ZAM News (full)

ZAM News (full) http://www.zam.com/ ZAM gaming news rss feed WildStar: Beating a Path to Nexus [Wildstar] http://www.zam.com/story.html?story=32421 <img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="http://www.zam.com/Im/Image/237305.jpg" alt="" /> San Francisco. A beautiful city forever made famous by the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz and its iconic cable cars. However, for me, it's shaping up to be remembered as the place where I first played <a href="http://www.wildstar-online.com/en/">WildStar</a>. That's right, I was finally lucky enough to get my hands on what is one of the most highly anticipated MMOs to come across the ZAM news desk in quite some time. Not only was I treated to an enjoyable frolic through Nexus, but our wonderful hosts from <a href="http://us.ncsoft.com/en/">NCSoft</a> and <a href="http://www.carbinestudios.com/en/">Carbine Studios</a> also rolled out all sorts of fresh, never-before-seen, content and goodies for us to feast our eyes upon. I was pretty blown away by some of the things I saw and I assure you that I wanted nothing more than to tell the world about it. But, sadly, they kidnapped my first born in order to ensure that I wouldn't spill the beans, so I had no choice but to bite my tongue for the last two weeks. But at long last the time has come. Intrigued? Well then by all means read on... (Disclaimer: No first borns were harmed in the making of this article. In fact I made that whole part up in a shameless attempt to make this article seem more sensational. The PR staff at NCsoft is actually really nice. They bought me hot dogs.)<a name="pause" title="pause"></a>For starters, maybe you've seen the "Class Dismissed" teaser poster floating around. I know many people were secretly hoping that meant a new class was going to be announced. However, it is  actually a part of <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/WildStarOnline">another fantastic personality video</a> from Carbine that formed the back bone of the entire press event in San Francisco. That being the long awaited reveal of details on the Scientist and Settler paths, which up to this point have existed almost as placeholders. <embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/lmCyPXv5APY?version=3&hl=en_US" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" /> The reveal wasn't restricted to just the video clip, however. Executive Producer Jeremy Gaffney also gave us a live demo of the two new paths, as well as showing off a new zone called Whitevale. We were shown a secret Eldan installation, accessible only when the Scientist unlocked and solved a puzzle built into the door. For starters, my ears perked up when Gaffney mentioned that all the puzzles in WildStar are randomly generated and are different every time, so you can't just go online and find the answers. The lore junkie in me got excited when he told us that the Scientist path would experience more storyline elements than any other. Of course to me that begged the question: are Scientists the only ones that can experience the whole solving puzzles and unlocking secret Eldan lore side of the game, or can anyone solve these puzzles once they are discovered? Luckily I was able to catch up with Gaffney to get some clarification. "We allow our designers to vary that on a per puzzle basis and so some probably work in different ways; the one that you're probably talking about is where you have this Eldan lock and what's behind it and can you align the elements [unlock it]. Once a scientist has scanned the levers anybody can come along and mess with them." “And so the door stays open for a brief amount of time to let other people sneak in with you and then the puzzle stays enabled so that other people can try to solve it as well. Because we know that people play with people of other paths, we reward you for it. The goal is not to segregate everybody, it's actually to give you different stuff to do together and make you feel cool." There was definitely a vibe throughout the event that the path system was meant to allow people with different play styles to work together in ways that make them feel unique and vital to a group. We saw some great examples of this in the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/WildStarOnline">latest Dev Speak video</a>.  <object width="640" height="360"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/yJkfhxLEhEU?version=3&hl=en_US" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/yJkfhxLEhEU?version=3&hl=en_US" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" /></object> Of course the highlight of the event for me was when I sat down in front of a PC and got my hands dirty as a Settler. With few details available up to this point, I was excited to see just what the Settler could do. I certainly appreciated the sandbox-like appeal of entering a new zone and physically building up the infrastructure. Where once there was only open plains I managed to build a small hub of activity which included several structures that provided combat and run speed buffs for myself and anyone else in the area. Proud of my achievements, I then built up some defenses and spawned some NPC guards to look after the place while I was gone. Satisfied that my newly created settlement was in good hands, and that it would provide assistance to all my fellows in the area, I moved on to complete some quests and partake of the refreshing free-form telegraphed combat system. But eventually I found my way back to my settlement, only to discover that it was gone without a trace. <img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="http://www.zam.com/Im/Image/237309.jpg" alt="" /> This had me scratching my head. Was my settlement destroyed or did it just decay over time? Can Settlers create permanent structures or are all my creations destined to disappear on me? With so many questions rattling around in my head it was a good thing Gaffney was there to once more fill me in. "Our designers have the ability to vary that up depending on how they do it, but their standard answers tend to be that they make a first tier of stuff that even just a single Settler in the area can build most of that stuff, and it decays kind of slowly. The second tier of stuff, it takes a couple guys working together for it and it decays more rapidly. The third tier of stuff decays really fast and takes a bunch of guys working together. “This means when you have that huge mass of players going through near launch the game is not trivial and when you are the only guy playing from Hungary in the middle of the night on the US servers, you're not gimped, you still have stuff to do. That's a balancing act that we play across those sorts of more group or more social things." <img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="http://www.zam.com/Im/Image/237308.jpg" alt="" /> So is it a sandbox or a theme park, or something in between? How do you balance that? "When are theme park elements best? It's when you're learning the game and you want to make sure you're not missing all the cool stuff. So the theme park elements we rely upon heavily in our newbie areas. And then we give you more sandboxy tools so that by the time you get to top level you're an experienced person and you know what's going on in the world. You're not scared by having to do things correctly but you can play the game in a more free form kind of fashion. That's our answer for it.” “It's hard because people are so charged up on those kinds of questions, I'm sure we'll get people saying [insert crotchety old man voice] ‘it's a theme park, blah it sucks’ or ‘ahhh hybrid's never work, it should be all sandbox’. People are very charged on these things and we hear that. We're kind of charged on it too, truth be told, so we've tried to aim for a balance that we like and then hopefully a lot of players will like it. And if they don't they'll go play other games and if they love it they'll come play our game." So are players from the opposite faction able to destroy stuff that Settlers build? According to Gaffney, players on PvP servers can do exactly that. “Hell ya! We are already working on closed beta three where we unlock the open world PvP and then we start mucking with what happens when players start destroying each other's stuff and 'oh look, this guy can add new PvP guards to the area’ or this part of the settlers stuff. And all of that comes together in Whitevale. Inside of closed beta test three is where we start testing out all that kind of stuff.” “And so we'll see what the right level is with having people muck with each other's stuff; what's fun and what is annoying because people are camping your spawns as you try to build new stuff. Where all that testing will first happen is the six weeks of closed beta test three in Whitevale.”<a name="pagebreak" title="pagebreak"></a><img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="http://www.zam.com/Im/Image/237306.jpg" alt="" /> With higher risks on a PvP server, when I build a structure that someone from the other faction is going to want to come blow up, would it mean that the Settler interaction is different on a PvP server versus a PvE server? Gaffney thinks that's the case, to an extent. “Maybe all that stuff that would normally be really useful in PvP happens to be useful because of a dynamic event that happens, where there is a flood of monsters attacking and the normal guards would be overwhelmed. Part of what goes on in PvP is that it's a very dynamic environment and so some of that gets mirrored by the dynamic stuff that we do. Some doesn't - players get really evil about screwing over each other and what not. Our monsters aren't quite as good at that as players are. [evil chuckle]” Deciding which structures can and cannot be destroyed, or what level is needed to destroy them, is something that Gaffney hasn’t decided yet. Much of that will have to wait for open-world PvP in CBT3. <img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="http://www.zam.com/Im/Image/237311.jpg" alt="" /> “Not all the Settler ones will probably be destroyable, it's ones that make sense to. We try not to have super rigid rules around what our designers can and can't build, so much as letting them tune things to an area. That's one of the reasons we build the world in a very flexible way, and in part that's because we want to react to the beta data. We're not doing the beta as a ‘hey let's just go raise buzz for the game’ (well we'd still like to raise buzz for the game too), we're doing it because we have to learn stuff from having real players run around.” “We have bot armies or a couple thousand robots that run around and test things like load balancing and crash bugs, and they even accidentally wander into things like instance entrances and dungeon entrances and things like that. Ten robots made it into a dungeon entrance the other week for the first time, very smart little robots.” “It takes real players in there though to get the real stuff and we change based on that. We change based on feedback all the time. We have a crap ton of stuff in closed beta two, for instance, I have 42 pages of patch notes in front of me for what's going in from our six weeks of learning from closed beta one; including raising the level cap to thirty, including the open world PvP, including adding in a new dungeon, a new battleground for the first time (we'll do our smash and grab battleground). There're a massive number of class changes, more path variety with new missions and that kind of stuff, there is a ton of stuff that we just add week over week. And because we are very good at generating large chunks of this stuff it means that we are pretty good at listening and then actually changing what we're working on based on that. It's very valuable having real players in.” <img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="http://www.zam.com/Im/Image/237310.jpg" alt="" /> I thought back to <a href="http://us.battle.net/wow/en/">World of Warcraft</a>’s early open PvP days, with running battles between the old Tarren Mill and Southshore. There wasn't much you could do beyond charging in, killing all the