NO ONE WILL PLAY ULTIMATE BRAVERY WITH ME!!!

our jungler was desperation (hasn't played LOL in a year) and our mid is moving to ND... so looking for replacements for them... so need to find a local supp, jungle or mid... well our 2nd game we got stomped by the team... they they invaded our red which we had warded, but our mid/top/jungle didn't go for theirs because our jungle was too scared of a 3v1 against zed... it was quite frustrating...  our 3rd game was pretty close, but hecarim roflstomped us at about midgame and snowballed from there... the jungle was definitely the biggest difference maker, undoubtedly, and I knew eventually it was going to come down to that as our mid didn't practice and didn't perform.  we had the longest win streak of the entire LAN at 5 games... so we got that  also... in case any of you are interested send me a PM and i can send you some pictures from the event.

I'll get to the MOBA aspect in a sec, but here's some of the non-moba things that keep me playing and I strangely enjoy about league of legends. 

1. Constant expansion of content, bug fixes, patching, and polish.  As long as the game exists (no real end in sight), we'll keep seeing new champions, new skins, and new features.  Riot's pretty good about communicating what they've been working on and sharing thing with the community.  There's currently like 3-5 things including new champs and reworked champs that I'm looking forward to and will see in the next couple of weeks.
2. Grinding.  For every game you play, you get IP.  You can use IP to unlock champs, rune pages, etc.  I don't really know why, but I really like knowing that I'm getting something out of each and every game.  You get more for a win and less for a loss.  There's a daily 1st win of the day bonus that gives you extra IP and motivates you to knock out a game a day.
3. And here's a quick summary of other things I dig but don't have time to elaborate - huge amount of community content including guides, replays, tournaments, lives streams, solid ranked system, the fact that its a new ranked system, features that punish people for behaving poorly, that Riot is incredibly serious about making league a fun experience for everyone where you don't have to deal with asshats on a super regular basis.

So, re: moba's in general - I think a lot of it just comes down to preference in gaming.  I like that you have access to a bunch of different characters (league has > 100) that can have unique synergy with other champs.  I like working with a team to accomplish things.  I like being able to level up a character as the game goes on and to be reward (if I play intelligently) for leveling up faster than someone else.  I like the dueling aspect of going against someone 1v1 and kicking their ass (when that happens ofc).  And I like that its all a repeatable experience.  Games last from 20 to 60 minutes on the map I play on anyway (other maps 8-20 min).  And I have a good pool of pals to play with on a regular basis.  I even like the farming aspect of moba's where you are rewarded for having good mechanical skill.  Some games are more fast paced than others, but there's always something to be thinking about and processing.  For instance, if there is a global objective that is good for the team near the bottom of the map and I'm near the top, then I'm thinking about how we can get that objective while I'm fighting someone at the top of the map.  And I'm constantly paying attention to where the enemy is on the map.  Anyway, I guess the short version on that rap is that the game rewards you for intelligent decisions and good map awareness, even if you happen to do poorly fighting whoever you are laned against.  I've seen people play incredibly terribly and still be able to provide something useful for the team (ofc I've also seem folks just play incredibly terribly period).  Anyway, with so many characters and so many possibilities of champions you'll fight with and against, each game becomes a varied experience. 

Anywho - all of that said, its really just a matter of if you dig those things I mentioned.  If so, then its free to try out at least and there is a tutorial and ai to fight against.  My thought is that if you are interested and the cost is the time for you to download and fire up a game, then give it a look, play a few games, and decide if its something you might enjoy.  I like MOBA's in general, but I did not like LoL when I first played it.  I came back around later and now its my number 1 game.

dem patch notes

http://na.leagueoflegends.com/news/patch-35-notes

copy/paste for folks at work

Patch 3.5 is about to go live, and we’ve got the details for you listed below. Read on to find out who’s hit the gym along with who’s been carrying a little too hard and exactly what we're gonna do about them.


Karma, the Enlightened One

Karma has been relaunched with updates to her model, her kit and her story. If you would like more information, you can read more here.

• Gathering Fire (Passive)
  • Reduce’s Mantra’s cooldown every time Karma damages an enemy with one of her abilities (Half-effect for Karma’s basic-attacks).

• Inner Flame (Q)
  • Fires a blast of energy that explodes upon enemy contact, dealing magic damage and slowing all enemies in the area.
  • Mantra Bonus – Soulflare: Deals additional magic damage and leaves a circle of flame at the impact area (or upon reaching maximum range), heavily slowing all enemies inside the circle. After a brief delay the circle erupts, dealing heavy magic damage to all enemies in the area.

