This is my first tutorial. I play with a friend that just started playing League of Legends. I will try to stream some more games in the future where fundamental gameplay strategies will be brought up.
Friday, August 24, 2012
Thursday, August 23, 2012
League of Legends Champion Review: Rengar
Rengar is the newest champion in League of Legends. And he is pretty straight forward. During my first games with him, I lived streamed it. And it went decently well, later live streams of LoL will work out smoother.
Do no watch anyone of this vidoes-_- I just linked them here if you got nothing better to do. My first live stream of LoL. So its not a very good quality. Especially not the first, However, if you want to hear my direct first impression go ahead.
First thing I want to say about Rengar is that I think the tooltip of his unique item Bonetooth necklace. Should be improved for a more coherent design. Currently it is a really nice Aesthetic touch how it changes icon at the item location(users stash), but the user will also see the Bonetooth icon above her/his abilities: The buff bar. And here it says only the number of stacks. That one should change accordingly to the item icon, and possibly it could display the current buffs the items gives, while the item version should stay the same and display all the current and possibly later buffs.
Rengar really reminds me of Leonin and other cat people in Magic the gathering, which wizard introduced in the mirriodin expansion. I think its becuase of the white mane, but also the overall attidue, the whole pride thing.
Rengar really reminds me of Leonin and other cat people in Magic the gathering, which wizard introduced in the mirriodin expansion. I think its becuase of the white mane, but also the overall attidue, the whole pride thing.
Prideful cat warriors in Magic.
I mean Cat warriors are pridefull seems to be a theme.
They even have this equipment: the bolas, like Rengar’s third ability Bola Strike.
One more thing all this kitties with pride makes me think about is of course
Kitty pryde of the x-men,
Aesthetics:
I like Rengar, hes commentary works good with his character. I really like the feel of the leap ability, note I mean how it looks. The user get this faded circle around, indicating the leap distance and it feels kinda stealthy. This part is really nice, then that he is a hunter, he looks like a hunter talks like a hunter (in that stereotypically nice way we gamers want). And this in conjunction with his own unique item that gets stack from kills its a great coherency. Then all the abilities also fits very well, first a classic damage increase, the roar, the hunter weapon and Bolas are pretty cool. However what I really like is the ultimate. The ultimate gives the user another vision, which is more red’ish, and it also gives this heartbeat sounds. This is a great modeless feedback, which is rare in games. It reminds me of Vanquish a game with amazing modeless feedback. Overall I really like the feel of Rengar. One thing it I don't like its this really good feel is at its prime at 14 stack of Bonetooth necklace, then you can always argue and say well that makes it more worth having max stack. And this is true but on the same time, to me he is really starts to feel right at 9 stacks - increased leap. However that is more in the gameplay problem (mainly balance).
9/10 - Especially I like the ultimate.
Gameplay:
Rengar is clearly an intended jungler. I have to say right away I surprisingly like Rengar a lot, I thought he was gonna be another no brain melee champion but its a really nice way how high is damage is but he cant really take so much damage so its really important to prowl after the weak targets.
But OK, first his roles, it is still kinda boring he wont work as anything else expect jungle. While it is possible to play him top now, I am sure he will be reduced in damage and then that wont work. I have tested him several games as both top and jungler and there seems to be very few champion he can handle top. To play Rengar effectively you have to use the bushes a lot, so mid is obviously not gonna work. Then he do have high burst damage but not high overall damage (except late game) so its hard being 1v1 top or being 2v2 bot. However appearing and ganking people doing all your skills to do high burst that works very well.
Rengars first skill is really his passive its very interesting. Rengar don't have a passive its more a fight ability, and that's what I want more abilities less boring passives. However his special unique item, is a passive ability on it. So its more like he actually have a passive the Bonetooth necklace and then he have 5 abilities but 1 less item sloth. Great with some diversity from other champions.
OK lets start analyzing his “passive” then the Bonetooth necklace. At first glance it works like the know items, Mejai's soul stealer, Sword of occult and Leviathan . These 3 and Bonetooth increases from kills and assist and drops stack by death of the user. However Bonetooth is vastly different the user only gains 1 stack even on kills, which might be to low. It do takes quite some time to build 9 stack where it really counts. However while the 3 normal items makes the user lose 33% of the stack at a death, Bonetooth only reduces with 1. So clearly if it would grow quicker it would be to strong.
Still this is really hard to say and I am sure Riot games have tested this back and forth. Because Rengar don't gain more damage from Bonetooth( well ok slightly from 3 stacks) but its more that he gains improved ability. So getting Bonethooth is really important and you should buy it eventually. But getting high stack on it. Its a vastly different buff then having the other items. Basically it makes Rengar be able to get to people quicker, the 6 stack is increased Movement speed and 9 stack is the leap distance, while 14 stack boosts the ultimates duration. All these 3 buffs are basically to make the user reach the opponents carry easier.
You don't have to get the Bonetooth necklace, I will recommend that you do. The hard part as a player is to know when to get the Bonetooth I would say. However it is not like the 3 other stack items, as it only loses 1 stack per death. It can be bought while the team is not in the lead, and you can still gain stacks. I think this is really good otherwise it would be a pretty bad “passive” if you couldn't really utilize it if the team is not going good enough. So ignore that, what I am talking about is more when, to get it. When its the correct item decision, 800 gold could mean be better shoes, more damage etc. Still you don't want it to late as then it will be very late when you have a lot of stacks. I can’t give you an answer (this is not a guide) I might be able to after another 20+ games. But that's what I like with it, its a dynamic item/passive.
Unseen Predator is Rengar’s “passive”. But as mentioned it is really an ability. Its actually pretty simply, Rengar gain a leap for his normal attack if he is in the bushes. As mentioned this looks really cool, and it can be stacked with his Q ability Savagery, as Savagery is a self cast buff increasing the next basic attack and boosting the attack speed by whooping 50%. So these 2 abilities are clearly in synergy. The player charges up Q before jumping someone at a gank normally. One thing I like about Unseen Predator is that Rengar will keep doing it to people that run in bushes when he is in a bush himself, this means he can for example flash inside a bush and then leap to them if they are on the other side of the bush or that you can get off multiple leaps as they are running slowed in a bush. This creates a dynamic where suddenly always running into bushed to escape is not always the best choice.
And this is really good, a champion that mix up the normal gameplay.
His third ability is Battle roar ( it is really not much to say about Savagery). Battle roar is clearly indicated to be used in jungle, it do give some sustainability to top as well. Battle roar does moderately to low damage but gives armor and magic resistance. Making jungler easier. And of course workable when you gank people.
His fourth ability is the Bola Strike, which also is pretty straight forward it in itself, it does damage and slows the target for 2.5 seconds.