guards and then sitting in their town with nothing to do until the other faction could boot you back out again. Would we be able to take over a whole town in WildStar, wreck shop, destroy everything that's been built there and actually feel like we're really setting the other faction back by destroying their settlement? “Let me give you a deep answer on that. Tarren Mill was actually quite fun, it was sort of imba because it tended to be higher level players griefing lower level players and then they couldn't get their quests done and had to find other ways of doing it - elements that are actually pretty fun, even though it's griefing and all that kind of stuff. And so we're trying to have a world that's rich enough to be able to have some of that stuff happen in it.” “Why don't you build PvP objectives into every bit of your open world leveling content? Well the reason why is that you have this huge bell curve of players that go through each zone. The PvP starts off boring because there are two guys in the whole zone, gets really interesting because there is a huge mass of people in the zone, and then the people leave and then it gets boring again. Putting a lot of time as a dev into that is very frustrating because by the time you get enough data to make it better the people have left it already.” “More so, the games that have done that right are games like <a href="http://www.darkageofcamelot.com/">Dark Age of Camelot</a>. Three realm open world PvP is frikkin' fun. The downside is that you have to make three times as much content, so you end up with less leveling content. What <a href="http://camelotunchained.com/en/">Camelot Unchained</a> does with that may be very interesting, if they mirror that cool aspect of it. Stuff that we're doing that's awesome on that front; we're channeling a lot of that energy into Warplots. It's 40v40, it's like housing on steroids, where you build up a massive fortress that is destructible so that you can get all that ‘destroy all your stuff’ out.” <img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="http://www.zam.com/Im/Image/237316.jpg" alt="" /> Right now, Warplots are faction based warfare that will see the best of the Dominion trade blows with the elite of the Exiles. A ranking system will make the top tier particularly impressive to watch, if only from a safe distance. “I'm not sure if we'll open it up to be guild versus guild as well, we'll kind of see, get some feedback on it and tune it. But the goal is that it's hardcore, you get the best of the best doing it. So it's not as much beating up noobs as its beating up other people who are good at it. We do it in tiers so that as you rank up you're fighting against guilds of your epicness.” “Because at the top level of this you go capture raid bosses out of the raids and pin them down on your Warplot and go have them fly over and blow up the other guys town. That's cool, but that's for the best of the best to be able to unlock. Your average 'I play an hour a week' guy will probably only ever see that in videos, or maybe after 3 expansion packs when that content has become trivialized because we've done cooler stuff. We don't mind that.” “As I read the forums right now, if we see a lot of feedback on wanting more open world PvP, we'll do something. But it's going to take players getting in there and playing it to say "Hey these are the things we want and that compel us." Where does our 'Tarren Mill' end up being inside of our game? I couldn't even tell you what zone that's going to be in, why was it Tarren Mill in WoW? I don't know.” Would Whitehaven end up being the open world PvP focal point, or will players choose another part of Nexus to settle their factional differences? I left the thought hanging in the air, as I only had time to ask Gaffney one final question and I wanted to make it count. ZAM's Editor-in-Chief, Scott Hawkes, is known for his sinister British accent. Could Carbine sneak him in somewhere for some Cassian voice talent? “[Much laughter] Yes, yes I think so, we have so many diabolical plans we need some creepy speaking Brit accents in there to make sure we nail it and properly communicate all our diabolical plans.” <img src="http://www.zam.com/Im/Image/237307.jpg" alt="" /> With the interview complete I was set loose to enjoy my remaining time in Nexus, and enjoy it I did. I want to thank all the staff at Carbine and NCsoft for a fantastic event, and especially Jeremy Gaffney for taking the time out to speak with me. Before I wrap up, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that my few short hours spent on Nexus left me invigorated and hopeful that WildStar will deliver on the huge expectations that have been placed on it. There are certainly many people out there looking for a new MMO to really sink their teeth into and from what I have seen so far, Carbine may just be poised to cash in on waves of hungry gamers. Only the full release of WildStar and time will tell for sure, but I'm optimistic that San Francisco will always have a place in my heart as the city where I first played my new favorite MMO. Robert “<a href="https://twitter.com/Caergan">Caergan</a>” Gray  <a name="pagebreak" title="pagebreak"></a> Wed, 22 May 2013 00:00:00 -0000 League of Legends: Heavenly Hardware [League of Legends] http://www.zam.com/story.html?story=32422 <img id="ssMainPic" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="http://zam.zamimg.com/images/6/5/658734d7abf92cbf7c2b93c169a50c32.jpg" alt="Screenshot" /> <a title="Logitech" href="http://www.logitech.com/" target="_blank">Logitech G</a> and <a title="Riot Games" href="http://www.riotgames.com/" target="_blank">Riot Games</a> are working together to make laning and jungling even more pleasurable and easy on the eye. After sponsoring <a title="League of Legends" href="http://na.leagueoflegends.com/" target="_blank">League of Legends</a> Season 2 and the continuing, tremendous growth of Riot's MOBA behemoth, it's no surprise that Logitech will be the official Season 3 mouse and keyboard sponsor.<a name="pause" title="pause"></a><img id="ssMainPic" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="http://zam.zamimg.com/images/b/0/b0cadb71022b8af9a9a934a25a20c48d.jpg" alt="Screenshot" /> However, the companies are not content with slapping some decals on a shiny board; Logitech and Riot have come up with some new compatability features to allow more intuitive functionality with the G series mice and keyboards. The new aspects range from pleasing ambience to focused details and data. As confirmed by the <a title="Riot and Logitech Partner Again" href="http://blog.logitech.com/2013/05/16/logitech-g-signs-on-as-official-sponsor-of-league-of-legends-series-season-three-championship-series/" target="_blank">official announcement</a> from Logitech's Todd Walker, the G series hardware has new utility within the League of Legends client and includes: <blockquote> "· All G-keys in our mice, keyboards and headsets are now selectable as bindable keys directly in the in-game interface. · The multi-color LED lighting in our new Logitech <a title="G510s Keyboards" href="http://gaming.logitech.com/en-us/product/g510s-lcd-gaming-keyboard" target="_blank">G510s</a> and <a title="G19 Keyboards" href="http://gaming.logitech.com/en-us/product/g19s-lcd-gaming-keyboard" target="_blank">G19s keyboards</a> will switch to indicate the color of your team, including in colorblind mode. · The Logitech G510s and G19s GamePanel LCD now displays constantly updating stats typically only available in the character subscreen, such as cool-down reduction, or stats not previously available, such as gold per minute." </blockquote> <img id="ssMainPic" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="http://zam.zamimg.com/images/8/4/84aa452329b76657d5c140e4cdceb8f8.jpg" alt="Screenshot" /> So if you are blowing them away with Janna, you can quickly know just how fast you are getting your Q ready to annoy the opposition en masse. Follow us here at ZAM for more League of Legends news and be sure to visit the mighty <a title="LolKing" href="http://www.lolking.net/" target="_blank">LolKing</a> for all your LoL tools and resources. Though you do already, of course. Hey, you'd be crazy not to. <a title="Scott Hawkes on Twitter" href="https://twitter.com/Jarimor" target="_blank">Scott "Jarimor" Hawkes, Editor in Chief and Support Main</a><a name="pagebreak" title="pagebreak"></a> Tue, 21 May 2013 23:35:37 -0000 Guild Wars 2: Colin Johanson's State of the Game [Guild Wars 2] http://www.zam.com/story.html?story=32423 <img id="ssMainPic" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="http://zam.zamimg.com/images/0/3/03122d48a03552ec534e85c4ac3ad461.jpg" alt="Screenshot" />   A gaggle of journalists – not the official collective noun – assembled Avengers style to speak to Colin Johanson about <a title="GW2 Price Cut" href="http://www.zam.com/story.html?story=32415" target="_blank">the announcement today </a>that <a href="https://www.guildwars2.com/en/">Guild Wars 2</a> is permanently lowering its price. Colin began by stating how the game “is in a really solid place” at the moment and the price drop comes at a traditional time in the cycle of the game. With the game performing so well the reduction is not a big one but the team is looking forward to getting more players in game because of it.<a name="pause" title="pause"></a>  <img id="ssMainPic" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="http://zam.zamimg.com/images/c/9/c94a84c6d2fae6299a8edc10d1036c20.jpg" alt="Screenshot" /> The most immediate question that was on all of our minds regarding the announcement was whether the <a href="http://www.arena.net/">ArenaNet</a> team thought the permanent 10 dollar price drop would make a big difference; after all, the game has been available for quite a bit cheaper in previous sales. Johanson responded that reactions have been swift and positive: “I have seen comments already this morning where people have said “Oh I’m going to check it out now because of the price drop.  I was waiting for this.” I think it can have the effect to drive initial players into the game. On top of that it’s something retailers really want as well, to drive stronger traffic into stores, to allow them to better pitch the product to customers to sell the game when they’re coming into their stores. It’s definitely something they’ve asked us to do. We’re really working with two audiences there and it can be effective. But we’re really in a good spot so we don’t need to do anything drastic.” That “good spot” includes over three million box sales so far. To put that kind of success into perspective: that number does not include China, Korea and other countries; which is a pretty hefty untapped market. Johanson noted that Guild Wars 2 has been repeatedly sitting atop the most anticipated game lists in China even though it has only recently had a very small beta. So expect that already impressive 3,000,000 figure to become much, much bigger soon. <img id="ssMainPic" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="http://zam.zamimg.com/images/a/8/a85e300dc660a97eefb6ab7b85a7126d.jpg" alt="Screenshot" /> Guild Wars 2 has seen new content at a pace pretty much unseen in MMOs before, with additions arriving every two weeks recently. I asked Colin whether we can expect to see this cadence continuing in the future. “We’re really happy with the cadence we’re rolling out right now. It’s something that our customers have responded to really positively. Our World vs. World population has been steadily going up and recently hit population numbers that are equivalent to or over the same numbers that we had in October last year, which is really exciting for us. I think the World vs. World community is responding really well to these updates. Every time we do one of the Living World updates we see a ton of players pour in and go to the different areas where content is available and that’s really exciting. Our [Structured] PvP is starting to grow as well. We had three consecutive weeks in a row where we had 4% growth in PvP players which is higher than the normal growth that we see. We’ve seen a lot of tournaments sprout