League of Legends Champion Review: Shaco

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

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.

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.

 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

Games you can't complete without a guide Final Fantasy XII

Final Fantasy XII

Zodiak spear.

Square Enix, are once again on the list.
While its actually is not practically harder to get Zodiac spear, then Excalibur 2. This one is higher on the list, because its literally impossible to fin  it without a guide. I am sure that you will never get this item without out side influence (if you don't get super lucky coming to that later).

What this game does is that it goes against anything we have ever learned about final fantasy games, or similar games. As with Megaman X3, this has to do with Cognitive science. Most specifically how we as humans learn stuff called  Developmental psychology http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Developmental_psychology.

By playing Final fantasy games we learn that items are hidden at different places. It can be a chest hidden somewhere, a extra boss to defeat and get a drop or maybe beat the games subgameplay. .

First of the game don't even hide that it exist its nothing like that.

The game uses a Licence board, to unlock characters potential of weapons and magics. At this place you can find the zodiac spear at a corner, so its not hidden that it exist at all.
But the way to get it, its probably the worst idea ever in history of gaming.

The licence board, a pretty nice Grid net character development pattern.

One of these 16 chest is not allowed to be opened. Which is like putting a child in a candy store and leaving him their alone and asking him not to touch anything.
Ok I admit that one is kinda an obvious trap, but this chest.

Is the first chest we will find in the game. It cant really be missed, and as we can see in the image the game screams at us TREASURE!.
I know the build quality its really bad, I for the life of me havent been able to find better images. I had this text written and finished long ago. I was relecuntl to post without having good pics.

Here's the other chest the user cannot open. Of course there is absolute zero feedback etc to that these chest are meaningful. 

The whole idea that a player would not try to open the chest is crazy. The way the user have learned how Final fantasy works and much other role playing games. Are that the best weapon in the game should be hidden at the last part of the games or as a reward from a secret boss. Not found in the middle of the game and to be gained from not opening chest. If anything, if we where to try and find this item in the game would we run around opening every chest.

To top it of the game actually requires the player not to have any character equipped with Diamond armlet.

The effect of Diamond armlet is:

"Chance to obtain rare treasures and more gil from treasure chests"
Yes their is no point not having this item equipped as it should give the us better items or more money from treasure chests.

There is no way a user would find this item in nebula if they haven't read on before hands how to play the game.

And to further confuse people, the weapon can be find be pure luck. In Henne Mines (which of course is a secret place to begin with)

As mentioned earlier the first zodiac spear required not to use Diamond armlet, but with this one we must have Diamond Armlet equipped when you examine a treasure chest. it Appears in a second invisible side room. And it got around a 0.1% to drop the spear, other wise you just get Gil.

Because of this someone would actually find it (given that the game have sold more then 5 million copies, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Best-selling_video_games#PlayStation_2). What this creates is that your friend of an friend will tell you he found it at that place. But if you go and try and find it yourself the chance are then under 0,1%, so I am are betting you wont find it.


The user really have to go and look for outside information for example in a guide to understand how to get it.

This game if any game has a game function to soley sell the game guide. It is also really hard to find most stuff in the game, however that is better as the user can still figure it out. Altought getting Excalibur is done in the same of Zodiac Spear, having a 1%(or lower) drop chance. I actually farmed it and it was.....boring as hell. I basically reloaded a safe file at the closest save location and kept running to it over and over again.

League of Legends Champion Review: Rumble

Rumble, Lols versions of Robo-Ky

Hmm an AFK checker was just added to LoL. This is nice, althought I can see people press join and then right away leave for example if they see they are a late pick in ranked. However it is better then not having this function.

From the first moment I saw Rumble’s preview I have always know hes a carbon copy of Robo-Ky. Its ridiculous how similar he his. Luckily hes a decent character to play. Well so is Robo-Ky. 

So in my last review I talked about how Riven is not at all like a fighting game character you know who is Rumble!

Here's a video for you people who haven't played the epic game Guilty Gear YYY.
Basically Robo-Ky got a lot more moves, which is understandable as hes a fighting game l of character.  

Aesthetics: 

Ok Robo-Ky got his unique resource called Steam instead of tension like the others in Guilty Gear. Rumble also got this unique game resource galled Steam. They both become stronger when the steam is higher, meaning their abilities becomes improved, this is much more noteworthy with Robo-Ky. Robo-Ky when having to much steam will self explode and turn red, basically he cant use his abilities. Rumble becomes silenced and red if reaching max steam.
This is a very coherent design, so is Rumble a good designed character then? Thing is that Robo-Ky is, Rumble is not. For example the most important Ability Robo-Ky has is that he can release Steam. This attack is also really similar to Rumbles Flamethrower ability. This gives the Robo-Ky user a more interesting options then the rumble one. With Robo-Ky you always want to have as much as possible steam but you don't want to max it, just like with Rumble. However in Rumble case its more of use some spells and then wait for a while to use more spells to avoid maxing the steam. I personally at least enjoy Robo-Ky way its more of a varying strategy for the user, where in Rumble case is more of an optimal path solution. - I  am usually to lazy to do references however lets see, Varying Strategy I am mainly thinking about the obvious meaning of the words and Björk, Bergström and Lundgren in Exploring Aesthetic Ideals of Gameplay and Ralph Koster’s Theory Fun. Maybe I should have gone with the simpler Harvard style then writing like this, but I want to point to Koster here mainly because that's my point. It is not that fun for a user when there is an optimal path. Robo-Ky is more of a situational based, while Rumble is more of a this is the best way to play him strategy. Note: that it is sometimes worth to go silenced for the extra damage for Rumble so there is some level of depth to it, but it is rare.

