams around the world, as the only real counter was to switch lanes or to try to prevent it altogether. The other changes are to reassure junglers since they’ll feel like they’ve “lost” a full camp clear since they won’t be able to start wolves or wraiths before heading to their buffs. So Elder Lizard and Ancient Golem will give more EXP, and jungle camps will spawn a little faster. Faster spawns will also help some champions who have exceptionally high clear times and want to just stay in the jungle.

Items
Madred’s Razors

• UNIQUE Passive – Maim
• Now deals bonus damage to monsters with every basic attack

Wriggle’s Lantern

• UNIQUE Passive – Maim
• Now deals bonus damage to monsters with every basic attack
• Attack Damage increased
• Life Steal increased
• Combine cost increased

These changes are currently tentative. We just want to increase consistency on Madred’s and Wriggles in order to let players plan their jungle routes better with these items. There were a lot of odd cases where junglers would accidentally steal a buff from their teammate due to a random proc, or a jungler would fall behind because they weren’t getting enough procs. Overall we had to lower the damage output in comparison to the old Madred’s and Wriggle’s (if you simply average out the old Madred’s and Wriggle’s damage by four) because of the consistency involved and the fact that it never deals “overkill” damage, where it would proc on a small creep (or on a near-dead jungle unit), thereby wasting its damage.

Wit’s End

• New Recipe: Recurve Bow + Null Magic Mantle + Dagger + 600 gold = 2300 gold
• Attack Speed increased slightly
• Revised Passive – Your attacks steal Magic Resist from the target, stacks up to 5 times

Nashor’s Tooth

• Combine Cost increased
• Ability Power reduced slightly
• Additional Passive – Your attacks deal 15 + 15% of your Ability Power bonus magic damage on hit

Malady

• Removed from the game

We’ve moved Malady’s passives to the two other Attack Speed items to further solidify Nashor’s Tooth’s niche role as an Ability Power focused auto-attacker item, while moving the magic shred onto Wit’s End to better synergize with magic damage based fighters (even for those that don’t deal magic damage, Sunfire Cape synergizes quite well with Wit’s End). Malady has been removed as it has simply been a poor fit in the current space that it was in.

These are of course, “tentative” changes that may or may not come through the pipeline, but there are some interesting changes presented here. Obviously the jungle tweaks are mainly directed at discouraging lanes to get an early farm/xp lead and to help out some of the slower junglers to keep up. It’s interesting to see that they are removing the 500 damage proc from wriggles/madred’s, but I think that the bonus damage on each attack will balance that out in a positive way. Overall I like the jungle changes.

What was really interesting to me though, was the removal of Malady, and how they chose to go about moving it’s effects onto other items. Wit’s End stealing MR from the target would be fantastic on champs like Teemo, Yi, and Kayle, who benefit from attack speed, and also do magic damage. The same goes for Nashor’s Tooth, I always build this on Teemo especially, and having the proc from Malady placed here allots me another item slot for further use. Sometimes these small tweaks have the biggest effect on the game. Hoping to see them get pushed through onto the live servers.

Patch 3.7

Today League of Legends patched in a new system, along with their usual balance changes (buffs and nerfs). Here’s the official patch preview:

The most important change in this patch is what they touch upon first, in that you can now customize your item sets for each individual champion, and these item sets will display in the in-game item shop, so that if you don’t agree with Riot’s “recommended” items, you can substitute your own items in, without wasting time searching for the items you want. Anyone that’s played LoL knows how annoying it can be when you want to play AD Yi or Teemo, yet the recommend items are all set up for AP. Then you scan the store til you find the items you want, and the rest of your team is already in position, a team fight breaks out and you are late to the party. This usually results in your death as well.

This is an idea that already existed in a mod, called Enigma’s Recommended Item Changer. I used the mod before, and it is a little more difficult to set up, but has the same results. I still like the fact that Riot went ahead and made this official, because now it’s even easier to do, and you can take the time to set everything up in-game so that all of your favorite champions are good to go.

Beyond this major change, there were a few tweaks made to dominant champions, item changes, and other good stuff. You can read the full patch notes here. I still think Master Yi needs a nerf… he is so over powered in ARAM.

Stay tuned, I have another ARAM post in the works.

Sidebar

Just a quick notation: I went through my sidebar links and removed/added a few. There were some of those pages that I really never visit anymore, and a few that I added that I frequent.

An aside: I am interested in finding and networking with more blog authors that follow the same sort of content that I do. I run an “Everything/Nothing” style of blog (as my tagline suggests) and would like to find others that do as well, many of the blogs I link to subscribe to a similar style, but I am already networked with most of them. Looking to expand to bring more traffic to my site, but also to bring more discussion to the table. If you are interested in a link exchange let me know!

5 Reasons Why I Love AMC

You can ask anyone, I’m not that big on TV. As it is, I had to add a “Television” category to the blog just now, because I really don’t ever watch it, let alone blog about it. However, I was watching the newest episode of Mad Men on the DVR a little while ago, and I just had to point out the fact that AMC is the best network on Television. I mean, there have been countless other shows that I have watched over the years, but I really never wanted to watch them when they were on, and never used to have a DVR, so I just didn’t watch TV. My free time was propagated by video games and socializing. In more recent years, through a Netflix subscription I have discovered shows that maybe I heard about, but never bothered to watch, and I now believe I was doing myself a disservice. So, without further adieu, here’s 5 reasons why I love AMC:

1. Mad Men

Don’t quote me on this, but I believe that Mad Men was the first original series to hit AMC. Also, because it is the show that is currently playing on the network, I felt it fitting to start with. The show started in 2007, and I remember hearing/reading about it, but that was back when I was firmly addicted to MMOs and didn’t have time for TV. The Mad Men moniker is a combination of “Madison Avenue” and “Ad Men” as the characters are in the advertising business on Madison Avenue. The show is set in 1960′s New York, and focuses on the main character, Donald Draper, who himself is a successful albeit troubled man. His womanizing and alcoholism are on full display, and snippets of his troubled past pop up from time to time. It is a period drama, so if you weren’t alive in the 60′s, things might seem a little strange, but anyone who has studied history or just watched a few old movies should feel right at home. I enjoy the fact that they take their fictional stories and intertwine them with real-world events, much like the movie “Forrest Gump” did. I won’t go any further into the plot twists, but let’s just say that the show will hook you, and keep you hooked. Excellent writing and acting are evident throughout. If none of this interests you, let me give you one last reason to check out the show:

God I’m in love.

2. The Walking Dead

 

The Walking Dead marries my love of Zombie movies and comic books. I’ve been into the Zombie genre for years, and have a pretty extensive collection of Zombie flicks, but making the concept into a show and stretching out the story with greater detail is amazing. To top it off, the show is based on a comic book that I have since gotten into, and though the storylines are different, the overall feel of the show stays true to its comic book roots. Take any Zombie movie you’ve ever liked, and then stretch it into 13 hours of viewing goodness, and you’ll have the Walking Dead. I started watching this show from the beginning, unlike any of the other shows I have and will be talking about. As soon as I heard about it I was on that shit. I like the fact that the show centers around the main character Rick Grimes, but that all other characters, no matter how attached you may get to them, are subject to death. This is unlike most TV shows, where only supporting cast members pass on. I can’t go into specifics without ruining anything for someone who hasn’t seen the show, but trust me, the drama in the show is addictive and you will not want any particular episode to end.

3. Breaking Bad

 

The concept of Breaking Bad is simply too good to pass up. A high school teacher diagnosed with cancer and feels that he will die without anything to leave his family, decides to start cooking and selling meth to take care of his family. That’s enough to make anyone go “say what?” From there, you’ll be forever stuck wondering how you missed out on this gem. Breaking Bad is in its 5th and final season sadly, but if you’re caught up, you’ll know they couldn’t stretch this particular story out forever. The acting is superb, the story is fantastic, but it is distracting every time you see the Dad from “Malcolm in the Middle” pulling bad ass gangster shit. I mean, he pulls it off, but I just always see him as that goofy Dad. In an effort to stretch out the show, and probably to continue to help ratings, this final season was split in half, and won’t be returning until summer. I will come back with commentary after this season (and the show) concludes.

4. The Killing

 

As evidenced by this promo, the Killing comes back this summer as well, in its 3rd season. I remember seeing advertisements for the show but I had missed the original season, so I ended up watching this show on Netflix. I will be recording the new season when it starts. This is the typical cop drama, with some twists and turns that keep it fresh and interesting. I didn’t recognize any of the actors from any other shows, but the main characters do manage to make you care about them, and you care about the family that is the victim of the story. The first two seasons centered around the death of a teenager, and the two detectives that are trying to solve the murder. This upcoming season seems to be focused on a serial killer, as the last case concluded in season 2. Stretching out a single case over the course of a season (or two) is better in my opinion rather than having cases solved in one episode (think Law and Order). I like the attention to detail, and how the writers can throw plot twists at you in every single episode.

