Wukong the Monkey King and League playerbase increase

I'd like to address a couple of things in this post: Wukong first, and then the recent press release of the growing LoL playerbase and population.

Wukong spotlight:

Several hours after his release, the forums are already raging with underpowered, overpowered, and balanced threads on this guy. What is your opinion so far?

Just so you're aware, Riot use the first two weeks upon introducing a Champion to see how well it fits into the game. After said couple of weeks, they make changes if they think it's necessary, and then put the character up as free to play for everyone. So don't get mad if they make some mistakes, it's not like the Riot dev team can perfect a character in the short time they spend coming up with the idea. World of Warcraft can't even balance 10 classes, so how is a company on a smaller budget supposed to do better?

On another note, Riot games have also announced the population has increased to 15 million registered users. I'm not going to say anything about the authenticity of the report, lets just believe it unless someone proves them wrong.

Of those 15 mil players, an incredible 1.4 million log in and play games in a day, and 4 million in a month. Suck on that, dwindling HoN population. This new information is very reassuring to those people who are game producer patriots (like me).

With a growing population and more money flowing, lets hope Riot put it to good use instead of screwing around all the time. I still want to know what happened with Magma chamber though, anyone else remember that promise?

More custom made skins

Recently I've been getting lots of free skins for my characters. I thought I'd post some more epic custom skins incase you guys are getting tired of your vanilla champions and want some variety.

It's a true shame that some of these models are designed with more detail and quality than Riot can be bothered to put in. I'm not trying to dig Riot games, but they really do slack sometimes. Please bear in mind I'm not affiliated with the people who make these in any way, I just came across them on Leaguecraft.

Leona Valkyrie Moon V2 

Thought I'd start off with a Leona skin, since she's new and very, very annoying. There are already a hell of a lot of skins out for her, I chose this one because it looks less tacky than the others. Looks a little Tron which is just fine with me. I also saw a blood elf skin, wtf?

Download: Link


SUPER ULTRA UNICORN ROBOT RAINBOW SORAKA

SUPER ULTRA UNICORN ROBOT RAINBOW SORAKA! SUPER ULTRA UNICORN ROBOT RAINBOW SORAKA! SUPER ULTRA UNICORN ROBOT RAINBOW SORAKA! SUPER ULTRA UNICORN ROBOT RAINBOW SORAKA!

Download: Link

Haruhi Suzumiya Ezreal

If you like anime (anime blog), this skin is for you. Ezreal is pretty much a girl already, so why not? I'm always impressed when I see a texture overhaul like this. I'd like to see it polished a little better though, it doesn't do our Haruhi much justice.

Download: Link

Alien Kogmaw

Not bad huh? Ridley Scott's Kog'Maw is pretty awesome for a custom skin, a must for Alien fans. It's a shame it's not more detailed. Riot should just pick up where this guy left off, and make it something worthy of Riot points.

Download: Link

Illidan Stormrage Renekton

You see the badass picture. Even if you don't know anything about how much of a boss this guy is in Warcraft lore, it still looks freakin awesome. The designer of this Illidan skin is a winner, I have never seen Renekton look finer.

Download: Link

Monkey King

So, here's proof that HoN designed their Monkey King in 2009, albeit under a different name. Riot have stolen yet another character design?

Heroes of Newerth has always been similar in some champion abilities and such, but never to this extent. Not that I'm complaining, mind. It's pretty win they steal ideas, it's what the best companies do.

HoN devs have explained they did concept designs for Monkey King before LoL was even in open beta.


Proof of Monkey King concept art for HoN in 2010.

HoN Monkey king 2009

LoL Monkey King 2010

Thank you to the anonymous who provided a link with evidence that shows HoN had the idea first (after ancient mythology that is).

Five of the best ultimates

When I find myself playing a LoL game every so often I will illogically shout 'WTF OP' to my friends on skype when encountered with a problematic enemy Champion in the lane. While I don't really believe said Character is actually overpowered, frustration gets the best of me.