Still rumble is pretty cool its one of those small blue creatures, which I am to lazy to check what their name is right now. And I really enjoy his comments. Also that rumble in the jungle skin is nice. So.... I am pretty thorn here, I have always hater Rumble because he feels like such a rip of from Robo-Ky, however I do like his general design and his gameplay.
Let say 8/10, that's like decent nice score.

Gameplay:
Well I guess a lot of this has been covered, Rumble got a “unique” game resource which is steam instead of the typical Mana. The three first moves increases the Steam and the ultimate don't affect it. However more steam increases the damage of all skills include the ultimate, and at 100% steam Rumble becomes silenced this also includes the ultimate.
However his third ability the lighting harpoon can still be used, if it was used once. This is a tricky ability to explain.... basically if the projectile hits anything Rumble can shot one more, so if using the third ability is what pushes Rumble to max steam. He can still use the second harpoon even while being silenced. So its not really that he can use the ability more like he can finish using it. The harpoon also slows so usually its a neat trick to go overheated by using the harpoon as the last ability and having the opponent slowed for the duration of the increased physical damage.

The first ability is the mentioned flame(steam)thrower. Which is a decent cone ability. The interesting part I guess is that its a continually casted ability which is pretty rare.
This actually creates some good gameplay, its a very aggressive damage dealing ability. However it usually also pushes the lane, unintentionally or it really pushes the lane when wanted. So there is some skill to use it.
The second ability is a shield that also increase movement speed. I don't really feel this ability is noteworthy.

The ultimate I like, its a damage dealing field. Its a very interesting cast system, where the user press out how rockets while fly down at the ground. The initial rockets will deal some damage and then standing in the scorched earth will deal damage over time, also the enemies will be slowed. The way the user cast this is a pretty unique, and I realize now really hard to explain by text.
There is a lot of neat tricks a good player can get off by using the ultimate. I really feel that this ultimate both how its to use, and how it can be used (do this make sense?) its very good. A little of a saving grace for Rumble.
For some reason to, I liked playing Rumble when he was new. Today he feels much weaker, probably nerfed or something which I have missed. But it can also be that people today are used to dealing with him. I think this goes to that Rumble is only really fun to play when it goes pretty good, a game with him has to solid from start to finish. I found him very week without a decent farm. He is also limited to solo top, rarely he can go mid. That's kinda boring, melee characters generally can be utilized in more roles.

7/10

Pumiceville Starcraft 2 map

Pumiceville

Hello people for this one I have recorded a pretty lousy video describing the map.

- I forgot to mention it has neutral supply depos for the main choke.

Hmm my mic is so bad. Many times it just miss what I say. And youtube made it slightly worse, mainly it is to bright. Ug uploading your own file at blogger crashes for me, so this youtube video have to do for now.

Map can be downloaded at: http://sc2.nibbits.com/maps/view/137546/pumiceville
 (It is also publicly released)

Eedeen Starcraft 2 melee map.

Eedeen

That's right the map name is Eedeen..... Of course someone had already published a map under the name Eden. However I refused to change the name, or I was just extremely uncreative at the time. So I published my latest map as Eedeen. Anyway I will refer to it as Eden.

This map Eden is as 4 start zone map, but its like most my maps intended for a 1v1 melee game. However I believe its a pretty good FFA map, I have tested it a couple of time as an FFA game. And as I Will come to shortly why its a very aggressive FFA map.
This is because I intended the map to be very hard to defend third expansion. So in an FFA it becomes a lot of battles to secure a third base,

In the normal gameplay of 1v1. How the player wants to expand is depending on the start of the opponent. Or slightly depending on what match up/race it is. The expansion located at the sides of the map (left or right). Is on a cliff and is easier for a Terran defend against a Zerg. While the bottom or top expansion is very open, zerg vs for example protoss should take this one as its easier to get a surround, and this should be true against Terran to, of course it depends on the opponents army composition in the end.

Ok so first part the map features some interesting third base battles. Some other part of this map is that on the mini map it looks really wide open, because I have blocked of the map with trees. The trees create different paths around the center of the map, where an import Xel’naga watch tower is.
And I am really satisfied with the distance of the 3 Xel’naga watch towers. If a user controls the top one, he/she can see just until the tree wall. If he/she controls the middle one he/she can see between the 2 tree walls, and then with controlling the bottom one the user can see to the bottom tree wall. Controlling each Tower gives a great vision of the map. While controlling only the bottom/top one just misses to give the important vision of the paths in the middle. However of course those towers give a good vision on drops and on the path most player will take to attack their opponent if they are on the same top/bottom side of the map.

In the players main base, there is a high ground with line of sight blockers, making it a great drop location or to hide a pylon etc. While its not that effective to attack with air harras on the main. Air harras is instead very effective on the mentioned possible third bases.
The natural is relatively easy defended. I wanted it be easy as comparison with the thirds. However I made it have a pretty small choke but with rocks so it can be made wider.

I did not go for any fancy stuff this time, such as golden expansion, rich gas etc. I felt if I had mad for example the middle expansion gold, the side third ones would be less likely to be used. I didn't want the user to think like that, I want the user to think about the opponents position and the likely army to defends against. Altought it could be interesting as I don't really see a Terran going for the middle expansion at start, could create some interesting battles. However to me from testing the map, it would be unfair as teh Zerg player will most likely for a quick third at this place, slightly depending on where the protoss starts, and then it becomes fairly to good.

In the end of this map, I tried to find a snake critter to have in the middle but couldn't find one ---
Otherwise I made the map pretty nice with some sunlight effects, a nice surround of plants on the map sides.


Note: It was some really weird bug at two of the ramps, which I have never seen before. The units could walk and kinda jump up the cliff by moving just at the left of the ramp, e.g Ramp could not be force fielded, well it could with 2 fields. Anyway I fixed it by just removing and adding a new ramp at the same location.