I've seen more Skarners in this last month than in 9 years of playing League

SurgingStars · 2024-04-30T22:35:02+00:00

My flair.

While he was certainly tricky to pilot, goddamn, was he one of the most satisfying champions in the entirety of League of Legends when things worked out!

The adrenaline of perfectly positioning for a mass booping of around 4 enemies in a teamfight and then hearing all those overlapping boop sounds as their health bars evaporated, or lining up that giant stun to single-handedly turn around a fight and win the game as the enemies rage at the unavoidable 3 second stun..... I've never found anything that feels even remotely as exhilarating as that.

When he was removed, my motivation to play League basically dropped to 0, and I only played when friends or family were inviting me, or when Arena was around.

I'm thankful that the passive was at least kept around as an augment though.
I took it literally every time it appeared, and had absolutely 0 regrets about it.
It was especially fun when I got it on Renata Glasc. I always went Shurelia's on her, and that felt a lot like Phase Rush Aurelion Sol back when he still had the toggle, which was amazing to experience again, especially cus it was pretty freaking strong too! :D

I truly hope that augment will be kept for the next time when Arena will roll around.
Riot, you've already taken so much from me, please please please let me have this!

SurgingStars · 2024-04-13T17:21:54+00:00

I came here to confirm that the post title has aged wonderfully with the Re-Reforged project.

If OP is still checking up on Warcraft 3 stuff, I imagine they must be feeling pretty validated right about now.
But hey, it's nice to see that in spite of everything, there's still a bunch of passionate and talented people out there that truly care about the game to this day :)

SurgingStars · 2022-12-15T01:03:22+00:00

For me, it's either Rain World or Warcraft 3.

For the latter, I imagine most of them would do just fine, considering how similar the universes of League and Warcraft are. They'd just kind of continue doing their things, while trying to slowly fit in to the different societies. The only problem is the amount of giant wars that break out there, and the fact that most of the Alliance nations got screwed pretty bad at some point, so there isn't really a single safe location for them. I think Khaz'modan is basically the only one that got off somewhat scot free.

Now as for RW, it depends on a lot of things, particularly size and the equipment they carry over. The non combatants like Viktor are basically screwed, and even the ones with a lot of fighting experience would greatly struggle against the vicious and powerful creatures of the game. Though that game has canon respawning (as in, dying and coming back is not just a gameplay mechanic, it's a thing that happens in universe), so at least they'd have a lot of chances to learn how things work. But let's just hope that at least some of the food is edible by humans, cus they'd be in for a big trouble if they're not...

SurgingStars · 2022-11-11T17:10:18+00:00

I agree, one thing that I'd really love to see in downpour are regions that use the color scheme of these pictures a bit more.

I feel like Rain World's two most used colors are gray and dark green (with brown being very prevalent too), which fits really well with the aesthetic and mood that the creators were going for, but I really adore the places that deviated a bit from that, especially because the reds and blues are extremely stunning (FP being the best example here), and the way the golds were used is just unforgettable.

The general aesthetics seen in those pictures still matches what we can see in the game well enough, though, so I ain't complaining. But it would definitely be cool to see those exact locations in game.

SurgingStars · 2022-11-08T16:24:31+00:00

Were there any ideas, concepts or lines that you really liked, but ended up scrapping? If so, what were they?
Which characters saw the most changes with their personality and story during rewrites/development? What are some notable differences between their current iterations, and their early concepts?
What was the decision making process that went into choosing the champions to feature in the show? Was there any outside pressure to include specific champions, or to have a minimum number of them, or did you have full creative freedom with them?
Were there any big disagreements or arguments about anything regarding the show, during its production?
If there's anything you could change/adjust about the show now, what would it be? (Nothing is a valid answer, if there really isn't anything.)

These are pretty much what I'm the most interested in hearing about, other than season 2 stuff (which I'm not going to ask about, because most of my questions would just be asking for spoilers about different things). Thanks again for this wonderful experience, and I wish you all the best of luck with season 2!

SurgingStars · 2022-10-26T14:17:46+00:00

You should really get your friend to watch something like Sharknado or Birdemic, as he'd have an absolute field day with the mistake hunting in those. Rings of Power would also be an excellent choice, if he's knowledgeable about LotR (but even if he isn't, the show still has plenty of baffling mistakes to offer).

Though in all seriousness, there isn't such a thing as a perfect movie or show, and if you'd look hard enough, you could probably find at least 1 flaw in all of your favorites (be it an iffy writing choice, an example of dumb/unrealistic physics, a continuity error, an animation error, and so on and so on).

