League of Legends - F2P MOBA (like DOTA) part 2

Page 96 - Seeking answers? Join the AnandTech community: where nearly half-a-million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.

HumblePie

Lifer
Oct 30, 2000
14,665
440
126
Just to reiterate,

I never said Malz was BAD, I said he wasn't all that good. There is a difference. Malz is not completely useless. He can do AP burst damage. Pretty much all he does, but he can do it. He's not horribly broken into uselessness like Eve for example. That is just a bad champ right now. There are however far superior choices to playing the AP character on a team that makes picking Malz a bad pick for the most part. His usefulness also decreases against better players that know specifically what to do to counter him easily. Which is why I said he was a good pubstomper or good for low elo games. Against serious players Malz just falls off and doesn't get used for a reason.
 
Oct 25, 2006
11,036
11
91


Brag Time. They just kept running at me, and I just kept melting them

Turns out, Thog is an awesome Duo partner. Been trying to get myself out of Elo hell for a while now. I do really really well, but just can't carry the whole team. Makes me jealous that hes at 1300 Elo, we played together and we carried every single one of his placement games.

Sidenote, I can't figure out a reason to ever give Noct Tri-Force. Anyone know?
 
Last edited:

CPA

Elite Member
Nov 19, 2001
30,322
4
0
Downloaded LoL yesterday, plan on playing with my son. I'm scared. You guys are talking about things that make absolutely no sense. I'm going to get massacred, aren't I? :)
 

Firsttime

Platinum Member
Mar 31, 2005
2,517
0
71
Our thread is like the WoW sticky. If you've never played before and hop in here it's just 0_o.
 

Onita

Golden Member
Feb 24, 2004
1,158
0
71
Downloaded LoL yesterday, plan on playing with my son. I'm scared. You guys are talking about things that make absolutely no sense. I'm going to get massacred, aren't I? :)

If you've never played anything similiar, you'll probably get stomped. Also, newb levels are full of smurfs and, as in all online games, there are tons of assholes. But its fun!

A few weeks ago there was a 75% off sale on champs. Does this happen often? I can't seem to find out how to read older news to find out myself.
 

crownjules

Diamond Member
Jul 7, 2005
4,858
0
76
Downloaded LoL yesterday, plan on playing with my son. I'm scared. You guys are talking about things that make absolutely no sense. I'm going to get massacred, aren't I? :)

Yup. Of the various game genres, it's got one of the steepest learning curves. Learning 90 champs and their 4 abilities (plus passive abilities) is a slow process. Mastering them is another level. Just read my first post and the tips for new players. Following those will get you started in the right direction.

And ignore the trash talkers. You get a lot of people who think they're the best players and that it's bad teammates that are holding them back.
 

ImpulsE69

Lifer
Jan 8, 2010
14,946
1,077
126
Start out by making your own custom games and playing against bots with your kid. It might help. We didn't have that option back in the day :)

In regular games against others, I find it helps if I just auto ignore all (with: /ignore all) right from the beginning. While I don't tend to trash talk, I do get annoyed to the point of bickering back if people start being asses or trolling, which is very distracting. This is VERY helpful if you're the tank, because EVERYTHING that goes wrong is your fault.
 

HumblePie

Lifer
Oct 30, 2000
14,665
440
126
Yup. Of the various game genres, it's got one of the steepest learning curves. Learning 90 champs and their 4 abilities (plus passive abilities) is a slow process. Mastering them is another level. Just read my first post and the tips for new players. Following those will get you started in the right direction.

And ignore the trash talkers. You get a lot of people who think they're the best players and that it's bad teammates that are holding them back.

What he said. Even then, learning multiple roles for various champs and mastering those roles can get more complex.

The two simplest roles to master are bruiser and passive support roles in my opinion. Bruisers are champs that can get into the mix of a fight, take a few licks and dish out a few licks in return usually. Passive support champs hang in the back and keep their team going as best they can with healing and buffs.

Out of all the champs to start playing and learning, here are what I consider the easiest champs to play and do well with. These fit into just about any team composition and don't require as much strategy to win with.

Sona (passive support)
Garen (bruiser/tank)
Singed (bruiser/tank)
Caitlyn (ranged physical damage)
Cho'Gath (bruiser/tank)
Lux (ranged magic damage)

Those champs can fit anywhere in any team comp. They may not all be the "best" at a given role, but they will all do well. They are also all ridiculously easy to play compared to other champs that are similar in nature.

If you are looking to purchase a champ or two I highly recommend getting one of the ones I list above if you are starting out now.

The game is a strategy team game. As such to do exceptionally well requires time and effort into mastering various champions and roles. It also requires at least learning what all the champions are capable of even if you can't master them.