This very same frustration could affect you. For example lets say you decide to solo lane as Mordekaiser, usually pretty easy right? But upon stepping into the lane at level one you find Xin Zhao and Pantheon who melt your face before you can take a single step towards the tower. In that moment of frustrated summoner spell mashing before you die, I'm pretty sure you thought 'WTF OP' yourself. Oh, and 'I'm a jackass' for not waiting at the tower in a solo lane.

Since the majority of Champions get their ultimate at level six, that gives them justification to be downright badass. Some champs like Kassadin and Tryndamere are built entirely around their ulti, and are pretty useless without it. You could be winning against them in the lane up until six, but when their superior ultimates come into play you can do nothing but say 'wtf op =('. Oh, and there's the dying part of course.


Everyone loves their ultimate in League of Legends (unless you're Udyr, whey), but which ones are the most formidable, the scariest? This list compiles what I believe are the best ultimates in the game, picked by pure awesomeness.

What I'm really judging each ult by is versatility, utility, and power. Please don't complain about the list unless you have a better suggestion in mind, one that I can take into consideration.

Honourable mentions:
Mordekaiser - Awesome for turning a 5v5 into a 4v6, turning the enemies best carry against them is just hilarious.
Swain - CAW CAW CAW lifesteal king, even though it got a serious nerf recently.
Nunu - Aoe slow that can one-shot squishies? How can you complain? Unless you're the squishy, that is.

Galio - Galio's ultimate is really good, and he'd be worthless without it. Sadly Amumu's ult outshines his in pretty much every way.

Kennen - Lots of damage, excellent for turning a team fight around. Also very good for making the otther team rage.
Shen - I wanted to put Shen's ult in the top five, but it only deserves the position if the player uses it effectively all game, which I almost never see.
Teemo - 10 minute wards that slow people. Self explanatory.
Zilean - Zil's ult is the perfect way to trick the enemy team into overextending for absolutely nothing; and then speeding away with your trollface on as your allies dissect them.
Blitzcrack - Aoe silence with a short cooldown yay!
Nocturne - No escape from this badboy, and scares the shit out of their entire team.

Top five ultimates in League of Legends:


5. Alistair 

Alistair's Unbreakable will is a great ultimate with many uses, all of which involve not dying. It's great for initiating and tower diving, and the general doing what you want going where you like thing. I have yet to see Alistair die with this badboy up, and I'll probably be gobsmacked the day I do.

4. Karthus

Requiem definitely deserves it's place on this list. Playing Karthus forces the enemy team to be wary from level six onwards. It's excellent for wearing the enemy team down or picking off low health players, and the occasional multikill. On top of that, it requires absolutely no skill to land, it's simply press R to win.

3. Fiddle

Crowstorm is just plain awesome. I would justify it here, but there's really no need you all know why it's epic so CAWCAWCAWCAWCAWCAWCAWCAWCAWCAWCAWCAWCAW. It seems the ability power ratios and the damage has been decreased, so it's not quite as devastating as it used to be. However, in compensation it has a shorter channel time!

2. Amumu

Amumu arguably has the most lethal ultimate in game. Curse of the sad mummy is an aoe stun that lasts a couple of seconds, and the radius is easily large enough to grab most of the enemy team. By itself it doesn't do much, but with your team beating on them at the same time it's practically GG.

1. Twisted Fate

By revealing the entire enemy team on the map this ultimate is unbelievably useful. Using Destiny practically forces them to be on good behaviour. On top of that it allows you to teleport anywhere on the map, so you can beat on low health people while they run back to base. Late game it provides even more utility, you can scout out gankable targets for your entire team to jump.

Awesome custom skins

Some people don't like to pay money for skins from Riot, and use custom skins to change the look of their champions for their own client only. This is a list of some of the best skins in terms of quality and design. Please note that I didn't make any of them, just use them every now and again.

For those of you interested, I custom skin a lot of my characters, because I couldn't care less how the others in the game see my character. Giggety. Right now you may have some trouble getting the models to work, but that's Riots fault. Read about it here.

If you're looking to change your characters around a little bit to make the game more interesting, then try downloading a couple of these wonderful skins, they are perfect to spice up your League of Legends play!

Tryndamere - Cloud Strife

FINAL FANTASY LEAGUE OF LEGENDS SKIN WTF?!

