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After nearly 2 years Riot has finally released a new game mode and map called "Dominion".

This is more of a capture the flag than a bum rush the nexus game mode. The game has a simple strategy to it that quite a few people have yet to grasp. I've seen some random players try out different strategies but they have ultimately failed.

The Strategy I Think Works: Basically there is a strong defense character that goes bottom to hold the closest tower and hope to catch the 2nd tower in that lower quadrant. Personally I have found that characters like Heimerdinger, Cassiopia and Brand are best fit for these positions. Their AOE's and multiple target spells keep enemies from fully capturing that tower. The rest of the team rush to the mid and top to quickly get the upperhand in capturing 3 out of the 5 towers. If these 3 or more towers are held the enemy nexus will take too much damage and eventually your team will win.
The only problem I see with this strategy is that it can get boring. The game gets played the same way, you see the same overpowered characters for this map over and over again (ie. Rammus, Heimer, Akali, Vayne, Yi, Tryn). The reason these characters (who normally need to get fed and farm creep in 5v5 Summoners rift) become so OP is because gold is given freely during Dominion. It comes in large chunks and is not based on creep or enemy kills.

There are some new items that have been brought in for Dominion only and are only available while playing the Dominion mode.
Entropy:
Tier: Legendary
Effects: +70 attack damage +275 health
Passive: 25% chance on hit to reduce your target's movement speed by 30% for 2.5 seconds.
Active: Unique: For 5 seconds, your attacks reduce your target's movement speed by 30% and deal 80 true damage over 2.5 seconds. 60 second cooldown.
Menu: Attack > Damage/Defense > Health
Item cost: 3565g (600g)
Sell value: 2496g

Hextech Sweeper
Tier: Legendary
Effects: +40 ability power +300 health
Passive Unique: +10% cooldown reduction
Unique: Your magic damage grants vision of your target for 4 seconds.
Active Unique: Covers an area with stealth-detecting mist, granting vision of units which pass through it for 6 seconds. 1 minute cooldown.
Menu: Magic > Ability Power
Item cost: 1870g (150g)
Sell value: 1309g

Ionic Spark
Tier: Advanced
Effect: +45% attack speed +250 health
Passive: Unique: Every fourth attack deals 100 magic damage to up to 4 targets.
Menu: Attack > