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All posts for the month January, 2013

Why Baba Yetu should be humankind’s anthem.

Posted by Sam Eskenazi on January 29, 2013
Posted in: Blog posts. 6 Comments

If you haven’t heard Baba Yetu it means you haven’t played Civilization 4. This means your gaming experience is faulty. You should remedy that. Go to Steam, go buy it, thank me later.

You back? Played it for over 400 hours, lost your family and your job? Good stuff, now you understand, right? Great game, I’m sure you’ll agree. But the song is what’s important here.

The song Baba Yetu, the intro song for Civ 4, is quite simply amazing. As is known, it’s the Lord’s Prayer in Swahili.

It’s a fantastic piece that manages to take the words of a religious anthem, put it into a language that a great number of people speak but most people haven’t heard – outside of the names of the characters in the Lion King – and performed by a choir that manages to make a prayer uplifting.

What’s so incredible about the song isn’t just it’s inherent awesomeness as a musical piece, but it’s message about humanity. It’s religion, joy, and multiculturalism all in one. By having it sung in Swahili, the piece ceases to actually about God or religion or any of that, and instead becomes a kind of anthem about mankind.

This is the song we should be sending out on the Voyager Golden Disc! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_Golden_Record for reference). This is the music that should be representing all of mankind’s achievements and cultural accomplishments in a beautiful 3 minutes and 55 seconds.

Love it or hate it, religion is a part of our history that can’t be avoided; we are all shaped by the religions created by our majestic species – through repression or advancement – and this song brings that historical significance, but at the same time removes the inherent… religiousness of it? I don’t even know how to describe it. It’s like… Listening to all of mankind, in one beautiful chorus, celebrating our achievements and creativity whilst not neglecting the importance that religion played in our development.

So. I propose this: it should be our species’ anthem. When we eventually make alien contact with some form of sentient other many years from now, this should be the song that accompanies the dignitaries we send to them their laser-ray dooms. But seriously, let’s do it! Let’s make it our Earthly Song!

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What do you do when you’re jungling?

Posted by Sam Eskenazi on January 25, 2013
Posted in: League of Legends. 4 Comments

God damn, I like to jungle.

As a jungler in LoL, you’re job is to monitor all of the lanes, gank to add pressure or cause kills for your team, as well as counter jungling. Essentially, you OWN Summoner’s Rift. The mini-map is your friend, and the enemy is at your whim.

But, let’s be honest. No one likes you. “Gank top!” “Gank mid!” “Noob jungler report only 500716 ganks on top, scrub low elo noob i hate elo hell”.

Whatever you do, it’s wrong. You counter jungle, and kill the enemy jungler? Good job, top lane is now going to flame you because you didn’t gank his lane straight away.

You took both buffs first clear, even though you’re manaless? “Screw you nub, god you’re LEE SIN NUB I GET EVERY BLUE BUFF EVEN THOUGH I WAS DEAD WHILST YOU TOOK IT BECAUSE I OVEREXTENDED”.

I’m not bitter, oh no…

As much as I love the role of jungle, it is so god damn difficult to keep everyone happy enough. You’re only solution is to play a carry jungler, someone who snowballs nicely and can just feast on the enemy team if played right (Lee Sin, Jax, Nocturne) and get fed and win the game early. Otherwise, I can guarantee you that you’re going to be yelled at by your teammates for your apparent noobishness for not doing everything according to them.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a 2200 ELO jungler here. I make mistakes, and I have to mentally remind myself to actually plan my next move and conserve my time during the game. Of course I’m not going to have a huge amount of sage advice on this that Snoopeh will then follow and reward me with one of his smoldering stares.

I am still learning, is what I’m trying to say.

What do you do when jungling? Try and keep the fuck up. Don’t fall behind. Don’t think “Oh, I’m Lee Sin, I don’t need any kind of jungle, I’ll just take my red and try and counter jungle, and then never clear my own jungle ever again.” You do okay, and then suddenly mid game roles around and you’re 3-4 levels behind everyone else.

Clear your goddamn jungle. Take the enemy jungler’s as well, but for god’s sake make an actual effort to keep up in levels. A laner only has to concern themselves with this is they’re getting zoned from the creep wave, or they die too often, thus missing valuable xp. As a jungler, you have to be constantly aware of your xp in relation to everyone else’s: not just the enemy jungler’s, but your teammates. What’s the use of being level 10 when a teamfight breaks out wherein everyone is level 14 except you? You’re gonna die, you under-farmed Lee Sin, you.

When you’re on the way anywhere, clear your damn jungle. CS when a laner isn’t there, in attempt to freeze the lane outside of the tower. Do you know how nice it is to have a jungler freeze a lane for you if you’re in mid lane? It’s so nice.

Besides keeping up in damn xp and gold, the most important thing to remember as a jungler is that your job is to not only control the game, but to inspire fear into the enemy. Are you going to be bottom lane? Are you going to gank top? Are you waiting at the enemies red? The enemy team has no idea unless they ward – which they should – but even if they do ward, they’ll never have total awareness of you.

What that means is, if you are walking from top to bot, take the extra few seconds to walk closer to your tower, instead of straight through the lane brushes. Make sure the enemy can’t see you on the map, so they don’t know exactly where you are. You are an invisible mist, drifting across Summoner’s Rift, striking fear into the hearts and minds of the enemy. If they can’t see you, they have to assume you’re seconds away from CC’ing / Killing them, so they play safe. This means your laner can capitalize on this.

Bottom line, help your team by not being seen. Gank, but for god’s sake clear your jungle. Support junglers have seen a massive come back this season, with tankiness and having an Aegis of the Legion being a very common thing in jungle these days. Rolling in with some CC and stupid amounts of health thanks to Warmog’s, you can disrupt the entire game for the enemy if played right.

Just remember. You’re time, and you’re position as known by the enemy, is very, very important.

Leave a comment below if any questions about jungling that I, or anyone else, might be able to answer.

 

Riot is doing an AMA on reddit about the new Ranked… rankings.

Posted by Sam Eskenazi on January 17, 2013
Posted in: League of Legends, News. Leave a comment

Just a little update to illuminate those who don’t know that Riot just did an AMA about the new tiered ranking system they’re implementing soon. Contains a lot of information about the new system, so it’s a good thing to read through if you want to be in the know.

Enjoy!

http://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/16pay7/ranked_league_system_ama

 

I don’t think I’d ever want to be a pro player…

Posted by Sam Eskenazi on January 13, 2013
Posted in: League of Legends. Leave a comment

I’ve been watching some of the NA qualifiers recently (whilst attempting to  do essays, it would appear that listening to shoutcasters somehow soothes me…) and I noticed something in the DNG V GGU on Sunday: DNG decided to take Baron, despite the enemy team rushing thier inhibitor. They ran back into base, managed to dunk their enemy team through a good taunt by Shen and then pushed the entire enemy team back. However, they neglected to pick up most of the kills; even a Karthus ult didn’t clean up.

Lee Sin ended up chasing down the enemy Miss Fortune, and through the entire chase across half of the map, Lee Sin missed THREE Q’s. THREE. That’s really terrible, right? “How can someone be a pro player if they miss so many skill shots like that?” I wonder.

Then, I realize something. Just because they’re pro players does not mean at all that they’re inherently always going to pick up the kills and land all the skill shots, because they’re against people whom are in the same skill range as them. It got me thinking about Tennis. You know when you watch a tennis game, it looks basically like a normal tennis game you might play yourself, except with a lot more grunting and the bouts seem to last a lot longer? That’s not because you’re an amazing tennis player (and if you are then… Well done? I’ll see you in Wimbeldon? No, not really, I won’t watch it), it’s because it’s a very skilled and trained athlete going up against someone who is also a very skilled and trained athlete. The skill levels rise, so in effect (barring any obvious difference in skill) the two teams are almost equally strengthed against one another. In that scenario, it becomes all about mind games, knowing your opponent  and hoping your tested strategy works out; and, if it doesn’t, adapting adequately enough to overcome any challenges.

League of Legends is the same, in that sense. Although skill levels wildly between both different teams and even the nations the players come from (NA players are notorious for prolonging their game, favouring end game builds and champions, whereas the Korean teams often push for early game dominance and an early win) the game is mostly about strategy, knowing your opponent, and having a wide range of different paths to take when different options arise.

Dammit, this game is awesome. It’s such a widely different possible conclusions and outcomes that it’s almost impossible for a team to totally count on knowing the perfect thing to do at any given moment.

I want to learn more about this game. I want to do better. I want better map awareness, better map presence, less deaths, and a whole lot more wins on my match history.

Hell, while I’m learning, I’ll post little guides and posts about what I’m learning. I’ll even link several videos, in fact, that I know are pretty damn useful. For example, how to support by Aphromoo (formally of Team FEAR, now of CLG.Prime): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6bWcmK-w_M

It’s long, but watch it all, seriously.

Adios for now!

Let’s talk about Draven.

Posted by Sam Eskenazi on January 11, 2013
Posted in: Articles, League of Legends. 1 Comment

Welcome to the League of Draven. If only 😦

Draven is an Attack Damage Carry (ADC) that possess excellent poke, a steroid as well as nuke. However, you hardly see him in the current meta. Why is this?

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A quick run down on his abilities:

His Passive makes his Crits (and any AA empowered by his Q) to deal bonus physical damage over the next 4 seconds.