I'll start with a skin for all you Final Fantasy fanboys, since it's just plain awesome and actually surprisingly well designed. I bet there's gonna be a few secret Cloud worshippers downloading this one on the sly. I remember some scrub spamming the forums for this skin a while back, guess someone delivered.

Link: Download Tryndamere - Cloud skin



Crestfall Raven Vayne

The eyeliner is a bit overboard, it's like a girl Dante -.-

This Raven skin seems somewhat like a recolour until you look in detail. It's very pretty and if you play Vayne you should definitely consider this one. There are a few custom Crestfall skin styles, but this one is the nicest I've seen. And yeah, if you aren't into that whole goth/emo thing then I guess it ain't for you.

Link: Download Crestfall Raven Vayne

Samurai Akali

Just wow, someone has been playing Shogun 2 too much.

I was pleasantly surprised to find this Samurai Akali custom skin in the rankings, from the picture you can see how much she has been changed from the original model. It looks very pretty in game, with new spell particles, textures, and animations. Vampyroteuthis has put the effort into this design and it's really shown. Compare this to any Riot Akali recolour, and now you realise custom skins are better!

Link: Download Samurai Akali

Teen Annie

This encourages nothing but paedophilia. Seriously.

I found this skin and although I depise Annie's facemelt at the moment, this skin is too anime for me to pass up. For those of you wanting you little girl and her tibbers to be a little older (you sick bastard), this skin is perfect for you.

Link: Download Teen Annie

Spell Thief Lux (recolour)

Spell... Thief? Makes sense.

Thought I'd give this little ditty a mention, since I used it for a while and I prefer it to Lux's other skins. They seemed to have gotten rid of the Demacian wench stench too. There are a couple of inconsistencies on the skin, but nothing you'll really take note of while playing.

Link: Download Spell Thief Lux recolour


I hope you like these skins, if you do there I will be posting more soon. Thank you for taking the time to read this post, feel free to comment if you want me to mention a certain skin!

RPG index

Hey folks short post today!

Just looking for a few more people to critique one of my other blogs.

If you guys have the time, please check out my RPG blog sometime, it's good if you're searching for a single player RPG to kill time.

http://rpgindex.blogspot.com/

Guide to map awareness

Introduction
This guide is for people who want to get better at League of Legends, but please don't come here knowing nothing about the game. Map awareness is not something you should learn until you are fairly competent. Bear in mind, most of this guide assumes you already use wards. If you don't use them, please read this warding guide first.
 

What is map awareness?
Map awareness is a tool you must take advantage of if you want to take your League of Legends play to the next level. Essentially, it's watching the minimap during a match so you can see what's going on in all the lanes. The main reason to do this is to protect yourself. If the enemy team are on their way for a gank, you need to be prepared. If you are ready and position yourself correctly it can save your life when the enemy disrupts your lane.

When everyone is in the laning phase, you want to be able to move freely to harass and last hit. However, if you start pushing or getting brave, you could get surprised by additional enemies if you don't watch the map. If you know someone is heading your way, not only can you avoid the surprise, you can turn the tables by cutting them off.

I have team mates to call missing for me, why should I learn map awareness?
When you play a game if your team has to say MIA for you to realise the enemy is missing, I have to say you are doing it wrong. This is a crutch. Experienced players will watch the minimap consistently throughout the match, so they can see missing enemy champions who may be coming to gank them. I'm not saying don't call miss, just don't expect your team will always call it for you.

You can always get a better grasp of what's going on by seeing it yourself. If you're playing a game without voice communication or a team, utilizing the ability to see all the lanes is vital to your success. Not just to avoid dying, but to see good gank opportunities and when to cover other lanes so the tower doesn't get pushed.

Developing map awareness
Watching the map and laning at the same time is impossible, which is why you need to practice glancing at it every 1-10 seconds. It can be really tricky, but once you get into the habit of doing this, you'll start to notice when people leave their lanes. Wards are a good incentive to keep an eye on the minimap.

Try using clairvoyance for a few games, it can get your team kills throughout the game if you use it right.

Early game/laning phase
As the game begins, check which champions are in lanes adjoining yours, and also if there are any junglers. These are the people who have quick access to you, so adjust your playstyle and positioning accordingly.