However Rengar has his own game resource called ferocity which makes him gameplay be very much more complicated. Which I like of course. Its time the user uses an ability he gains 1 stack it goes to 5. Having 1-4 stack gives you nothing expect the fact that its better being at 4 then 1. Without this game resource Rengar would be so boring, like give him mana and remove the last passive bonus--- would be sad. But now instead its a great design, because reaching 5 means the user can use any of his abilities right away(expect the ultimate) regardless of their cooldown. And with added bonus. The added bonus is of course important so its a very hard choice sometimes what will be the best to use. Q means its much more damage, W means you gain back 15% of max HP so using Battle roar while jungeling alone is kinda obvious. And E roots the opponent for 1 second and then slows them.
But what I like the most with this is that it gives a way to double an ability. By gaining 5 stacks in jungle and then ganking you can first root-slow them and them slow them again as soon as the slow goes away, or you can jump in and do a super strong Q attack followed by another pretty strong Q attack to do insane burst damage.
And all this is even more important as the ultimate gives the user a full max ferocity and Rengar becomes stealthed for a short duration. However he can also leap to anyone during the stealth duration and he can see everyone. This makes ti so easy to jump on their carry and then take the decisions of - do I need to go max damage or should I slow so the other who are close and kill etc. To me it feels like playing Rengar is pretty straight forward but on the same time you need a really feel of the game flow. Its a lot about finding the weak targets, either people who are alone which you can solo or people that with your double CC will be caught off guard of the rest of the team. And his ultimate has a really shot cooldown at level 3. Which is great it makes late game battle be so much about finding your prey and kill them and run to the next weak prey.
Furthermore because of the use of ferocity it feels like you have a combo meter when you play him. So jungleing feels more enjoyable. Maybe I am jumping on the bandwagon of “new is always better” (Stinson B, 2010). Rengar currently for me is by far the funniest jungler to play late game. And early game one of the best.
So based on jungle gameplay and by a lot of nice aesthetic touches. I will give him
10/10 - you will definitely see me play him more in League of Legends.
Saturday, August 18, 2012
Starcraft 2: Protoss Versus Terran Gameplay (Guide) Analyzation
Hehe-- to not make myself seem like the worst game designer ever( as I “have” to write pages after pages for a analyzation) I can summarize PvT in one sentence. Proactive set up, into a very reactive gameplay.
Most PvT is all about placing units at different locations and then wait and react to what the Terran is doing. PvT from the Protoss perspective is extremely stressful. I would say its the most intense gameplay out of all the match ups. I know a lot of people that believe TvP is the hardest match up. But I think its PvT because when the Terran is aggressive and does it correctly he/she is everywhere.
At its core PvT its very interesting. The Protoss army is generally really, really weak in the early stages of the game. So its all about having a really good defence. Still Protoss can do a lot of quirky plays just before midmid game(when Terran gets stim etc). For example Dark Templars or one of my favorites Sentry drop.
What I like the most with PvT is how fun but also very frustrating the late game is. All the High Templar versus Ghost battles.
But overall then its a very defensive gameplay, and I actually feel its to much defensive gameplay. Because protoss cant really do anything against the Terran player until he/she has a huge army. The only thing that can be done is several different all ins. And sure there are a lot of all ins that can be done, but it feels kinda wrong that protoss cant be more aggressive if they wanted to.
For me this feels a little like playing Guile in Street fighter, I want to sit in a corner and shoot sonic boom all the day long(I have received so much angry mails from people about this---) and I don't want to go close, but when you play at a high level you know that sometimes you have to mix up the game and so forth. But when playing Protoss its more like you cant really leave the corner, there is no mixing it up. So while I personally favor this methodically defensive control play PvT feels a little boring sometimes because I really want to be able to mix it up more. Also Protoss has a huge problem with the transitions in PvT its really hard to do other units then what you already have. For example the research time on psi storm is way to long to just suddenly have High Templars, and why many often get a lot of Archons while waiting on it. Carrier builds way to slow and void rays are not that effective altought ,many Terran I have faced recently has gone huge numbers of Marauders, so I kinda want either Void Ray or Carrier. But its really hard to build up that number of needed stargates.
This is mainly because of 2 factors, the mentioned long build/research times. The other main factor is that Terran are so aggressive they will be attacking you constantly, dropping on the same time and/or cloak Banshees. PvT is amazingly frustrating my biggest pain is when I have a lot of gates, and I love my gates I usually have a huge number of gates. So I can warp in 10 new High Templar's but he will be at my door all the time, so I cant even gain enough energy for 1 storm. Of course you have to build HTs before but they have died or used their storms in the constant battles.
I truly hated to nerf o Hts, I do agree that it was way to good because you could warp in and storm right away with the Kharadyin Amulet research but as it is now. You have to get that Colossus count which makes the game more boring, and its such a nerf for protoss really as the main problem having the big death ball is the ridicules pain all the drops are.
The biggest reason I think is behind the strength if banshe is not the cloak, its a problem in some games where the player not at all goes for observers but its rare. The biggest problem is that Protoss cant kill the banshee outside the base waiting to fly in, same goes for drop attacks. Because Protoss never get stargates, how often is even the mothership used even do its like the best you can have for that food.
I predict that in the hearth of the swarm, drops and banshee will lose their strength in the meta game because protoss will go more air based from having a better air unit: Tempest and the harass from oracle seems much stronger and easier to execute then Phoenix or void rays against Terran.
OK it might sound like I hate PvT, I don't at all actually altought some situations can be a little frustrating mainly for me its how Terran can rebuild an army out of nothing as their units are so strong in small numbers compared to a small number Protoss army after huge battles where both armies have been wiped out. PvT has always been my best match up overall over the years it was also my best match up back in Starcraft 1(however right now my PvZ is insane).
I feel very comfortable defending and I love the 200 versus 200 army fights. So whats the good points of PvT?.
First of there are all this mentioned cute plays the user can do. With many alterations, I have started going back to this void ray + 3 gate actually. Because I have recently faced a lot of 1.1.1 and then the Terran has fewer marines to handle it. But I wont go into all these different 1 bases builds or possibly 2 bases all ins. For me that is not the PvT, you should play or what I play I always wants to reach the late late game. I play a very heavily macro oriented game. Still the reason for this is that the user cant really do anything else, expect then all ins.
However then the macro oriented game is very enjoyable as long as you do it correctly. I mean of course its very frustrating when the Terran drops you at 3 places at once, but on the other hand when you have like 1 HT at each base and feedbacks all 3 medivacs and perfectly defends that, man that is such a great feeling. This is really how the PvT plays out, you have to set up defence positions. I usually have 1 canon to per base eventually. And defend, when you have defend you can either get more bases or attack. There is one thing I love in PvT, and that is Terran players that drops fro the sake of dropping. Either they drop at bad locations, e.g my army stands next to them. Or just 1 drop at a time that never works really. And sometimes Terran does this huge mega drops 4-5 medivacs full of units. And I think this is really where that match up is fun for Protoss because as long as you defend that you know you can go and crush his/her base or prevent a third fro going up.
And this takes us to a very important part of playing the Protoss against Terran. Map control, caters often say, “wow look at his map awareness” and of course map awareness is very important as a protoss, I would say its the race that need it the most. But map awarness its almost impossible to utilize without map control. Which protoss usually gains from observers or in my case usually DTs.
For me this is very much like playing any control character in a fighting game with game resource mechanics, Testament, Dormammu, Dr.Strange, Bridget etc. Its a very important part of the gameplay to always have as much vision as possible, for example a lot of players will drop pylons a little everywhere to spot drops or even to warp in Stalkers to deny drops before they reach the base.
But this also means that PvT is pretty hard, the user has to always be so aware of everything that happens, PvZ is similar to this to. This is really the core of Protoss gameplay, have good vision, have descent position and building placement and defend when you see stuff happening.
Then after all this defending is done, the player get into a stage where the protoss can attack usually out from having 3 bases. So first of all clearly the user needs to enjoy playing like this, I do, but I can also understand there are many people who hate playing Protoss. Defend, defend, Defend get a death ball move out. But really at high level of play the Terran should also have a huge death ball, the bio ball. So not realy. Protoss versus Terran has this stigma, that the protoss player just Attack move and wins. I disagree completely it is such a battle between either defending the colossus from vikings or the High Templar vs Ghost gameplay. And I think its here where PvT really gets hard but also funny to play.
And its interesting that even during this battles, the protoss are much more of a reactive player, he/she will throw storms where the Terran will be based on the Terran players movement, while the Terran more hunts the ghosts. Of course its not like this every battle, every game but usually even during mas food battle Protoss is more of a reactive gameplay.
PvT at late game is very micro oriented battle towards spells. Which is kinda weird in on way, the user get used to it, I am used to it so to speak. But compare to other games or then other match ups. Its such such a heavy spell battle, force fields,guardian shield, feedback, and Psi storms versus Snipe, Emp and Point Defense Drone.
It makes it hard for the user in either side of the battle.
But I like it, It do requires a lot of thinking and it can get very annoying if you accidentally grouped all the High Templars. However when it its goes smooth for both players it becomes a very good battle.
Its all about hitting those right storms, or feedback ghosts while avoiding being emped. Blink to get Vikings or medivacs , get good forcefields to trap bio units and to feedback medivacs or feedbacking point defense drones/ravens.
The battles becomes so much back and forth. You throw some storms he moves back, he throws down a drone you move back to. Its a very interesting gameplay altought extremely stressful and frustrating at its time.
Myrmondens’s Protoss Versus Terran Build
What build I use at ladder?
I only use 2 builds really. DT rush and a HT rush build which still involves DTs.
My gameplan is all about having 3 bases before Terran does and defending until I have max food from 3 bases and then go and kill him basically. I get here by going really fast DTs.
What is great about DT opening is that even on a high ladder I can get off many free wins by using them. So first of all that's a good way to reach up the ladder. Secondly and what is the actual goal is to get map control. I contain the Terran with my DTs and take a really early third. And on the same time I will prevent him/her from getting a third in the near feature by having DTs stationed at the expand location.
But the best part and how I play Protoss versus Terran is that I have such a lack of units. I can sit at 3 bases with 2 Dts 1 Stalker. That's my units. However what both my build includes is that I get an Archive as soon as I started warping DTS. And then I only get Zealot and High Templars for quit some time which will be able to defend when the Terran moves out.
And make no mistake this army can DEFEND! You cannot move out with this army and attack him. If a Terran drops me, which usually fails as I have HTs. Then I can move out and contain him so he/she cant get a third but that's only because I know he/she has a huge lack in units.
The different choice of builds depend on the map distance, and what kind of map it is. At a 2 player map I will often go for the 1 base DT rush. While at a 4 player map I go the the 15 nexus into HT Rush.
Whats important to understand is that DT rush is bad ass good-_- Because while I do get my DTs I will have an expansion up. 2 gate is enough so that expansion is dropped pretty early. But of course the HT rush is even stronger then I get my third up while the DT is attacking and these DT only comes slightly later then what they do from 1 base, and now instead I will take a third base while this is happening. And most importantly the HTs wil be out already as well.
Both this build are pretty successful I got something around 70+% win ratio. But its not much to say about the 1 base, basically you chrono boost probes whole game, never chrono boost warp tech if you don’t spot an early attack. Get 1 stalker out as soon as possible to deny scouting and very importantly sit outside his base with this 1 stalker (always do this regardless of build). Hide the tech, so the Terran cant scan it so easily. 1 gate 1 nexus 1 gate.
The Ht rush is much more interesting and if you can get this build of uninterrupted its such a good build.
15 nexus
-constant probe chrono boost
2 gates right away build zealots to defend his/her marine attacks which is a pretty common, he/she will probably try to punish you early expand. If not scout to see its not a Terran going for tech, - Hellion banshee harass etc Then you need units before the Dts. But this is rare.
- Important step --- Get 4 geyser really quickly as soon as you can.
When Twilight Citadel is finished, build both Archive and Shrine.
Attack with DTs - some free games but most of the time they will do zero damage.
However the Terran is contained, one DT at the choke so teh Terran cant leave, 1 at the normal third. Take a third base during this.
Normally The Terran will attack shortly after defending the DTs , however storm is already done and you should have around 4-6 Hts with at least 6 storms because this build involves warping in 2 HTs before going for storm tech, then they will have energy for 2 storm each. As the DT will contain you don't need to go for storm the second the archive is finished.
Defend the attack or possible drops.
Now here is a very important step that for both builds.
Get 2 robotic facilities right away. Get bay, start doing double colo. The Terran will have loads of Ghost in the next big battle, so its important to get colossus.
This is the build basically, as long as you defend the third base its almost always a win. I lose a few times after defending the third anyway if the Terran does like triple drops etc and I am to slow to move my workers/units.
This build is hard countered by an old build no one ever does on ladder anymore, which is marine + early ghost. I remember this build was pretty common the first months. But I haven't seen it in any game this season, so its safe to assume the Terran wont go for it, if he/she does you lose. Ghost can Emp and reveal DTs and they wil of course Emp the HTs, and the Zealot will die to fast without any shield to mass marine. (This Terran build is hard counter by decently fast colossus and as robotic is the most common protoss build, Terran players don't for go for it.
- In the next entry I will reveal my 90%+ win ratio PvZ build
Most PvT is all about placing units at different locations and then wait and react to what the Terran is doing. PvT from the Protoss perspective is extremely stressful. I would say its the most intense gameplay out of all the match ups. I know a lot of people that believe TvP is the hardest match up. But I think its PvT because when the Terran is aggressive and does it correctly he/she is everywhere.
