Sunday, November 17, 2013

Hearthstone: Basic Strategy

In Part 1 of this series I went over a basic introduction to Hearthstone. This time I will delve deeper into how to play the game and give you some tips for winning from my experience thus far.

Deck construction:

Once you pick the hero you are using, try to pick cards that synergize well with your hero power and the hero cards that you like. For example, as a Shaman, you can create many totems on the board with 0/2 so they do no damage but help in other ways. If you can use cards like Bloodlust that give all your minions +3 attack this turn, then those totems are suddenly a huge problem for your opponent.

Card draw is important and useful in almost every deck. Since you only draw one card per turn, other cards that draw cards are powerful. I once built a deck full of 1 and 2 mana creatures thinking i could overwhelm my opponent early on and just keep playing a ton of minions. By turn 6 though I'd have 6 mana but only one 2 mana card in my hand! I wasted a bunch of mana by not having enough higher cost cards to play. This deck could have worked if some of my cards drew other cards.

When creating a deck, its important to have a good mana curve. This means that you should have a good distribution of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7+ mana cards. On the deck building screen it will show your current mana distribution when you hover over your hero in the top right corner. Generally its best to have a few 1 or 2s, many 3-5s, and a few 6+ cards. It depends on your deck and your play style though. If you are a Mage with the ability to clear most enemy cards early, then holding out until late game and using higher cost cards could be an effective strategy.

In game:

Having a board advantage or a hand advantage is typically better than a health advantage. The goal in this game is to bring your opponents health to 0, so it seems obvious that having more health than your opponent means you have an advantage. That's often not true though. A board advantage means you have more or stronger minions on the board than your opponent. If you maintain a board advantage this will very quickly lead to your opponents death even if he had more health than you. Its easy to lose a board advantage though if your opponent has a hand advantage. By having a lot of cards in your hand you have more options. If you have 4 minions on the board and 1 card in your hand and your opponent has 1 card on the board but 8 cards in his hand, your opponent has a lot of ways to wreck your board and kill you.

It's usually better to clear minions first rather than attack the enemy hero. This is because leaving creatures on the board gives your opponent more opportunities to buff them. A 1/1 minion in the right deck can quickly get out of hand and become a 5/5 threat. By missing opportunities to clear your opponents minions, you are giving them more options for their next turn.

Don't be afraid to suicide your minions for the right reasons. It's rarely good to skip attacking with your minions, and by being the aggressor you can decide what trades are best for you. If you take the 'wait and see' approach, your opponent gets to decide the pace of the game. Although, to contrast this, just because you can play a card doesn't mean you should. Even if you have to waste mana by not doing anything other than using a hero power for a turn, its better than wasting cards. A good example is the spell Polymorph which turns a minion into a 1/1 sheep. You may be tempted to use it on the enemy 4/4, but that spell would be much more valuable when used against an enemy 7/5. So if you can sacrifice two of your minions to clear the 4/4 and save your Polymorph for a time when you really need it, then that's the best choice.

Be aware of the enemy hero's potential. Against a Mage be careful playing all your minions at once because their spells can clear your whole board. And against a Priest, if you think you're so smart playing your biggest creature on turn 8 with nothing to support him, then you're in for a surprise when he gets mind controlled and the Priest kills you with it. The capabilities of different heroes you'll mostly need to learn through playing though.

I hope these tips were helpful. Let me know if you disagree or have any questions.

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

An Introduction to Hearthstone

Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft is a new free to play game by Blizzard currently in closed beta. It's based on collectible card games. Below is a great layout of what the gameplay looks like from hearthstone.2p.com


The goal is to reduce the enemy hero's health down from 30 to 0. You play minions or spells which damage or control the enemy's minions or hero. These cards cost mana to play. You gain one mana crystal per turn until you are at 10 mana crystals, and each turn your mana is refreshed to full. There are 9 classes you may play as in Hearthstone and I believe they are the vanilla World of Warcraft classes - Mage, Priest, Warlock, Hunter, Druid, Warrior, Paladin, Rogue, Shaman. Each hero has their own specific hero power that makes them unique.