If someone disappears off the map during the creep wave don't react immediately, but you should start planning for their entrance if you think they might be coming or you are on low health.

When you get a free moment, try quickly browsing the other lanes so you can see how each person is doing. Look for good gank opportunities, if the enemy is on low health and pushing, you can dash there to seize a kill or two.

Early on dragon takes longer and leaves people vulnerable. It's best to wait for the other team to go first. If the enemy attempts dragon, you could co-ordinate a kill, or steal it if you can.

Mid/Late game
Map awareness is still important, but at this stage the enemy team will go missing for long periods of time unless your team buys some wards (ward guide). It's highly advisable you don't screw around without your team or a tower unless you know where most of their champions are.

You will also be switching lanes at will, using the map to hunt for precious gold and such. However, now everyone will have a new primary objective, kills and towers. Try to keep track of enemy movements, and gather your team to either intercept them or defend their push. Watch dragon and baron, since getting the jump on the other team at this stage is a game-winning advantage.

If one or two enemy team members are overextended and the others are missing, it's very likely the whole team is nearby, trying to bait you out. The best counter to this is to engage with your all your allies and hit them with your full strength before they can muster theirs.

Sometimes when the enemy team is pushing relentlessly, you can go to another lane and counterpush to relieve pressure. Just make sure you leave as soon as it gets risky. Since a death can lead to imminent loss late game, stay in range of your team unless you have a reason not to.

Conclusion
I hope this guide has helped you with your map awareness. If you feel I am missing anything, please comment and I shall do my best to fulfil your wish.

If you are looking for other guides, you can find them here.

About server downtimes and Riot patching

So as of late, the EU servers have been down for almost a fortnight, and the US servers delayed patch downtime was extremely frustrating to those left waiting for it to come back up. Even when the servers came back up the next day, Leona and Yorick, the two most likely to be played characters were not available for play. This has been the worst patch in a long time, and yet I don't see any IP boost on any of my accounts, nor do I see any apology other than "sorry for the delay" scrawled hastily at the bottom of Average Gatsley's post on the LoL forums.

Although Riot were bought recently by Tencent for a whopping $300 million, it certainly hasn't changed much at headquarters. They managed to put up the thread on the forums yesterday explaining how they were working on the problem: 3 hours too late. As with most people I am not really as upset about not being able to play as I am annoyed at Riots terrible customer service.



During patch day the League of Legends official forums are packed to the point of crashing, which leaves me wondering why the Devs don't just post a bulletin visible to everyone visiting the site. This would not only cut down the amount of people bottle necking the servers and the website, but also calm down the angry mob that plagues the forums.

It's a shame to see a great game compromised by something as straightforward as customer service. It won't stop me playing, but it will make me sadface =(

How to win your lane

Introduction:

Getting harassed out in the lane? Trouble getting last hits or experience? Then this guide about lane dominance may help you. Winning in League of Legends can be broken down into many factors, controlling your early game is one of them. In any match there is a constant battle that decides which team wins and controls the minion/creep waves in their lane. Taking dominion over the lane is one of the most important contributions to your mid and late game, therefore it shouldn't be taken lightly.

Losing your lane means you will most likely be forced to sit on the edge of experience range, unless you want to eat a face full of damage and possible death if you go near creeps. Enemy champions will farm away last hits, and you will slowly take tower damage. In other words, you can't lose lane dominance unless you have a good reason (For example: running low on mana, waiting for a higher level to fight or opportunity to take back control).

This guide should increase your understanding of how laning works, and how to make the most out of it.

What is lane control?

It's pretty simple. Early in the game while you're grinding up gold and items in the lane, the enemy has the same objective. Obviously, both teams will want to push/kill the opposition to maximise their grinding time and delay their enemies to eventually win the game. Since the laning phase can be fairly long, dominion over the creeps can be won or lost multiple times during a match.

How do I get this mysterious yet glorious lane control?

The battle for lane control begins at the champion selection screen. If you are going mid you'll need a viable character. If you are going in a side lane, it gets a little more complicated. Picking a setup that has good side lane combinations and a working team composition isn't easy. But if you are lacking in one, then victory is one step further away.

