Controlling the Serpent - Playing Cassiopeia Effectively.

A lot of players tell me that I am the first "good" Cassiopeia they have saw. Well... Thank you! (I guess?) I have good games and bad games with her just like any other champion, but I have NEVER seen another Cassiopeia while playing so either I am doing something really different or no one else wants to take the time to figure out how to play her. So I figured I would write down, not really a step by step guide for her but just, the way I play her and the reasons why I buy / do certain things with her.While I will describe my runes / masteries and a semi specific build order the most important parts of this to take home are the strategies for playing as her, and how to properly utilize her Ultimate during a game.

First - Know where you are laning.

Before the Champion load screen comes up, KNOW exactly which lane you are going to be in. Solo Mid, Top Duo, Top Solo or Bot Duo. This will determine both your second summoner spell as well as your starting items. You should ask for Solo Mid because Cassiopeia excels at early game harassing, however if there is another champion that will do better at solo mid (Annie for instance is an almost guaranteed kill at level 6) by all means let them have it. (Also, until you are really comfortable with Cassiopeia I would recommend going Duo/Bottom, you wont get as good of a farm early but you probably wont feed the enemy carry either. Do not lane with a pusher under any circumstances, Sivir/Mordekaiser will not like it when you take all the last hits because of your DoT spells, plus you push a lane pretty hard so the two of you will be constantly over extending and inviting ganks)

-=SOLO MID/SOLO TOP=-

Take Ghost and Teleport.
Teleport is so you can B, shop/regen and then return to your lane without letting the enemy wail on your tower, Ghost will get your into or out of fights. Ghost helps you land Q's on fleeing enemies while getting you in range for E.

Starting Item(s) - Meki Pendant + 2 Health Pots - The increased regen and health pots will let you harass and stay in the lane longer

-=TOP DUO/BOT DUO=-

Take Ghost and Clarity

Clarity will let you stay in the lane and let you farm far more effectively. Cassiopeia requires a good bit of money to be effective mid/late game so you need a GREAT early game.

Starting Item(s) - Because you are with a friend you can buy a Doran's Ring instead. Just be a little more judicious with your Q spamming early on.


If you're team does not have a jungler you can farm both the Wraith Camp and the Wolf Camp alternately in between waves if you go solo mid. Start with W, then use a Q in the middle of them, one Twin Fang[E] to the biggest enemy and they all normally die quickly and together. Anytime after level 4 you can safely kill either camp. This is good for you because you push the minion wave fairly well so instead of overextending in your lane just fall back and farm a creep camp. The enemy carry will be constantly calling MIA on you and when you are ready to go gank top/bottom they might be slow about it / the other lanes might ignore it.

If you're team does have a jungler do not extend past the middle of the river unless you are going for a kill. Cassiopeia is one squishy champion and while she can be devastating 1on1 you will normally die in a well executed gank. Let the jungler have AT LEAST two runs through the jungle then, provided they did not die, tell them you want to start farming the wraith camp. Most junglers wont care after they have 2 runs through the jungle, some will. If they do let them have another run or two then by all means start farming wraith/wolf. By this time the jungler should be ganking and getting dragon anyway so they wont miss the exp/gold from those two camps to much.

---------------Runes and Masteries for Cassiopeia --------

My Mastery page looks like this;

In this image I have taken the extra point in Teleport and Ghost, if you are going to use Clarity take the extra point there instead.

Going 9/0/21 Focusing on the extra Magic Penetration and regeneration.

Runes I use a VERY basic setup.

I like this as it gives me more of a bang early on. Focusing on the regeneration masteries allows me to ignore regen here and focus on the two things Cassiopeia needs, Ability Power and Magic Penetration. All total you get 14 magic pen and 14 flat AP to start the game with, giving you a great amount of harassment potential.

--------Skill Order for Cassiopeia--------------

There are two distinct ways to skill up for Cassiopeia, and it comes back to what lane you are in and who you are against for which path you will follow.