This video is somewhat dated but it gives a good overview of the game:


There are two important game modes. 'Play' allows you to play ranked games against random opponents of your skill level from decks you built with cards that you own. Each deck has 30 cards. At first you'll start with very few cards, but you can earn in game gold by winning games or completing quests. So far these quests have been quite simple such as 'Win 2 games as a Mage or Priest.' Once you have enough gold you can buy a pack of random cards to open. Or you can skip that whole process and buy them with real money. Also, each hero has unique cards you can only earn by playing that hero and gaining experience to level them up. There is also a crafting system that allows you to create some cards you are missing by destroying ones you don't need.

The other main game mode 'Arena,' costs gold or real money (currently $2) to enter. In this game mode you can choose between 3 champions randomly presented to you. Then the system shows 3 cards to you and you must pick one to add to your deck. Then it shows 3 new cards for you to choose from, and repeats until you reach the 30 card deck. Then, you play in the Arena against opponents of your skill level using that fixed deck you created until you lose 3 games. Once you lose 3 games that deck is gone forever and if you want to play in the Arena again you must pay to re-enter. The benefit is though that you get nice awards from the Arena that scale depending on how many wins you get with that deck.

There is also a practice mode to play against AI opponents but you get minimal rewards for doing that and it isn't really the point of the game. It is a nice introduction to the game though.

At first I thought Arena was my favorite mode because I liked the element of it that chose cards for me, but now I'm really getting into building my own decks and fine tuning them over many games to do what I need, so I've been doing the ranked Play mode more often. The Arena is a one shot go, so if you build a bad deck you just need to suck it up and do what you can. The awards for the Arena are great though so it's still tempting to play.

So far this game is pretty fun and I quite like it. I will write two more sections about Hearthstone. The next installment will be basic strategy, and the final installment will be my criticisms and suggestions.

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Jungle Riven: Is she viable?

In short. Yes. Is she the best jungler? No, but she sure is fun.

Pros
  • Decent ganks - OK CC, OK gap closer, Tons of damage
  • 'Carry' Jungler 
  • Late game power is insane with a few items
  • Fun!

Cons
  • No reliable initiation
  • Mediocre sustain and clear speed
  • Hard to play from behind
  • Need to be greedy

Quick Tips
  • Keep in mind your passive, try to autoattack between spells to maximize damage
  • Stack your passive before starting buffs. 10 seconds before you start your first jungle camp press Q, then wait as long as you can to press Q again, and then wait and do it again. If you've done this right, by the time the buff spawns you will have 3 stacks of your passive and about 3 seconds left on your cooldown before you can Q again. This will maximize your damage as your passive is very strong.
  • You can use certain wall jumps to avoid wards. This clip (Youtube) shows the main useful spot to wall jump to gank. His video also has many other useful wall jump tips.
  • You're not a tank. You'll often need to wait for a pick or a good engage from one of your teammates to go in because if you go in first you will get melted.
  • I like hunters machete/5 pots start. I tried Doran's blade start but you lose too much health, even with lifesteal quints. 
  • I prefer AD/Armor/MR/ArmorPen runes [EDIT: As Joris suggested below - 6 ArmorPen reds, 3 AD reds, and all AD Quints is best] and 21/9/0 masteries.
  • Favorite items: Bloodthirster, Brutalizer, Last Whisper, Guardian Angel, Hexdrinker (situational). Doran's blades are decent early game but I usually prefer to rush my Bloodthirster. Her shield scales off of AD and gives her inert tankiness so don't buy typical tank items. If you want to do that you should pick a different jungler. 
  • I've been playing her every game, but she's really a better pick when your team has some kind of initiation (Blitz, Leona, etc.). It also helps to have a tanky top laner.

She is a good bruiser, but I feel she isn't as strong as some other popular damage dealing junglers such as Aatrox or Vi. I don't play those champions though because I like Riven. She can certainly carry a game if you get ahead early, and you can get first blood often. Riven snowballs very well and once you have your ultimate it makes it easy to clean up kills. The disadvantage is you have to be greedy and take gold from your lanes to really succeed. This can bite you in the ass in the long run if you can't use your gold advantage to carry your team. Her biggest problem is her lack of a strong initiation that is currently expected from a jungler. In my opinion, this is why junglers like Vi and Aatrox are considered better because of their great ability to start a fight. If you have a strong initiator on your team though, Riven can really shine and reach her potential as an incredible diver and just blow people up.