Just for reference, here are a couple of examples of good champion combos in the lane:

Rammus + Caitlyn: This setup has a squishy long range with a short range tank. Caitlyn can easily harass with Rammus covering her from harm, they also have significant pushing and ganking power. Finally, they have enough utility to be useful in teamfights and a lot of team compositions.

Sion + Garen: With a couple of ignites and maybe an exhaust, these two badboys can snatch first blood in 50% of their games. Although they don't have any range or pokes, the fear factor of being stunned and silenced will keep the other team at their tower. If not, well 300 extra gold for when you hit recall eh?

What you need to think about when deciding on your laning setup is fairly straightforward.

Picking your lane combo:

• How well they can contribute and fit in to the team as a whole?
• Do they have synergy, harass, a stun, and staying power?
• Preferably, at one ranged each lane for tower hits and denying.
• Fearsome attacks that make the enemy back off, like Xin Zhao's knockup, Mordekaisers cone attack and shield, or Lux's circle.

Other than than that, there's not much more to picking your combo. Summoner spells can also help your chances of reigning supreme in the lane. Exhaust and Ignite are excellent fear mongering tools, while Teleport can be used to get back to the lane without giving them a moment of rest. It's a good idea to think about these factors before choosing your champion.

Let's move on to actual ingame lane control. Most of the time, one team holds the majority of the lane. As I mentioned at the start of the guide, In any match there is a long fight to decide on which team controls the creep waves in their lane. This can be broken down into a series of short confrontations, some of which don't even involve damaging eachother. These confrontations consist of both mental and physical aspects. Physically because if you have more health and a scarier combo, you can push the advantage. You can also get into your opponents mind, play aggressive and make them feel unsafe near the creeps. Your battle for lane dominance can begin before the first creep wave if you encounter the enemy combo. When the skirmish begins it will continue until one team retreats or is killed.

First I'm going to cover the methods and tactics you can use to maximise your chances of gaining and keeping total creep control. What I mean by this is the enemy lane will be sat at the tower, possibly on low health and you will be stopping them getting anything but scraps.

Gaining lane control:

• When the first creep wave begins, so does the contest for domninance. If the enemy is very aggressive, they probably think they can beat you, so beware. Sometimes it's a good idea to let the enemy team just take control so you can lull them into a false sense of security.
• You never really know who's going to win until you actually fight it out with the enemy. When this happens, make sure you have the best chances possible of winning, like getting attacked by creep waves while battling the enemy champions. Early on a wave can destroy a squishy character if they are stupid, so try using that to your advantage.
• A successful gank in your lane will not only give you control, but a failed one will briefly keep the enemy team at bay too. Use this technique to relieve pressure on yourself and allies, it's very useful.
• If the other team attacks and challenges your right to last hits and experience, you need to make sure they have no tricks (like a gank or ultimate) that could screw you over. Once that's clear, beat them to death with a rusty scewdriver or whatever spells you have.
• Harassing plays a large part in lane combat, you need some abilities that can damage your adversaries while taking minimal damage.
• Running into a bush in front of the other team can be used effectively as well. If you charge into a bush on the opposing side of the lane, it can scare them into running away. Remember, dominance is established just as much in the mind as it is by slapping the crap out of those scrubbers.
• When you are left alone against two people, which is going to happen at some point- bluffing becomes a possible strategy. By attacking and pretending you have back up, sometimes the enemy will run to the tower, leaving you to farm. Only use this when you know it's going to work, otherwise they'll just kill you. 
• Wards can make it easier to predict enemy movements and gives you the confidence and knowledge you need to push them back.

Now that I've covered a little on how to gain lane control, once you have established dominance against the other team, you can start to apply pressure. There are several options that are available to you.

What you can do with lane control, how to apply pressure:

• Push the tower. Continue to harass the enemy setup.
• Farm last hits.
• Deny the enemy combo experience and gold by keeping them at the tower and last hitting (early on this is hands down the best thing to do).
• Go back and buy items, since you've earnt some space by forcing the enemies to retreat.
• Gank other lanes.
• Let the enemy team push so you can pull off a kill.