Eventually through playing you'll learn your strengths and weaknesses for various champions and roles. I myself think I make an excellent jungler, support, tank, and bruiser. I do alright as ranged AP (magic damage), and can play ranged AD (physical damage) decently. I'm not the best at the ranged based champs at all. Just not my play style as much. Even with support champs I only play Sona and Alistar with great skill. Taric and Soraka are support champs I don't do as well with for example. I just haven't taken the time to master them although I have played with them. I found they, Soraka and Taric, didn't suit what I like to do in the game.

The game can be taken as laid back or as hardcore as you want. It can be fun either way. As others said don't let the kids and the raging emo players get you down if you find the game fun. Remember this is a competitive game and people like to play to win. Many people get so pissed off the moment they start losing though just like any other form of competition such as sports. You can either laugh at them or ignore them is what I recommend.
 

Onita

Golden Member
Feb 24, 2004
1,158
0
71
Lux is not a good beginner champ, IMO, with her several skillshots.

By far the hardest part is learning champs. You not only need to know the champs you're playing, but also what your teammates and opponents are playing.
 

bfdd

Lifer
Feb 3, 2007
13,312
1
0
been playing this since beta, love it. all bout the pantheon dominion right now, trying to get it down.
 

HumblePie

Lifer
Oct 30, 2000
14,665
440
126
Lux is not a good beginner champ, IMO, with her several skillshots.

By far the hardest part is learning champs. You not only need to know the champs you're playing, but also what your teammates and opponents are playing.

Lux has skill shots, but hers are the most forgiving. Which makes it much easier to use her than one would think compared to other skillshot champs.
 

ImpulsE69

Lifer
Jan 8, 2010
14,946
1,077
126
This brings up an interesting question:

What was the first char you tried, and was it your favorite or did you immediately try something else?

First character I played was Anivia. Didn't have a CLUE what I was doing, but I did it well. Not only won, but had best score on the team. I pretty much stuck with her until I tried Heimer. Used him quite a bit at the lower levels, but he just doesn't hold well once you hit 30 (except he has new life in dominion).

Tried alot of chars, my fav is still Anvia. (Ahri becoming a close 2nd, except I think she will get the nerf hammer soon).
 

Malak

Lifer
Dec 4, 2004
14,696
2
0
Just to reiterate,

I never said Malz was BAD, I said he wasn't all that good. There is a difference. Malz is not completely useless. He can do AP burst damage. Pretty much all he does, but he can do it. He's not horribly broken into uselessness like Eve for example. That is just a bad champ right now. There are however far superior choices to playing the AP character on a team that makes picking Malz a bad pick for the most part. His usefulness also decreases against better players that know specifically what to do to counter him easily. Which is why I said he was a good pubstomper or good for low elo games. Against serious players Malz just falls off and doesn't get used for a reason.

You don't even ever play Malz. Do you even own him? I play and do well with Malz on a consistent basis so really the only person who can say anything about the champ is me. Saying you can beat him with ANY champ is pretty much the reason every single person here should ignore you. Your comments are straight ridiculous and I disprove your points every time I play him. I just beat up a Trynd yesterday in a game, he NEVER killed me. Ever. There was also a Veigar, Garen, Udyr, and one other tanky guy on their team. Killed them all. Almost got a triple even.
 

Firsttime

Platinum Member
Mar 31, 2005
2,517
0
71
Galio is good I've decided. And a PSA here, he counters Riven, and I would assume some of the other AD melee casters, in the most insanely hard way possible.
 

RPD

Diamond Member
Jul 22, 2009
5,059
558
126
Galio is good as a counter pick to an AP caster heavy team, thats about it. If his ult wasn't so buggy, it might help his kit. Otherwise before they nerfed him he was quite the AP caster himself.
 

HumblePie

Lifer
Oct 30, 2000
14,665
440
126
You don't even ever play Malz. Do you even own him? I play and do well with Malz on a consistent basis so really the only person who can say anything about the champ is me. Saying you can beat him with ANY champ is pretty much the reason every single person here should ignore you. Your comments are straight ridiculous and I disprove your points every time I play him. I just beat up a Trynd yesterday in a game, he NEVER killed me. Ever. There was also a Veigar, Garen, Udyr, and one other tanky guy on their team. Killed them all. Almost got a triple even.

Umm, I've played every champ. Despite not maining the champ doesn't mean I can't look at stats, compare those stats to other champs, and recognize inherent strengths and weaknesses. Some people are just better at strategy base games than others. Most of this game is strategy based with a bit twitch action.

Your anecdotal evidence while playing Malz doesn't change his skill kit at all.

Let me give you a hypothetical analogy in simplistic form to help you better understand.

Character A has a single ability that can hit any target anywhere for 100 damage every 10 seconds.

Character B has a single ability that can hit any target anywhere for 110 damage every 10 seconds.