Solo Mid or Solo Top(vs1) / Duo against non pushers

In general you want to take [Q] first, then start maxing out [Q] and [E] as quickly as possible, focusing on [E] over [Q]. There are some games where I wont take W until level 11 or 12 because I want to focus on damage first and CC second. *As noted above, if you have no jungler feel free to take W early so that you can free farm the wraith/wolf camps, otherwise ignore W and focus on E then Q.

Solo Top(vs2) / Lane with pushers

Do [Q]-[E]-[W] then proceed to max [E] then [Q]. The basic distinction is you take W to help hold the minions. If you are Solo Top against 2 then you will be pushed to you're turret. If they push VERY hard go ahead and take [Q] then [W] so that you can AoE farm the minions and not get pressed to hard. Likewise if  there is a strong pusher in you're lane like Mordekaiser or Sivir you want that extra minion damage to help keep the pressure off. In the time it takes for you to get level 2 try and make a decision about the enemy champion. If you *KNOW* you can kill them go ahead and take [Q] - [E] - [E] and get a kill. Otherwise play safe, play smart and take [W] a little earlier, just do not waste points in it.

Just remember, W early means you intend to push/farm. Only take it for those two purposes, otherwise ignore it until later on.

-------------- Building as Cassiopeia -----------------

My main theory when buying items for Cassiopeia is to focus three different things in this order,  AP first, Survivability Second and Mag Pen Third.. Because of this mindset my typical build looks something like this,

Meki Pendant + 2 Health Pots
Meki into Tear (on a very rare occasion I will turn it into a Chalice, normally if I am solo vs another mage and they are out playing me, otherwise I go tear to build my mana pool up for a later arch angel)

Boots 1 into  Sorc Boots

From here most people will build Rylai's. And while I consider this a good item for Cassiopeia, I also think there are some better alternatives. The main reason people get Rylai's is for the slow (and to a lesser degree the extra health), however once you have mastered landing [Q] you gain a permanent movement speed buff. Instead I like to focus on higher AP items boosting my damage output.After all the enemy can't run or kill you if you make them dead first ;)

Buy 2 blasting wands. ( If I had a great lane phase I sometimes buy the 1600g Large Rod first, then turn that into Death Cap, most games however I end up porting back because of team fights or gank attempts by the enemy so I buy 2 blasting wands)

The Rod is 1600 gold for 80AP
Two Blasting Wands are 1680 gold for 80AP
The biggest difference is having extra AP during the game while you are waiting to buy/build the Death Cap. You will end up with an extra 12 AP once you finish the Cap because of the bonus 30% the Cap gives. This is my personal theory but, if you are at spawn and can afford something for your build then buy it... This will only increase your chances of living or getting a kill your "next time out". Either way though, your focus should be on building a cap for a first item.

Turn the first one into a Rabbadon's Death Cap

At this point it should be nearing the end of mid game so build a defensive item that counters the enemy team and compliments you're build.

Frozen Heart / Banshee's Veil are both great choices (FH against AD heavy teams, BV against AP heavy teams)

And finally turn the tear into an archangels staff. You should be *near* 400 AP at this point and able to deal out amazing amounts of damage.

With the final two slots I like to buy wards and something to cut into the enemies Mag Res. Abyssal Scepter / Void Staff are both great choices. (Just remember to look at the enemy team setup BEFORE you decide, look at what type of damage they deal, the CC they have, and what items they bought. There have been games where I bought a QSS as my last item because of a CC heavy enemy team that failed to get mag res items.)

And remember, Elixers are your friends! Even if all 6 of your slots are filled you can still buy an elixer or oracles!

------------- Playing As Cassiopeia -----------

First things first. Learn the range on your Q. If you hover over the Q spell while in game you will see the range marker. I "believe" it is roughly the same distance as Karthus's Lay Waste spell.
League of Legends Wikia indicates that it is 850 units. This is farther than most ranged carries can attack so feel free to harass any enemy champion in your lane.

The range of Cassiopeia's Noxious Blast [Q] spell is fairly large, use it to your advantage!

Early game focus on harassing the enemy champion when they come within range of the minion's. Ideally you want to cast your Q spell so that it will hit the enemy champion and one or two minions. Once you have the enemy champion zoned keep them there is easy, simply focus on last hitting minions and casting Q at the enemy.