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

What's wrong with Sivir?

Well some people would tell you nothing. Her win rate is 48.54% when writing this. This is higher than other popular champions such as: Shen, Tristana, Elise, Jayce, Lulu, and Nunu. She is great at pushing and chasing, has a ton of early game burst damage, and "she has no counters in bot lane" - Luscious Lenny, an avid Sivir player with over 1000 ranked games as Sivir this season. So why don't more people play her?

I've been playing her quite a bit lately and I decided to look into it. I did some research on the forums and interviewed a couple Sivir players to see what they thought.

"Compare Sivir to Varus + Ashe. Not as strong in the utility category. Compare her to Lucian or Corki. Not as much damage. Compare her to Cait or Ez. Not as strong poke. She doesn't do anything better than other ADCs." - KingDempz. She's known for her pushing ability, but even then split pushing isn't usually the best choice. She pushes so hard but she isn't the best duelist nor does she have a reliable escape to help her out of the tricky situations she inevitably gets in. So why can't she do anything better than other AD Carries? Well the problem is she really has no specialty. She is best known for pushing as I said, but she also has great early game burst, a strong 1v1 ability in her spell shield, and a lot of team utility from her ultimate. She has so much power in those areas that this requires her to have other problems like very short range (the shortest of the AD Carries), high mana costs, and no escape in order to be balanced. This leads to a champion that feels clunky and not intuitive to play, as her kit isn't cohesive.

Tentative Sivir Visual Update
So what if we gave her a rework? What would people like to see? Here were some frequent requests:
  • Longer range
  • Lower mana costs
  • Make Ricochet a toggle ability like it used to be or have some other interesting effect
  • Change her ultimate somehow - or just remove it entirely
  • Many people want a better escape besides her ultimate, but others don't want to change her spell shield because it's iconic
  • Different effect on successful spell shield
  • People like that she is a pusher and burst carry and want to maintain that

Keeping the above in mind, here is my proposal:

She really needs an identity as a pusher, poker, utility, or burst ADC. I think she's closest to a pusher or burst right now so to maintain her feel we should emphasize those concepts. I also LOVE her movement speed theme and want this to be even more pronounced.

Tons of people want increased range, as it's currently the lowest of all AD Carries at 500. Her short range fits her well in lane because she is an aggressive in your face type of champion. It's just not very forgiving for running away or for team fights. 525 range would be great for her as it is just a little bit more to make her not quite so risky, without giving her too much poke power.

Passive - Fleet of Foot "Sivir gains 10 movement speed for 2 seconds when she hits an enemy champion with her abilities or basic attacks. This effect can stack up to 10 times to a cap of 100 bonus movement speed. Sivir's multi-target spells can add multiple stacks." With this change, in the early game Sivir wouldn't get as much movement speed from her passive so her chasing power would be reduced, but as her attack speed increased with items and her ultimate, late game she would be able to kite better in team fights. This would balance her out a little by making her easier to use in team fights by trading in some of her early game power.

Q - Boomerang Blade is a great spell and loved among the community. I think it should be left alone as I like it exactly the way it is. The mana cost could be reduced though, and this might be possible due to other changes I list below. If the damage on her Q has to be reduced to allow lower mana costs though, then I don't think it's worth it. Personally, I love her high risk-high reward play, and having the insane damage on her Q is a part of that I wouldn't want to give up.

W - Ricochet should be kept as is. It's a good iconic spell that keeps her identity as a pusher. Many people want the toggle back, but I feel she already is a great pusher, and if you give her the toggle just for more power in team fights it seems like she would be too powerful. AD Carries are meant to do single target damage and focus one champion. A few of them like Miss Fortune can do damage to the whole team but it's only for a short time and it's very conditional. Making Sivir's W bounce to the whole enemy team 100% of the time would pretty much make her an AOE champion like a Mage and she would need to be balanced around that. Honestly, it seems like she still is balanced around the idea that she is an AOE champion, which would explain her very short range, high mana costs, and poor late game scaling, just like a Mage. So, if we revert her back to the AOE monster she was, we can't solve her other problems because she needed some liabilities to have all that AOE power.