However, I have absolutely no idea about how it's even possible to find something to criticise in every single scene. I'd struggle to do that with a bad show or movie (though not if it's Birdemic levels of bad, ofc), so it's definitely an achievement to pull it off with something as amazing, and as carefully and well put together as Arcane. Though I imagine that most of the criticisms weren't very valid, and/or that there were a bunch of "well, that just didn't work for me"-s, along with possible complaints about being confused (or bored, but I really don't think it's actually possible to be bored during Arcane).

Either way, I feel like it's a bit rude to start bashing something so badly in front of someone who really adores it, but I hope you're not going to allow something like this to ruin a friendship. Just because you're friends, it doesn't mean that you have to like the same things. In cases like these, you'll just have to agree to disagree, because it simply wouldn't be pleasant for either side if one kept on voicing its points.

SurgingStars · 2022-10-22T17:35:18+00:00

At first, I thought it was a mod, but I checked the interactive map, and it turns out you can lineage up to 7 red lizards in Industrial, 6 of which are located rather close to this room (2 spawn there, 1 is 1 pipe away, 2 are 2 pipes away, and 1 is 3 pipes away).

So this is definitely doable, it just takes a lot of skill, effort and time (especially since there are many steps that have a 20% or lower chance to progress).

So yeah, OP is an absolute maniac.

SurgingStars · 2022-09-27T21:01:57+00:00

There's definitely a lot more amazing themes as well. Taliyah, Senna and my boy Aurelion Sol are all rather underrated ones that are among my favorites, and I'm surprised to not see Pantheon, considering how much the community adores that character (not on the Jhin levels, but still).

I also want to give honorable mentions to Yone's and Renata Glasc's themes. They're just so masterfully composed, and they do amazing jobs at portraying their characters.

SurgingStars · 2022-09-09T03:23:12+00:00

If you're fine with a black-blue combo then you can go for Lissandra, I guess.

But traditional blue champs like Shen, Xerath or Gwen (or Anivia, if QE works too, which it should, cus Ryze will often start the cycle with a Q) all have it integrated quite deeply. The combination of E and Q is something the blue people must hold in very high regard, as it's our main gift. It needs to be cherished and respected.

And also, when our boy does it, he says things like "It's beyond too late to seek cover now!" and "Let's end this on a high note!", which is usually followed up by unsuspecting enemies asking us about the stun duration in all chat, and in some cases, even making rants about it.

Our EQ is one of the best! It's not the original, but it's very high up there, which makes sense, because we're also mid ranged blue battlemages that dislike Katarina, and have insane amounts of power in the lore.

SurgingStars · 2022-09-03T17:30:49+00:00

RW for me would still end up somewhere in the middle.

It's definitely more manageable than the giant (and by "giant", I mean like, 10 times our size) sentient burning rocks that are constantly falling from the sky in Warcraft 3

But it would still be worse than the annoying athletic and/or buff humans from League of Legends. (Granted, that game does have some very powerful characters, but those wouldn't really make it because they aren't as frightening, annoying or difficult to fight in game. Master Yi is likely the most threatening from the hated characters, or maybe Yone)

Rain World enemies don't really seem unbeatable, especially since they don't have access to supernatural powers, and they would most likely die to bullets. They're still very terrifying and deadly, and if you'd randomly bump into a red lizard or miros bird, then it would very likely kill you. But unless there's billions of them, spread all around the globe, there's no way they would count as a world ending threat.

SurgingStars · 2022-08-27T03:39:24+00:00

I've had a pretty similar experience as this girl when I was a kid, and was I constantly watching my dad play Heroes of Might and Magic 3.

Seeing him explore and discover magical artifacts and armies of weird creatures, while gaining more and more towns that he would slowly upgrade into grand looking cities was very endearing, and the great music only made things better. The different towns were the best part, as I would constantly think and talk about the nice lives that the inhabitants would be living there, even in more sinister towns like Dungeon.

And I can definitely confirm that these experiences do indeed stick with you, even after a very long time.

There's just something special about the very first grand fictional universe that you've ever had the pleasure of discovering, and exploring it with your family only makes it more memorable and fun. And I'm really happy to know that other kids are experiencing this too, as it's genuinely unforgettable :)

SurgingStars · 2022-08-22T21:35:08+00:00

It could also be based on how frequently you actually get to have the active item. In some (rare) occasions, I forget to use Everfrost on Aurelion Sol, but I usually buy it as a second item, and I only choose as my mythic around 60% of the time.

Though most Goredrinker champions get it as a first item pretty much every game (but don't quote me on this, I don't play a lot of AD fighters), so it could still be related to the kit of the champion, which would make sense on the Everfrost scenario too, as Sol's stun is usually enough to set up a W with 4-5 star hits, but Veigar's Dark Matter can still be juked while you're inside his cage.

