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League of Legends: Movement Speed Items’ Cost Effectiveness

Build Advice, League of Legends 2 Responses »

Oct 132011

Mobility is a great asset for any champion in League of Legends. A highly movable champion will be able to assist accross lanes and return to the fray faster. Walking time is wasted time, so whatever diminishes it is worth considering.

Items that increase movement speed (MS) can be divided in two categories: boots and other items. Boots increase MS by a flat amount while other items increase it by a percentage. To see which items provide the highest increase to MS for the least gold we’ll check their cost effectiveness: cost divided by the boost provided. The cost effectiveness is the cost of each unit of the boost: one MS or 1% bonus MS.
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Dominion Strategy: Teamfights and Numeric Advantage

Game Theory, League of Legends No Responses »

Oct 122011

In Dominion team-fights happen very often, you could say that at every moment a team-fight is brewing as both teams try to capture the same points. Regardless, players sometimes ignore team-fights, instead going solo for a capture; sometimes ending dead after a good gank. Let’s take a look at the place and importance of team-fights in Dominion and how to capitalize on victories.

Team-fights can decide captures because every time you have a numeric advantage over the enemy team you can push aggressively and they have to defend. It’s more important to help your team in a fight than to attempt a backdoor.
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League of Legends: Classic’s Minion Tutorial by Ciderhelm

External Resources, League of Legends No Responses »

Oct 112011

Minions are an essential part of any League of Legends match, Classic being no exception. Both in Twisted Treeline and Summoner’s Rift, minions can become an overwhelming force that pushes through the lanes and finishes the enemy Nexus unattended.

If you want to know more about minions check Ciderhelm’s in-depth minion tutorial. It covers all minions types, last-hitting, gold gained and minions’ behaviour; to name a few specifics. More videos by Ciderhelm are available at his Youtube Channel.

League of Legends: Cooldown Reduction Items’ Cost Effectiveness

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Oct 062011

Cooldown reduction (CDR) is a very useful statistic in League of Legends and also one of the most difficult to boost with items. The problem originates with carries demanding huge quantities of attack damage (AD) and mages ability power (AP). Items that are effective as pure AD or AP boosts don’t provide CDR while items that do provide CDR give small amounts of AD or AP; if any.

All champions benefit from being able to use their abilities more often. Therefore, an analysis of items that provide CDR will help in determining what items with a CDR bonus help carries, mages, tanks and support perform their role.
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Dominion Strategy: Roaming and Backdoors

Game Theory, League of Legends No Responses »

Oct 052011

Roaming and backdooring is a viable strategy in Dominion. They are situational tactics that aren’t useful if you constantly apply them and forget to defend your points. However, used at the right moment they can help solidify your lead or help in a comeback.

When you plan to roam the first purchase should be Boots of Swiftness or Boots of Mobility. Both are good items: the former’s bonus is constant, the latter’s is temporary but higher. If your champion’s base movement speed (MS) plus the boots’ bonus MS is at least 400 buy Boots of Swiftness (bonus MS: 90), if it’s less buy Boots of Mobility (bonus MS: 130/70).
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League of Legends: Bad Lane Choices by Sullla

External Resources, League of Legends No Responses »

Oct 042011

Sullla comments on Terror Incognita’s match and their odd lane choices. After a bad start Terror’s team is able to recover showing good combat initiations and effective use of Baron Nashor’s buff. If you are curious to see how a team can make a comeback after losing all outer turrets, look no further. More videos are available at Sullla’s Youtube Channel, livestream and webpage.

League of Legends: Critical Strike Chance Items’ Cost Effectiveness

Build Advice, League of Legends 2 Responses »

Sep 292011

Carries’ most important stat is attack damage (AD). Attack speed (AS) is an important stat also, but usually is secondary to AD as it doesn’t improve skill damage and its effectiveness is based on AD itself. Critical strikes (CS) shares a lot in common with AS, as it can be considered a secondary stat for carries. Both AS and CS depend on AD but they can each double the damage output of a champion if properly built.

There are carries with a certain affinity to specific stats, for example Ashe with CS. In case of such a build it becomes useful to know which items give the most critical strike chance bonus per gold cost. The table below has all the items that boost CS with their gold cost and cost effectiveness. That is, how much each unit of the bonus costs in gold. Clicking on the last header we can order the table by cost effectiveness and make an analysis.
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League of Legends: Skin Viewer by Gamebase

External Resources, League of Legends 2 Responses »

Sep 272011

Gamebase covers many games on different platforms: Diablo III, Maple Story, Angrybirds. League of Legends is no exception and besides the mandatory news and pro videos they have a great skin viewer that shows the models of each champion, and each skin, as they would appear in-game.

The viewer constantly spins the model around the vertical axis but you can click on the Flash window and rotate it as you see fit to check every little detail. You can even zoom in and out by using the mousewheel. Each champion’s lore, abilities, spotlight video, wallpapers and more are available albeit in Chinese.
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Dominion Strategy: Capturing and Defending Points

Game Theory, League of Legends No Responses »

Sep 262011

Dominion is a very different game mode from Classic. Moreover, the layout of Crystal Scar drastically changes how the game it’s approached. At this point the metagame hasn’t fully developed and modifications to Dominion are to be expected. Because, after all, tanks and off-tanks (fighters?) do reign supreme. Regardless, the map layout won’t see any big variations and therefore there is much that can be planned before a match.

The first thing that has to be noted is that all along the control points and lanes, everything is visible. Only the ring between the lanes and central part, with the Storm Shield buffs, is covered in fog of war. Map visibility makes map awareness key to be effective in capturing and defending points.
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League of Legends: Attack Speed Items’ Cost Effectiveness

Build Advice, League of Legends No Responses »

Sep 232011

Carries’ objective is to maximize their damage output and for that many statistics can be improved. If attack damage (AD) is the more direct, attack speed (AS) comes closely behind. Some champoins with powerful passives can benefit from AS, so as to trigger bonus damage or make the most of an extra effect to their auto-attacks.

In the table below are listed all items that provide an AS bonus. Clicking on a header sorts the table with that criterium. Cost effectiveness is obtained by dividing the gold cost by the bonus provided. Let’s see what surprises await after sorting.
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