A look at Caitlyn's skills

First of all, let me just say that most of the leaks for patch v1.0.0.108 are fake. The fake leak with Fiddlestick's fear range increased to 1000 -absolutely BS. And Teemo WILL NOT get a new skin! Or, I could be entirely wrong and Riot truly wants to mess up the game. I have always been able to find leaked patch notes from PTR, but recently Riot has been really dedicated in sealing away all the leaked info. So my advice would be not waste time trying to find leaks. Just wait for the official patch to come out. (Jan 4th? I think). But one thing that is in the next patch we know for sure, and that my friends, is the sexy sheriff Caitlyn.

Caitlyn

Abilities:

Piltover Peacemaker: Caitlyn revs up her rifle for 1 second to unleash a penetrating shot which deals physical damage (deals less damage to subsequent targets).

Yordle Snap Trap: Caitlyn sets a trap to reveal sneaky yordles. When sprung, the trap immobilizes the champion and deals magic damage over 1.5 seconds.

90 Caliber Net: Caitlyn fires a heavy net to slow her target. The recoil knocks Caitlyn back.

Ace in the Hole (Ultimate): Caitlyn takes time to line up the perfect shot, dealing massive damage to a single target at a huge range. Enemy champions can intercept the bullet for their ally.

Headshot (Passive): Every 8 attacks (attacks while in brush count as 2), Caitlyn will fire a headshot, dealing either 150% damage to a champion or 250% damage to a minion.

The way I see it, Caitlyn is another step Riot took to transition from Team-based/AOE to more ganking orientated metagame. In my opinion, Caitlyn would likely be an AD burst/carry (or an AD mage). Looking at her skills, she seems to do tons of damage in bursts and crazy long range, but likely burdened with high cooldowns and poor teamfight abilities. Caitlyn isn't likely to be similar to Ashe or Tristana or pretty much any range carries. Her skills require very careful positioning, map awareness, and pre-planning. In other words, she is similar to Teemo! 

If there is ever a LoL university...

...then TreeEskimo should be the head professor. 


TreeEskimo is a LoL council member and one of the best League of Legends player. Unlike other livestreamers who usually make jokes, QQ and only occasionally provide useful insights about the game (no offense), TreeEskimo dedicates himself to teach the average player by explaining his views on champions, logic for every movement, and overall battlefield control tactics.  I learned so many strategic concepts from watching his livestream. By watching TreeEskmo, you will improve immensely and be well on your way to become pro if you apply what you learned from watching TreeEskimo in your games. To put it simply, you will get schooled. 

My thoughts on playing Cassiopeia

Normally, I don't buy champions that are in their first few weeks of release. However, I was reading the LoL forums yesterday, someone posted that Cassiopeia was apparently created by the same champion designer for Anivia. This intrigued my interest (I am a die hard Anivian), as I opened the LoL client as quickly as I could to check her info and price. Not to my surprise, she is rated at maximum difficulty and is a caster, much like Anivia. Some might say her handling difficulty is even beyond that of Anivia. As a player that is proud to main one of the hardest champions in the game, I simply could not let Cassiopeia take the new "hardest playable" champion spot if I want to keep my pride (hehe). Of course, she is also very interesting and likely won't be used much by others, making Cassiopeia players a unique find just like Anivia players. So I decided, I must buy her at all cost!

Hilarious videos

hey guys, short update today. Found these hilarious videos on youtube. A must watch if you liked Maclaren's Pro Anivia guide :)

Warning: the following videos may contain coarse language. Viewer's discretion is strongly advised.

Improve Microing - a guide to Smartcast and Selfcast

In Starcraft, an immensely popular RTS game, there is microing and macroing (nouns). Macroing means building up economy by managing workers and buildings to achieve the greatest efficiency; microing means controlling each units to achieve the best positioning leading to higher survivability and damage output. In league of Legends, only microing exists because you only control one unit -your champion. Microing in LoL is necessary to position yourself to last hit, harass the enemy champions, and most importantly, survive.  If you watch pros' livestream, you will see that they are constantly clicking -some might say a bit excessive- to move their characters around even by an inch at a time.  Pros are constantly aware of their positions and their enemy's position, of course, being familiar with the range of autoattacks and skills for most characters, they can move in and out without getting a scratch. Sometimes you will see two pros moving back and forth without attacking (except for last hit) as if they are in an invisible tug of war. For pros, microing is their second nature.

All you need to know about Smurfing

"Smurfing Gaming term: Entering your regular server under a different name so u can see whats going on without being recognized. In League of Legends, smurfing is an intentional act by an experienced player to gain personal benefits such as increasing referrals, playing with beginner friends, or make oneself feel better."


Before you say something along the lines of "omg hypershatter u smurfette noob", I ask you to read this article carefully and thoroughly with an open perspective. For the past months, I have been playing my smurf account every now and then. I figured none of my friends would have enough time and dedication to play an online game for more than a couple of hours before giving up, and spamming referral links on random forums isn't worth the time or effort.

[cool stuff bro] League of Legends Asian Art Client

Hi guys, recently I am way too busy with exams and university competitions and all other stuff. I will try to update daily but articles won't be very long. Maybe I will sneak in a preview of the match between Ionia Vs. Noxus one day :) I will make up for it after all my school work is done! Thanks!

Now on to today's topic. I recently discovered this AMAZING custom modded client at Leaguecraft. Players Onikiri and Hydr8r (props to them if you see them in game) created this beautiful Asian Art Champion client where all the default champion pictures are replaced by their Asian counterparts. If you like the AZN version of your favorite champions, definitely pick this up!

Steps for installation are listed on the original website:

http://forum.leaguecraft.com/showthread.php?tid=10465

Have fun!

Ooooh Vlad you little bloodsucker...

Laning against Vladimir in mid is a pain in the ass, just as much as laning against Miss Fortune and Mordekaiser (will post guides on these guys later). Whenever you see a Vladimir on the loading screen in the opponent's team, you might have felt a chill in your spine, praying your carry in mid won't get sucked dry like a pig. If Vladimir gets fed, he can be compared to the final stage of Cell in Dragon Ball Z; the more he drains, the stronger he gets. Too bad there are no Senzu Beans to save your ass.


But he doesn't have to be a such a headache. Vlad is overrated in terms of his laning ability by most of the community, thanks to the usual torrent of sheep rants crying "OP NERF PLS" on the forums. Yes, he is a very strong laner, but can be shutdown easily if you know how. In this post, I will briefly give you some pointers on how to counter this constantly poking troll.


(In this post we assume your average Vlad player isn't a noob or a Pro)

Do you belong in your ELO?

Ever since ranked games have been introduced, I've been seeing countless rant threads posted in the forum complaining about how "ELO hell" is impossible to get out of, thanks to feeders/leavers/etc...Although I have not been to the deepest end of the so-called "ELO hell", I can tell you one thing: you belong in your ELO, no excuse, no exceptions.


Most players that complain about being stuck in "ELO hell" simply don't understand what it takes to carry themselves to a higher ELO. Because they don't truly understand their weaknesses and playing style, blaming others for losing is much easier. Think about it this way, if there is such a thing called "ELO hell" where its impossible for GOOD PLAYERS SUCH AS YOURSELF to rise to a higher ELO, then how did hundreds of other players do it? Do you think Riot is purposely fking with you by putting all the feeders, leavers, non-english speakers and trolls in your team for shits and giggles? To put it in an even more humiliating way, how the hell did Milkfat climbed to 1750 rating when he has only been playing LoL for 32 days? (I don't care who he duo-queued with).

Congrats Reginald, you are NUMBA ONE

Congratulations Reginald for becoming the #1 solo queue ranked player! He achieved this today after announcing his goal to reclaim the number 1 spot. The three games he played during this journey were live-streamed. Here is the link for Reginald's livestream: http://www.solomid.net/livestream.php

original thread here: http://community-na.static.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=365121 

Reginald is one of my favorite LoL players. I actively watch his livestream on Solomid. In one of his games, he destroyed the other team under 20 minutes with jungling AS karthus + daggers. Absolute hilarious game and since then I fell in love with his interesting gameplay. Sometimes I get annoyed by his constant use of "bro" though.

Watching pro livestreams is one of the best ways you can improve in League of Legends. I learnt how to play many champions and in game strategies just by watching pros. I suggest you guys check out Solomid and Own3d TV livestreams -IMO one of the best ones out there.

No, your turn to buy ward.

For most games, warding has always been the determining factor in winning and losing a game. We all know the importance of buying wards, but most of the time for one reason or another, we forget. By reading this, you can understand your teammates' (and your own) frustration when it comes to warding and take necessary actions.


Lets start with an example.
typical argument for ward buying (player A,B,C,D,E):
You are player A.


player C: HOLY FK GUYS, we are getting facerolled lololol wtf.
player B: ya cause u noobs dont call mia, i keep getting ganked in mid -_-
player C: guys get some wards...
player D: na man i cant afford..no gold
player B: i just bought a ward kk someone else do it plox
(silence...notice how player E never said anything. Apparently farming in the bottom lane requires tons of concentration)
(game ends 20 minutes later after getting aced 5 times due to failure of knowing where the other team was)


I am pretty sure all of you have encountered this situation before. So, what are the problems here? How could have you responded and led your team to victory? 

[cool stuff bro] A look at custom skins

No, I am not talking about RP skins that you can purchase from the Riot store; I am referring to the hundreds of excellent custom made skins created by players like you and me. For these custom made skins, it will only be shown on your screen, not on other players. But hey who cares, the overall quality from these skins are A LOT BETTER than the ones Riot made, and most importantly, they are FREE. Skins are easy to install and cause no game-play problems.


Where can I get them? You can find tons of skins of all characters on Leaguecraft's website: http://leaguecraft.com/. This community features not only skins, but also player made guides/strategies, champion builds, forums, and tons of other cool stuff constantly updated for your daily LoL needs. Be sure to check it out!


Today I will be featuring the Starcraft Ghost Nova Ashe skin created by KradisZ, one of the famous player made skins out there for download. The Ghost Nova Ashe skin is well-made and make Riot's Ashe skins look like MS Paint kiddie drawings. Tired of your boring Ashe skin? Get this one for moar pewpewz! Heres a sample:

Video can be found here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gW7BJ1vr_aE


Original link + instructions for installation
http://leaguecraft.com/skins/2727-starcraft-ghost-nova-ashe-full-remodel-retexture-p.xhtml

Bros of Brolaf, bros

Supz Brosssss!


If there is one thing Riot is getting good at, it would be creating new skins that appeal to the community. Riot did an excellent job creating the Epic Winz Brolaf skin. Not only would this skin appeal to thousands of players out there that just want to be bros, Brolaf is a sure-fire cash magnet, netting $20 (or more!) from each sale.

Brolaf is an excellent follow-up to the just as crazy release of the Corporate Mundo skin. Riot does pay attention to the forums and know what the community wants. When the one word (spam) reply, "mundo", is commonly used in threads, Riot responded by releasing the legendary Corporate Mundo skin; now, when the term "bro" is used commonly, Riot releases Brolaf. Perhaps Trundle the troll is going to be released due to the increase amount of "trolls" on the forum? We can only guess whats next.

Riot trolls...with Trundle

The latest addition to the champion roster has already been announced: Trundle, the Cursed Troll. Aside from the fact that he is a troll and almost as ugly as Urgot, some LoL players have noticed that his name closely resemble the word grundle, which I would gladly not post its meaning on this blog. One thing we do know for sure is that, sadly, his chest will be flat :( Does this mean Riot will switch the trend of designing champions from horny female champs with F-cups to ugly, male humanoids? oh noes...

Trundle's abilities are listed here, thanks to a post from LoL EU council member.

Abilities List

• Rabid Bite: Trundle bites his opponent, dealing damage and sapping some of their attack damage.
• Contaminate: Trundle infects a target location with his curse, gaining attack speed, movement speed, and crowd control reduction while on it.
• Pillar of Filth: Trundle creates a plagued beacon at a target location, which becomes impassable terrain and slows all nearby enemy units.
• Agony (Ultimate): Trundle immediately steals his target’s health and a percentage of their armor and magic resistance. Over the next six seconds the amount of health, armor, and magic resistance stolen is doubled.
• Decompose (Passive): Whenever an enemy unit near Trundle dies, he heals for a percentage of their maximum health.

full-link here:
http://www.pcgamer.com/2010/11/24/exclusive-lol-champion-reveal-trundle-the-cursed-troll/

From what i have gathered, Trundle seems to be a self-empowerment/CC, AP but Melee focused champion. He has some skills that are brand new in design, which i think Riot is getting better at after exposing to some public dissent about the lack of creativity of LoL champions compared to DoTA. Without a doubt Trundle's difficulty rating will be at least medium, likely hard, and mastering him would take some time. I have also heard that currently he is a cool champion to play in PTR, but requires adjusting. we will have to wait 2-3 weeks to see what he is capable of. in the mean time, i have 7k+ IP ready in my piggy bank =)


In this regard, Riot seems to follow a new trend when designing champions. As we can see starting from Irelia, a new line of CC-reduction/Melee hybrids will be released. The reason for this new trend could be that Riot wants to give players the opportunity to counter the current metagame, which players identified to be teamfight, AOE, and tanky-based style. Although Irelia has not proven herself to be a great counter to this metagame, whether it be tank killing or raping in teamfights (fail in comparison to the release of Xin, who was nerfed), be certain that this is only a part of Riot's trial-and-error process. In other words, Irelia is just a prototype for many more to come.


The next patch also shows Riot's attempt to continuously adjust the game play. Without going into details, i can say that currently its not the time to pick up a jungler :)

Getting you connected

Whether you are a beginner, an experienced player, or simply a 1337 pro, you probably go on forums every now and then to see what is going on in the world of Runeterra. The forum is a lot like the newspaper- all the latest information released by Riot are available for you to catch up on., except it is followed by an endless amount of rant threads


So what is the purpose of this blog, you say, if the LoL forum provides more than enough information for the average player? Without a doubt, the usefulness of general forum is deteriorating from a friendly and loving place of discussion to (here it comes)- 4chan. There can only be so many threads about Garen, Elementz, and kama Toki before we all get sick and tired of it. Whether you want to filter out drama/trolling, or want to know whats going on in the forum, you can find out by reading this blog.


LoLinsider will:
1. present the latest patches, releases, and changes to LoL with the addition of my personal opinion.
2. help you catch up to the current trend, opinions (drama) of the forum
3. the latest scoop from other useful sites (mobafire, leaguecraft, etc.)
4. interesting things i found about LoL (videos, screenshots, etc.)
5. and...daily rant on nerfing Garen! (kidding)