Welcome to LoL!

Hi there! I'm Dreadnire, formally known as Samuel Macleod Tattertots III. I'm here to give you an insight into the ever-growing MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) game that is League of Legends. I promise this won't turn into a Heroes of Newerth Vs. League of Legends rant. So those of you new to the genre, here's a bit of a detailed look into what it's about.

Typically you have three lanes running across a square map. Top and Bottom following their respective edges and Middle firing straight through, well, the middle. The ultimate object is to destroy the enemy teams main structure which in LoLs case comes in the form of a Nexus. To get to this structure though you must first destroy the defending turrets. Without some form of crappy MS paint diagram it gets a little tricky to explain the layout, but you get the general idea.

Usually, it is a 5v5 scenario and the ally and enemy bases mirror each other diagonally. Before a match starts you are thrown in with your friends, or into a group of other people selected to be around your skill level, to the champion selection screen. Here you are given a host of avatars to control each one with unique roles and abilities. These archetypes range from Ability Power, Attack Damage, Support or Tank. Lets break this down a little further into which archetypes do what.

Ability Power:- Now these type of champions usually have an array of medium ranged abilities that work more effectively when either combined in a certain manner or used all at once in a burst of damage. They are usually high damage but low health. So they can dish a lot of damage but take next to no punishment. To counter this they are sometimes given some crowd control effect. Either a stun, slow or suppression.

Attack Damage:- The main beef damage of a team. These are designed around being able to build items that, if fed enough gold, make them unstoppable and carry the team to victory. These types of champions are more a consistent high damage rather than a burst and wait for cool downs type. They can dish the damage and take a small amount of punishment but will not survive if focused on. Again, some are given some form of crowd control.

Support:- Well the name says it all really. This particular type of champion is here to do exactly what it says on the tin. Usually equipped with some healing capabilities or crowd control. They assist the team in getting kills and not getting killed. They have a very low damage output and don't survive very long if focused, but if played correctly is a powerful boon in any team fight.

Tank:- These again, do exactly what they say on the tin. They are here to, as they say, take one for the team. Equipped with a small array of crowd control effects there types are here to take the punishment and disable the enemy team as much as possible. If they die first due to the enemy team blowing their cool downs on him, then he has done his job correctly. They have a lower damage output but are designed to take a lot of punishment.

So there we have the basics covered. I'll be back soon with some more LoL related coverage.

Take care now!

Dread