5. Hell on Wheels

 

Another period drama, this time focusing on the transcontinental railroad in the late 1800′s. Hell on Wheels is one of the newer series on AMC, which would have started around the same time as The Killing, as they are both coming into their 3rd seasons. This show reminds me a lot of the HBO series “Deadwood”, although the subject matter is slightly different. “Hell on Wheels” refers to the rolling town that follows the construction of the railroad from the east to the west. It isn’t a town with an address, it’s more like a moving campsite. The main characters are troubled, which is a theme amongst AMC’s series, but this touches on the humanity of us all. The construction of this railroad affects everyone differently, and the way the cast interacts with each other, the environment, and even the Indians who are pissed off at them, seems to be pretty historically accurate. All in all, this series is captivating in that it transports you to a world much like our own, but far removed from anything anyone alive today can remember.

If you aren’t convinced that these shows are awesome, check them out for yourself. All old seasons of each of these shows are available to stream on Netflix (probably other streaming services as well), and you can get caught up and then jump on new seasons as they release. Compared to anything else on TV, there really isn’t any comparison.

 

What do you know about ARAM?

With League of Legends’ latest patch, Riot introduced a new matchmaking queue, based on a game mode previously available exclusively in custom matches. The game mode is called “ARAM”, or “All Random, All Mid”.  It originated with people playing on the “Summoner’s Rift” map, simply ignoring the top and bottom lanes, and picking random champions. Later, Riot enabled the  use of “The Proving Grounds” which was their newbie training map, and contained only one lane. I discovered the game mode during this phase. I had heard and read about it before, but never really had an interest until one day I randomly decided to try it out.

What I found was an amazing game. Much like in Guardians of Middle-Earth, there was a map that was a single lane, and allowed for 5v5 matches, although there was such a limit on champions in that game (though they are steadily adding more) and picking a random champion was not enforced. Back to LoL, this mode was very enjoyable, aside from a couple of issues. The main issue was the fact that because these were custom games, there was no part of the LeaverBuster system that was used, so if people got an undesired champion, they would simply dodge and then join another lobby (I was even guilty of doing this a couple of times). The other issue was that custom games only allow a certain amount of IP (Influence points) to be earned per day. I didn’t realize this at first, because I was jumping around between ranked and dominion games with some ARAM sprinkled here and there. One day I got on a roll and kept playing ARAM games, and ended up having a win where I only earned about 3-5 IP, whereas I would normally earn around 40-50. After doing some reading I found you could only earn about 2 hours worth of game time in IP per day with custom matches (with the average ARAM match running 20-30 minutes). So I only play custom matches when testing now, but am not limited while playing ARAM anymore.

To counter these issues, Riot created ARAM matchmaking, so the IP issue is immediately null and void (there are no IP limits in matchmaking lobbies, as these are all PvP). Also, because this is sanctioned matchmaking, the LeaverBuster system works, and if you dodge out of an ARAM queue, be prepared to wait 15 minutes before you can play another game. To make things a little more fair, Riot went a step further by adding in a re-roll option, so that when you get stuck on a team that is all melee champs, a couple of you can re-roll to get some range or added CC, whatever you may need. The system allows for 2 re-rolls maximum, and you earn points towards more re-rolls by completing matches. These points accumulate faster dependent on how many champs you own. I liked this fact because I have over 60 of the champs, so I get re-rolls quick, and that’s helped me from getting stuck with champs I completely suck with. Not to say I’m guaranteed a win if I get a champ that I like, nor that I will automatically lose playing a champion that I am not comfortable with. I just get to pick and choose if I want who I end up with.