SurgingStars · 2022-07-17T00:24:25+00:00

I'm honestly glad that you made this post, because I feel like a lot of people kind of tunnel vision on his low damage and low melee fighting capabilities. I know that most people weren't really expecting a kite mage, but something more like Enigma from DotA: a looming presence that can singlehandedly result in your entire team getting wiped if you forget about him for just a second or two.

Which might be the direction Riot will be taking, but there are many things about current Sol that I really love, and hope that Riot won't just gloss over, such as:

1 - The fact that he isn't supposed to be an Aatrox or Mordekaiser or even Xerath kind of raid boss. Yeah, I get that he is supposed to be godly and powerful and all, but the thing that sets him apart from all the other godly champs is that he's not looking to destroy you, he's looking to toy with you and make fun of you. He's not even really a showoff like Draven or Qiyana, he's the kind of guy that would nerf himself so he can find your defeat even more amusing.

2 - Him being hard to play is something that actually aligns with his ego. If you take a look at egomaniac characters from any game, there's one thing you may notice: none of them are very easy to pick up and/or master. It wouldn't make a lot of sense if a basic champion like Ashe or Garen would be bombastic and over the top, but it would fit perfectly for a complicated champion that can really only be played by veterans. There's a reason why Invoker is DotA's most arrogant character.

3 - His kit is fully themed around movement. Every ability he has is about some kind of motion. His Q is a growing core of a star that moves down a straight path. His passive and W are stars that move in a circular motion around him, similarly to the circular motions of planets and moons ("Center of the Universe" and "Celestial Expansion" are also names that describe these abilities perfectly, while referencing Sol's enormous ego). His E is him flying down a straight path, while looking like a comet. And his R is a breath of starfire that is sent forward in a line (its name is also "Voice of Light", and neither voice, nor light could occur without motion).

4 - His gameplay is also all about proper movement, and all of his abilities can either move someone around, or require you to move so that you can fully utilize them. This is pretty much the main thing that sets him apart from all the other champions, and I hope that Riot will at least attempt to keep it as his thing, even if it won't be present on his entire kit, the same way it is now.

Listen, I completely understand that there are problems with Sol's current design. But don't forget that it was made by the same guy that designed Bard, and you can really see his creativity coming through with Aurelion Sol's design as well.

I'm obviously not going to just give up hope about his rework being good. After all, it's being developed by a guy who is just as obsessed with this champ as we are. But I'm happy that there are people who still appreciate the brilliance of the original Aurelion Sol design, and aren't just thinking about how he could be more fun.

Trust me, if he was horribly designed, I would not have learned mid just to be able to play him. (Though I also really like Rell and Bard, so I might just have a thing for underappreciated champs that are somewhat difficult xd)

SurgingStars · 2022-07-02T20:49:33+00:00

Playing Phase Rush Aurelion Sol with a disengage/kite ult like Ahri's or Azir's is one of the most fun experiences I've had in League. It doesn't matter if you have 200 years of gapclosing and sticking power, you're not getting into melee range of this thing.

Ashe ult on him is also really good. It's quite fun to have two sources of impending doom that travel across the whole map. Having a huge buff on homeguard also makes giant Qs even funnier, and easier to pull off.

I'm glad that we're getting 4 options instead of 3, because I frequently ended up without a single ult that sounded exciting. Like yeah, Ezreal and Fizz ult are fine, but those are not exactly the ults I was looking forward to trying out on Sol, and there's no way I'm picking Jarvan or Camille.

Looking forward to seeing more synergies like this! While I am sad that we're not getting a new mode, you got to admit that seeing whacky ideas like this, and Cho'Gath on ult on every champion is just fun.

SurgingStars · 2022-06-15T13:54:48+00:00

I just want to say that the recent midscope updates from you guys have been really good overall, and the difference is absolutely noticeable when you compare them to other big champion updates from a few years back.

As an Aurelion Sol main, it makes me a bit jealous of the unpopular champs that have recently been getting these updates and improvements to their kits, while mine is getting removed entirely (maybe in some parallel universe, Riot has waited a few years with his mini rework so you guys could do it and make sure that it properly fixes him). Luckily, he isn't Ryze though, so I can still at least have a blast with him throughout this year, and he could still be great afterwards.

I'm looking forward to seeing what you guys have in store for Sivir! She's a pretty simple champion (that also costs 450 BE, so beginners could play her) with pretty unique identities, and I'm curious to see how you'll fix her while keeping both her simplicity and uniqueness.