up around the support we’ve been able to give on a consistent basis. It’s definitely something we’re looking at; can we continue to support and update the game on a cadence this aggressive? We felt like once a month was really strong and, if we can get faster than that, it’s even better for our customers. It’s something we’re working very seriously on as a company right now.” <img id="ssMainPic" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="http://zam.zamimg.com/images/a/7/a7fff307b321f40d4fa201b5f696e7c5.jpg" alt="Screenshot" /> Such a turnaround on content is a huge undertaking; I wondered what the main impetus was for ArenaNet to move to this schedule for content production. “A lot of it was fan and community driven and data driven. We were looking at what our players were doing in the game; we were looking at the feedback they were giving. In particular a lot of the feedback about the Flame and Frost experience and the updates we’ve been doing so far was that they were really enjoying that content; they found it fun, but they wanted even more, they wanted it to come slightly faster. They wanted a stronger cadence of releases. We felt we could do that as a company and we wanted to craft a niche; we wanted to do something that no one else in the industry was doing. With Guild Wars 2, from the start, we’ve wanted to provide something that you’re not going to find in any other game. I think that the idea of having these very regular releases where the storyline is constantly changing and shifting, where the content is changing, where the world is changing based on these experiences. I don’t think there’s anyone out there doing anything like this. I think if we can do it even faster and change the world more and provide more regular updates, there’s just that much more market for us to get out there and get people excited about the game.”<a name="pagebreak" title="pagebreak"></a>  <img id="ssMainPic" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="http://zam.zamimg.com/images/b/b/bb34b62f25a7d3f21beb5be34db0183c.jpg" alt="Screenshot" /> The amount of upheaval and the ambition of putting out content so quickly must have been daunting. I asked Colin, jokingly, if there were any members of staff who cried when the move to the new fast cadence was announced. “Yes, there were definitely a lot of people around the office who were a little nervous, scared – me included in that – when we said “Let’s try it” but we’ve been really successful so far; we’re excited about what it’s done. It changes everything that we do, from how we localize to how we record V.O. to how every person in the office works and what they do, we had to change all of that to be able to change to a faster cadence like this. We spent a lot of time in the background in the last four months building out the capacity to do these releases faster. It’s definitely something where the fans’ feedback of Flame and Frost was that they wished it would go a bit faster. We didn’t have the teams oriented or the technical capacity to do that. We do now. We’re not quite ready to promise this will be our regular cadence but we’ll see how it goes.” <img id="ssMainPic" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="http://zam.zamimg.com/images/8/8/88c6b57bf09c8ed9b003f185a91f86ef.jpg" alt="Screenshot" /> With that much effort put into increasing the efficiency of output by ArenaNet’s staff and the noticeable distinction it gives Guild Wars 2 in comparison to other MMOs on the market, I think fans can expect to see fast updates for quite some time. With such constant updates one might think that expansions would be dead in the water. Colin wanted to clarify that the team is not ruling out expansions as something that could happen in the future, even if ArenaNet is knee deep in Living Story and all the WvW and SPvP updates it has been rolling out. Other topics of conversation included the large amount of API development going on, including <a href="https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/community/api/API-Documentation">the new thread</a> where website and IOS developers can interact with the ArenaNet developers. Some quite exciting possibilities exist for websites to develop new ways to interact with the game. Who knows, perhaps ZAM and <a href="http://www.guildhead.com/">Guildhead</a> might be working on something right now… As always it was a pleasure to chat with Colin Johanson and you can expect, with utter certainty, that all the Guild Wars 2 news you can shake a skinny Sylvari at will be right here at ZAM.com. <a href="https://twitter.com/Jarimor">Scott “Jarimor” Hawkes, Editor in Chief</a><a name="pagebreak" title="pagebreak"></a> Tue, 21 May 2013 22:15:47 -0000 League of Legends: LCS Report 3 [League of Legends] http://www.zam.com/story.html?story=32420   <img id="ssMainPic" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="http://zam.zamimg.com/images/5/1/51001927e4c264bce4e6860d3fa9e0b5.jpg" alt="Screenshot" /> With excellent overviews of each match and interviews with the expert summoners involved, RheingoldRiver brings fantastic insight into the events that enthralled millions as part of the <a href="http://na.lolesports.com/">League of Legends Championship Series</a>. RheingoldRiver is a valued member of the terrific <a href="http://www.lolking.net/">LolKing</a> community; the site for all of your <a href="http://na.leagueoflegends.com/">League of Legends</a> tools, guides and information. You can also find additional, regular LoL insights at Rhein’s own blog, <a href="http://rheingoldriver.blogspot.com/">right here</a>.<a name="pause" title="pause"></a>  <img id="ssMainPic" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="http://zam.zamimg.com/images/a/7/a7e2f810199e9997dab013340a94e322.jpg" alt="Screenshot" /> After two teams had been relegated on the first day, Dignitas needed to prove that they had what it took to stay in the LCS.  And they did, winning the massive level-1 victory of securing 3 of the 4 jungle buffs.  Though Team Summon had the early kill advantage, off of some very well-timed ganks from Sickoscott's Volibear combined with Captain Korea's Requiem cooldown, Dignitas exerted perfect Dragon control, and the global presence from Scarra's Evelynn completely outclassed that of Team Summon's midlaner, especially when Crumbz was able to combine Scarra's initiates with his Paranoia.  Dignitas secured Baron for themselves at about 30 minutes and shortly after pushed to the already-exposed Dignitas base and closed out the game. Realizing the power of Scarra's Evelynn, Team Summon focused all three of their bans to the Dignitas midlaner in the second game of the set.  Still with Karthus, Captain Korea took the first five kills of the game, and after that he was completely unstoppable.  It was Team Summon this game with the perfect Dragon control, and despite several attempts by Dignitas to engage with Stand United and Paranoia, the Requiem was just too much for them to deal with, and Team Summon won fight after fight, one of them engaged by a flash-ult from AD Carry otter on Varus.  After taking their first baron, the blue team took down two of Dignitas's inhibitors, and they wouldn't even go for a second baron, instead methodically pushing through the entirety of Dignitas's base, eventually winning the game just before the 40-minute mark. <img id="ssMainPic" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="http://zam.zamimg.com/images/0/9/090c4d873c271e6a1830ed4afbe2f07e.jpg" alt="Screenshot" /> With six midlaners banned in the third game, Dignitas went for the surprising Rammus pick in the jungle.  At first, the pick looked terrible: this game Team Summon took three of the first four buffs, and actually controlled the next two of Dignitas's blue buffs also.  But Crumbz just farmed, and with the combination of mobility boots, Acceleration Gate from KiWiKiD and powerball, Rammus became unstoppable, surprising every member of Team Summon with his taunts.  This, combined with the advantage that Scarra was able to get from a fight near Dragon, led Dignitas to absolute dominance in the midgame, and the LCS team ultimately forced out a surrender from Team Summon before 30 minutes, taking the series into game 4 with a 2-1 advantage. Not wanting to face Rammus again, Team Summon decided that the safest thing to do in game 4 was to let Scarra have Diana, and at first that seemed fine.  First blood and then two more kills went to the blue team off a gank from Sickoscott's Hecarim, and despite some pressure from Scarra, Team Summon had an answer for everything.  Every time Dignitas won a fight, Summon seemed able to take another objective, but finally imaqtpie had a fantastic Baron steal just after the 30-minute mark.  Though Team Summon was able to secure a few kills despite Dignitas's baron, they overstayed trying to repush the middle inhibitor around the 40-minute mark, and Scarra's Diana proved ultimately too scary.  A bait in botlane led to a kill on Sickoscott at 40 minutes, and Dignitas pushed the nexus less than a minute later, securing their spot in the summer split. <img id="ssMainPic" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="http://zam.zamimg.com/images/5/8/58d469d1db89311a5435ec8be3bafc99.jpg" alt="Screenshot" /> After Dignitas's 3-1 victory, I interviewed their support player Patoy. Rhein:  You played Zyra in two of your games.  What makes Zyra so strong to you? Patoy:  I consider Zyra my main.  In my eyes, she's very good for scouting on blue and purple, which is a huge bonus if you can do it at both sides.  She's extremely good in lane—she's one of the few "catch" supports now that Blitz is not as good, and people aren't playing Thresh as much.  You're able to lane against almost everything, and I picked her twice because I noticed that their champions basically run at you, like Voli, Hecarim will just run at you for their engage.  Zyra naturally is an anti-engage champion, so I'll snare, root all of them, and we'll just go from there.  She's a really good champion. The two games that you played Sona, was it for you, your team, or to deny the other team? A little bit of everything.  Every team's gonna be wanting Sona because it's just the most standard support.  She's good in almost every situation.  She's a really top contender for support right now, so when we first-picked it, it's because we had no other high-priority pick open and to take it away from them.  I was only really looking at three supports this whole tournament: Elise, Zyra and Sona.  So if Sona was gone I would have just picked Elise or Zyra. <img id="ssMainPic" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="http://zam.zamimg.com/images/1/d/1d353cbbd12b7bff695f1357c1693d5b.jpg" alt="Screenshot" /> Any chance we'll see you play Alistar any time soon? I wish Alistar was good.  I would play him.  But with how lane swaps are, and how they increased turret damage by 5%, he's really hard to play now.  And especially on top of the Volibear nerf too, you can't die as easily with any other junglers outside of, say, Rammus.  So if you don't have the tag-team dive with the jungler, he's really hard to play right now. If Riot were to buff one support champion, what would you have it be? They need to buff Alistar.  I want to play that champion every game, but he's just so bad right now.  If they just took out the turret damage change, if they buffed his E, just did anything to his base stats to make him able to dive again, he'd be really good, and I just want to spam him every game, but I gotta live with it.  So just buff Alistar. Your team did run Rammus.  How long have you been practicing that pick for? We've been running Rammus for about a week and a half now.  I'm not exactly sure where Crumbz got the idea.  I think he just played it one game in solo queue, and it just clicked with him, so we just ran it in scrims, and basically I don't know if Rammus is bad late game or anything like that, but I know that if you get the pick, then you just destroy that one guy.  The other team just didn't run cleanse on their carry, so once he got that one pick, everyone on our team just followed up and it turned out really nice for us. <img id="ssMainPic" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="http://zam.zamimg.com/images/8/f/8faf95720a7e808f5b48f78fdc29c13f.jpg" alt="Screenshot" /> It synergized really well with Jayce because of the Acceleration Gate.  Do you think it's a strong pick even without Jayce? We don't know if it's good without Jayce because for some reason, in every single game we want Rammus, the way picks and bans go, Jayce is naturally the first champion we look at for that lane.  So without it, I don't know, but we just always get them together somehow so it turns out really well. It seemed like you did a really good job in picks and bans.  Is that something that your team practices a lot? Yeah.  We put a huge emphasis on level-1s and picks and bans because it's really easy to win a game or a set of matches just before the game even starts.  So it's really important to put an hour the day before going into a match and just look at picks, bans, the champions the other team plays, stuff like that. One very specific question.  Why do you build Twin Shadows on your Zyra? I got it because I always go Kages.  My first item on Zyra will always be Twin Shadows or Nomicon, and I went for the Twin Shadows over Nomicon in this case because first I needed their MR because they had a Karthus who was extremely fed, so I needed MR, and second because they had Nasus and Renekton.  If I cut off their initial engage of them running at you without using ultis, then I can follow up the snare with the Twin Shadows, and I will deny their engage without even having to use my ulti. You were fighting against the team of the person you replaced when you joined Dignitas.  What was that like for you? Everyone thinks there's a huge hate connection relationship between Dignitas and L0cust.  I can't speak for everyone else on Dignitas, but I'm really good friends with L0cust.  After the games I talked to him for like twenty minutes, we're really good friends.  It was really fun to play against him too, and I hate that guy because he camped my lane so he killed me three times.  But that's all right.  There's no hate or anything. Do you compare support tips ever or scrim botlane together? We never scrimmed their team, so we didn't do anything like that, but before LCS started we talked a lot about supports, items, just everything about supports. <img id="ssMainPic" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="http://zam.zamimg.com/images/8/a/8ad967bef16d8f0caa2dcf1712ce44cb.jpg" alt="Screenshot" /> One final question, switching gears a bit.  Comparing supports in North America to supports in other regions, what are some supports in other regions that North American supports can learn from? The main thing I focus on personally is the mechanical play.  It's public knowledge that NA solely on mechanical level is really behind, so I try to stay up on top with my mechanics.  I don't miss autos, land every ability, all snares, just execute it properly.  I watch EU, but mainly Korea and China because they're obviously the top contenders in League of Legends right now.  So I watch them, and I see not just when they use it but how they use it.  I look at skill orders, items, masteries if they’re available.  I see how they stand, how they get there five minutes earlier in the game that led them to being there.  I look at everything possible and I'll just learn from them, because I do not want to be labeled an "NA support."  NA, again, it's just public knowledge that NA supports are generally not so good. Who's the one support you admire the most? I don't really look at any one support to really say, "I look up to him" or anything like that.  I just look at everyone outside of NA as a whole, just everyone really, any VoDs I can get a hold of I'll just watch, I'll see how I can incorporate it with my own play. Any shoutouts? Shoutout to our sponsors, Alienware, Intal, and Scan.  And you can follow me on twitter @PatoyLoL.<a name="pagebreak" title="pagebreak"></a>  <img id="ssMainPic" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="http://zam.zamimg.com/images/a/2/a2147b92013450879bf925913a76f4bc.jpg" alt="Screenshot" /> After Dignitas secured their return to the LCS, CLG looked to do the same against Azure Cats.  However, the challenger team would take an early advantage in the first game of their set, from a failed early counter-jungling attempt by Chauster and the first dragon also going to Azure Cats.  But HotshotGG secured his team the game's first blood, at 12 minutes, thanks to a gank from Chauster, and CLG also took the second dragon.  The game remained close until CLG won two fights in a row, the first at Dragon after they secured the objective and the second at Baron, which allowed them to secure the objective.  After those two fights, and with CLG having Baron, Azure Cats realized there was nothing they could do and they surrendered at 32 minutes. The story of game 2 of CLG vs Azure Cats was Blitzcrank.  Aphromoo pulled Demunlul on a blind hook for first blood before minions spawned and then gave Chauster's Elise a second kill on Janna by the 3-minute mark.  CLG won fight after fight, and despite a few kills onto HotshotGG as the result of Draguner's Rammus ganks, Azure Cats were never able to gather any momentum.  Eventually they weren't even able to devote enough resources to stop Hotshot's Diana, and CLG were able to get the splitpushing that they wanted.  The LCS team methodically took down objectives with Hotshot pushing top and eventually rotating bot, taking baron at 28 minutes and then closing out the game at 32, now just one win away from retaining their LCS spot. <img id="ssMainPic" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="http://zam.zamimg.com/images/2/d/2d7fa5e94feac76f72ab48d7f61b5bc7.jpg" alt="Screenshot" /> Although Blitzcrank was left open for game 3, CLG did not opt to give Aphromoo that support again, instead picking the Urgot-Taric combo for their botlane.  However, Blitzcrank proved to be unnecessary for a first blood before minions spawned, as this time CLG invaded Azure Cats’ blue buff and caught out Obituarist as he was warding.  Both teams went for 2v1s, and both outer turrets fell just after the 4-minute mark, but CLG were able to dive the inner turret in botlane and secure a double kill, for which Azure Cats had no answer.  The challenger team did take a dragon and got a couple successful ganks off, but they couldn't win teamfights without giving up objectives in the process, and CLG cleanly pushed for the win just after the 30-minute mark, closing out the series 3-0 and becoming the second team of the day to retain their LCS spot. Rhein: Congratulations on your victory. Aphromoo: Thank you. A lot of people were saying that it would be a 3-0 one way or the other but weren't sure which way.  What did you expect? I was going in expecting nothing really.  Just wanted to play the game and play my best, and whatever outcome happened would happen.  And thankfully, we went 3-0, and that's it. When in the set did you start to expect the 3-0, if at all? After game 1, when we won pretty handily, right after that I felt like oh, okay.  I guess I can play whatever I want to and win the game.  Second game I just picked Blitzcrank because I just wanted to stomp them into the ground and make sure that they just felt awful.  That's why I picked Blitz after playing game 1 passive.  That's pretty much how it went, our whole team was super confident that we would go 3-0 at that point. <img id="ssMainPic" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="http://zam.zamimg.com/images/2/5/2599ecca70cb3426d08b7539ec9d99ac.jpg" alt="Screenshot" /> You played three different champions, as did a number of people on your team, which is not something we've seen that much this weekend.  Why did you decide to switch the picks so much? Really it's just about picking reactively.  For the first game, all I really wanted to do was play passive, and we weren't going to be a play-making botlane, so I picked Janna because she can help the rest of the map.  No other support can really do that expect Soraka, so I picked Janna because it was really good against their team, really good against Zed, and I can just peel since usually they just want to dive in our backline.  So I picked Janna, and lane went really well.  Really we only pick stuff that's interchangeable with our team.  Nidalee was one of them, and we just picked based on what we wanted to do that game.  Game 1 was passive, just let Hotshot play Nidalee and do whatever he wants up there while we play 4v4 on the bottom side.  And then after game 1, after playing passive and realizing what we could do, then we could pick a little bit more aggressively, and we did that game 3 as well, just to be able to shut them down and get it over with. The casters onstream predicted that it could be Doublelift playing support Blitzcrank when they saw that pick.  Is that something we might ever see from CLG? We had brought that up before, that we could do that, and the team is really fine with doing that too.  But I didn't want to do that because I've been just so angry recently—not in a bad way, but the motivational kind of way, where a fire just explodes inside of you.  So I wanted to play Blitzcrank, wanted to go mid and just shut down their jungler and get us an early lead to snowball the game. <img id="ssMainPic" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="http://zam.zamimg.com/images/2/8/28ba8731585a19533ae27a3f6a2b0b69.jpg" alt="Screenshot" /> In the second game, you seemed really willing to leave Doublelift alone and go into the bottom jungle with Chauster.  That's something that differs from "let's protect Doublelift."  Do you think you're starting to change as a team, or was that just situational? In scrims, we practiced 2v1 middle, and normally when anyone 2v1s middle, the support should always leave the AD carry to 1v1 an AP because when you have an AD lane middle, they almost always beat the AP carry early, because usually the AP carry early doesn't do as much damage as they do later.  Especially Ezreal; he can just 1v1 anyone.  So I leave and go contest their jungle, and in doing that, that prevents the jungler from ganking the other two lanes, so we're just holding them up and the other two lanes are just by themselves and they can just do whatever they want.  They should be able to win off that.  Especially Blitzcrank, because you can pull buffs over walls and pull people into you. You had some pretty fantastic pulls.  What's your secret to landing such amazing Blitzcrank pulls? My secret...I don't really have a secret when I play Blitzcrank really.  All I think of is, when I was little, and I used to play catch with my dad, he would say, "You touch the ball, you catch the ball."  So when I play Blitzcrank, when they're in my range I'm gonna grab you because that's it, and I just relate that to real life and I play Blitzcrank that way. How did you know to grab to the side of the bush for the first blood? Every AD stands in that spot because it's the fastest way to escape the brush if you do see them, you can just run right out.  There's no reason for you to stand in the middle of the brush, but that would be next-level if someone did that.  So usually you grab right there, and luckily he was there and we got first blood. <img id="ssMainPic" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="http://zam.zamimg.com/images/9/3/937a3b706777376d90e046196f909a74.jpg" alt="Screenshot" /> You went for three support picks that aren't the Sona/Lulu/Thresh that were sort of the only viable supports for a while.  Do you think that people have been too narrow-minded about only playing those three supports?  Or were those picks very situational? Like I said, we always pick reactively.  I pick my support reactively.  But usually people just get so hyped over supports that are just good in the meta right now, like Sona/Lulu/Thresh.  Normally, people will just play what they think is good but usually there’re still other supports in the game, and they all have different things you can do if you have a certain strategy for it.  So you play Blitzcrank, you don't really play him to 2v2 bottom lane because it's terrible and you'll lose.  