• Focused Resolve (W)
  • Links Karma to target enemy champion, revealing them and dealing magic damage over 2 seconds. If the link is not broken, the enemy is rooted.
  • Mantra Bonus – Renewal: Focused Resolve deals bonus magic damage over time and heals Karma for a percent of her missing health while linked to her target.

• Inspire (E)
  • Target ally gains a shield, granting movement speed for a brief duration and absorbing damage.
  • Mantra Bonus – Defiance: The shield overflows with energy, dealing magic damage to all enemies around the shielded unit. Allied champions near the shielded unit gain half of that amount as a shield and are hasted.

• Mantra (Ultimate)
  • Karma empowers her next ability within 8 seconds for an additional effect.

Akali

Akali’s Twilight Shroud was behaving inconsistently before this patch, so we’ve adjusted it to better match its visual and theme, and to provide greater opportunity for counterplay.

• Twilight Shroud
  • Akali is now immediately stealthed/revealed upon entering/leaving the Shroud zone
  • Akali is now immediately stealthed when casting Twilight Shroud directly on herself
  • Akali is now revealed from stealth upon casting a spell or beginning an attack rather than upon dealing damage
  • Delay on re-stealthing increased by 0.15 seconds

Anivia

• Crystallize
  • Fixed a bug where Crystallize could stop uninterruptible movement abilities such as Malphite's Unstoppable Force

Ashe

• Focus
  • Now displays the Critical Strike chance bonus on the buff bar

Draven

• Spinning Axe
  • Now leads Draven more accurately when he is benefiting from Movement Speed increases
  • Axe drop location will no longer be placed partially inside walls / terrain

Hecarim

The previous version of Spirit of Dread did not offer enough opportunities for tactical decision-making. With higher cooldowns, our goal is to reintroduce strategic choices other than merely activating the ability whenever it is available.

• Spirit of Dread
  • Cooldown increased to 22/21/20/19/18 seconds from 18/17/16/15/14

Master Yi

• Double Strike
  • Double Strike swing time now scales with Master Yi's Attack Speed instead of being fixed at 0.6 seconds
  • Fixed a bug where the second strike of Double Strike could critically hit turrets

Riven

• Wind Slash
  • Fixed a bug where Riven could cast Wind Slash a second time after using Zhonya's Hourglass

Rumble

Rumble’s ultimate was intended to be an area control effect but, with the large upfront damage it deals, it tends to be used more as a long-range nuke instead. With this patch, we’re adjusting The Equalizer to better match its original intent.

• Electro-Harpoon
  • Fixed a bug where the visual effect would disappear before the actual end of the projectile
• The Equalizer
  • No longer deals initial impact damage but the area burn damage now starts immediately instead of after a 0.5 second delay
  • Burn damage per second increased to 130/185/240 (+0.3 Ability Power) from 100/140/180 (+0.2 Ability Power) (total damage dealt across the full duration is unchanged)

Trundle

• Pillar of Filth
  • Fixed a bug where Pillar of Filth could stop uninterruptible movement abilities such as Malphite's Unstoppable Force

Udyr

In this patch, we’ve made some substantial changes to Udyr. Our goals were to make changing stances feel more impactful, transfer power from passive stats to actual noticeable effects and reduce problematic lane issues. For example, Turtle Stance currently allows Udyr to become an immovable object in lane once he gets ahead, and we want to address that.

• Mana cost of all stances decreased to 47/44/41/38/35 from 55/50/45/40/35
• Monkey's Agility
  • Now grants 5 Movement Speed per stack instead of 4% bonus Armor and Magic Resistance
• Turtle Stance
  • No longer returns mana when dealing damage
  • Shield increased to 60/100/140/180/220 from 60/95/130/165/200
  • Udyr can now critically strike in Turtle Stance
• Bear Stance
  • Udyr now ignores unit collision while the movement speed bonus is active
  • Udyr now performs a slight dash toward his target on stunning attacks while the movement speed is active
  • Bear stance attacks can no longer be self-interrupted mid-attack
  • Movement speed increased to 15/20/25/30/35% from 15/18/21/24/27%
  • Movement speed duration reduced to 2/2.25/2.5/2.75/3 seconds from 2/2.5/3/3.5/4
• Phoenix Stance
  • First attack after activating Phoenix Stance now immediately procs the fire cone in addition to every 3rd attack
  • No longer grants bonus Ability Power and Attack Damage when activated
  • Ability Power ratio on the fire cone increased to 0.45 from 0.15
  • Updated the fire cone's spell effect to be more visible