At its core PvT its very interesting. The Protoss army is generally really, really weak in the early stages of the game. So its all about having a really good defence. Still Protoss can do a lot of quirky plays just before midmid game(when Terran gets stim etc). For example Dark Templars or one of my favorites Sentry drop.
What I like the most with PvT is how fun but also very frustrating the late game is. All the High Templar versus Ghost battles.
But overall then its a very defensive gameplay, and I actually feel its to much defensive gameplay. Because protoss cant really do anything against the Terran player until he/she has a huge army. The only thing that can be done is several different all ins. And sure there are a lot of all ins that can be done, but it feels kinda wrong that protoss cant be more aggressive if they wanted to.
For me this feels a little like playing Guile in Street fighter, I want to sit in a corner and shoot sonic boom all the day long(I have received so much angry mails from people about this---) and I don't want to go close, but when you play at a high level you know that sometimes you have to mix up the game and so forth. But when playing Protoss its more like you cant really leave the corner, there is no mixing it up. So while I personally favor this methodically defensive control play PvT feels a little boring sometimes because I really want to be able to mix it up more. Also Protoss has a huge problem with the transitions in PvT its really hard to do other units then what you already have. For example the research time on psi storm is way to long to just suddenly have High Templars, and why many often get a lot of Archons while waiting on it. Carrier builds way to slow and void rays are not that effective altought ,many Terran I have faced recently has gone huge numbers of Marauders, so I kinda want either Void Ray or Carrier. But its really hard to build up that number of needed stargates.
This is mainly because of 2 factors, the mentioned long build/research times. The other main factor is that Terran are so aggressive they will be attacking you constantly, dropping on the same time and/or cloak Banshees. PvT is amazingly frustrating my biggest pain is when I have a lot of gates, and I love my gates I usually have a huge number of gates. So I can warp in 10 new High Templar's but he will be at my door all the time, so I cant even gain enough energy for 1 storm. Of course you have to build HTs before but they have died or used their storms in the constant battles.
I truly hated to nerf o Hts, I do agree that it was way to good because you could warp in and storm right away with the Kharadyin Amulet research but as it is now. You have to get that Colossus count which makes the game more boring, and its such a nerf for protoss really as the main problem having the big death ball is the ridicules pain all the drops are.
The biggest reason I think is behind the strength if banshe is not the cloak, its a problem in some games where the player not at all goes for observers but its rare. The biggest problem is that Protoss cant kill the banshee outside the base waiting to fly in, same goes for drop attacks. Because Protoss never get stargates, how often is even the mothership used even do its like the best you can have for that food.
I predict that in the hearth of the swarm, drops and banshee will lose their strength in the meta game because protoss will go more air based from having a better air unit: Tempest and the harass from oracle seems much stronger and easier to execute then Phoenix or void rays against Terran.
OK it might sound like I hate PvT, I don't at all actually altought some situations can be a little frustrating mainly for me its how Terran can rebuild an army out of nothing as their units are so strong in small numbers compared to a small number Protoss army after huge battles where both armies have been wiped out. PvT has always been my best match up overall over the years it was also my best match up back in Starcraft 1(however right now my PvZ is insane).
I feel very comfortable defending and I love the 200 versus 200 army fights. So whats the good points of PvT?.
First of there are all this mentioned cute plays the user can do. With many alterations, I have started going back to this void ray + 3 gate actually. Because I have recently faced a lot of 1.1.1 and then the Terran has fewer marines to handle it. But I wont go into all these different 1 bases builds or possibly 2 bases all ins. For me that is not the PvT, you should play or what I play I always wants to reach the late late game. I play a very heavily macro oriented game. Still the reason for this is that the user cant really do anything else, expect then all ins.
However then the macro oriented game is very enjoyable as long as you do it correctly. I mean of course its very frustrating when the Terran drops you at 3 places at once, but on the other hand when you have like 1 HT at each base and feedbacks all 3 medivacs and perfectly defends that, man that is such a great feeling. This is really how the PvT plays out, you have to set up defence positions. I usually have 1 canon to per base eventually. And defend, when you have defend you can either get more bases or attack. There is one thing I love in PvT, and that is Terran players that drops fro the sake of dropping. Either they drop at bad locations, e.g my army stands next to them. Or just 1 drop at a time that never works really. And sometimes Terran does this huge mega drops 4-5 medivacs full of units. And I think this is really where that match up is fun for Protoss because as long as you defend that you know you can go and crush his/her base or prevent a third fro going up.
And this takes us to a very important part of playing the Protoss against Terran. Map control, caters often say, “wow look at his map awareness” and of course map awareness is very important as a protoss, I would say its the race that need it the most. But map awarness its almost impossible to utilize without map control. Which protoss usually gains from observers or in my case usually DTs.
For me this is very much like playing any control character in a fighting game with game resource mechanics, Testament, Dormammu, Dr.Strange, Bridget etc. Its a very important part of the gameplay to always have as much vision as possible, for example a lot of players will drop pylons a little everywhere to spot drops or even to warp in Stalkers to deny drops before they reach the base.
But this also means that PvT is pretty hard, the user has to always be so aware of everything that happens, PvZ is similar to this to. This is really the core of Protoss gameplay, have good vision, have descent position and building placement and defend when you see stuff happening.
Then after all this defending is done, the player get into a stage where the protoss can attack usually out from having 3 bases. So first of all clearly the user needs to enjoy playing like this, I do, but I can also understand there are many people who hate playing Protoss. Defend, defend, Defend get a death ball move out. But really at high level of play the Terran should also have a huge death ball, the bio ball. So not realy. Protoss versus Terran has this stigma, that the protoss player just Attack move and wins. I disagree completely it is such a battle between either defending the colossus from vikings or the High Templar vs Ghost gameplay. And I think its here where PvT really gets hard but also funny to play.
And its interesting that even during this battles, the protoss are much more of a reactive player, he/she will throw storms where the Terran will be based on the Terran players movement, while the Terran more hunts the ghosts. Of course its not like this every battle, every game but usually even during mas food battle Protoss is more of a reactive gameplay.
PvT at late game is very micro oriented battle towards spells. Which is kinda weird in on way, the user get used to it, I am used to it so to speak. But compare to other games or then other match ups. Its such such a heavy spell battle, force fields,guardian shield, feedback, and Psi storms versus Snipe, Emp and Point Defense Drone.
It makes it hard for the user in either side of the battle.
But I like it, It do requires a lot of thinking and it can get very annoying if you accidentally grouped all the High Templars. However when it its goes smooth for both players it becomes a very good battle.
Its all about hitting those right storms, or feedback ghosts while avoiding being emped. Blink to get Vikings or medivacs , get good forcefields to trap bio units and to feedback medivacs or feedbacking point defense drones/ravens.
The battles becomes so much back and forth. You throw some storms he moves back, he throws down a drone you move back to. Its a very interesting gameplay altought extremely stressful and frustrating at its time.