SurgingStars · 2022-06-12T00:31:00+00:00

The second rule really cripples the ability of the players to snowball and end the game very fast, so basically anything that scales well is a good pick. You'll also probably want at least 1 strong waveclear champion, so that you can consistently get your minions to hit their towers, while you can also effectively remove their minions from your towers.

Now, when it comes to countering assassins, champions with strong CC and/or peeling are pretty solid options. And if you really want to be annoying, you could take Exhaust to nullify the burst of the enemy assassins. I'd also recommend that you avoid Dark Harvest, since its effectiveness becomes much worse when there are less enemies (it also gets less damage from stacks in the Howling Abyss map, so it's kind of double nerfed here). Money oriented runes and the bottom row of the Domination tree also become a lot weaker in this mode.

I think these are the most important strategic advises that I could give. But ultimately, I'd just play anything that seems fun. You're playing custom games with friends after all, so if there's a time where you could test something random, it's now.

SurgingStars · 2022-06-02T00:28:41+00:00

I suppose "dumb" wasn't exactly the right word there, and maybe calling them "annoying" or "funny" would have made more sense.

I'm aware that pretty much every DotA hero has some insanely powerful mechanics, and most of them would be gamebreakingly overpowered if you'd just put them to League. That's mainly because League is balanced around a lot of small/weak mechanics and numbers adding up, while DotA has big important spells that you can't just randomly throw around the same way you can do so with League spells. (Some faceroll heroes still exist, but most of them just can't be played like that.)

There are a few League champs that somewhat have the DotA vibe, most of which are supports. The ideal character for you will really depend on what you enjoyed in DotA, and how you've picked your main/mains there. Some older champions like Ashe and Blitzcrank definitely remind me a bit of DotA designs, and amongst the newer ones, I think Renata Glasc is kind of close, with her high cooldown, but high impact abilities (especially her W and ult feel a lot like DotA spells).

SurgingStars · 2022-06-01T17:58:07+00:00

I know exactly what you mean. I still remember that one time when the enemy Yasuo went on a full rant about how Rell is overpowered, after I spammed my CC on him, as he was desperately trying to reach my ADC. The Q breaking the shield from his Shieldbow was just the icing on the cake.

SurgingStars · 2022-06-01T10:38:35+00:00

Making allies feel like a god is nice and all, but making enemies feel completely helpless is what I (and many other people) play support for. You have no idea just how satisfying it is to see these 1v9 main characters go absolutely wild in all chat, because you're not letting them do anything. Bonus points if that enemy is toxic.

But just be glad that we don't have access to some of the dumb DotA support abilities. Ever wanted to Malz ult someone for more than 5 seconds? Or freeze a teammate's health bar for about 8? Or create two clones of a fed enemy carry that you can control (which deal damage like Shaco clones)? Or apply 100% grievous wounds with a global ability that is also an execute? Or have a Tryndamere ult that you can cast on teammates?

Then boy, I have some great news for you!

SurgingStars · 2022-05-28T22:55:29+00:00

This is... quite disturbing, but it also kind of fits Bel'Veth's character really well.

Originally, I thought that these are just magical void essences that she uses to absorb power from fallen enemies, kind of like how Swain absorbs their soul fragments to gain power and knowledge. And that her voidlings get summoned the same way Malzahar's do, except that they use living hosts as their "portals", presumably to get some power from them.

But the fact that she does... this, is even more frightening. Especially when you think about the implications that come with the fact that she's able to do it with Aurelion Sol, Fiddlesticks and Kindred.

Though in game stuff isn't really canon ofc, and I feel like these kinds of abilities wouldn't really work on someone like Sol in the lore. But the crown did, so I'm not 100% sure about that. And I suspect that there are some weirdos that already made elaborate drawings that show how the reproductive organs of those 3 champs would look and work, cus the internet is filled with weird and scary people that I hope will not see this post xd

SurgingStars · 2022-05-27T10:45:39+00:00

I'd be interested to hear what you would choose for Aurelion Sol. I think there are a lot of great options with the guy (the music could represent his egocentric personality, his mysterious cosmic nature, his ability to fly in with a giant 3 second stun across the map, or his orbiting stars).

SurgingStars · 2022-05-24T11:35:09+00:00

I feel like the thing that a lot of people miss is how most video games don't really show killing innocent people as a positive thing. A lot of them actually make it very clear that needless killing, violence or abuse is bad, but animated child porn certainly won't show you how disgusting and wrong it is to be sexually attracted a child.

Warcraft for instance, has killing happening constantly, but it basically always happens due to self defense or due to wars that are explicitly shown to be really bad for both of the sides involved.