You can usually aim for a couple of these goals at the same time. Make sure you seize as much as you can when you have lane dominance because it could be lost at any moment. Be aware of incoming ganks with a ward, you are more vulnerable to other lanes when pushing.

When you are pushed back to your tower and are getting screwed over, it can seem like an impending loss. However, there are many ways you can turn it around on your opponents, and force them to relinquish their grasp on that oh so glorious control of the lane.

What to do if you can't take control of the lane:

• Play incredibly defensive, don't get hit for anything less than a last hit.
• Try to stay in experience range, even if you have to dash in and out for each minion death.
• Observe your enemies actions, look for an opportunity to harass and push the other team out of the lane. Don't take them head on and lose, wait carefully for your chance.
• Call for a gank to alleviate the pressure.
• Take all the last hits you can get when the creeps eventually reach your tower.
• Call for a lane switch with someone who could fare better.
• Keep your tower up at all costs, because it's the only thing keeping your sorry ass alive.

Remember, playing defensive in the lane and relinquishing control to the enemy team is always a temporary solution. If you get stuck like this for a prolonged amount of time, you are only hurting yourself and your allies.

I hope this guide provided you with all the information you need to play better in the lane.

Looking for other guides? Go here.

Guide to warding properly

One of the most lethal yet subtle tools at your disposal on League of Legends is wards. Say you buy 3 for 225g, and place them correctly. You spot an enemy coming in to gank, and avoid dying. The warding has already more than paid for itself. Even though they have a fairly short duration, they can give you easy ganks. It's not uncommon to see teams grab aces because of a single ward at the Baron. This is a short guide on how to use your little buddies efficiently.

Here is a comprehensive image with warding locations I found in the backwater pages of google. You may have to save the image to see it properly. :

If you want a simpler image, use this one instead:

You will see all the best warding spots on these pictures, learn them if you want to play ranked. upon first leaving base in a game it's best to place a couple of wards around your lane or their jungle if they have a jungler. If you want to watch the dragon, start by putting a ward down 5 minutes into the game. Ward Baron at 25 minutes in, and keep one there because it's practically an ace on a plate if the enemy team tries it.

Remember, wards are pretty much ALWAYS useful. All they have to do is save you or get you one gank, and you've saved enough money for 4 more wards. If you are a carry or don't have money to spare, ask a teammate to buy some. If you ever remember a game where the enemy team was just everywhere, ganking your allies left and right; they were using wards.

If you are searching for other guides, you can find them here.

How to get better at League of Legends

Since I have played LoL for a year now, plus DotA and HoN before that; I believe I am appropriately seasoned to write a guide with tips and hints on how to get better at the game. If you have reached a point where you are having trouble improving, reading this will definitely help you. Even advanced players could pick up a trick or two, so give it a browse.

There is no secret to becoming a good player. If I were asked what was the biggest factor to being a boss at League of Legends, I would say it's situational awareness. Why? Because if you are observing most of the map and reacting to who you are laning against and their abilities, taking advantage of that information is incredibly easy. How? By watching the map you are nearly ungankable, you can see when enemy champions aren't in their lanes without relying on teammates. If you know the opposing teams moves and more importantly, their limits; you can maximise your potential chances at earning kills and lane dominance. Even though it sounds fairly simple, easier said than done.

The best way to develop situational awareness is through experience. In the beginning you will die and feed the enemy team, there's no way to avoid that. But after a few matches, you'll start to do better, buy some items and maybe get a kill or two. Once your account has reached level 10 you will be a wise and worldly player, venturing optimistically into the blind pick trap. There you shall be devoured by the trolls and wolves. Advanced players will spit on your pathetic selection of 5 Champions and tear you a new one using a character with spells you've never seen. Although this stage is frustrating, it won't be long before you are doing the same thing to scrubs with glee.

For those of you who don't want to blunder their way through every game by trial and error like me, here is the list of hints and tips that you should take into consideration if you want to maximise how much better you get when you play.