Myrmondens’s Protoss Versus Terran Build
What build I use at ladder?
I only use 2 builds really. DT rush and a HT rush build which still involves DTs.
My gameplan is all about having 3 bases before Terran does and defending until I have max food from 3 bases and then go and kill him basically. I get here by going really fast DTs.
What is great about DT opening is that even on a high ladder I can get off many free wins by using them. So first of all that's a good way to reach up the ladder. Secondly and what is the actual goal is to get map control. I contain the Terran with my DTs and take a really early third. And on the same time I will prevent him/her from getting a third in the near feature by having DTs stationed at the expand location.
But the best part and how I play Protoss versus Terran is that I have such a lack of units. I can sit at 3 bases with 2 Dts 1 Stalker. That's my units. However what both my build includes is that I get an Archive as soon as I started warping DTS. And then I only get Zealot and High Templars for quit some time which will be able to defend when the Terran moves out.
And make no mistake this army can DEFEND! You cannot move out with this army and attack him. If a Terran drops me, which usually fails as I have HTs. Then I can move out and contain him so he/she cant get a third but that's only because I know he/she has a huge lack in units.
The different choice of builds depend on the map distance, and what kind of map it is. At a 2 player map I will often go for the 1 base DT rush. While at a 4 player map I go the the 15 nexus into HT Rush.
Whats important to understand is that DT rush is bad ass good-_- Because while I do get my DTs I will have an expansion up. 2 gate is enough so that expansion is dropped pretty early. But of course the HT rush is even stronger then I get my third up while the DT is attacking and these DT only comes slightly later then what they do from 1 base, and now instead I will take a third base while this is happening. And most importantly the HTs wil be out already as well.
Both this build are pretty successful I got something around 70+% win ratio. But its not much to say about the 1 base, basically you chrono boost probes whole game, never chrono boost warp tech if you don’t spot an early attack. Get 1 stalker out as soon as possible to deny scouting and very importantly sit outside his base with this 1 stalker (always do this regardless of build). Hide the tech, so the Terran cant scan it so easily. 1 gate 1 nexus 1 gate.
The Ht rush is much more interesting and if you can get this build of uninterrupted its such a good build.
15 nexus
-constant probe chrono boost
2 gates right away build zealots to defend his/her marine attacks which is a pretty common, he/she will probably try to punish you early expand. If not scout to see its not a Terran going for tech, - Hellion banshee harass etc Then you need units before the Dts. But this is rare.
- Important step --- Get 4 geyser really quickly as soon as you can.
When Twilight Citadel is finished, build both Archive and Shrine.
Attack with DTs - some free games but most of the time they will do zero damage.
However the Terran is contained, one DT at the choke so teh Terran cant leave, 1 at the normal third. Take a third base during this.
Normally The Terran will attack shortly after defending the DTs , however storm is already done and you should have around 4-6 Hts with at least 6 storms because this build involves warping in 2 HTs before going for storm tech, then they will have energy for 2 storm each. As the DT will contain you don't need to go for storm the second the archive is finished.
Defend the attack or possible drops.
Now here is a very important step that for both builds.
Get 2 robotic facilities right away. Get bay, start doing double colo. The Terran will have loads of Ghost in the next big battle, so its important to get colossus.
This is the build basically, as long as you defend the third base its almost always a win. I lose a few times after defending the third anyway if the Terran does like triple drops etc and I am to slow to move my workers/units.
This build is hard countered by an old build no one ever does on ladder anymore, which is marine + early ghost. I remember this build was pretty common the first months. But I haven't seen it in any game this season, so its safe to assume the Terran wont go for it, if he/she does you lose. Ghost can Emp and reveal DTs and they wil of course Emp the HTs, and the Zealot will die to fast without any shield to mass marine. (This Terran build is hard counter by decently fast colossus and as robotic is the most common protoss build, Terran players don't for go for it.
- In the next entry I will reveal my 90%+ win ratio PvZ build
Starcraft 2: Protoss Versus Protoss Gameplay (Guide) Analyzation
Protoss Versus Protoss Gameplay:
PvP is the shit match up everyone hates. However I really like PvP I used ot hate it but I love it now. Because before it truly was only 4 gate versus 4 gates. I didn't lose many PvP I simply always went a defensive 4 gate and beat the opponents 4 gates. But this made the match up stale, boring etc. After Blizzard nerfed warp gate tech the match up become really great. However a lot of people hate it, and I do believe I know why. The thing with PvP is that its so full of cheeses, if you go to any podcasters pvp game. Its very easy to find comments from viewers asking for no PvP games etc. I think these people are wrong as the better people play the better the PvP game is. But their mentally is very negative because they have a lto of experience with shitty cheese games.
And I truly think PvP gameplay experience is something Blizzard should fix. So many of the games are that, “Oh I am gonna win with my proxy gates, OH! Shit he have canon rushed me BG”.
But truthfully this mainly is because people cant play PvP properly so they have to resort to using cheeses, the canon rush the proxy gate or the Korean 4 gate. When I see for example a canon rush I just laugh, its a Free win. IF you know how to deal with it. It’s easy And this is the problem, for game I would say. Because a lot of the viewers are in that beginner place they do not have enough experience to deal with all these cheeses that PvP is so filed of. And they get a very bad impression of the gameplay as a whole.
I like PvP because its a crazy micro battle. I always goes for a 2 zealot + 1 stalker build and it such an micro intense fiesta from the start of the game, probe battles zealot vs zealot. I love watching my replies and just see all the dots on the mini map at the early stages of the game. So really PvP is intense this leads people to lose, they need to cheese. One thing I really have experienced is that people are often really sucky when it comes to late late game PvP because they don't get there. What to do with 3+ bases. At lower ranks to me it seems like the users never get to even remotely late game, expect 2 bases pure colossi armies,.
PvP is a very hard nut to crack, but I like it as its truly is like the best player almost always wins(expect all the cheesers). Lastly when we are on PvP is how strong the Sentry is! The Sentry I would argue and say its the best Map Control unit in the game, while its very important unit in both against Terran and Zerg. It affects PvP the most as both user has them, but its more that each users expects the other users to have them. And as Sentries can block of Chokes etc, it really makes the gameplay kinda stiff.
I mean all mirror matches feels more mano a mano, but for me PvP feels that the most. It think its the very low number of units, and with a lot all this extra stuff hidden pylons etc. PvP in my eyes is like a hidden gem, its really, really great when you are good at it, But otherwise you will hate it. I believe PvP surely has scared away a number of users from Starcraft 2, users that likes the control gameplay especially but then comes PvP which is like the opposite and they just hate it. I think that is really evident to, in how people play on the ladder. They get a PvP and they cheese just to get rid of it, either they get a fast lose or a fast win, because they love PvZ and they love PvT that's what they want to play.
