Rer’s ½ Assed Review of League of Legends

by Rer

Sorry for the delay everyone, I’ve been meaning to write this for the past few days… I just couldn’t stop playing this game!  For those of you who have never played Defense of the Ancients (aka DotA) from Warcraft 3, League of Legends is basically DotA updated to today’s gaming world.  Essentially the game is a RTS/RPG where you control only one thing, your champion.  Using skills you gain as you level, and items you buy with your hard earned cash, you attempt to destroy your opponents main base.  Sounds simple right?  Not so much.

DotA, Demigod, and League of Legends are all despite first glance, heavily skill based.  That’s not to say that new players can’t pick up the game, it just takes awhile to really master the entire concept of the game from “Destroy Opponents Base” to “Stun within this millisecond”.  Players must craftily dispose of enemy heroes, NPC warriors (aka “Creep”), and even more turrets before they can even reach the opponents base!  The key to success, and fully enjoying the game, is to play with people that you naturally enjoy being with and share a level of synergy with.  Good coordination can have devastating results in League of Legends.  For example, I once saw two champions take out five enemy champions and a turret in a single go, just because they were perfectly in sync with each other.  Plus, whether you win or lose, you had fun playing with your buddies, and isn’t that what gaming is truly about? ~<3

Besides having very addicting gameplay, League of Legends has even more going for it.  To start off, it has an incredible level of available customization.  Before players even start the game they have over 40 Champions to choose from!  These consist of Tanks, Supporters, Melee DPS, Ranged DPS, Mages, Stealthers, and the list goes on!  Then, once players have started the game they determine how to play their champion.  Take a Melee DPS Champion for example, will the player specialize in Attack Speed, Damage, Life Steal, or perhaps a little bit of everything?  Or maybe he prefers to stack some armor and health regeneration?  The possibilities are endless!  The most interesting part about LoL however (despite having the best acronym ever), is the meta game.  After players have finished beating the living snot out of each other, they gain experience and influence points to be used on themselves, or in other words, you level up too!  Players can spend mastery points (much like WoW’s talent points) in either Offense, Defense, or Support trees.  A few examples are faster health regeneration, faster attack rates, or faster cool downs on abilities.  Also, as players (otherwise known as Summoners) level up they gain access to new Summoner Spells, such as Teleport, Ignite, and Rally.  This unprecedented level of customization makes for some very surprising, and often hilarious, strategies.  Influence points can be spent to unlock Runes, which give even more customization and abilities, and other things.

I believe I may have left one small detail out by mistake… League of Legends can be enjoyed by the masses for the low low cost of absolutely nothing.  Obviously however, there are a few catches.  Players will not have full access to every champion.  Each week, the available champions will rotate.  Don’t despair however!  Remember how I mentioned Influence Points can be spent to purchase other things?  Yep, you guessed it.  Players can purchase Champions to be permanently unlocked!  The makers of LoL, Riot Games, have promised that nothing given from the purchased version of LoL ($30) will not be available to everyone, its simply a matter of frugality versus instant gratification.  Personally, I’m still debating if I will actually buy LoL or not, but I know that I will most definitely be playing it for many years to come.  To sum things up, League of Legends is insanely fun to play, and a great way to spend time with friends from any gaming background.  Make sure to check out Lagwar’s League of Legends Night, every Tuesday at 10 P.M. EDT.  Who knows?  If there’s enough interest, perhaps we can start up a major tournament for bragging (and blogging) rights!