However, I will say that ARAM should be required playing. Because of the random factor, you never know who you’re going to get or face, and it challenges you to be good at different roles. It challenges you to learn all of the champions, not just ones whom you favor. I have found that after playing ARAM matches for a week, I have learned to play some of the champions I hadn’t really touched, or at one point decided I didn’t like. I also believe that the random factor helps in determining skill level. An example:

When playing ranked you get an ELO. If you don’t know what ELO is, educate yourself. When playing normal 5s, 3s, Dominion, and I’m assuming ARAM, there is a “hidden ELO”. I believe Riot is calling it “MMR”, short for “Match Making Rating”. This works like ELO, but is kept hidden from users. So when you play Ranked in the Bronze division, you are playing those that are in the same division. Theoretically you would also play those from the Bronze division while playing another game mode, but it appears that because ARAM just started and I have noticed a lower quality of players with me, MMR is different for each mode. This could just be my perception, but it seems to be the case. Now, because of the fact that players aren’t allowed to choose who they play, they might not have runes or masteries set up for every champion combination, or they may not know how to play the champion very well. A “good” player will adapt to the situation through his item purchases, and use of skill shots, etc. A “bad” player will not take AD/AP scaling into account, will have a hard time with the character, and most likely feed as a result, and cause your team to lose. So, does this bad player on my team account for my loss, and subsequent loss of MMR, and cause me to be stuck in “ELO hell”? That is a discussion for another post I believe, but the point I was trying to get at is MMR or ELO or whatever you want to call it goes out the window when playing ARAM.

ARAM forces players to play as a team, to adapt to situations differently. There are no walls to jump over. There is no place to hide, and when the entire game is team fights, towers will be dived. Players have to learn their champs quickly, but it forces them to learn what you can do to counter opponents, and counter strange team builds that aren’t part of the “accepted meta”. I think that everyone should play ARAM just to be able to say you can win with anyone. It builds the skill set and confidence needed to move forward in the traditional game, and I think it would help some people adapt to become a pro. Maybe I’ll follow my own advice.

On Ear Tuning

Yesterday I posted about my life’s musical journey, and at one point I said:

“…and he is relatively easy to understand without major “ear tuning” (more on this later).”

I had some thoughts that I wanted to write down on this subject, because it’s something I believe to be true, mainly from personal experience. However, doing a quick Google search turned up some articles that basically said mostly all that I wanted to say, although I will add that the same applies to other genres outside of metal. My ear tuning began when I was young and adjusting to the quick delivery of rap lyrics, and developed further when working with metal. That said, on to the further reading:

How to Appreciate Metal Music
How To Understand Screams in Music
How to Appreciate Death Metal

I do realize that all 3 articles come from the same web site, and none of this is official or scientific, but many of the points I was trying to make are present. I believe that anyone can eventually tune their ears to appreciate nearly anything. Except maybe country music.

The Journey to Metal

I’d say that I started listening to music around the same age as most kids. It was towards the end of elementary school that I started caring about what I listened to, and like most kids, didn’t want to listen to the same things as my parents. Some of my musical taste still stems from what they listened to, but at that point in time it wouldn’t have been “cool” to bring a Led Zeppelin CD to school. I remember one day in particular, riding the bus to my junior high, where I had brought my Walkman and my Dad’s Guns ‘n’ Roses “Appetite for Destruction” tape, and being questioned about what I was listening to. When I told them, I was made fun of, not only because the album was a few years old (for kids and their short attention spans, 5+ years makes anything old) but because it wasn’t popular among our social circles. Basically, if you were a kid my age and listened to anything your parents did, you were pretty uncool. The fad that was occurring around this time was the hip/hop and gangster rap phase, and I was not immune to its charms.

My first real love was gangster rap. Not only was it the farthest thing from what my parents enjoyed and/or wanted me to listen to, it was also fresh and new. I mean, the origins of rap go much farther back, but to my freshly developing mind, this was the new big thing. Artists like Snoop Doggy Dogg and Dr. Dre were exposing me to a culture that I knew nothing about, and I was fascinated by it. The beats man, the beats are what hooked me. Then the lyrics were out there, and the delivery was so different from Rock n Roll music. I couldn’t explain it, even when my parents were asking me, the poor-ish suburban white kid, what I could possibly enjoy about it. Looking back, I did grow up in an era when video games and electronics started changing the world. Even my parents who won’t admit enjoying some of the New Wave stuff that came out right when Rap was getting big, were influenced by electronics and the electronic sound. I think my love of video game sounds/music can translate directly to enjoying the synthetic tone of rap and hip/hop. I was also intrigued by the lyricists, and as a lyricist myself, still love some of the intricacies of rap lyrics.