One last thing about this, I assume that why the map pool is what it is right now, one of the factors is to reduce effective canon rushes, as its just so few maps where you can do them.
Myrmonden’s PvP Build
As noted PvP is very scary, DTs are scary cheeses are scary and so forth.
One note right away I can say is that late game Dark Templars are really strong. Sending out those Dark templars in the late game when the opponent has a death ball moving around somewhere else can be very effective, regardless of what has happened, regardless of that he/she has robotic facility for detection( and he/she will have that 99% of the time late game). Dark Templar can be very effective always keep that in mind, get canons and I mean canons not 1 canon. 1 Canon can easily be killed of by a couple of DTs I often support DT attacks with a couple of zealot to tank the canon damage.
Its kind hard to explain my personal build in PvP becasue I kinda go with the flow.
http://www.gamereplays.org/starcraft2/replays.php?game=33&show=details&id=269742#/replay_overview
I have a very set start build. Chrono bosst out probes 2 times. Save energy to chrono out zealtos and 1 stalker.
When I have built a 2 zealot 1 stalker army I will move out and often set a lot of pressure. It is not uncommon for me to win with just these units. Its a very good start set of attack. And a lot of where the problem of pvp becomes for people. Because after this the game will be constant battle.
PvP is really interesting as I describe earlier it will be one person trying to attack a lot and one trying to defend. As can be seen replay first I we will have a skirmish in the middle with our early units. This is extremely common having a 2-3 versus 2-3 units in the middle of the map. And when it comes to my build its crucial to take out his/her probe to not prevent a Korean 4 gate. Other 4 gate attacks such as a standard 4-5 gate all in. I can simply walk to him and kill him (usually) with the 2 zealot 1 stalker, of course its a little more complicated I will always had gates so I have 3 gates out from this and then take tech X. So if he take as lot of damage from my first units I will spam pylon in his base and warp with 3 gates to win.
But more interesting(as can be see in the replay) is how I will defend for the rest of the game against his stalkers. What can happen is that this might swap that I instead attack his base. This is how PvP as its core is.
My own build then its really important to push into his base with these first units. What I want to do, and why I am pretty successful in PvP( think I have around 66% win ratio), is to know his tech and respond accordingly. He goes Blink I go immortals, he goes robo I go Phoenix and if I see Phoenix I go Blink. This is the fundamental, then if its a map where Blink is harder to defend I tend to go my own Blink.
The hardest choice, you have from this is when to take a second base. There are key factors that makes the natural follow up to be to take a an expansion. This is really hard in PvP. From my build its mainly if I do a lot of damage with the first 3 units but not enough to just make more units to win. Its very hard to read, what I can say about this is simply play enough games watch enough of your replays to know when the opponent is weak but not enough weak to die.
Generally when you play PvP its very important to note how big the opponent armies and how many sentries he/she has. As I talked about Sentries are so strong in PvP battles until enough archons or colossus are on the field. And I want to emphasize “enough” number of massive units. Sure if you have 1 colo you can walk up the ramp, so 1 basing is not easy anymore. However I have many, many times been able to forcefield between massive units especially purely archons who are in the front is not enough. Still Archon + zealot works great as the zealot will be able to reach. But you can still force field away the stalkers etc (Why a pretty common build is pure zealot + archon). Sentry count is very important in those mid battles when either player tries to take the first expansion.. And I really think that when you use a Phoenix play picking up sentries and killing them is almost always more important then killing probes.
(Really) Late Game:
Its very hard to explain, because I feel its not much to say. Basically get enough colos like 20+... A big problem and why people feel PvP is boring is because what counters 1 colousus let me tell you 2 colousus counters 1 colusous. That is really one of the main boring factors. A player can of course go like mass void ray but its pretty ineffective against stalkers, but the main problem is the transition protoss has a hard time just building up a air force suddenly.
There is one thing that is really important to get in PvP which is the Mothership, the clock can be super annoying and a vortex can be used to group together colos but mainly to remove half his/her colo count and kill the rest. Almost each very very long PvP I have on the ladder turns into a world of the war scenario 10+ colo each 1 Mothership each and some ground units. I have many times tried to go like Phoenix to counters the colos, for a while I tried it extensively when the Phoenix had their 2+ range upgrade and it do work but only when the colos are in small numbers like 1-2 or then it works really good actually but more your ground army will be killed instantly. Having 200 food with Phoenix in it can do 1 really good thing. Killing of observers injunction with having a Mothership can be a huge win.
A last thing I feel a lot of protoss player misses is to add more buildings. People generally add in more gates. But when you are sitting on 4+ bases you can easily have 4+ robos. In the typical giant colo battle, 2 things can happen really. Either one army gets completely devastated and that armies owner has lost the other common occurrence is that a few colos are left for the winner. When the opponent has like 4 colos left and can keep warping in units, you can also warp in probably the same amount of units. But your colo count will be completely owned when they spawn out of the robotic facilities. This is very common, but if you have like 4-5 facilities. You can take yourself out from this as his/her units will have to walk to your main. And of course if this happens out on the field having a huge colo production you can quickly force another huger battle but now having more colos.
This is common to see in pro games at lower scales, when its 1 vs 2 robos. And after a big battle out in middle of the map(most of the time) the player with 2 robos can make a lot more colos and win the game.
In ladder games you can get into this 5+ bases games, so get more stuff. I am surprised to see so few player ever builds more robotic facilities. It is not that costly you have the resources.
http://www.gamereplays.org/starcraft2/replays.php?game=33&show=details&id=269746
This game kinda summarize the typical PvP gameplay. Defend 4 gate, be very aggressive with blink stalker for a week I went blink every game regardless because its safe and gives control of the map. Into using DT+ an attack. And this battle shows how important position is in Pvp to.
Starcraft 2: Protoss Gameplay Analyzation
Hello people, anyone that knows me IRL knows I spend huge amount of my free time currently playing Starcraft 2. And have been thinking a lot about can I use my published model for gameplay experience for RTS genre or can something similar be created. The answer is yes I very much believe that. So I am gonna go in to that a little, and I might even attempt to write a paper about this in the future. But here I mainly want to cover each gameplay from each match up. And I will cover what I feel the meta game is right now at the ladder gameplay and my builds.
So before you think who I am I say anything, currently I am high ranked master as random. Furthermore I am listening to Gangnam Style from PSY, so I am really in the koreaboo mind set when I am writing this.
Analyzation note: This was supposed to be 3 separate entries but I realized that my protoss text is just so long, so it will be split into more parts. Hmm saved a few good games I had for some different match ups for my build, so some match ups will have some of my games. I might later add my replays of my builds. (Mainly some games I had in mind to upload has been auto deleted because I have played like 20+ games a day for the last week, so like my really awesome TVT 6 days ago is gone)
So before you think who I am I say anything, currently I am high ranked master as random. Furthermore I am listening to Gangnam Style from PSY, so I am really in the koreaboo mind set when I am writing this.