Warwick

• Hunter's Call
  • Now displays range indicator on mouseover
• Blood Scent
  • Now displays range indicator on minimap on mouseover

Zed

• Living Shadow
  • Fixed a bug where Living Shadow would sometimes cast in a random direction

Items

• Nashor's Tooth
  • Combine cost increased to 430 gold from 200 (total cost increased to 2500 gold from 2270)
• Spirit of the Elder Lizard
  • UNIQUE Passive damage reduced to 6-40 over 3 seconds from 14-50
• Maw of Malmortius
  • Fixed a bug where the Lifeline shield was lasting for 3 seconds instead of 5

• Champion Select AFK Detection
  • When any player in a match-made game fails to select a champion before their timer expires, the game is terminated.
  • A player who fails to select a champion is given a queue dodge penalty. The dodge penalty functions exactly the same as if the player closed their PVP.net client.
  • Solo players who succeed in selecting a champion are returned to the front of the matchmaking queue.
  • Arranged teams whose members all succeed in selecting a champion are returned to the front of the matchmaking queue.
  • Arranged teams with one or more members who fail to select a champion are returned to the arranged team lobby.
  • Draft mode is handled on a pick-by-pick basis. If a player fails to pick a champion during their turn, the game is terminated immediately. Players later in the draft order, who did not have an opportunity to pick a champion, are given the benefit of the doubt and not assigned a dodge penalty.
  • This feature currently only applies to match made games. Custom games still assign a random champion if one is not selected.

General

• Turrets

  In Season 3, we made a few changes that made turrets feel less like a safe haven for defenders – especially in the early parts of the game. Specifically, with turrets attacking minions in a set order and some champions itemizing for health earlier on, it’s become easier for teams to push aggressively and even dive turrets with low risk. These changes should give defending players more of a fighting chance when under their own turret.

  • Turrets now deal 105% damage to champions for the first attack, increased from 94.5%
  • Turrets now deal 25% additional damage for consecutive attacks on the same champion (max 225%), increased from 20% (max 210%)
• Siege Minions
  • Siege Minions now take 70% damage from Turrets, increased from 50% damage
  • Siege Minions now deal 150% damage to Turrets, reduced from 200% damage
• Super Minions
  • Super Minions now take 70% damage from Turrets, increased from 50% damage
• Teleport

  We are fixing a bug with Teleport where its visual effect would disappear if cast on an expiring temporary unit. Teleport should always be visible to opponents who have vision of the area, much like how casting it on a non-revealed ward still displays a visual effect.

  • Fixed a bug where Teleport's "incoming" visual effect on the target unit would disappear if cast on an expiring temporary unit, such as Jarvan's Standard or Thresh's Lantern
• Fixed a bug where new players could not be invited to Matchmaking lobbies after teammates miss a ready check
• Smart casting with charge-up abilities should be more responsive now

oh boy... they are rolling back the patch completely

Summoners!

We are bringing down the platform for an emergency maintenance to fix problems causing players to not starting games. We will update this post regularly.

Update 10:30 : Due to current critical issues, we will be undergoing emergency maintenance to restore the game back to its previous state. This means when service is restored the game will be back online, but without the new features planned for this week. We apologize for the delay and are working hard to make sure everything is fixed and smooth for the new update

k - so as of right now, NA is working again.  you need to use the "thereisnourflevel" trick.  It appears to be on 3.5.  About to be a shitton of people trying to log in.  suggest you try to queue up as soon as you get home, etc, as the delay might be some time.

Login queue is currently at 30 minutes.  Derp.

took a break yesterday with all the patchy problems... i do a turnaround shift, so see y'all saturday night.

ah... dat karma rework.  Not op.   pacov has arrived in chicago.  chicago traffic can suck muh balls tho... really, really, really awful.  ah well, pacov learns lesson.  Hitting chi town at 4PM on a friday is not so bright.

the apt i rented out appears to have good wi-fi.  I might make an appearance in game sometime late or tomorrow-have to see how things pan out.  patching now at any rate

back in town and will be on this evening.  Hope to catch up w soon

Thunder and I almost completed my placement... we are currently taking bets on where I will end up.

For you guys who like to make educated guesses... i've won 5/8 so far.

also - brad wong - what was the name of that game you wanted me to check out on steam again?

might be of interest to mr karl

http://en.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/1bj1h5/from_silver_2_to_diamond_2_in_3_weeks_with/