His Q empowers his next AutoAttack to deal extra damage, also creating a ricocheting axe that, if Draven catches it, continues empowered his next AA until he eventually drops his Axe (trust me, you’ll forget to atch it eventually…)

His W is an Attack Speed and Movement Speed steroid, the cooldown being refreshed if he catches an axe from his Q. This means that he can essentially always have the steroid up in teamfights, mana permitting.

His E is a skill shot knock-aside (is that a thing?) that damages rather significantly, and pushes to the side, any enemy hit. As this essentially stuns any enemy champion hit due to the travel time of being moved by the E, it’s great to initiate onto enemies, or pick off fleeing foes.

His R/Ult is a delightful whirring of axes sent straight forward that damages all hit and then – either once it’s hit champions and moved a bit further or it has reached the end of the map – it returns, enabling you to deal the damage twice to a target if positioned correctly.

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Despite having a base AD on the lower end of the spectrum, Draven can do some of the highest damage level 1 on an enemy thanks to his Q. A little maths time I think. I’m going to be assuming some standard runes and masteries pages that a typical ADC might choose. Que gratuitous maths.

Draven’s level 1 damage on a single AutoAttack = Draven’s total AD at level 1 + His Q damage + his passive damage.

To find this: ((Draven’s base AD at level 1 = 50) + (AD granted by ‘Deadliness’ mastery = 0.664) + (AD granted by ‘Brute Force’ = 1.5) + (AD granted by runes = (( ‘Greater Quintessences of Attack Damage(2.25) x3 = 6.75) + (‘Greater Mark of Attack Damage (0.95) x9 = 8.55) = 15.3) = 50+0.664+1.5+15.3 = 67.464

Also factoring into this is the fact that I often start Longsword + 2 health potions, so this gives a bonus 10 AD to me. This, it is now 77.464. Obviously, on certain matchups it’d be wiser to start the more conventional boots + 3 pots, and I’ve even seen some ADCs starting goddamned flask for the sustain, but I’m calculating this with my most common starting item.

To this magic number we add the damage of Draven’s Q. At level 1, his Q deals an additional 45% bonus physical damage so to find the damage of Q it’s simply 77.464*0.45 = 34.8588 + 77.464 = 112.3228

Bare in mind that you need to include the percentage damage of 2% from the Havoc mastery! This now becomes 112.3228 * 0.02 + 112.3228 = 114.569256

As if 112.3228 damage wasn’t enough, we ALSO need to factor in the damage from his passive, which does 30 + (4 x level) = 34 damage over 4 seconds. I am a little unsure if Havoc mastery also applies in this scenario, but I’ll include it anyway, as it’s honestly rather negligible. 34 * 0.02 + 34 = 34.68

Thus, one AA from Draven now becomes 114.569256 + 34.68 = 149.249256

So, that’s almost 150 damage from a single attack. That’s some immesne first blood potential, no doubt. Of course, we need to consider a target’s armour, so with that in mind we’ll just take a typical AD’s armour value and factor in any armour penetration we have.

A level 1 Ashe has 11.5 armour. Assuming a standard 3 points in the hardiness mastery (6 armour) and 9 Greater Seal of Armours (1.41 * 9 = 12.69) , her level 1 armour becomes  11.5 + 6 + 12.69 = 30.19

Draven also has 8% armour penetration and 6 flat armour penetration thanks to the ‘Weapon Expertise’ and ‘Sunder’ masteries. % Armour Penetration is calculated first, so Ashe’s armour becomes ((30.19 * 0.92) = (27.7748 – 6)) = 21.7748

With 21.7748 armour, Ashe will take reduced damage from Draven equal to (Damage multiplier = (100 / (100 + 21.7748) = 0.82118796335

So, after all this damn maths, a level 1 Ashe with typical armour values will take 149.249256 * 0.82118796335 = 122.561692566 physical damage.

And, considering that Ashe only has a total of 395 health, that means that after a single Q-empowered AutoAttack, Draven has dealt (122.561692566 / 395 = 0.31028276599) 31% of her health!

(Note: Some people prefer to take Armour Penetration runes, rather than the flat AD runes I take. I have yet to try them out, so please someone correct me if this method allows you more damage)

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So, I’ve established that Draven does a very large amount of damage level 1. He also possesses fantastic poke on enemy champions in lane, thanks to his ability to do that very same damage every time he catches his axe from his Q. The reason he possesses very safe poke is due to the fact that, after poking an enemy with your Q, you can quickly click to move behind you to a safe place – possibly behind your minions – and your axe will ricochet to where you sent Draven. On top of that, his steroid, his re-positioning of enemies thanks to his E and also his high damage Ulti enable him to win most trades if played properly.