Analyzation note: This was supposed to be 3 separate entries but I realized that my protoss text is just so long, so it will be split into more parts. Hmm saved a few good games I had for some different match ups for my build, so some match ups will have some of my games. I might later add my replays of my builds. (Mainly some games I had in mind to upload has been auto deleted because I have played like 20+ games a day for the last week, so like my really awesome TVT 6 days ago is gone)
My E-penis grow 3 times it size the day I got to here.
I have played over a 1000 games in this season alone, and I start this with my best race Protoss, which I have played something around 7000 1v1 games at least. I might have played over 10000 games in 1v1 as toss, and then I have played maybe around 1000 games 2v2, 3v3, and 4v4, which I have been in a master in each of course ( However that was mainly as random so around at least 8000 games at protoss).
OK so I am will go into my analyzation of protoss gameplay from the eyes of the protoss player here and then there is these two individual analyzation, which are instead from the zerg perspective and the Terran perspective.
Fundamental Gameplay experience:
The reason I really like protoss is because its an reactive gameplay style. This is very much the basic control gameplay of fighting games. If you ever see me switch trough fighting games (which you should if you ever have the opportunity I got a huge collection and 2 arcade sticks I am always interest in fighting game nights). My main picks will always be different Control characters or control sub arch types, speed control or slow control. If I play Street Fighter I play Guile, Akuma etc. If I play Guilty Gear i play Axl low, Testament, Bridget or Eddie. Blazblue I play Arakune, Hakumen, Litchi, MVC3 I play Dormammu, Ghost Rider. Even at games where the control gameplay is not obvious I managed to play them. And this is a very important point I am making now! When I was 14 I started playing VIrtua fighter 4 a lot. And my main is Kage-Maru a Strong control semi main, Aoi a control. This is important as I at the time did not at all think in this much more complicated game design perspective of gameplay. And in Virtua fighter there is no projectiles, however I still lover Kage-maru. Back then I didn't think of this of course today in retrospect I understand how fundamental a users’ preferences is. During my empirical studies. I have interviewed so many users who show the exact same behaviour, not necessarily that they play only control but that they play only fast/weak characters and so forth.
Recently I had a friend that wanted me to train him in Street fighter, and I asked him how do you want to play, when he was to decide on his main type of characters. And he couldn't explain it in fighting game words. So I asked him, what is favorite match up in Starcraft 2 as I knew he had played the game a lot. And he told me, that he just like me loves to defend drops, defend expansion and build that max food army. Simply said he loves to react to what the opponent does. He wants to have map control and slowly win the game. So I told him you should start testing out maining Akuma, which he did and he felt right away that this was a character for him,.
From this a conclusion can be concluded. Playing Protoss is kinda like playing Akuma. Still and very importantly we are talking about PVT now, PVT is like playing Akuma, PVP is not as all like a control gameplay so each match up has to be looked at individually. Which is of course one of the reason why Starcraft 2 is a such a great game. The best example of this and I will go into more detail is how TVZ is like playing Strong Control E,g Testament (Street fighter don’t have any strong Control characters) while TVP is like playing Fast/Weak E,G Chun Li.
I been discussion this a lot this recent days with some friends, it’s actually kinda funny how Akuma vs Chun LI is so similar to PvT. Terran is the one always pushing and trying to attack from different angles, you know basically trying to be a pain the ass so the Protoss can’t calmly and collect themself to deal damage to the Terran. How does a Chun Li face Akuma? Exactly the same Chun Li will constantly try to block swap etc and keep pressure on the Akuma player. And Akuma has a good ultra to, relatively to Chun Li, and he overall uses his energy better, so he will become stronger by the game progressing longer just like Protoss vs Terran. This is probably hard for people to understand who haven't speed 1000+ hours in both games but trust me the more I think about it the more I see this retarded similarities. Of course the games are physically played out so differently but the mental images, the mental planning, the meta game etc. Basically the gameplay experience is very similar.
OK so that was a lot of name dropping of other genre stuff-_-
But really Protoss at its base is a very defencive controlling gameplay, just like siting in the corner with Guile.
However PVP can act very differently and of course the user can play different styles. But I would still say its up to Protoss to defend in basically each match up. In PVP its more that one player will be aggressive and the other player will defend accordingly.
Saturday, August 11, 2012
Today it felt like a part of my gamer soul died
Today I logged into Starcraft 2, to talk. You know to chat. And a strong feeling of guilt struck me. This didn't happened afterwards, but right away while the screen was initializing Starcraft 2 (which seems to take forever now after the path). I felt it in my hearth. I was logging into a game just to talk.
Earlier on the day, I had been chatting with this girl I like for a couple of hours while playing a few games. This is not all the first time that's happening, I have meet girlfriends in games before, mainly from playing world of warcraft. But this just felt so wrong. I didn't really have time to play at all. Because I have work to finish before Monday. But I thought to myself, “well I can go in and just chat with her some more while I write this”. And then right away while I was doing it, it felt sick to my stomach. I have always been against using games for other things then gaming. The fun factor of fellowship has always been the slightest and barely a slim extra part of gaming. That I had no intention of playing at the moment, nor that it was - “I log in while I get something etc”.
Right away I started making excuses, trying to convince myself I was not doing anything dirty. I kept telling myself, well you are gonna play a couple of games in 2-3 hours this is not for flirting with this girl, that's just an extra part. You are to play a games soon, you don't care about her, you care about reaper harassing, mass muta and DT rushes.
Worst part is that it is not that I am suuuuper lonely and I just had to talk to this girl. It was more like, ee nice talking to her I should login and do it some more. Just like turning on Skype or going to Facebook etc, to communicate with someone. Either I really need a girlfriend right now, or I have grown away from games. Either way, my life suddenly feel much worse.
Today I used Starcraft 2 as a chat program....
Earlier on the day, I had been chatting with this girl I like for a couple of hours while playing a few games. This is not all the first time that's happening, I have meet girlfriends in games before, mainly from playing world of warcraft. But this just felt so wrong. I didn't really have time to play at all. Because I have work to finish before Monday. But I thought to myself, “well I can go in and just chat with her some more while I write this”. And then right away while I was doing it, it felt sick to my stomach. I have always been against using games for other things then gaming. The fun factor of fellowship has always been the slightest and barely a slim extra part of gaming. That I had no intention of playing at the moment, nor that it was - “I log in while I get something etc”.
Right away I started making excuses, trying to convince myself I was not doing anything dirty. I kept telling myself, well you are gonna play a couple of games in 2-3 hours this is not for flirting with this girl, that's just an extra part. You are to play a games soon, you don't care about her, you care about reaper harassing, mass muta and DT rushes.
