Sunday, April 17, 2011

Episode 8

This week we discuss the most recent patch, including the new champ Brand and speculation about the Monkey King and Rumble. We take our first audio listener questions alongside our regular blog questions, and also give our thoughts on classic champions Malphite, Tristana, as well as a discussion about the different types of boots. Leave your questions / comments/ feedback / suggestions below, and thanks for listening!

Minions Have Spawned - Episode 8

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27 comments:

  1. Couldnt download the podcast o,o
    it comes a 2kb file...

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  2. Hmm, seems to be working fine now. Try right clicking and save target as maybe? Or use an RSS. Let me know if you still have issues.

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  3. Great show guys, I was actually really happy with the buffs to Maokai. I think he is a solid tank....those saplings....are just plain fun. Now that I'v gotten to lvl 20 I find myself going more towards the tanks in LOL. I guess I like not taking a lot of dmg. I'll prolly post or use the call-in to ask a question a little, just a heads up it will prolly be a tanky question.

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  4. Idk why it wont let me download it...everytime i try i get a 2kb file, tryed with IE, firefox and Chrome and now itunes...no way i could get it =/

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  5. Here is a direct Mediafire link for anyone having download issues.

    http://www.mediafire.com/file/wm5202xg77og77g/Episode8.mp3

    Thanks for listening.

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  6. Thanks for talking about clans this podcast. I liked most of the podcast except for the bashing on Brand. I think he provides some awesome AOE damage and can CC fairly well. He is VERY squishy, but he has to have a downside. I just think you should give him more of a chance before you judge him. I get mana crystal first with 2 health pots. Get boots and catalyst when you go back. Build a veils instead of rod. Rylais scepter is VERY VERY good on him.

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  7. In hindsight we probably were a bit quick to judge Brand, that build sounds like it would work really well.

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  8. Great podcast.
    Just wanted to point out that the double champ reveal coincided with a media event in China. They just let NA know about it as well. Also Monkey King: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Wukong so no banana peels

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  9. if you had to remove 2 champs, what champs would they bye

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  10. The ideal champ to play if you need a tank and a jungler, I'd say would be amumu or rammus, rather than malphite...

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  11. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  12. Amumu I would agree with, Rammus however I'm not so sure about, he has been nerfed pretty hard.

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  13. @emrys404

    nooooooooooooooooooooooo!

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  14. Heya, wanted to explain little bit more on my best guess at Riot's balancing policy. It's suddenly becoming the "hip" thing to learn about your game through metrics. Metrics are statistics you pull from your game. In the case of Riot, they're probably pulling numbers like win/loss ratio per hero, average creep/tower/hero kills per hero, average game length across the board, what items get used on what heroes and when they're bought, how often a hero is picked, what percentage of LoL players own a given hero, etc.

    You're supposed to do that sort of "double/halfing" balance system in alpha testing (at worst in closed beta), but Riot is probably doing something like it for this game and then using metrics to see what difference it makes.

    Every hero should have approximately a 1:1 win loss ratio (theoretically). Someone with different ratios? That's messed up. So, while you may not notice or be able to notice it, maybe Teemo is winning too many games. So, it's time to nerf him. What, Teemo is still winning too many games? Nerf him harder! But he might just still be winning games because the average crowd quit playing him post-nerf and the only ones left are hardcore Teemo fans. Metrics doesn't know the difference.

    This is almost certainly why the Tanky DPS nerf occurred. Someone noticed an across the board trend that Tanky DPS win games. So they nerfed each of them individually. Maybe it was just the items those Tanky DPS bought or it's easier for people to play a Tanky DPS character because they can kill while not worrying too much about dying. Doesn't matter, across the board nerf.

    Metrics are a valuable tool for game developers. They draw attention to problems and let you know how much of whining is just bitching and how much is legit. But, since they can't tell you WHY, they should just be used as a tool, not relied upon to balance your game.

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  15. Very interesting, and it definitely makes sense now that you put it that way. And it also makes it clear why the same champs keep getting nerfed over and over. I have noticed that even after a nerf people will still play their favorite champs, which ironically seems to be leading to more nerfing.

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  16. Yeah it's a bad cycle. Balancing, and game design in general, is an art form. People think that metrics is a way to turn balancing into a science. Balancing is not, it will never be. It should never be.

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  17. So I had had an idea and i'm pretty sure you guys have gone over this is someway or another but.....I think it would be cool to have a show dedicated to each of the main roles. Like a show all about tanks, one about carries, Supports and so forth. Like just go into mad detail about each group. I mean for me since a lot of new changes have happened it's a bit hard to find a solid guide that is up to date.

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  18. Don't you guys know that the Monkey King is from!!? The Chinese Novel Journey to the West. Lots of animes and games have used this story this like Dragon Ball Z, Gensomiden Saiuki, MVC2 (Sonson), and more.

    The theme behind the Monkey King is usually an odd fighting style, his staff grows to any length, he can make clones of himself, and he has a HUGE appetite in general. Hopefully it will be in line with that.

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  19. So my friend refuses to play AD fortune. And says that all his abilities scale with AP, so why not? The worst part is he is doing good with her because the enemy kinda sucks. What can I tell him to persuade him to play AD fortune? Can someone please reply quick?

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  20. Well its true that her ult and make it rain scale with AP, but her main skill, which is double up, is pure AD. Playing AP MF is like playing AP WW, its possible but definitely not the best or most efficient way to play them.

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  21. Love the podcast! I've only played LOL for about a month and listening to the 'cast has been very helpful to me as I make the transition from liability to asset. This game has a pretty steep learning curve, but that's part of what makes it so much fun - it's a challenge. The little personal achievements are so rewarding: First time I finished a game with 0 deaths. First time I got 'first blood'. First double-kill. etc. I've re-listened to most episodes and even get more out of them the second time around (especially when I figured out what a 'ward' is :) ). Thanks for the thought, time, and energy you put in.

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  22. So as a response to the poll:
    I like new Champions. Every couple weeks there are balance tweaks and a new champion. This creates a constantly changing game as new champions fall in and out of favor, different flavors of the month, and introduces new combination for ideal teams and draft picks.

    As I see it, sports like Baseball and Football have retained the same field for the longest time, while retaining enjoyment. As for the "mods" like Extreme Football and Indoor variations? They remain enjoyed by a select few, not the masses.

    As a sports fan, I like seeing new stars come onto the scene. They're like the new Champions while the Coaches are sort of like the Patch notes.

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  23. Oh, but I voted for the Tribunal. Because I frown upon bad sportsmanship.

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  24. I also voted for tribunal seeing as I'd much rather have all the champions receive a look at and fix some balancing between them instead of just adding more to the pile of good, bad, or just FoTM. Plus I am tired of leavers/afkers/etc in ranked :(

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  25. You talk about playing WoW in one of your podcasts, even though this is meant to be all about LoL, I would love to hear some other games you play/played. Also just the kind of games you play in general, and finally if you are the kind of person (so this would be individual) to either play one game ( I am guessing LoL if you made a podcast about it :P) at a time, or instead play a few games at once, with maybe one 'main' game.

    Thanks for the podcast, and keep them coming :D

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  26. You definitely should do some discussion on the EMS games today. OGB and CLG didn't really make America proud, especially that first CLG game.

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  27. Well didn't some people think that CLG threw their first game against EpiK? Cause they lost then got EpiK to surrender at 20 twice. That's what I heard anyay.

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