As I got older, I moved away from the Rap scene. It served its purpose, and there is still some of it that I can enjoy present-day. The artists that came around and piqued my interest in alternative and other forms of rock were bands like Korn, Limp Bizkit, Rage Against the Machine and Nine Inch Nails. The connection here should be pretty obvious, in that the first 3 bands listed here were part of the Rap-Rock movement in the late 90′s, also called Nu-Metal (though you will find with me, these sub-genre monikers are pretty pointless, and I tend to avoid using them). Nine Inch Nails is almost purely electronic, but with lyrics that I can more closely relate to. In fact, most of the bands from this era were easier for someone like me to relate to, as I’ve never lived in the ghetto, killed anyone, or pimp-slapped a bitch. Living vicariously still has its benefits though. One of the bands I listed here ended up doing a cover album, and on that album was a little song called “In Your Eyes”, and my love for another genre came to be.

“In Your Eyes” was a song by an old school punk rock band called Minor Threat. Rage Against the Machine did a cover of this song, and that sparked my interest in the genre. I ended up purchasing the Minor Threat discography, and fell in love with punk rock. From there, bands like AFI, Pennywise, Death by Stereo, and many many more filled my playlist. The raw emotion, the uptempo music, and the anthemic choruses drew me in and held my attention for some time. Then I branched out, exploring sub-genres and finding bands like Thrice, Thursday, and Senses Fail that were built upon the punk rock ethic, but had their own unique styles. As my collection grew, I discovered bands that bridged gaps with other genres, and eventually stumbled upon metal as we know it today. Metal itself is a huge genre, and purists will argue over all of the sub-genres and will dismiss bands for falling under particular labels. The band that started my journey into metal was Avenged Sevenfold, and that in itself would probably raise a few eyebrows from said purists. But I can admit that I enjoyed their music to begin with, and that though I own all of their albums, they aren’t a favorite of mine anymore. Still, I give credit where credit is due.

Metal, to me, doesn’t need all of the sub-genre labels. I simply call it metal. I know the difference between metalcore, grindcore, hardcore, power metal, black metal and death metal, but I think it’s all metal. Old Metallica is metal. Newer Metallica not so much, but you catch my drift. Metal defined: double bass, awesome riffs, growly vocals, shredding guitar solos. All metal bands stick to this sort of formula, though some prefer clean vocals, some mix vocals, some use blast beats and some do not. It’s all still metal, to me.

My favorite bands as of right now are: Revocation, The Black Dahlia Murder, Chimaira, and Misery Index. These are all metal bands, and they all would probably fit into differing sub-genres, but again, I don’t believe in all the labels. So these bands are all different, but similar, and I’m going to explain why. First, a video:

Revocation is amazing because not only is David Davidson a phenomenal guitarist, but he also has the chops to have a semi-death-metal vocal style. I know from experience that being a vocalist is hard enough without playing an instrument on top of it, so he’s pretty talented. His solos are reminiscent of classic rock jams, and he is relatively easy to understand without major “ear tuning” (more on this later).

The Black Dahlia Murder are unique in the fact that Trevor Strnad manages to pull off black metal and death metal vocals, convincingly enough that on first listen you would believe it to be two separate people. The band focuses on adding layers to the music, as evident in this video, where the guitars separate and come together, and everything else has its place as well.

This is a video of one of Chimaira’s instrumental tracks, off their latest album. This song alone gives you a taste of all they have to offer, without a vocal delivery. I love this track, and could listen to it over and over again. Don’t get me wrong though, I love Mark Hunter’s vocal delivery, he is one of the easiest screamers to understand, and his lyrics have hit close to home more than once. The unique aspect of Chimaira is their use of synthesizers to add layers to their music. It’s always well done.

Finally, Misery Index rounds out my top four. This is probably the most generic choice, as there really isn’t anything that sets them apart from the pack. They use double bass blast beats, they have solos, they have nice riffage. The vocals are death metal style, and done well. That’s about all I can say, they do it all, and they do it all well. They are just technical in the way that they seem to never miss a beat, even when the BPM is pretty high.

So this is where I am today. It’s been a long musical journey, but this is where my heart currently lies. Rather than give up on music when I get to a certain age, I have adapted to music as it has changed throughout the years. I feel like this is the best way to not limit yourself from experiences that might change your life. There has always been music in the background for your memories, hasn’t there?