Worst part is that it is not that I am suuuuper lonely and I just had to talk to this girl. It was more like, ee nice talking to her I should login and do it some more. Just like turning on Skype or going to Facebook etc, to communicate with someone. Either I really need a girlfriend right now, or I have grown away from games. Either way, my life suddenly feel much worse.
Today I used Starcraft 2 as a chat program....
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Hollow Best Starcraft 2 map.
My newly designed Map. Backdoor expansion, blocked by force field.
The map is huge 198 x 198 size.
Many expansion, many options for the user.
Very wide middle, high ground expansion in the middle.
Beautiful use of terrain and lighting effects.
Sunday, August 5, 2012
League of Legends Champion Review: Shaco
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Shaco is awesome because you can play everything with him, such a variation in builds. I can right away say Shaco is the best Champion in the game! And I can say that even while I hate Clowns (I know hes a jester, and the real difference is really that a jester is a contracted employ at a castle while a clown is more of a nomadic vagabond jester right?)
Aesthetics:
Clowns are scary ok. I have always hated Clowns. Its mainly from the obvious reason that clowns are sad and not funny at the circus. IT could be that I watched IT as a kid
Aesthetics:
Clowns are scary ok. I have always hated Clowns. Its mainly from the obvious reason that clowns are sad and not funny at the circus. IT could be that I watched IT as a kid
But its more of biological reasoning, an instinct. My father also hate clowns so its inherited in me. Also please understand I don't have Coulrophobia. Its more that I hate clowns. Like they disgust me I want to kill them.
There are several reason Deadpool is my favorite comic book “hero”, one of them is his hatred for clowns.
There are several reason Deadpool is my favorite comic book “hero”, one of them is his hatred for clowns.
And really Deadpool is not much of a hero but as he kills clowns, I kinda have to call it heroism.
This is another reason I like Deadpool, dimensional self incest.
Lets not forget Shaco can make two of himself-- double scary.
It would be of course even scarier if Shaco could Rule 63 in the game.
However don't worry I have collected some Sexy Gender Bender Shaco for my dear readers. ( I tried to do this with Rumble but I only could find hentai images with Rumble x Caitlyn...)
Cute Shaco
Yep more sexy Shaco.
This is starting to get really weird for even me, I am now turned owned by a clown? When I think about how often are the clown at circus females? Or jesters for that matter.
Some Cosplaying as Shaco too of course.
Simple said Shaco is freaking great design. Not only does the Demon jester idea work so great. His skill have such a coherent design to his concept. He can Teleport and become invisible during it, typical jester trickery, then he have the jack in the box a murderous toy. Also very good, and of course he has poisoned dipped shivs to throw at people. Easily a
10/10
Gameplay:
Shaco is my favorite champion. Because he can do so many things. He can be played as everything expect ad carry, but he can still kinda carry just that combining him with a support dont work so well. However Shaco support is bad ass. I usually go for this for rank games, it is a very solid build. First get 3 gp5 followed by warmog-sunfire-oracle etc its really solid. You cant really die. because normally its hard to kill Shaco but a shaco with health and armor sheet dream on.
Shaco is my favorite champion. Because he can do so many things. He can be played as everything expect ad carry, but he can still kinda carry just that combining him with a support dont work so well. However Shaco support is bad ass. I usually go for this for rank games, it is a very solid build. First get 3 gp5 followed by warmog-sunfire-oracle etc its really solid. You cant really die. because normally its hard to kill Shaco but a shaco with health and armor sheet dream on.
That's right Boromir, one does not. Then that Shaco is doing something wrong.
Shaco can easily be used in mid, I just did it today. And I beat the crap out of a Lux player, well she sucked really but anyway. They tried to gank me several times, wont work Shaco can easily avoid ganks as a mid laner, especially if you have Flash like me. And Shaco is really good and running to the side lanes to support the team or get kills etc. He can dive by using the ultimate. It works very well, given that some ap match ups are very hard (Lux is not one of them evidently).
And he can be played top by utilizing great map control just as with the support role. Shaco can primarily use the jack in a box to keep people away from using any bushes.
Boxes damage was reduced and their lasting time was shortened. Which made it be much harder to play full AP its still a viable build
AP Shaco is the shit. ( I sincerely think this is like the best meme ever of Karate Kyle)
Still the most viable play for Shaco is the jungle, I use a critical damage % runes. Making his first ability Deceive do sick damage and later build full AD gear.
However as mentioned Shaco is so versatile many games it can be better to go a tanky jungler or even sometimes go ap.
Shaco can also go for a hybrid attack speed oriented build which makes him a mad pusher.
This is really the absolute strongest point of Shaco he has amazingly amount of different builds. This gives the user a huge amount of freedom and options. Which its a really great.
So while I have mentioned some of his abilities lets go trough them.
His first ability is a Teleport and a Invisible mechanic, furthermore it makes his next attack during the duration be critical and with extra critical damage. So this is basically the best teleport in the game. This leas Shaco to have an amazing escape ability. It is not only a Teleport he is also gone for quite some time. I have many times teleported into them and then run away into their jungle etc.
A tip--- It is actually possible to both see the teleport animation when he is in bushes,,,,seems to be like a bug but whatever if you have a good eye you know when he teleports against you. Furthermore it can be seen what angle he is teleporting from the gases that are left, altought its like zero players who are able to do this properly.
His second ability are basically mines like old good Techies from Dota, but cooler. The boxes both fear, which can make the trap much much more effective as one single box can stop an fleeing opponent etc. The boxes also shoots making their initial damage lower but more in the long run.
Shaco was actually much more bad ass in his original version then he could go invisible and use boxes without losing his invisibility. But there is still a lot of nice gameplay that using this very powerful hidden danger zone mechanic. The user can plant several in a bush to make a deadly trap, spread them around for map vision/control especially worth while when jungeling or supporting. Control bushes at lanes etc. A very nice ability.
The third one is a good ability because the damage ratio is based both on AD and AP so either it because really strong if the hybrid build is used which is rare, but at least the Shiv is always pretty strong from the user building either AP or AP. And even when going for the tank build, the slow and the range of it will be very effective. The slow ability also extends to the clone.
The clone then is the ultimate. This is such a great ability too. The Clone can be utilized to for example as mention dive turrets. To initiate team fights, to face cheek bushes. As it gains Shaco items, it can be used to speed killing stuff in the jungle a lot like the dragon or a blue/red. It can also then be used to steal from the opponent jungler, overall Shaco is a great counter jungler.
The user can also avoid a lot of stuff with the ultimate for example Karthus ultimate or get out of many sticky situations. Shaco is very elusive. And normally a huge glass canon, even when going full AD its burst damage. I really like this Shaco got such a unique gameplay, and it is really that game 1 you can go full AP for one gameplay, game 2 full AD for another completely different gameplay etc.
Shaco of course lands on the very tricky value of
10/10
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