E - Spell Shield should have a different effect than returned mana. It doesn't make sense on the character. I think on a successful spell block it should give her a large amount of bonus move speed for a very short time (maybe 50% increase for 2 seconds), which would stack on top of her passive. This would be like giving her a dash or other escape that a pushing champion should have. Many people wish she had a better escape, but many people also don't want to change her spell shield because it is an integral part of Sivir, so I think this could satisfy both sides. Also if you take away the mana boost from her spell shield, then you can reduce mana costs on the rest of her kit because she no longer needs to be balanced with that in mind.

R - On the Hunt should have the team effect removed. In the lore, Sivir is meant to be a mercenary, so she shouldn't be helping out her team. From a gameplay perspective, the team utility is taking too much from her personal kit making her weak. New effect: Bonus movement speed and attack speed granted for Sivir based on the number of enemy champions nearby -the fewer there are the more you get. This gives her more of an "On the Hunt" feel when chasing down prey 1v1. This fits better for a pushing champion as she will be able to duel people better, or run away easier if necessary, like Quinn or Vayne could. By making this big change to her kit, her ultimate becomes much less impactful on the game, which will allow her numbers to get tweaked in places she needs it such as base stats, auto attack range, and mana costs.

I realize some people won't like removing the team buff on her ultimate, but in order to give her other things she needs, we have to remove some things. She is already a pusher/burst/utility champion and this is just too many things at once. She can't be good at everything, so if we remove the utility aspect of Sivir, we can solidify her identity as a pusher by giving her improved mobility and dueling skills, while still maintaining some of her early game burst damage.

I love playing Sivir in her current state and would be a little sad to change anything about her, but I think she needs more than a visual update to truly be loved by the community again. Maybe my suggestions won't make her perfect. But it's a start.

Below are the forum threads where I did my research:
LoL Champion Feedback - To Sivir Fans
LoL General Discussion - To Sivir Fans
LoL Guides & Strategy - To Sivir Fans

Reign of Gaming - Let's Talk Sivir
Reign of Gaming - Why is Sivir bad?
LoL Champion Feedback - Sivir changes I would like to see
LoL Champion Feedback - Sivir to become viable again
LoL General Discussion - What could be done about Sivir?
LoL General Discussion - A serious request regarding Sivir. @Morello pls.
LoL General Discussion - About Sivir....(Visual Upgrade and some Move Changes)

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Your Champion Pool and Trusting your Instincts

You may want to learn every champion in the game and play something new every day because you can't resist the lure of the unknown and the exciting mystery of a new champion. But noooo that's wrong - people on forums and guides tell you that you have to play one role and one champion or you'll never be Challenger. I own 70 champions and I'm here to tell you that I think you should play whatever you want and tell the haters to shut it.

When I started playing League of Legends I loved when the next free week came along because it gave me the opportunity to try new champions. I would get so excited I would make a list of all the free champions and mark off the ones I hadn't played before and pick which ones I wanted to try out that week. Most newer players feel similarly as they don't know how all the champions work and it's great to try them out and get a feel for what you like. Even though I've tried almost all the champions at this point and the free weeks aren't as interesting to me, I still like playing a huge number of champions. I love the thrill and excitement of learning the skills and subtleties to a champion I don't know how to play.

Some say this play style makes it more difficult for me to win or improve because I don't practice the same champion or role. I disagree. Playing many champions gives me a much broader sense of the game, and an ability to be flexible with my role or champion for my team that can be very valuable. Most importantly, if I force myself to play the same champion over and over my heart just isn't in it. When my heart's not in it, I know I'll lose. I've tried to force myself to focus on one champion or role, but I find that it really stagnates me. My periods of greatest growth and improvement come from experimenting and trying new things. I'm not saying you should have a giant champion pool too. All I'm saying is trust your instincts and play what you feel is best for you and not what someone else tells you to.

Don't pick what championselect.net says is the best counter to your lane opponent. Don't pick what Insec is playing because he made a great play in the last tournament. Don't pick Blitzcrank just because he isn't banned this game. Pick a champion you actually want to play.