• Early in your LoL career, it's probably a good idea to play the same character several times until you get good at it, rinse and repeat. It will allow you to become more familiar with the items, Champions, and general flow of the game without being overwhelmed.
• Last hitting is a vital aspect of the game, don't think you can ever slack on farming gold or you're just giving the enemy team a better chance. Same thing applies to denying. Many people don't use their lane control to deny the enemy team experience and gold. That's plain retarded.
• If the enemy lane is controlling you and denying you experience and gold, don't panic or get yourself killed. Try to keep yourself in experience range, and when the creeps eventually reach your tower, suck up those last hits like Cartman on KFC. Call for a gank, and wait for them to slip up so you can regain control.
• Never get brave. Know what you and your lanemate are capable of, don't tower dive or commit unless you are at least 80% assured of victory. Always check the map before starting a gank. If you get interrupted it could turn nasty.
• Don't die. No seriously, dying will screw you and your team and lead to a loss. When you do meet an untimely demise, think about why you died and how you could prevent it next time. Always be cautious, don't wander into a trap you could have avoided by simply sitting at the tower.
• Read some champion guides in your spare time, it helps more than you think to know every character intimately. You can learn to play a new champion much faster if you read a guide beforehand, you will also be able to counter them more effectively.
• If you have recording software, re-watching old games is an excellent way to review your mistakes and learn from them.
• Picking for your team is something you should do in ranked, most of the time in normal games people choose whatever they want.
• Try looking at the map every 5-10 seconds for an entire game. It's difficult to do while playing, but once you get the hang of it see how many times it'll save you.
• A good rule of thumb is to act cautiously as if you are always alone. Don't let your team lull you into a false sense of security. Just because your lane partner is pushing, doesn't mean it's safe for you to push as well. They may have flash or an escape.
• Cautious play can lead to you missing out on some kill opportunities at first, but after some practice, you will know when it's the time to be offensive or defensive. 
• Wards are your best friend. Not your lanemate, wards. Wards. Wards. Use them sparingly, and respect them.

I hope this guide provides you with what you need to get better. As I have already mentioned, the key way to get better at League of Legends is to play more. Find some friends, play with them. Harass some mexicans, play some more.


If you're looking for other guides, you can find them here.

Underpowered Champions of 2011

In League of Legends, some smart people like to say there are no underpowered Champions, because any character played right can succeed. Of course, that's not entirely true. Some are better than others and have less counters.

This list is an ongoing reference for characters that are currently underpowered and generally sub-par. That doesn't mean you can't do well on those characters, only that it is harder to achieve good scores and win for the team.

Please note I will keep each description short, so I can adjust the ranks with ease if Riot fixes/breaks a character. If you think I should add or remove a Champion from the list, please comment and let me know. If you provide a good reason I will change it.

Underpowered Champions of 2011
Twitch:

Pretty much everyone knows Twitch is broken right now. He can carry a team with immense feed and farm, but up until that point you'd be just as well off having a feeder. I know all the bads out there have trouble with stealth, but seriously? Is this the state Twitch has to be in so retards can kill him? Try HoN or DotA, the stealth heroes in those games will melt your face off.

Karma:

 Karma is an excellent character with some interesting spells, but she doesn't quite match up to other support Champions unless the team is built around her. As one of Riots best works, I hope they fix her soon. While she doesn't really need a rework, a few tweaks to increase her output and utility could make Karma an excellent ranked pick.

Galio:

Kinda like batman eh?

 Ever since Galio got a severe nerf he almost completely dropped off the radar, Gragas and Garen style. Notice they all begin with G's? Wierd. Anyway, although Galio has recieved a few tiny buffs since he was broken, he still isn't quite good enough. With such a devastating ultimate, Riot probably thought he'd be better off unplayed until they get around to reworking him.

Maokai:

CRAAAB PEOPLE CRAAAB PEOPLE

Everyone hates facing those bloody saplings in the lane. Maybe that's why Maokai isn't the greatest Champion. I remember anticipating his release and loving the spotlight, and at first I loved playing him. But eventually after getting pissed off countless times by his flaws, I just stopped playing him. He isn't really underpowered, but he is kinda weak.

I know this list is a little empty, so if you have any thoughts on UP characters please comment. I will update the post with your suggestion, thank you.

Other links:
Top ten overpowered Champions list
League of Legends comics