So you play Blitz to go 2v1 mid and mess up their jungler.  Janna is just really good at peeling against Zed.  No one really knows that, and no one really plays Janna against Zed, they just play Lulu for the effective health ulti.  But I think melee supports are going to come back into play again.  Usually the support meta just shifts—oh, let's go to ranged, oh, let's go to melee supports based on how the other map plays.  So before in LCS, normally everyone just plays the OPs, and it was Elise, Jayce, etc., middle was like Diana, and ranged supports are very good for that because they can initiate and then you can follow up with huge CC from range, you don't really want to get in there.  Now that everyone's running globals and AoE-centric comps, everyone's going to stack up on top of each other, and Sona's really good for that, but there's also Alistar—you can 5-man pulverize and still be all right, and that's good too.  So melee supports are good too; you can dominate lane, and melee supports are decent in 2v1 as long as your jungler comes.  Everyone's 2v1ing right now and I think that melee supports are really good in 2v1 because they can dive.  The third game we showed that with Taric-Urgot.  We could dive many times because melee supports are so tanky, and if you were a ranged support you couldn't do that because most ranged supports don't have hard CC. <img id="ssMainPic" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="http://zam.zamimg.com/images/c/c/cce98c752eb7e6269712f07f314244d4.jpg" alt="Screenshot" /> So will we get to see your Leona in the summer split? Maybe.  The only reason I don't play Leona is that Thresh is a direct counter to Leona.  I E in, and he flays, and it's over.  So Leona can't really do much against that.  The bad side of picking a melee support is they can just 2v1 and run away from you.  Usually I don't pick Leona just because of that.  And you can miss the skill shot; that's why I pick Taric, because it's just a point stun, and you can't miss it. Any final comments or shoutouts? Shoutout to my sponsors, Razer, XMG, Azubu.tv.  And we have an announcement in the coming weeks of a new sponsor. Follow <a href="http://rheingoldriver.blogspot.com/">RheingoldRiver’s blog,</a> or watch <a title="RheingoldRiver's Twitch Page" href="http://www.twitch.tv/rheingoldriver" target="_blank">her live stream</a>, for more thoughts on League of Legends and, as always, be sure to head to <a title="Lol" href="http://www.lolking.net/" target="_blank">LolKing</a> for every conceivable tool, guide and resource you need to give you the edge.<a name="pagebreak" title="pagebreak"></a> Tue, 21 May 2013 20:36:12 -0000 League of Legends: LCS Report 2 [League of Legends] http://www.zam.com/story.html?story=32419   <img id="ssMainPic" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="http://zam.zamimg.com/images/5/1/51001927e4c264bce4e6860d3fa9e0b5.jpg" alt="Screenshot" /> With excellent overviews of each match and interviews with the expert summoners involved, RheingoldRiver brings fantastic insight into the NA Spring Playoffs that enthralled millions as part of the <a href="http://na.lolesports.com/">League of Legends Championship Series</a> event this past weekend. RheingoldRiver is a valued member of the terrific <a href="http://www.lolking.net/">LolKing</a> community; the site for all of your <a href="http://na.leagueoflegends.com/">League of Legends</a> tools, guides and information. You can also find additional, regular LoL insights at Rhein’s own blog, <a href="http://rheingoldriver.blogspot.com/">right here</a>.<a name="pause" title="pause"></a><img id="ssMainPic" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="http://zam.zamimg.com/images/f/c/fc6b4f5555435d42a4cd9bf3adb6a6cd.png" alt="Screenshot" />   After a very strong 2-0 victory on Friday, Quantic took on current LCS team Complexity in a best-of-five series.  Picking a roster of five very strong individual champions, Complexity took a very early lead with LemonNation barely surviving a Jarvan IV gank in midlane and turning the gank for first blood onto Lautemortis.  Complexity came back for one kill off a pr0lly Destiny to botlane, but it would be their only kill of the game, as Quantic thwarted every Complexity aggression attempt, exerted complete jungle control, and just decimated the towers of the blue team.  Complexity survived for a bit longer than Team Astral Poke had the day before, but Quantic took a 22-minute uncontested baron and then pushed the nexus and won the game by 24 minutes. Whether it was because they banned out Hai's Zed mid or just because they knew more what to expect, Complexity looked a bit stronger in game 2, but they still could not compare to the power of Quantic.  The challenger team had perfect dragon control the entire game, with their fourth dragon at 23 minutes, and though this time they gave up 4 kills, their overall pressure was something that Complexity again had no answer for.  Quantic over and over again sent people midlane and then had their side-lane split-pushers join up to the midlane with great coordination to pick up kill after kill.  And again, Quantic took baron and then pushed the nexus, this time at the 26-minute mark. In game 3, Complexity needed to win or they would be removed from the LCS.  They were able to win the very first fight of the game in toplane despite a Meteos countergank, but shortly after, Balls defeated Nickwu's Jayce in a 1v1 in the bottom lane.  Quantic continued through the rest of laning looking strong, but the game wasn't completely sealed until about 18 minutes, when Quantic took Dragon, aced Complexity for only Balls falling to pr0lly, and then rotated up to Baron, securing the buff for all five members of their team.  They had a slight misstep in botlane, with a dive that only went 2 for 2, but it was a "misstep" that was still in their favor, because they took the inhibitor turret for it, and then it was simple for them to push the base, winning the game by the 28-minute mark. <img id="ssMainPic" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="http://zam.zamimg.com/images/5/c/5c7b88f705010d8ebc1bbb850573e97b.jpg" alt="Screenshot" /> I talked with Hai, Quantic's midlaner, after their 5-0 sweep though the weekend. Rhein: How does it feel, having 5-0'd all of your games? Hai: It feels great!  It's much better than losing, I'll say that much.  And to 5-0 them, it's just like, we're not trash, I guess. Is that what you expected? Before the games happened, I wasn't thinking about the scores, cause I just want to take it one game at a time.  Last LCS, I figured we were going to 3-0, and that didn't turn out, so this way I just went in level-headed and humble and was expecting anything to happen, so I wasn't predicting scores or anything. In an interview you did with Optimus Tom beforehand, you said that you thought that all the paths through were equally difficult.  Do you still stand by that, you think that you would have had the same result against any of the teams? I'm not sure, because Complexity has been scrimming against Dignitas and CLG recently, and they've been getting much better.  So I'm not entirely sure how the game could have gone, because each team plays differently.  We could have won or we could have lost as well, and it's just today we made a pull through.  I still stand by my statement of saying it's probably equally hard, and that there's no easy road. <img id="ssMainPic" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="http://zam.zamimg.com/images/8/f/8faf95720a7e808f5b48f78fdc29c13f.jpg" alt="Screenshot" /> You've made it in the LCS, and you're going to be fighting all of the LCS teams.  What teams are you concerned about? We're not really afraid of any of the teams, we always take it like this is just another team, whether it's TSM or just a random challenger team.  We always take every team seriously; we just put them on the same skill level.  Regardless of whether they're better or not, we just treat them the same way.  So we're not really worried about either team, we're just gonna go there and do what we do. You were one of the only two players on your team to play more than 2 champions across the 5 games; you all had very similar picks.  Can you talk about that a bit? When we pick champions, we pick them by the level of strength.  Not only are they our comfort champions, they're also overpowered champions.  So the difference between each game was, certain games my champions were banned, so I had to pick a different one, but their champions were left open so they just picked it.  What we play is what we consider OP, and there's no reason to change what works.  If it works the first game, we imagine it will work the second game, so we're not gonna change anything unless it doesn't work.  And even if it doesn't work, we'll probably just do the same thing. Say Riot balances the game perfectly tomorrow.  What's your team comp? We'd probably pick the same champions because they are our comfort picks at the moment.  But I'm sure we could adapt and pick other ones, and find out what we like the best. What would be your midlaner? I'd still pick Zed.  That champion's the best thing that happened to this game.  It's so fun to play.  I have a great time with it, I play well with it, and it happens to be overpowered, so why not play him. <img id="ssMainPic" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="http://zam.zamimg.com/images/f/f/ff6e98b1c32f7a450b2092bd4c300f91.jpg" alt="Screenshot" /> You did a Red Elixir start on Zed.  With the nerf, it's a lot less of a common start.  When do you pick it? The only reason I go Red Elixir is that there's no other start that would be as good.  You could go Rejuvenation Bead and pots and a ward, but that's not our play style.  Our play style is to just go HAM and go aggressive, and I can't do that with Rejuvenation Bead.  With a Fort pot, I will win the lane.  Even though I spent 350 gold to start it, I will win the lane because of that item, and that's what we all want to do.  So I probably wouldn't buy anything else, even after the nerf. If Red Elixir had been nerfed, but the change to HP pots hadn't happened, what would you open with? You could go 9 health pots and 2 wards, and you could play as aggressive, but the fact that my support 5 wards at level 1 in half of the games, I don't need to buy wards.  So I'd probably still buy Fort pot, because that item is really good for what it gives. In a lot of the games, it looked like you were doing a textbook example of how to have perfect map control in League of Legends.  One example was the play in the second game where you rotated up to midlane from bot perfectly in time to pick up a double kill.  How long in advance do you plan plays like this? We normally just make the enemy team react to what we do, and when they react to it we counter-react to it.  So when they were fighting mid, I said oh hey, I'm going up for this.  Normally, if you watch the Asian scene, whenever a fight happens half of the team will head over there.  So whenever my team's fighting, wherever I am, I'm going to start heading there, whether they need me or not, so that I can either clean up or help push, because if we won the fight and they're running away we can take the turret.  So I just came to clean up, and that's what my job is. When an objective is about to respawn, when do you start to call timers for that? Normally we have the timer in the chat, but we won't start prepping it for about a minute before.  We'll be like, "Dragon is spawning in a minute.  Please go buy.  Please be ready to fight this."  We probably won't plan 2 minutes ahead, that's too much, probably just a minute ahead and just let everyone plan to buy their items and come to the fight. <img id="ssMainPic" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="http://zam.zamimg.com/images/8/a/8ad967bef16d8f0caa2dcf1712ce44cb.jpg" alt="Screenshot" /> You sound very confident about the NA scene right now.  If you were to go play in OGN right now, how well do you think you would do? We wouldn't win, I'll tell you that much.  We'd do okay, but I don't think we would win.  