Cassiopeia has some of the highest sustained DPS of any caster in the game. However, it all comes down to being able to land her Q consistently throughout a fight. If you miss a single Q your output drops over 75% because Twin Fang goes back on full cool down.

Using her Passive to it's utmost requires you to basically spam, two of your spells are AoE so you ARE going to be pushing a wave of minions pretty hard and pretty constantly. While this is great for keeping pressure on the enemy champions just remember not to over extend and get caught in a gank.(As solo mid, fall back and farm wraiths/wolves in between waves if you fear a gank, just make sure it is ok with the jungler on your team)

Cassiopeia 's Q grants you a movement speed bonus if you land it, learning how to land it is crucial to early game kills. Spend a few minutes in a practice game getting the timing down between casting it and it going off. Generally speaking you need to cast it where the enemy champion will be 1 second from now. And unlike Karth's Q there is no damage reduction for hitting multiple enemies. Any enemy caught in the blast will take the full damage.

The main source of Cassiopeia 's damage comes from her Q and E combo. Landing a Q will give you a speed bonus, and reduce the cool down of your E to .5 seconds. Generally speaking you can get 2 Twin Fang spells cast for each Q you land. (Actually it's three, but aside from jungle creeps I never get a chance to cast the third against a champion. So fighting a champion Cast Q, E, E then repeat. Fighting jungle mobs like Dragon or blue lizard do, Q, E, E, E then repeat.)

You have two distinct types of spells. Q/E are for damage while W and R are for Crowd Control. W has very little damage even late game with 6 advanced items. It does however slow down any enemies that move through it. So try and setup combinations where you lead off with Q, get your movement bonus, throw a W where you believe the enemy will go and then start blasting them with the Q/E combination. You can think about the W like you would singed's pool of glue, on it's own it is useless but when combined with poison and twin fang it can help you get kills.

Your Ult is not the most OP thing in the game. I know the first time I read it's description I thought to myself "OMG I AM GOING TO RUSH OUT AND STUN ALL 5 OF THEM MWUAHAHAHA" Try it. Die a few times and then start looking for it's real uses. Saving yourself or a friendly. Stunning the enemy team's tank when they go for your carry. Stunning the enemy teams Carry? (Harder but doable) SLOW! Yep that's right. Instead of looking at the ULT like a giant "IMA STUN JOO ALL!!" think about it like an AoE slow... You can slow the entire enemy team! So remember, your ULT is basically a form of CC that does some damage, while your Q/E combo is where the money's at.

You can aim Cassiopeia's ULT just remember you only stun enemies looking AT you.

----------Ganking Top/Bottom as Cassiopeia -------

If you end up going Solo Mid one of your jobs will be ganking top or bottom lane. Be sure your ULT is ready before you leave. Like any gank try and come out from the bushes in the river BEHIND the enemy champions*. This will force them to run past you or run into your team mates, meaning it should be very easy to land your ULT stunning them. If another champion in that lane has a stun you should be able to pickup a double kill easily. Just remember to use your Q/E combo and LAND THOSE Q's!

*(you can take a turret hit so you might even want to try coming out from in front of the turret, this will force the enemy into your team mates or down the river, having a jungler in the bushes can be a great 3 way pincer attack but requires some coordination)

Landing a last minute Q under the enemy turret gives you a movement boost and lets you get out of turret range quickly. Typically they get away with just a sliver of health and die to a well placed final Q. If you cannot Twin Fang them for the kill, normally your Q will take care of them.

--------------- Team Fighting as Cassiopeia ------

You should never. I mean. NEVER. Go in first. EVER. EVER, EVER? EVER! EVER! While you posses the arguably highest sustained DPS in the game, you are also one of the squishiest champions in the game. Respect your frail nature and let someone with health and armor go in first.

Use your Q spell from afar and keep harassing the enemy team. Wait for ANYONE on your team to initiate then move in a bit. You want to keep at least one team mate between you and the enemy team at all times if you can. Granted this may be hard as you are harassing with Q but just make sure you are not completely alone.

