Try something new with some League of Legends

[Kalisekhmet]

So, as some of you may have noticed (or perhaps not) I was awol for about a month for reasons that we will list as "insufficient gold farming." During this time away I was searching high and low for different things to amuse me. I inevitable turned to the now growing market for free to play games. I found a few that were interesting, many that were just downright awful, but I found two that I enjoyed immensely. I want to talk to you today about one of those game.

League of Legends.

If you don't know what LoL is, it is a free to play game (there are many arguments whether or not it is actually an MMO so we'll just call it a game) based off of the DotA mechanic. Now if you don't know what DotA is, it's a mod from Warcraft 3 call Defense of the Ancients where instead of controlling a bunch of units and attack an enemy base you control one hero and work with other players to destroy the enemy base. I know that is a very basic way of looking at it but truth be told I've never played it (mostly because I've never played Warcraft 3, please don't stone me).

In LoL you are a summoner. At the beginning of a match you choose a legend that you will summon into the game. At the start of the match your legend is a level 1 character that you will level up to a cap of 18 as you progress through the match. There are three lanes on a basic map and the idea is to progress up one or more of the lanes to your opposing teams Nexus and destroy it before the opposing team destroys yours. Each lane has defense towers you will have to destroy along the way and a suppressor at the end you have to destroy to allow for super minions. Oh, did I mention that your base and the opposing teams base will summon npc minions as well to fight along side you? Well they do. Killing minions is where you get the majority of your xp for leveling and gold for buying items that strengthen your legend.

Now before I go crazy in explaining the game (like I haven't already) it may just be easier to link some videos below. Basically what I'm doing here is looking for some people to play with. Basic games are 5v5 so I'm looking for at least four other people that might wanna play. Some of you might already play. If so then rock on and lets get some LoL on. I would like to have it where we may be able to get together maybe once or twice a week for an hour or two to play through a few matches. Probably against bots to start because I for one am new to the game and don't wanna get stomped by a team of level 30 summoners (oh yeah, the persistent level gain in the game is for you the summoner, leveling up allows for talent trees and runes and... well just watch the vids). I've had a lot of fun so far playing and I think it could be fun for some of us to get together and try something other than wow. Many have been getting a little tired of it. Some have even taken "vacations" from wow. I don't see a reason why our wow friends have to be only that and playing other things together is a great way to strengthen some of the bonds we've made with each other. Some of you may say "Well, we'll all see each other in ToR when that comes out and have a grand old time together." To that I say "POPPYCOCK!" You all wanna play stormtroopers and jedis and I just can't stomach that republic nonsense. Once you've learned to embrace the power of the Dark Side you understand what true power really is.

Now that I've written you all a book, check out the links below. Let me know what you guys think by either leaving a post on this thread or by sending a letter or tell to Sarathein. Once I get and idea of who is interested in playing and what peoples schedules are like I'll try to put together a night and time we can play.

Rock on.

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So after some trial and error I discovered that a thread can only have one video. Here is a video by wowcrendor that is a sort of beginner's guide t oLoL. It's broken into 2 parts so you can follow his link to part 2 if part 1 wasn't enough awsome for you. I'm a big fan of wowcrendor and encourage you to also take some time to watch some of his machinima. They are great. Especially the go guy video. Plus if you watch it I will sound funnier to you as well since I like to reference his machinima from time to time. Enough about me, watch the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBBQsdKzw...ideo_title

PS
If you are wondering what the other F2P game I fell in love with, it's World of Tanks. It's exactly what it sounds like. World of Awesome.

PPS
For more advanced gameplay you can check out TotalHalibut's videos on LoL. More good stuff you shuld all be watching.

[Donalzon]

I'm game. Is it available through steam?

[Kalisekhmet]

It's not available through steam, unfortunately. You can sign up and download it at the link here:

http://www.leagueoflegends.com/

[Noodlemortis]

I downloaded it... seems kind of interesting but don't know if it'll hold my attention.

[Kalisekhmet]

So, update...

So far myself, Don, Noodle, Eru and Saph have enjoyed a little bit of LoL. We've had some 5v5 against bots, some 3v3. Don and I explored the world of pvp (with varying levels of success). So far it has been a lot of fun, at least from my perspective. There still isn't a set day or time yet. I'm still hoping a few more people might be interested in joining us. The matches are limited to 5 on a team but that doesn't mean we can't have multiple matches or, even better, fight each other.

For people who are still curious as to what it is, both TotalHalibut and wowcrendor have been doing LoL casting on their channels so there is plenty of video content out there for people to check out. Riot games has their own YouTube channel as well so you can check that out to see legend profiles and some of the hijinks from the LoL community.

For people who are interested in the theory side (Torine) or maybe the mechanics of the different characters (still looking at you ,Torine), Noodle found a great site to check out. Think of it as EJ for LoL.

http://www.mobafire.com/

Hope to see more of you join us. Remember it's free to play so a total risk free and guilt free download for all.

[Kalisekhmet]

Update #2

So, we've had a little more time with the game. Don doesn't even bother with bots anymore. He's all like "Bots are for wips. PvP is where it's at." Sooo... now I'm playing pvp and (no surprise) I die a lot. Mostly because I don't listen when told not to stand in the fire. It is still a LOT of fun. Just like in WoW, though, pugs can be, well, frustrating.

A nice feature of the game is that they change out the group of featured legends every week. It's nice to be able to try out new characters and it keeps the matches fresh since most people at this level just play with the freebies. Don has "found his main" three times now (though, I think he's finally settled). I think Noodle is still playing the field. He's always using someone different. I've played a bunch and found a few I liked but I'm still looking for one that I don't die so often with.

In my researching about LoL I have come across another DotA style game. It's called Heroes of Newerth. I haven't played it myself. The game is free to play like LoL but you have to pay ten bucks to create an account and I didn't feel like splurging. Has anyone here ever played it? They seem to be very similar in a lot of aspects. They both just released their own versions of a "monkey king" character at about the same time (an apparently obligatory reference to Journey to the West). If you've played it let me now what you though of it in a post.

This seems to be a successful experiment so far. Those of us playing are having a lot of fun. Some of us are even considering spending real money on the game just to show our support. I would really like to see more give it a shot. My internet availability will be unpredictable for the next week or so so I won't be online in either WoW or LoL much but you can always hit up Don or Noodle if you can't find me. My summoner name is akaLightwieght, send all game and friend requests that way. You already know everyone else's names.

[Donalzon]

I only switched once and I still like the other one. They are similar heroes. Another thing that is nice is that you can purchase most content like heroes and upgrades using an in-game currency that you accrue over matches. The only thing you need real money for is aesthetic items like character skins.

If you play with me I promise we will mostly dominate like 50% of the time! Same character name, Donalzon.