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The complaints I usually hear against Draven are:

1. His lack of a re-positioning skill,

2. His axes are difficult to catch in a dual, let alone a full on teamfight,

3. He has no conventional initiation onto his enemies, or a way to allow him to pick one out / catch them up considerably (Ezreal’s E covers both 1 and 2, for example),

I find that the player’s own skill with the champion, and confidence in the champions abilities and limits, can answer the first two complaints.

Although he does suffer from not being able to alter his position quickly in combat, he possesses a way to speed himself up (his W), as well as a way to move his enemies away from him (his E). Used correctly, and with proper positioning in a teamfight, he shouldn’t suffer from not having an escape.

With Draven’s axes, a player first picking up Draven will likely find the mechanic of catching the axes too hard to perform consecutively. A good trick that was realized a long time ago, and many pros such as Aphromoo made famous, was to click in the direction you wish the axe to go after right-clicking to fire it at an enemy. Normally, the axe would come back to you exactly where you were standing when you fired the axe, or just slightly to the side. If you click to where you wish to go (usually behind you, after poking an enemy champion) the axe will follow you and often come to exactly where you clicked to move to.

In team fights many Draven players will obviously have some difficulty in trying to maintain their axes, but it is important to remember that – Attack Speed permitting – it may be better to simply auto attack more rather than walking the distance to your axe before you attack again. This is often the case mid-late game, where your AA’s possess critical strike chance. To waste time moving to the axe is to sacrifice one, two or even three more AA’s which could win you the trade.

It is a difficult balance to try and both AA and catch your axes, not to mention dodging enemy skill shots and aggression, which makes Draven a harder ADC to play than many others. However, his huge amount of both burst (from his E, Ult and initial Q) and sustained damage (from the steroid on his W) makes Draven my favourite ADC by far.

Please note that I am in no way some kind of expert on any of this; I just really enjoy playing Draven and thought I’d do some calculations his damage. If I have in any way messed up any calculations on this, please let me know and I will fix it ASAP.

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Talk to me, people; why don’t you play Draven? Why isn’t Draven seen more in the competitive scene (you know, besides Aphromoo)? Leave a comment and have a discussion, I’d seriously like to know!

Finally getting into ranked, ELO hell and my experiences with LoL Ranked so far.

Posted by Sam Eskenazi on January 11, 2013
Posted in: News. 2 Comments

Hello again,

I’m finally playing ranked in LoL quite a bit, and it’s certainly a different experience from playing normals all the time with my friends. I only played something like 8 games last season, and lost most of them duo to  not really having a good role in place to fall back on or even a very good understanding of the game.

I ended up watching the Season 2 World Championships at a friends house with a whole group of friends who also play LoL (some more seriously than others) and it was my first real taste of E-sports… and I loved it. I finally have some kind of understanding about why people watch sports. I mean, true, I’m a fencer and have been in competitions and watched them as well, but with my own sport I was merely looking at it to improve my own skill and to compare myself to the pros.

With E-sports, it’s not just that. It’s so exciting. It’s intelligent, it’s cunning, it’s daring and it’s actually frightening at times. I actually am rooting for teams, I’m oo-ing and aah-ing at the awesome moves, yelling “the plays!” like some kind of half-drunken football fan. I love it. 

I started watching streams, and attempted to get better at being a LoL player. At first I played this game for fun, now I play to win… but in a fun way? Regardless, god damn this game and it’s time-consuming powers.

I’m getting into E-sports quite a lot, but uni work keeps me away from watching them fully. The early-morning times don’t help…

I think I’m going to start talking about certain champions and issues in LoL that come to mind, hoping to provoke some kind of discussion about League in a helpful fashion, and also talk about good picks and strategy. I’m by no means an especially good player, I’ve barely played 30 ranked games all told, and I’m only about 1140 ELO – which I’m still rather proud of, I’m on a 6 win streak right now 😀 – but I’ve still picked up a few things and would love to have people criticize what I’m writing and tell me what I’m doing / saying wrong.

I think I’ll start with my favourite ADC!

About my LoL journey so far, and how I’m finding it.

What I feel about LoL at the moment.

Reflections on the new season.

Welp, and here we are + Future plans

Posted by Sam Eskenazi on January 9, 2013
Posted in: News. Leave a comment

This didn’t exactly take off, as is plainly obvious, but I’m not really fazed. I didn’t put enough work into this lovely little site, as once my final year of uni began I became absolutely awash in work and other responsibilities.

I’m still going to update intermittently, and I’d always hoped I wouldn’t have to make a “oh sorry, haven’t updated in a while” post, but now I guess I understand why they’re made!

I’ll be making a League of Legends post shortly, along with some perspectives on the game and some stuff about attitude which will be relatively amateur but hey! Who knows? I might be lucky enough to net myself an interview with some LoL pros, which would be pretty damn fantastic.