One of my first lessons with Cassiopeia was expecting my ULT to stun an entire team. It never happens. Oh sure there are occasions where you can nail a whole team hiding in a bush, but for 99% of the team fights you will use it to stop one or maybe two enemy champions.

The best way to use it is to wait for the enemy team to "fall" together. During a team fight it is fairly common for the enemy team to focus which ever team mate extends just a little to far. When they "fall" in on that poor guy rush forward and ULT them. Quickly cast your Q/E combo on the enemy carry then back up. Do not stay around. You are squishy and unless you are VERY fed you will die. Instead burst the enemy carry, back up and then start harassing again with Q and W. Remember, W slows it is hardly ever going to kill someone. Q and E kill, W and R are for CC.

In some games there comes a time where your team knows the enemy team is hiding in a specific bush, waiting for an opportune moment and blindly casting your ULT into the bush can some times be highly rewarding.  While I try and save her ULT for specific targets or saving an ally, it can also be rewarding when you catch an entire team hiding in a bush all on top of each other.

-------------Final Thoughts about Cassiopeia -------

Cassiopeia is one of the most under rated champions in the game. However, she is also the single hardest champion to learn to play properly. Where Corki could be considered a high skilled champion, Cassiopeia is miles higher on a "Skill Required to Play" chart. Insane amounts of sustained DPS but it all hinges on your ability to consistently land her Q spell.

Corki - An in-depth look and guide to the daring bombardier.

As League of Legends is probably the only serious game I have been playing recently I wanted to take a little time and really go in-depth with a champion that does not see play time all that often, Corki. Whenever a thread pops up on the League of Legends forum asking about which champion gets played the least poor Corki always makes the first page. I asked myself "Why is this?" Corki has one of the best basic skills in the game with his Q, a pretty decent escape with his W, a really useful E and an ult that can be cast once a second with a range equalling Kog'Maw. Why oh why is this champion so in-frequently played?

Lets start by taking a real close look at all of Corki's skills, their uses, pitfalls and basic numbers.

*The following information has been pulled from http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/

Hextech Shrapnel Shells	(Innate): Corki's basic attacks deal 10% additional true damage to minions, monsters, and champions.
Ability	Description	Levelling up
Phosphorus Bomb	(Active): Corki fires a bomb at a target location. In addition to dealing damage, the blast reduces an enemy's chance to hit by 35% and reveals nearby stealthed units for 3 seconds. Cooldown: 8 seconds. Range: 600	Cost: 90 / 100 / 110 / 120 / 130 mana. Damage: 80 / 130 / 180 / 230 / 280 (+0.5 per ability power)
Valkyrie	(Active): Corki surges to target location, dropping bombs that create a trail of fiery destruction for opponents who remain in it's fire. Range: 700 Cost: 100 mana.	Damage: 60 / 90 / 120 / 150 / 180 (+0.4 per ability power) Cooldown: 20 / 18 / 16 / 14 / 12 seconds.
Gatling Gun	(Active): Corki's gatling gun fires multiple shots every half second for a short period of time, dealing a quarter of his attack damage and shredding the armor of enemies who are under continuous fire. Cooldown: 16 seconds. Range: 600	Cost: 60 / 75 / 90 / 105 / 120 mana. Duration: 3 / 3.5 / 4 / 4.5 / 5 seconds. Armor Reduction: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5
Missile Barrage	(Active): Corki fires a missile towards his target location that will collide with the first enemy it hits, also dealing damage to units around the target. Corki stores one missile every 10 seconds up to 7 missiles total. Every 4th missile will be a Big One, dealing double damage with 100% splash damage. Cooldown: 1.2 seconds. Range: 1200	Cost: 25 / 30 / 35 mana per missile. Damage: 125 / 200 / 275 (0.3 per ability power)

Right off the word go Corki has one of the best passives for a ranged carry in the game. A bonus 10% damage from his basic attack, that is true damage (meaning it does not get effected by armor). So if your basic attack deals 100 damage your going to deal 10 points on top of what gets through the armor.