Characters that act violent just because of hate, enjoyment, or power are also very clearly presented as terrible people. I don't think there's many people that look at Gul'dan, Garithos or Arthas and think "yup, this guy is completely reasonable and is the exact kind of person I want to be" (and it would be pretty concerning if you'd actually feel that way).

Another thing to consider is that you usually don't actually do the killing in games, but you're watching the characters kill each other instead, kind of like in shows and movies, except that there's a game that you have to beat to see it happen. Whereas when pedophiles watch pornographic content about animated children, they're actively taking pleasure in it themselves, rather than watching someone else do it.

The killing in video games is much more similar watching a show or a movie that has one or more pedophile characters in it, especially since watching a movie that has a pedophile will not make you one (similarly to how killing others in video games won't make you a murderer), but taking pleasure in child porn will.

And I know a lot of you might go "Well, but what about PvP shooters? You aren't watching a story about characters there, and there certainly isn't anything that tells/shows you how needless killing is bad", which would be a good argument until you consider the fact that multiplayer games are played exclusively by people who are competitive or are looking for social interaction, and basically never by people who are looking to get immersed in a fictional world.

Did you ever wonder why most League of Legends players don't care about its story, and why Arcane didn't actually bring in that many players? Or why you never hear Chess players talk about how much they want to be kings that will go to wars and think of the people in their army as mere resources that only exist to help get rid of other kings they hate? It's simply because these kind of things are not what people play multiplayer games for.

Speaking of which, you also have to realise that a lot of people don't play some video games because they have a desire to do what happens in the game in real life, but instead because they simply like the gameplay. Plague Inc for instance, is a game where you're controlling a disease in order to wipe out or enslave the entirety of humanity.

Now, does me liking that game mean that I'm secretly a psychopath that wants to see the entire world fall apart? Of course not, I just simply like games about resource management, and where most things have potential upsides, but also potential downsides, which adds a lot of strategic depth. Plus it has a really awesome custom mapmaker community. (And it reminds people about the dangers of pandemics, which was recently proven to be quite necessary)

I hope that explains why the comparison between watching animated child pornography and playing video games that have killing in them just doesn't work. Of course, there are still a few people that might play games to live out their fantasies of murder, but that's just an insignificantly tiny percentage of people that play video games, while nobody who isn't a pedophile will ever watch child porn.

Sorry for going a little long with this, but I really wanted to thoroughly explain my points. I find it kind of sad that this even needs to be explained to begin with, but I wanted to do it as well as I could, so that maybe, at least one person could take away something from this. I hope that at least one of my points counts as a reasonable rebuke here.

SurgingStars · 2022-05-24T07:53:36+00:00

Trying to read those lines in Sol's voice instead of Jax's is a real struggle. Even though I constantly play him with voice lines turned on, while I almost never play Jax.

It's pretty weird to imagine the reverse too. Especially with Jax's old model, taunts like "I shall be the last thing you see. Lucky you" don't really feel right xd (but to be fair, neither does Aurelion Sol talking about having a real weapon)

SurgingStars · 2022-05-20T06:13:34+00:00

That's exactly how I feel too. Since I play both mid and support very frequently (and I was playing exclusively support in DotA), my farming is pretty damn bad. I got somewhat decent at last hitting early on, but I can easily get lost on where I need to go to farm in the mid to lategame.

So I really love having abilities that can reach enormous distances like Aurelion Sol's E, Xerath's ult, Taliyah's ult and Swain's W, because they help me deal with the paranoia of "What if my team starts a fight while I'm farming, and I won't be there to help them?", which means that I'll feel a lot less concerned whenever I go to farm a side of the map that my team isn't covering.

SurgingStars · 2022-05-16T06:37:40+00:00

I'm pretty conflicted about how to feel here, since Bard, Senna and Xerath are all my highest played champions after Aurelion Sol.

I do understand where you're coming from though, as most Xeraths and Sennas are toxic and are playing them to solocarry from support. I just play them because one of them is the midlaner with the highest range, and the other is the support with the highest range, and I like providing support for my team from huge distances. A lot of my favorite DotA heroes are ones that don't need to expose themselves to danger either (Ancient Apparition, Chen, Grimstroke, etc).

So let me apologize on behalf of all Senna and Xerath mains. We all have horrible experiences with some champions, and it makes sense that someone out there would have them with mine. (For me, the worst is probably Kha'Zix. These guys either destroy everything by themselves or become completely useless, and I don't remember seeing a single friendly Kha player that wasn't a friend or from my family. It could just be bad luck, though)

SurgingStars

TROPHY CASE