If it was a best of 16, we'd make top 8 possibly, so I have no idea.  They're very good over there, mechanically, and the way they play is better than us.  We're just trying to copy them; we don't necessarily do it perfectly.  I'm sure we could hold our own against a few teams, but if we're playing Najin Sword or something I'm pretty sure we'd lose.  But we're going to play more so that we can actually play them in the future. Name one midlaner from each region that you're the most scared to fight against. For America, the best one I'd say is Reginald by far.  I'm not necessarily afraid to play against him because it's really fun for me, but I'd definitely say he's the best.  For Europe, I'd probably say Alex Ich.  His mechanics are phenomenal, and his understanding of the game...he knows when to roam and when to push, so I'd probably be afraid of him.  In Korea, Faker has been getting a lot of recognition for being a god, so I'd probably have to watch out for him too, with his LeBlanc play.  And in China, I think it's just Toyz and the guy on IG, Zitai.  Those are the two best in China, so I'd have to watch out for them. Any final shoutouts? Thanks for the interview, first off.  And feel free to follow @hai_l9, and thanks to our sponsors Alienware, SteelSeries, and AverMedia for everything they've done.<a name="pagebreak" title="pagebreak"></a>  <img id="ssMainPic" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="http://zam.zamimg.com/images/5/d/5d09ba42eeb114753a20820050adadad.jpg" alt="Screenshot" /> After Quantic swept past Complexity in the first best-of-five set of the weekend, all eyes were on Velocity to see if all of the challenger teams were really that strong and on Marn to see if they could hold their LCS spot, a feat that now seemed much more difficult after the results of the first round.  A double kill for Nientonsoh's Tristana at 7 minutes off a Nasus gank, followed by a third kill for Tristana, a dragon, and a solo kill by MegaZero onto Cris in toplane made Marn look very strong in the first game.  Velocity eSports responded with multiple catches onto Marn's toplaner, though, and the challenger team started to come back in gold, even passing their opponents after a 22-minute dragon.  But Nientonsoh continued to get more and more kills, going 8-1 by 35 minutes.  The fights continued evenly between the two teams, and Velocity even looked to win the game after an incredible Baron steal by Vileroze on Lux.  A 40-minute fight went massively in Marn's favor with Nientonsoh picking up a quadrakill (Velocity's support Evaniskus survived) and letting his team push for the win. <img id="ssMainPic" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="http://zam.zamimg.com/images/2/8/28ba8731585a19533ae27a3f6a2b0b69.jpg" alt="Screenshot" /> After losing one of the closer games of the weekend, Velocity decided to switch things around a bit and ran a double-ADC, double-support composition with Ezreal jungle and Janna mid.  The composition proved strong, as Ezreal was able to secure his team the bot outer tower before the four-minute mark, and Velocity also took the first blood at about 9 minutes—in addition to the first dragon, off an arcane shift-smite-flash steal by Nk Inc.  Though Marn won the next two fights, Velocity had incredible escapes, with only one member sacrificed each time.  And Velocity just pushed lanes constantly.  The top inhibitor turret fell at 20 minutes, and still Velocity pushed lanes.  Ten minutes later, Ezreal and Elise duod Baron for their team, and at that point it was straightforward for Velocity to push through the Marn base and carrying the set to 1-1. Marn wanted nothing more to do with Velocity's double-ADC double-support composition, and it was no surprise to see a Janna ban in game 3.  Both teams went for standard team comps, and the game got off to an exciting start with fantastic play by MegaZero pushing Nk Inc's Nasus off the blue buff he was trying to steal for several seconds.  However, not too much happened after the early pressure, as both teams just spent the entirety of the early and midgame posturing around Dragon.  The result of the posturing was a drawn-out and fairly even game, with the gold gap less than 2k at the 40-minute mark and only seven towers pushed down total.  Velocity started to take the lead shortly after that point, with two barons in a row, but then a fight at 55 minutes went hugely in favor of Marn, leading to what looked like an easy victory push for them—however, Evaniskus on Zyra was barely able to save his team's base and their chances in the game.  It was now Velocity pushing on Marn's base, but Nientonsoh, huge on Corki, waited just outside of the Velocity base to Valkyrie over the wall, take out the remaining health on the only tower that was still standing, and then single-handedly destroy the nexus, another exciting base-race victory for Team Marn. Potentially one game away from staying in LCS, in game 4 Marn tried a team composition slightly different from what they had been running, with the AoE of MegaZero on Kennen, ecco on Karthus, and ClakeyD on Zac.  Nientonsh stole Ezreal from maplestreet, and Heartbeat opted for Sona instead of Thresh to complete the AoE lineup.  Their teamfight had great potential, but they were never able to utilize it fully, with early lanes turning in favor of the blue team Velocity.  A great early Dragon steal by Nk Inc just before 20 minutes led to a decent gold lead for Velocity, and with Marn unable over and over again to successfully combine their AoE, maplestreet's Tristana just got to be too much for Marn to deal with.  Ultimately Vileroze and Nk Inc were able to take down the nexus with the help of super minions after narrowly winning a last teamfight just after 30 minutes, taking the series to game 5. <img id="ssMainPic" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="http://zam.zamimg.com/images/0/4/0423fa0de61faa265383a781bde5bcff.jpg" alt="Screenshot" /> Everything was on the line for both teams in game 5, as Velocity's second series went the full length.  With both Elise and Rumble on their team, Velocity looked to be in a great position, also stealing away Nientonsoh's Tristana.  First blood went to the challenger team off a gank from Nk Inc's Nasus in botlane, and though Marn took a kill on their own gank in toplane, it wasn't enough as the toplane fight was 1-1.  A roam to botlane from Vileroze led to two more kills and a dragon for Marn at 8 minutes, and then two minutes later Cris showed why his Elise should be feared, picking up a triple kill for himself in exchange only for Vileroze's life.  Velocity continued through the game on a tear, up 11-4 and over 10k gold by 25 minutes after picking up a free baron.  They picked up their second baron at 30 minutes, took out all three of Marn's inhibitors, and then took out the now former LCS team's nexus, making themselves the second challenger team to earn a spot in the summer split. After his drawn-out but ultimately victorious series against Marn, I interviewed Velocity's jungler, Nk Inc. <img id="ssMainPic" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="http://zam.zamimg.com/images/5/5/55a10602a36ac6729c133031834bcadf.jpg" alt="Screenshot" /> Rhein: Congratulations on finally winning a very long series. Nk Inc: Thanks. You played eight games this weekend, which was more than any other team will play.  How do you feel after such a long weekend? It's really tiring.  After all the games, I had a really bad headache, and it I didn't really know what to do.  I just wanted to sit down and relax, but we had a lot of interviews and stuff to go to, so it was more exhausting afterward.  But I'm glad we won, and it was really an exhausting weekend. How do you keep yourselves mentally strong throughout? I think one of the biggest things is you can't let it get to you mentally.  I know I'm really good at controlling my emotions, so if we lose a game or win a game it doesn't affect me too much; you just take the next game and do your best to win it.  But I know a lot of the guys, they're a lot more prone to getting down on themselves or down as a whole team, and what Evan and Vile do is they yell if we make a play or we do something good, they always yell and that gets them back in the game.  So that's probably the biggest thing that we do as a team to keep our mental game up there so that we're not down ourselves and we just give the rest of the games away. The most interesting part of the series was probably the second game where you went for double ADC and double support.  That's not something you can practice in solo queue.  How did you get to practice that comp? We came up with that strategy when Pr0lly was still on the team, and what we would do was if we trusted the team we would play it against them.  If we know that a team would not leak the strategy, like Dignitas or TSM or whoever you can trust, whatever LCS team you can trust, that's who you play the strategy against to practice it to see how well it does, what counters it, just the entire strategy itself.  You just hide it in scrims and practice it in scrims, and do your best to hide it.  That's the only real way to get a strategy like that and have it be successful. How much practice did you get with that strategy? I think we played anywhere from ten to fifteen.  So we had a decent amount of games, we knew what countered it, we knew how to win with it.  We knew everything about that comp to most extents. <img id="ssMainPic" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="http://zam.zamimg.com/images/2/5/2599ecca70cb3426d08b7539ec9d99ac.jpg" alt="Screenshot" /> Why didn't you use the game straight off the bat in the first game? The biggest problem is if you're on purple side, the ban order can screw that strategy up, because you have to pick Ezreal or Janna and then that leaves them two picks to counter it.  So when you're on blue side, you get first pick, two picks, and then your last two picks, and your last two picks are Ezreal-Janna.  Your first three picks, you can pick whatever you want for top, support, and AD carry.  And you don't give away any part of that comp by picking those three, and you can back out based on what their next two picks are, so when you get those last two picks, you pick Ezreal-Janna.  They can only counter it with one pick, and usually you can play through that one pick.  If they have two or three heroes that counter that composition, like Diana or Kha'zix or a hard-engage hero like Amumu, you have a really hard time.  So you need to avoid that, and it's really easy to avoid that on blue side and not so much on purple side. <img id="ssMainPic" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="http://zam.zamimg.com/images/0/d/0dd9d953febd3f95c2cc86e3f97c8346.jpg" alt="Screenshot" /> You have played on Meat Playground and Dirtnap Gaming prior to this.  How did that previous experience help you out? Having played on LAN before, it's a lot better playing on LAN again.  You're not really nervous, and you don't make as many mistakes.  I know, when you're first on LAN, you can just be jittery and buy the wrong items or just not play how you normally would play.  So having prior LAN experience is really a big thing coming into a LAN. Do you think that was an issue for any members of your team? I know Vile had never played in a LAN before, so the first day was really rough for him because he didn't have any experience.  The monitor size was different for him, he didn't have his mouse pad, he had a whole bunch of different factors that wouldn't have been factors at his house that he had to play around. You shotcall with Vileroze.  How have you gotten used to shotcalling with a new midlaner? Vile's main job, I think, is he keeps the team really hyped.  That's one of his go-tos is if someone makes a play somewhere on the map, he does a really good job of keeping them up: "Oh man, I made a really good play," "That was awesome," or whatever.  He does a good job with that.  I make a lot of the calls, like "do Dragon," "do towers," do this, do that, this is how we win the game.  