Next his phosphorus bomb, in addition to dealing AoE damage, lowers the chance to hit for any enemies caught in it while revealing nearby stealthed units. This allows Corki to be a bit more aggressive in 1on1 situations against another physical carry. You can also use the ability to check bushes from a relatively safe distance as it will show any enemies hiding in them.

Corki has a great escape skill in the form of his Valkyrie. While the DoT is not that great it allows you to go through walls and put a little more distance between you and the enemy. The only downfall of this skill is the long cool down it has. Learning when and where to use this skill is one of the things that separate a bad Corki and a good one.

His Gattling Gun will make armored enemies rage. While it is arguably one of the hardest skills in the game to learn to use properly it has the potential to decimate an entire teams armor in one go. The skill involved with this is to learn to aim it. It has no targetting system, you simply activate it and it fires in front of you, where you are pointed it is firiring. Learning to use it effectively is one of the first things anyone wishing to play Corki needs to do. I recommend a couple practice games just to get the hang of it. One bonus to this skill though, you are able to use any of your other three skills while this one is active. So entering a team fight with your Gattling Gun on, then firing a phosphorous bomb and unloading your missiles will quickly decimate the enemy team.

Lastly, Corki has one of the more unique ultimates in the game. A long ranged skill shot that has a one second cool down. Does mediocre damage with every 4th one dealing double damage. With such a short cool down and the ability to store up to 7 missles at a time a good Corki can really harass the enemy team and force them to recall to heal without ever placing himself in danger. Another advantage is you do not loose your stored missles when you die, and can prime the larger shot before a team fight by quickly farming in the jungle or just firing off random shots.

---

Corki is all about the item build

Building a good Corki usaually means going pure Attack Damage items, Infinity Edge, Last Whisper, Youmuu's Rage Blade. Many players will scoff at the rage blade as it is normally used for attack speed based champions like Xin Zhao or Master Yi, however the built in move speed buff helps Corki get out of tight situations while the increased armor penetration synergizes with his E well.

Other standard items on my build are a meki pendant for a starting item and ninja tabi or merc treads depending on the enemy team. Corki suffers from low mana regen and even with 9/0/21 masteries never has enough mana unless he grabs the lizard buff. A Meki Pendant will allow him to remain in the lane longer and allows you to build a Nashors Tooth end game for increased cool down reduction, increased mana regen and just a touch of AP to help boost your end game missiles.

Other good choices for Corki include some type of defense item, Banshee's Veil is a normal choice but I like to build a Guardian Angel. Reason being by the time I get the IE, the Last Whisper and some boots the enemy team is normally targetting me first during team fights. GA gives me a little bit of flexibility to enter the battle faster, get targeted down, rez and reapply the Gattling Gun.

While most of the pro players would call this a noobs way of thinking, it works for me. The enemy team has a tough choice, focus me down and allow the rest of my team to unload on them or ignore me and let me punish their team. Even if they focus me down, I will rez on the spot and continue to rip threw their armor, lower their chance to hit and deal good damage with my basic attacks.

---

Some things I have learned while playing Corki

I have been playing Corki more or less exclusively lately and have come to learn a thing or two about him. First he really should try and go mid if possible. Corki needs expensive items, as such he needs the extra gold from going solo mid. Focus on last hitting as a priority, your skills consume a great deal of mana so only lightly harass the enemy mid. Get your Q leveled up first, your E second and your W third, leveling your ult whenever possible.

Your W is not to be used to iniate or during a team fight. Use it to escape only. On the rare occasion you find yourself in a 1on1 use it if you think you can kill the enemy and get away. If there is an enemy jungler, I would advise against it. You are probably the squishiest champion on your team and need the mobility it offers. Since you only use it to escape you can hold off on leveling it and lowering the cool down. Focus on your damage skills first. 

You are not a ganker. You are a nuke/harass. Make sure your team understands this. Many times my soloQ team mates will get upset with me for not ganking top or bottom lane. Unless the opposing mid is dead you should be focusing on gaining gold and leveling up. Harass the enemy, push lanes, nuke during team fights. 

