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Comments
Personally I enjoy the gameplay of Smite more, but which game people prefer is a personal choice. I will say that Smite's pay model is significantly better than League's though, based purely on the existence of the 'buy all gods forever' option. (Though the skin unlocks are way better too)
Cascades of quicksilver light streak across the firmament as the celestial voice of Ourania intones, "Oh Jarrod..."
Yes, I tried it extensively.
I do have a dual-boot macbook pro, so I can of course just run it in either Windows or Wine - however I was really hoping to avoid both of those, as both of those come with various forms of ugliness.
And yes, the launcher completely fails to load - it doesn't even get to the splash screen. I am an experienced pc/mac tech and network admin, so do assume I tried all of the standard (and many non-standard) methods of troubleshooting and circumvention.
According to the forums, however, it's pretty cut and dry. If you have the newest version of IOS, and you want to run the mac version, you need to downgrade your IOS, because it flatly does not work on Yosemite (10.10).
Also, I'm running Yosemite (10.10), so it can't just be that it doesn't work on Yosemite. I did a clean install of 10.10, so that might have something to do with it, but I'd guess it's still just buggy and hardware/driver/whatever-dependent (this is an older 2011 MBP, so not the one most people are running Yosemite on and having it not work).
There isn't really anything to migrate though if you install it on your Windows partition and then install it on OSX later once it's fixed or out of beta.
I've only played a few games as him now, but Kassadin is growing on me.
lol@that essence reaver Blitzcrank tho.
yep.
Any suggestions for first few characters? The mechanics seem identical to Vainglory (which was based on LoL) so I think I'm good on the basics, but I'm totally clueless to runes and character selection.
Attack Damage Carry (usually bottom lane): Tristana
Ability Power Carry (usually middle lane): Veigar
Support (bottom lane with ADC): Taric
Jungle: Yi
Solo Top: Malphite
Is the achea LoL community short on anything (I'm guessing it's always in need of good support and jungle)?
My most natural role is jungler, but I'm also pretty good with support and mid (APC) roles.
I'm going through character build videos on youtube while my LoL downloads, but I'll probably go through my first few games (against bots) playing support as Taric, then get comfy with ADC, then jump to APC/jungle when I know enough about the (zillions of) characters enough to counter them properly.
Ashe and Sivir are the most basic ADCs around, Annie is generally the simplest AP.
Yeah the change in keybinds/perspective is the biggest hurdle to trying SMITE from playing LoL. Getting used to 'aiming' up/down for ground-target skills is a bit awkward at first as well. My favorite thing about SMITE is that the perspective makes better plays 'feel' more epic, imo. I was running from Thor in one game, extremely low on health, and I heard him should some general "RAH!" or something behind me. Not really knowing all his abilities, I juke to the left, and a bigass hammer flies through where I was that would have killed me. Felt great.
Cascades of quicksilver light streak across the firmament as the celestial voice of Ourania intones, "Oh Jarrod..."
ha, sound-whoring in a MOBA - that's awesome. Can you control camera angle in Smite?
As for Ashe/Annie, I recommend them specifically because their skills are conducive to building positive habits. Ashe's E ability and Annie's Q both provide benefits for last-hitting minions (which you want to do anyways) as well as pretty simple to use skillsets.
Cascades of quicksilver light streak across the firmament as the celestial voice of Ourania intones, "Oh Jarrod..."
Oh there's a vertical axis as well, such that people can fly? That's... pretty damn cool. (talking about Smite)
(and now, talking about LoL again)
I was recommended to try annie by someone else, so I will tinker with her, but I'm not a stranger to CS or laning in general, so I'll probably try someone with a bit more ranged PVP. Any good tips on a ADC or APC that has some solid mobility and/or range?
For the more complex ADCs, Vayne is very technical and strong if played well, Jinx is pretty technical as well with her weapon swapping, but it's as strong unless you get fed. Right now Graves is a very strong ADC, Tristana is pretty strong (and highest range above level 12 due to passive), and Lucian and Corki are both good with a much higher focus on ability usage.
On the APC front, I'm not as well versed, but in terms of typical mid laners: Zed (one of the most technical champs at high skill), Orianna (very team fight oriented and good area control), Syndra (exceptional burst and good initiation), Xerath (longest range caster) are all strong, Leblanc is really good with practice and you can do great things if you can get ahead in lane.
Cascades of quicksilver light streak across the firmament as the celestial voice of Ourania intones, "Oh Jarrod..."
So the flying feature is more like highleap (a stationary and temporary status effect), than an actual 3 dimensional field of free movement?
That would of course be just fine, and make more sense, but the concept of a free-range arial character in a MOBA made my brain melt a little bit.