Which one is better? A or B? Really it's that simple. Malz is basically character A in my scenario and many other AP champs are character B. That doesn't mean character A isn't capable of performing. All that means is character B is capable of the same thing A does, but only better. More often than not, character B is MUCH better and instead of doing 10 more damage they do 50 more damage and gain a 10% movespeed buff or something. I'm not giving specific abilities, but OVER ALL SKILL KITS. Malzahar is just lacking in his skill at the moment compared to other champions who perform the same role. Plain and simple.
 

Chiropteran

Diamond Member
Nov 14, 2003
9,811
110
106
What was the first char you tried, and was it your favorite or did you immediately try something else?
.

Annie. She was my favorite for awhile, but one of my first goals in league of legends was to try every champion at least once. I started in beta and all champions were free all the time, so I just went down the list. I honestly can't remember how I did the first time I played Warwick, but he became my main a short while after I started playing. Early on he was actually really weak and many people would queue dodge him, but I played him anyway and did well, which I mostly attribute to the fact that I jungled rather than any particular skill- jungling was pretty rare at the time and having a jungle just gave your team an edge.


On the subject of Malz, I think what humble might be missing is that player skill is a big factor. For example, I consider myself a very good twitch. He is one of those champions teams will still dodge because they think he is terrible, but I typically do very well on him, 60% win ratio with him in ranked for example.

Why? I think my skill playing most champions is around a 5-6 on a scale of 1-10, average. Playing a champion I often play, my skill level might be 7-8, but playing twitch I feel like i'm a 9.5 or better- I might not be the very best twitch but I have played him so much that I know how to play him better than most of the people I play against.

Twitch as a champion might be a 3 on a scale of 1-10 for viability, but a 9.5 skill player with a "3" champion can easily beat a "5" skill player using a "7" flavor of the week champion. If that makes any sense at all.

Based on his posts, I suspect Malak plays Malz like I play twitch. Malz on average might be inferior to some other choices, but when your natural skill with a specific champion is so much higher than your skill with other champions, it just makes the most sense to play the one you are best at.
 

xSkyDrAx

Diamond Member
Sep 14, 2003
7,706
1
0
Annie. She was my favorite for awhile, but one of my first goals in league of legends was to try every champion at least once. I started in beta and all champions were free all the time, so I just went down the list. I honestly can't remember how I did the first time I played Warwick, but he became my main a short while after I started playing. Early on he was actually really weak and many people would queue dodge him, but I played him anyway and did well, which I mostly attribute to the fact that I jungled rather than any particular skill- jungling was pretty rare at the time and having a jungle just gave your team an edge.


On the subject of Malz, I think what humble might be missing is that player skill is a big factor. For example, I consider myself a very good twitch. He is one of those champions teams will still dodge because they think he is terrible, but I typically do very well on him, 60% win ratio with him in ranked for example.

Why? I think my skill playing most champions is around a 5-6 on a scale of 1-10, average. Playing a champion I often play, my skill level might be 7-8, but playing twitch I feel like i'm a 9.5 or better- I might not be the very best twitch but I have played him so much that I know how to play him better than most of the people I play against.

Twitch as a champion might be a 3 on a scale of 1-10 for viability, but a 9.5 skill player with a "3" champion can easily beat a "5" skill player using a "7" flavor of the week champion. If that makes any sense at all.

Based on his posts, I suspect Malak plays Malz like I play twitch. Malz on average might be inferior to some other choices, but when your natural skill with a specific champion is so much higher than your skill with other champions, it just makes the most sense to play the one you are best at.

I believe Humble is trying to objectively compare the characters.

If given two players of equal skill different champs. Say one is Malz and other is someone like Xerath. Malz will lose. When skill is irrelevant it's the kit that must be judged.

Yes there are good Malz PLAYERS out there but Malz's limit is lower than other AP mages due to his limited kit.

Sure Malak can prob beat most Trynd's due to his mastery over Malz but were he in a situation with equally skilled players then the faults of Malz's kit become more apparent.
 

Firsttime

Platinum Member
Mar 31, 2005
2,517
0
71
Not one single person on this forum plays at the level though were skill is irrelevant and hero must be compared based on their kit. Skill is everything.
 

Onita

Golden Member
Feb 24, 2004
1,158
0
71
If you've never played anything similiar, you'll probably get stomped. Also, newb levels are full of smurfs and, as in all online games, there are tons of assholes. But its fun!

A few weeks ago there was a 75% off sale on champs. Does this happen often? I can't seem to find out how to read older news to find out myself.

Anyone know the answer to this?
 

HumblePie

Lifer
Oct 30, 2000
14,665
440
126
They've only done a 75% off one other time that I remember for Amumu. I picked him up then as well as a pharoah amumu skin they had for him for 75% off too.