Never enter a team fight without your large missile being loaded. The 4th missile deals a good amount of AoE damage, have it ready when ever you think a team fight is going to break out. Lead off with it, start your Gatling Gun then start spamming more rockets. Typically you will get a second large missile loaded around the time an enemy champion starts to retreat. Use the large rocket to take them down.

Your Phosphorous Bomb shows stealthed enemies. If the enemy team has Twitch/Teemo/Eve/Shaco feel free to use your Q at random times in random places. You never know when you will uncover one of the stealthed champions and pickup a more or less free kill. The bomb can also show wards, shrooms and JiTB's use it to uncover these and take them out with your ranged attack. You have a built in short duration Oracles, use it as such. 

You can also place your bomb on the opposite side of narrow walls. Use it to peer into the bushes on top and bottom of mid (the ones in the river), over walls in the jungle. It will reveal an area of the map roughly half the size of clairvoyance for your whole team. This will also allow you to check Barron and Dragon from safety.

Feel free to join in the discussion thread I created at the official League of Legends forums here;
A discussion thread for Corki

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Want to see some cool Corki Wallpapers, have a look at my League of Legends Wallpaper site for Corki and all the other champions.

Olaf - I think I just fell in love with you!

Been playing a lot of Olaf lately, and I think I have found a new favorite champion! Great at avoiding ganks with his Ultimate, great at dealing massive damage with Atma's Impaler and he is superb at jungling with his built in attack speed / life leech booster. What's not to love? Here is how I build Olaf, give him a try I think you will be pleasantly surprised!


Starting Item - Dorans Sheild + Health Pot

Gives you good health regen, and a little more tankiness to let you stay in the lane for a good amount of time during the early game.

Boots - Merc Treads or Ninja Tabi depending on the enemy team.

Giants Belt - With his passive, this is a great item. Plus it synergizes well with

Atma's Impaler - Dealing 2% of your max health as physical damage is almost over the top.

SunFire Cape - More tankiness and a little more health helps you live longer and deal more damage thanks to Atma's

Guardian Angel - TANKINESS!!! And the built in passive helps you immensely.

After that build depending on the enemy team, more damage or more health. If the enemy team is full of tanks I would recommend more health, it helps Atma's and it keeps you alive. If the enemy team has a lot of squishy characters more damage can help you out burst them.

Never build Attack Speed items with Olaf, there is no need. The longer a fight goes the greater the advantage is for you. Olaf's passive says the more health you are missing the faster you attack. So you want to build health / damage in order to out live and out damage the enemy team.

Because of the way LoL deals with damage two players each at 1000 health, one dealing 1000 damage per swing, the other dealing 500 per swing, but swinging twice as fast. The winner is the one who deals 1000 first, so the one who deals 1k with one swing, wins. So build pure health to boost Atma's more, or pure damage to outpace the enemy team.

Check out my League of Legends Wallpaper site for some cool Olaf wallpaper.

Finally got that Wallpaper site going

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I have wanted to add a League of Legends section to this blog. For posting things like wallpapers, videos maybe even some builds.
While brainstorming for that section I quickly realized that it was blossoming into something that was going to be far more complex than a single page on this blog would be able to cover.

So, I give you my League of Legends blog ; League of Legends Wallpapers

For now the only thing up on that blog are wallpapers, however within the next month I plan on adding videos for each Champion that contain that Champions Taunt, Joke and Laugh.

Twisted Treeline is now live - Get your LoL on!

Riot games, maker of League of Legends, has finally released the new map "Twisted Treeline" into live match making. Featuring team's of 3 instead of the classic 5 this map is all about coordination and fast action.

I had the chance to play a dozen or so games so far on the new map now that it is live, and I must say it has made me completely rethink my approach towards the game. With a shorter game time players have less time to collect gold for items, so champions who work great with little to no gold really shine.

Increasing the distance between the first turrets also creates a sense of tension whenever you start pushing. In the old 5 on 5 map, Summoners Rift, you were always able to retreat back to your turret during the early game if you got into trouble. On Twisted Treeline however the increased distance means you are much more susceptible to getting killed early on.

The other obvious change is the player count. With team sized effectively halved, you need more than double the amount of coordination with your team. The champions players choose is even more important in this mode, as you need to create team synergy with less players.

All in all I find Twisted Treeline has given League of Legends a shot of adrenaline straight into the heart as it has created its own meta game, complete with strategies and tactics to match.

A few pointers I have learned while playing;

• Do not cross the center of the map alone. The lanes are soooo close together that it is very easy to jump lanes and setup a gank. Press as a group of 3 or pay the consequences.
  
• Champions that require tons of gold and items to become effective do not fair as well on TT as they do on SR. Veiger especially is a poor choice for this map as he requires both items as well as massive creep kills to bump up his AP.
• Semi Tank champions seem to be the best choices, Mordekaiser, Shen, Mundo all fair well on TT.
• Coordinate with your team and keep the dragon under control, TT is such a fast mode that the jungle is 2x as important. Instead of pushing the enemy turret alone go into the jungle and farm some neutrals.

Time permitting I will try to get some videos uploaded later on.

Until then head on over the the League of Legends sign up page and give the new map a whirl, or if you already have an account add me in game and we can play later on!

In game name - Etyn

Twisted Treeline Trailer

Today seems to be full of good wholesome gamer news. Hot off the heels of talking about Mario Galaxy 2, I come across this little tidbit.


http://www.gametrailers.com/video/exclusive-twisted-league-of/63634


Apparently Gametrailers has a video of Twisted Treeline, could this indicate the possible release of the long awaited map into match making? Only time will tell but for now my fingers are definitely crossed.

What a hook

Found this little darling while surfing Youtube.com




Link




If I had Blitzcrank unlocked I know what I would be doing tonight ;)

League of Legends - Updates Adds New Champion

As I mentioned in my post yesterday I am currently playing a highly addicting game called League of Legends. It is based off the old DOTA mod from Warcraft 3, a MOBA (Muliplayer Online Battle Arena) the goal is simple. Take 4 friends and 5 enemies and fight it out in a map in an attempt to destroy the enemy teams nexus (or "base").

Today Riot, the makers of LoL, has released an update which introduced many changes and optimizations for the engine. It also brought with it a new champion.

Ezreal, the Prodigal Explorer

Since I began playing in February of this year, Ezreal is the first champion released to cost 6300 IP (Influence Points - Earned by playing games, used to unlock champions and runes) putting him into the upper echelon of champions. Being among some of the most difficult to play champions in the game I am very interested in how he will change the meta game.

For a full read through of the changes made with today's patch hit up the link below.


LoL release notes for Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Hello Blogger, Blogspot Community!

This is my first post here on Blogger and I just wanted to take a moment and say hello. Hello! :)
My name is Kirk "Nyte" Emenicker and I am both a long time gamer as well as a father to a lovely little girl named Sophia and a darling wife named Heather. We are expecting an addition soon, a boy, though we have yet to decide on a name.

I recently attempted to start a technical blog with tips and tricks for the Windows operating system. However a bad choice of domain names has caused me to rethink both that site as well as my intentions here in cyber space. While I am generally knowledgeable about Windows and computers in general, I found myself struggling to come up with fresh content on a daily basis. Which lead me to ask myself what I was really passionate about.

What am I passionate about? In one word. Games. All sorts of games mind not just video games. I thoroughly enjoy playing Go on http://www.gokgs.com as well as the occasional board game. Though my true passion lies in the bits and bytes of the online word of competitive gaming. While I never claim to be a top player in any game I routinely find myself amongst the higher level players.

Currently my most played game would have to be League of Legends, a MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) if you are familiar with DOTA then you should have a VERY good idea about what LoL is all about. While not exactly second, my most played and loved game series of all time would be the Quake series. From Quake 1 through Quake Live I have been an avid player of all things ID. (Except of course QW:ET... I thought it was good but there was such a lack of reception that the servers were barren after only a couple weeks.)

While I am still setting up the blog and getting everything in order here please feel free to say "Hi" in the comment's section.

If there are any League of Legend players out there leave your in game name or add me: Etyn
I generally play a DPS character, Pantheon or Ashe, though I am starting to fall in LOVE with AP Teemo.