Thanks for the tips, I am going to avoid Vayne and Graves, since it seems like they are dramatically overplayed (I prefer to avoid characters/classes like this - although I'm not entirely sure which ones are the worst culprits yet). I am going to try to get into Syndra, Leblanc, and maybe Zed (later), though. I'm fine (and actually prefer) lots of ability usage, so I might also take your recommendation for Lucian and Corki.
I'm going to sit down and go through all of them as well, which is a pretty daunting task. I think my favorite thing about League of Legends so far might actually be it's freakishly large roster.
Cascades of quicksilver light streak across the firmament as the celestial voice of Ourania intones, "Oh Jarrod..."
My first game, haha - I think it's time to move up bit. (some bastard used the name "Ernam")
Lux is a lot of fun (that snipe ability is sexy as hell), but I am still totally lost as to how to upgrade/build items. I ended up selling like everything I had just to buy better things, which is probably not how things are supposed to go down.
Top (AD): Jayce, Zed
Top (Tank): Maokai, Mundo
Jungle: J4, Kha'zix, Nocturne, Udyr
Mid (AP): Ryze, Ziggs, Nidalee (Not as strong as AP anymore, but easy)
Mid (AD): Jayce, Zed, Ezreal
AD Botlane: Corki, Ezreal, Jinx
Support: Nami, Sona
@Ernam: Leblanc is possible to learn since there's only so much complexity involved (I actually learned mid while playing Leblanc), but very unforgiving of mistakes. Syndra and Zed are universally considered two of the hardest (if not the two hardest) champions in the game to play. I'm not sure why anyone is suggesting Zed to you.
Most people find top to be the easiest role to start in and now that there's team builder, there's no real reason not to go with that. In fact, I'd suggest sticking to just one or two champions for a while and becoming actually good with them (also easier to do now with team builder), though you should play everything that's free each week that you haven't played before at least once to know what they do.
For top, Garen is a common beginner pick (and for very good reason). Shyvana is also relatively friendly. In general, you shouldn't be looking to play top-tier meta champions yet - worry about learning some simpler champions first so you can focus on learning universal mechanics like last-hitting, peeling, teamfighting, pushing, and ganking. Ryze top is harder to play due to the way his cooldowns interact, but a lot of people think learning him is worthwhile for teaching you precise ability management on other champions.
Jungle is probably the least beginner-friendly role in that you have to keep track of the most things and it involves the most unique mechanics. On the other hand, you aren't against someone 1 on 1 (or 2 on 2 for bottom) almost the entire game like the other roles. But that's a double-edged sword too - new junglers are usually hesitant to gank, and if you don't gank early and often as the jungler, you're not really helping your team. Reading the game and figuring out when you can safely gank is also hard when you're new and don't know all the enemy champions yet. And you won't learn them as easily as you would just laning against them and getting a chance to see all of their abilities. Kha'zix is harder to play in the current iteration of the jungle, but his actual gameplay in fights and his usual build are relatively straightforward once you understand how to use his leap correctly (R into fights, leap OUT of fights until you have the evolution that resets leap on kills).
If you want to play ADC, Ashe is definitely the place to start. Her kit isn't overly simple, but the slows really help with kiting when you're not good at stutter-stepping yet (if you immediately move after an attack hits, it will cancel the backswing animation, so you can start moving sooner), her mana management isn't trivial, but is pretty forgiving and can teach you a fair amount, and her ult is a nice way to learn how to make use of some of the game's longer skillshots. Tristana is not beginner friendly. Neither are most of the other suggestions people have given. I learned ADC on Vayne, but she's so squishy even by ADC standards that I wouldn't recommend doing the same.
If you want to play support, you'd probably be fine with any of them other than Thresh or Lulu, who are significantly more complicated than the others. Leona (a CC tank champion) is a great pick, very strong, and very forgiving. She can also be played top, though I think generally less successfully.
For mid, Annie is a good beginner choice. There are a few other decent choices, but most of those mentioned thus far are not very beginner-friendly at all.
mobafire.com and probuilds.net are probably the two best resources, aside from youtube (which can be hit or miss for champion guides, but is great for general guides). Probuilds tracks build choices of professional players in actual games, so it's nice in that professional players are usually very calculating about economising on their builds, but you have to take it with a grain of salt since some of their decisions rely on the fact that these people are much better players than you probably ever will be.
In general, pick easy champions, learn to play them well, and focus on more general skills - learn to last-hit extremely reliably, learn to harass while last-hitting, learn how to play against various champions, learn when to push and when to back off, learn to ward, learn when to try to take dragon or baron or a tower, learn how to work with a jungler to secure a gank, learn how to counterbuild, learn how to watch your minimap (which is connected to move of the above - and it's easier to find time to look at it when you're familiar with a champ).