I make those calls, and Vile reinforces that, and if he has an idea he puts his input in, so we get both of our ideas out there and do what the best thing is. In five of your eight games, you played Nasus.  Why is Nasus a favored jungle pick for you? Against Marn, Nien is one of their best players, and Wither basically shuts him out of the game completely.  So I would be a fool not to pick Nasus against Marn because if I can shut Nien out of the game completely by picking Nasus, and forcing him to take Cleanse and get a QSS, and do all this extraneous stuff to prevent me from making him useless, then that's worth it to me.  If that one pick does all of that to their team, it's great.  The other factor is if I go bottom to 2v2 with Cris, if he's on Renekton or Elise or something like that, we can just straight-up fight their bottom lane and kill them or zone them or tower-dive them, and they can't really do anything.  The whole time that's happening, our toplane is just pushing and getting the tower, so we get a huge advantage off Nasus's ability to shut down the AD carry. <img id="ssMainPic" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="http://zam.zamimg.com/images/5/0/50a1d4263ed8cba95594bbfcf98f8189.jpg" alt="Screenshot" /> If you're playing a team where you don't think the AD carry is such a big threat, what jungle picks could we see from you? Basically it would just be a team comp thing.  If we want Rumble, I would probably pick Jarvan with that, or Amumu or some AoE character like that.  If we're running a more poke-oriented comp, it would be Cho'gath or Hecarim.  It's just whatever fits with the team comp basically. One question about your item builds.  A lot of the time in those games, Shen built a Bulwark, which means that your team doesn't have the Bulwark while you're ulting in.  When do you think it's ok to build the Bulwark on Shen, and when would you have to build it on someone else? I think the biggest thing is just the ease of getting it.  Our support didn't want to get Bulwark because it's too expensive for a support player, and for our toplaner, it reduces his damage and his ability to fight someone.  So really the only option you're left with is your jungler, and most of the time, Shen is grouped for a lot of the fighting, and as soon as he gets in with the ult, you're good to go.  A lot of teams use Shen wrong, in that they ult in after a fight starts.  The best way to use Shen in my opinion is you ult someone and start the fight right there because that's unexpected, and then if they try to focus that guy he's usually the tank, like Renekton or even Kha'zix, who can go invisible, something like that.  You should get Bulwark if you're using Shen properly in my opinion. We're running a bit long, so any final shoutouts you want to make? I want to give a shoutout to Gungho, LoLHQ.net, and Game4Glory, and I want to say thank you to everyone who's a fan of Velocity eSports.  I want to thank all my friends and family, because I know, as soon as the games were over, they sent me a lot of text messages, congratulations and what-not, and that was a really good feeling.  I want to thank all of them for that. Follow <a href="http://rheingoldriver.blogspot.com/">RheingoldRiver’s blog,</a> or watch <a title="RheingoldRiver's Twitch Page" href="http://www.twitch.tv/rheingoldriver" target="_blank">her live stream</a>, for more thoughts on League of Legends and, as always, be sure to head to <a title="Lol" href="http://www.lolking.net/" target="_blank">LolKing</a> for every conceivable tool, guide and resource you need to give you the edge. Return to ZAM for more League of Legends news, views and interviews.<a name="pagebreak" title="pagebreak"></a> Tue, 21 May 2013 20:08:58 -0000 Warcraft is Escalating with Patch 5.3: Escalation [World of Warcraft] http://www.zam.com/story.html?story=32418 <img src="http://zam.zamimg.com/images/2/e/2e1bbf1d5e11bece7aad30754ba57411.jpg" alt="" width="622" height="240" />  Well that escalated quickly-<a href="http://us.battle.net/wow/en/">World of Warcraft</a>’s newest patch, “<a href="http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/9679405/53_Escalation_Round-up-5_20_2013#PvP">Escalation</a>” hits live servers today!  One of the biggest mechanics altering patches of Mists of Pandaria, 5.3 is adding a ton of new content, and making some big changes to already existing systems.  For detailed information, you can check out <a href="http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/">Blizzard</a>’s official content page for 5.3 <a href="http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/9679405/53_Escalation_Round-up-5_20_2013#PvP">here</a>, and for all of your guides, details, and answers to your questions, heading over to <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/">WoWhead</a>’s <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/news=212498/wowheads-patch-5-3-guide">5.3 guide</a> is also a must. <a name="pause" title="pause"></a>  This patch includes a lot of major changes that many players have been anticipating for a while.  Blizzard is fleshing outits ideas and plans that were outlined and begun at the start of the expansion.  Four new <a href="http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/9623680/">Scenarios</a> are added to the roster, giving players more avenues to explore the lore of Warcraft in a way that is short and sweet.  Also being added are “<a href="http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/9447311/">specialization choices</a>.” In other words, you can highlight your role so that the gear that drops specific to you (from quests or bonus rolls in LFR), is tailored to your character so that you are more likely to be able to equip it.  <a href="http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/9241762/">Item upgrades</a> are also coming back, with new costs and specifics.  The <a href="http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/9425559/">Brawler’s Guild</a> is also getting some much needed love with new fights, new rewards and a hint from Blizzard that we might get to fight some of our favorite evil-doers from past Warcraft encounters.  <img src="http://zam.zamimg.com/images/9/0/90b0dd479cda74f888e3ae9ebd8e4e65.jpg" alt="" width="550" height="250" /> Many of the biggest changes in 5.3 are directed at the PvP community. A new <a href="http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/9601893/">arena</a> hits the scene, allowing for a little more diversity in the arena roster.  A new 15v15 Battleground, <a href="http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/9601893/">Deepwind Gorge</a>, is also being thrust into the game with a lot of interesting qualities that separate it from the current Battlegrounds offered in the game.  Moreover, many changes to the way PvP gear works are happening, most notably, the vast majority of PvP gear is getting its Resilience removed and players over level 85 are getting a base 65% Resilience that is innate to their character.  Resilience is still obtainable through gems, but it won’t be the dominant factor in stat choice as before. While we don’t see a new Raid with 5.3, I think that Blizzard has proven with this patch that they can add a ton of content, without having to necessarily push out a raid with every patch.  So what are you waiting for, servers just went live, and there’s a ton to do in Azeroth! <a href="https://twitter.com/TovarishGaming">Tyler "TovarishGaming" Solley</a><a name="pagebreak" title="pagebreak"></a> Tue, 21 May 2013 18:30:00 -0000 A New MOBA Appears: Dawngate [General News] http://www.zam.com/story.html?story=32417 <img style="margin: 5px auto; display: block;" src="http://www.zam.com/Im/Image/237276.jpg" alt="" /> Not only is it another great year in the MMO calendar, with many high profile games making headlines this year, but it is also the year everybody will be shoving MOBA games in your face. Today it is EA's turn with its new title <a href="https://www.waystonegames.com" target="_blank">Dawngate</a>, from the studio <a href="https://www.waystonegames.com" target="_blank">Waystone Games</a>.<a name="pause" title="pause"></a>Developers Waystone Games recently teamed up with Machinima VS, the competitive gaming wing of Machinima, to release a first look at their new MOBA title Dawngate. The developers talk about contributing to the genre, the future of MOBAs, lore and game design, as well as eSports: <object width="640" height="360"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/bEROYydcyMk?hl=en_US&version=3&rel=0" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/bEROYydcyMk?hl=en_US&version=3&rel=0" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" /></object> At a quick glance, the game certainly looks a lot like its respected predecessors, but there are enough differences to change the gameplay. Working with what we learn from the video above first. While the map is your standard 5v5, it is also a two-lane map, and notably it has resource hubs called Spirit Wells in each of the four corners. When captured, the Spirit Wells will spawn workers who will automatically collect resources for your team, making it a key strategical location to get an edge over your opponent. In games like <a href="http://leagueoflegends.com/" target="_blank">League of Legends</a> and <a href="http://blog.dota2.com/" target="_blank">DotA 2</a>, keeping control of resources on the map is vital to winning; the team that is able to control the runes/buffs and the Dragon/Baron/Roshan typically wins the game. I am very interested to see how the presence of Spirit Wells impacts the gameplay, especially since there are only two lanes, but five players, meaning one player will likely be a jungler/infiltrator who tries to kill enemy workers and/or steal away enemy Spirit Wells. <img style="margin: 5px auto; display: block;" src="http://www.zam.com/Im/Image/237275.jpg" alt="" width="630" height="300" /> The folks over at Awesome-Robo had a chance to try Dawngate out while in Closed Beta; let's have a look at some of their findings, particularly in regard to items:  <blockquote> “The game has no traditional items when you peruse the shop in base, instead offering an abstracted set of principles: Life, Resilience, Will, Power, Time and Hunger with branching purchase trees offering distinct passive abilities. One of my first items branched out into Glory, which offered a passive damage aura that worked perfectly with my up close and personal tanking Shaper. While initially confusing to figure out, including an absence of a philosophy for casters from what I could tell, it's an interesting take on the traditional item builds.” </blockquote> I can't make too much of an analysis of how this works in the game without having played it myself. But, the one thing I would say is that items in League of Legends and DotA are very distinctive and memorable because they are more than just a '+30 strength', they have a name and their own unique function; it means something when you complete your Infinity Edge or Guardian Angel. You could say they are like a character in the game.  There are also apparently spells similar to those in League of Legends and <a href="http://smitegame.com/" target="_blank">Smite</a>; be sure to <a href="http://www.awesome-robo.com/2013/05/lets-check-out-eas-dawngate-moba-beta.html" target="_blank">head on over to Awesome-Robo to read all about it</a>. It is really good to see that the developers are going to be very involved in the community with this project. They have already setup a Twitch TV and YouTube channel which they have said they will be broadcasting from, and they are starting beta as early as Friday, blimey! While a little dubious about how Dawngate will be monetized under the house of EA, I am very curious to see what this passion project from Waystone Games can bring to the genre. You can <a href="https://www.waystonegames.com/betaSignup/intro" target="_blank">sign-up to the beta on the official Dawngate website</a>. <a href="http://twitter.com/Crainey92" target="_blank">Chris Rainey, Columnist</a><a name="pagebreak" title="pagebreak"></a> Tue, 21 May 2013 18:00:00 -0000 World of Tanks: Update 8.6 Outlined [World of Tanks] http://www.zam.com/story.html?story=32425 <img id="ssMainPic" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="http://zam.zamimg.com/images/8/9/89472619c988f190a470ce15450d191b.jpg" alt="Screenshot" /> Prepare to expand your battle plans as Update 8.6 will soon be hitting <a title="World of Tanks" href="http://worldoftanks.com/" target="_blank">World of Tanks</a>. The next iteration on the phenomenally successful free-to-play game will bring economy changes, a new British medium tank -- the A33 Excelsior -- and other additions that will add breadth and depth to the already accomplished action/strategy combat experience.<a name="pause" title="pause"></a><img id="ssMainPic" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="http://zam.zamimg.com/images/1/8/18047ee95dbed74349bb72a210615c3a.jpg" alt="Screenshot" /> The American tech tree will get some new armor to bolster its stable with the M44 and M33/55 artillery units -- pictured above. German tech tree aficionados can look forward to three new entrants, including the G.W. Tiger (P), while the French divisions will receive reinforcements in the form of the AMX Obusier automoteur de 105 and Bat.Chatillon155 (55) artilleries. The anticipated effect on the game was summed up in a recent press release: <blockquote> “Update 8.6 is a major step in game balance enhancement and is really going to make SPGs players happy," said Mike Zhivets, producer on World of Tanks. "Artillery gameplay is going to feel a lot more balanced with a normal ten tier structure, making advancing through that class of armor more comfortable for players." </blockquote> What aspect of Update 8.6 are you most looking forward to? You can sign up to play World of Tanks <a title="Register for World of Tanks" href="https://worldoftanks.com/registration/en/" target="_blank">right here</a> and stay tuned at ZAM for more <a title="Wargaming" href="http://na.wargaming.net/" target="_blank">Wargaming</a> news. <a title="Scott Hawkes on Twitter" href="https://twitter.com/Jarimor" target="_blank">Scott "Jarimor" Hawkes, Editor in Chief</a><a name="pagebreak" title="pagebreak"></a> Tue, 21 May 2013 17:06:19 -0000 Guild Wars 2's Permanent Price Cut [Guild Wars 2] http://www.zam.com/story.html?story=32415 <img id="ssMainPic" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="http://zam.zamimg.com/images/7/0/7078168909fb0c56d103038ff5237a57.jpg" alt="Screenshot" /> ArenaNet wants you to journey to Tyria and the company thinks that now is the ideal time. There have been a barrage of content updates recently that show no sign of slowing down. The last three patches have seen a lot of new changes to give new things for players to do and have arrived in brisk two week intervals. Now <a title="Guild Wars 2" href="https://www.guildwars2.com/en/" target="_blank">Guild Wars 2</a> is also getting a 10 dollar price cut, making the standard Digital Edition available for $49.99 and the Deluxe Edition for $69.99. Is a 10 dollar difference enough to make you want to buy the game if you haven't before? Let us know below. I'll be speaking to Colin Johanson about the recent ramping up of content and the price change later today so keep your eyes peeled for more Guild Wars 2 news. <a title="Scott Hawkes on Twitter" href="https://twitter.com/Jarimor" target="_blank">Scott "Jarimor" Hawkes, Editor in Chief</a> Tue, 21 May 2013 09:41:54 -0000 Into the Dragons' Den [Dragons Prophet] http://www.zam.com/story.html?story=32414 <img src="http://zam.zamimg.com/images/c/4/c48905191db2e95b8689589dc8c0983b.jpg" alt="" width="630" height="340" /> In most MMOs I’ve played, the gallant hero is asked by a desperate kingdom to slay the wicked dragon. Not so for upcoming MMO <a href="https://www.dragonsprophetthegame.com/" target="_blank">Dragon’s Prophet</a>. In this latest free-to-play creation from <a href="http://www.runewaker.com/en/index.php" target="_blank">Runewaker</a> and published by <a href="https://www.soe.com/" target="_blank">Sony Online Entertainment</a>, you get the chance to tame, train and ride dragons of your very own. For all those eagerly anticipating raising a clutch of magical reptiles, the good news is that open beta starts in North America on May 30. <a href="https://www.dragonsprophetthegame.com/vip-access.vm" target="_blank">Founders with VIP access</a> will get a 24 hour head start, giving them early access into the world of Auratia. Closed Beta testers will also be pleased to know that the NDA has been lifted from today, freeing them to share their tales of daring draconic deeds with friends. During the weekend I dived back in, mainly to see how development had progressed since my first look last month. Joined by ZAM regular Chris Rainey, we livestreamed our progress (<a href="http://www.twitch.tv/zamofficial/b/405079653" target="_blank">part 1</a>, <a href="http://www.twitch.tv/zamofficial/b/405246396" target="_blank">part 2</a>, <a href="http://www.twitch.tv/zamofficial/b/405562209" target="_blank">part 3</a>, <a href="http://www.twitch.tv/zamofficial/b/405732432" target="_blank">part 4</a>) from character creation to the giddy heights of level 20. As an extra bonus, I’ll be streaming a special session on <a href="http://www.twitch.tv/zamofficial/" target="_blank">ZAM's Twitch.TV channel</a> from 4pm Pacific on Thursday May 23, where I’ll be joined by senior producer Todd Carson to answer all your Dragon’s Prophet questions. <embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="512" height="312" src="http://www.zam.com/shared/fp/flowplayer.commercial-3.1.5.swf" flashvars="config=http://www.zam.com/video.html%3Fembed%3D834" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" quality="high" bgcolor="#000000" pluginspage="http://www.adobe.com/go/getflashplayer" wmode="opaque" /><a name="pause" title="pause"></a>From the Beginning Starting out, it’s clear that Dragon’s Prophet is designed for those who like to customize. Character creation is at the more detailed end of the scale, with sliders for almost every physical aspect of your avatar. Dye options are also in, allowing you to be as stylish or kaleidoscopic as your tastes demand. There are only four classes available, but with good reason. Guardians and Rangers handle melee and ranged physical damage, while Oracle and Sorcerer do the same for those who prefer spell casting. Dragon’s Prophet also offers two different continents to start out on, ensuring a varied experience if the alt-craving grabs you. Once I’d battled through the tutorial and awakened in Hunark, it was time to get to grips with the unique combat system. Dragon’s Prophet does away with massive collections of buttons, instead going for a combo system that feels reminiscent of fighting games and classic beat-em-ups. Tap the left mouse button a different number of times and your right mouse button will unleash a different effect; one moment you might be calling down lightning, another you’ll be sweeping round in a circle of fire. As I progressed to level ten a few more abilities became available, each providing me with further combos to play with. Some were direct damage dealers, while others became devastating when surrounded by a crowd of mobs. There were several moments when I felt like I was about to die, only for a well-timed combo to utterly destroy everything around me. While crunching through giants, undead and the occasional wolfman, I realised just how button mashy combat in Dragon’s Prophet is – and that’s a good thing. Bringing down the pain always felt fast-paced and frantic, with the occasional dab for additional doom. It’s a huge change from the rotation or priority based systems used in older MMOs that can feel like you’re keying in a sewing pattern instead of killing a mob. Alas, the fun can’t run non-stop. Some of my most potent abilities require Action points to use. Without care, this precious resource would vanish with a few over-enthusiastic combos. While the stack of points replenishes quickly, it required careful management to unleash them for maximum effect. <img src="http://zam.zamimg.com/images/8/3/83899cfd501bf84c644412aae05edab9.jpg" alt="" width="630" height="340" /> Dragon Country Unsurprisingly, Dragon’s Prophet is all about the dragons. It’s a mission that Runewaker has taken right to the core of the game, with the versatile reptiles filling in for everything from combat pets to non-combat mounts. At level seven I captured my first – a green rhino-like creature that was slightly better than walking. But while mine could heal in combat, another could charge in and knock mobs back – hinting at the fact that almost every dragon is different. If I wanted the perfect one, I’d have to catch it myself or train it up. Pulling your dragon out in combat puts it on a timer, ensuring that it isn’t just a constant companion. As a free player you can have two stabled and ready to summon, but can increase this to six slots by spending some Station Cash. For the hard-hitting elite mobs I had a gliding green dragon that could stunlock very effectively, while for rampaging AoE-fests I’d switch to the docile healer. And yes, while some dragons are stuck stomping on the ground, others can swim, glide or even fly. As Chris and I approached level twenty, we spied our ultimate goal – a pair of fully flying Dancing Lotus Dragons. Actually taming one was a challenge – I had to soften it up a bit first and beat it down to half health, before jumping on its back and wrestling the beast into compliance. Luckily I’d made the whole taming process easier by dumping some Attribute points into Charisma. I could have spent those points that I’d gained every level on something actually useful to my character, like Stamina or Intellect, but I wanted the snazzy new dragon. The trouble with collecting new dragons is trying to decide what to do with the old ones. There were a couple of times where I waved goodbye and released them back into the wild, but a lucky few found a home in my Dragon Lair. I could train them with additional skills, send them away to gather crafting reagents or even teach their existing skills to each other. I handed over a few gold coins to pay for lodging, but it seemed a small price to have an army of dragon minions running errands for me. <img src="http://zam.zamimg.com/images/9/9/99cb502dc27d7a49b241b649084126c5.jpg" alt="" width="630" height="340" /> Taking Flight I’ll make no dragon bones about it – Dragon’s Prophet is still a way from launch. In the closed beta build I played, several items and quest names still had their placeholder text. It’s to be expected – localizing an MMO while it’s still under active development is going to result in a lot of changes. There were also more minor issues, such as voice-over speech not matching the subtitles, but that’s nit-picking the experience. I’m also curious to see how monetization pans out in-game. I saw several options where I could spend station cash, from expanding the size of my Dragon Lair to being able to resurrect on the spot after death, but it’s unclear what form the final game will take. It’s possible that some free to play gamers might end up being locked out of some features, as there doesn’t seem to be a way of exchanging Station Cash for an in-game currency. The only other note of caution I’d sound is around questing. During our final play session, from level 17 to 20, we noticed that several quests were sending us back to the same area to kill the same mobs for different reasons. With a main story questline, regular zone quests, public event quests and repeatable quests all clamoring for our attention, I guess it’s no surprise that we ended up with some duplication. But it’s something to look out for, particularly if you’re trying to maximize your experience gain. All that said, Beta is Beta. We’re likely to see much change between now and launch later in 2013, and I’m keeping an open mind on how SoE will tackle many of these challenges. But as a game, Dragon’s Prophet offers a unique experience in a crowded MMO market, and that alone makes it worth trying. <a href="https://twitter.com/gazimoff" target="_blank">Gareth “Gazimoff” Harmer, Senior Contributing Editor</a><a name="pagebreak" title="pagebreak"></a> Tue, 21 May 2013 08:00:00 -0000