Simpler ADC's would be Ashe as mentioned, Caitlyn and Sivir also aren't too punishingly complex.
Support most often pairs up with ADC. Thresh, Blitzcrank, Taric, Sona, Zyra, and Leona are nice choices, Annie will also work here, although is more commonly played mid nowadays, but can serve as a double up to save learning another champ starting out.
Jungle is painful.
Edit: forgot Zyra.
This week's new player friendly would be Blitzcrank, Ezreal, Rammus(ok), Thresh, and Veigar.
Sejuani, Mao'kai, Vayne, and Zed round out the list.
Even if, like me, you turn out to be terrible at them, you learn a little about what to run the heck away from when you come up against them another day.
I'd say the most straightforward ADCs are Graves, Tristana, Ashe, and Caitlyn.
Graves (4800 IP) is very straightforward: Q and R are AOE damage spells with AD scaling, E is a dash and gives you an attack speed buff. Biggest drawback is his cost.
Tristana (1350 IP) gains attack range per level and has a very strong attack speed buff making her a great late-game ADC. Plus she has a jump (W) and a strong knockback (R) to maintain distance against melee champions. The most micro you have to worry about is how Explosive Shot (E) will affect your last-hitting; she's mostly about right clicking.
Ashe (450 IP) is more of a utility-based ADC. She doesn't have any buff skills that give her free stats to multiply the power of her items, but she has the second-longest base attack range, her basic attacks deal a 2s slow (Q), and her ult has a lengthy stun that's great for initiating fights, unless you miss the skillshot like a chump. Because she can permaslow, the trick to playing Ashe well is kiting your target, which requires you to right click to move back and forth in between every autoattack. Simple to learn, hard to master. This technique carries over to other ADCs, but it's harder for them without Ashe's permaslow.
Caitlyn (4800 IP) has the longest range of any ADC. If you've mastered the technique of moving between attacks, Caitlyn is the best at exploiting it, because her superior range means she can sneak in attacks against other, outranged ADCs without reprisal. The rest of her kit is fairly straightforward: Q is a line skillshot that deals damage, E is a backwards dash, R snipes a target, and her passive gives you a free semi-crit every few attacks, after you stack it up.
For other roles...
Jungling is hard at lower levels, because runes and masteries are very important to jungle effectively, and you don't all of them available. I'd say a good introductory jungler is Warwick (450 IP): great sustain, versatile build options, straightforward abilities. You farm until you have your ult, then go kill someone with it. Nunu (450 IP) is another strong, cheap jungler, but I think he can be deceptively hard to play, as his strengths revolve around taking objectives: running into the enemy jungle to steal camps with Consume, eating dragon and baron with Consume, buffing your allies with Blood Boil to take towers.
Supporting may also be hard at early levels, because either people are new to the game and don't know what they're doing (and can't be supported), or people are asshole smurfs and will rage at you no matter what you're doing (and shouldn't be supported). Two good intro supports are Sona (3150 IP) and Taric (1350 IP). Sona is versatile, with a damage spell (Q) you can use to harass, or her heal (W) to play more defensively. Her biggest problem will probably be managing your mana. Taric is a sensual yet manly man and the biggest decision you'll face is who to stun and when to stun them, which teaches you to analyse fights, consider your opponents' capabilities and interrupt their opportunities, and think about how to use crowd control abilities to 'peel' aggressive opponents off your most valuable allies.
Top lane is variable at lower levels and is often played as a duo lane, since nobody will be jungling. Closer to level 30 it solidifies into the solo lane. You sit up there alone, farm, try to win fights, try not to die and be bullied out of lane, maybe teleport around the map to make plays, occasionally one of the junglers or maybe the mid laner will gank, and eventually you join teamfights and leverage your advantage into some kills and a victory. Top lane is versatile and people will often play all types of champions: often a bruiser/tank like Dr Mundo (1350 IP) or Shen (3150 IP), but also fighters like Tryndamere (1350 IP) and Jax (3150IP), assassins like Akali (3150 IP), mages like Gragas (3150 IP) and Ryze (450 IP), assholes like Teemo (1350 IP), or whoever else they can make work. I'd suggest trying out all free week champions and just see who you enjoy.
I was particularly good at jungling in other MOBA's, and I'm already more or less familiar with all of the concepts (although mastering the game-specific details and the sheer number of characters is definitely quite a task).
So far my biggest problem is that nobody seems to be respecting the meta (I have random jackasses running around farming my lane, and have yet to see a single person play either jungle or support using the queue - which is one more reason to jungle.)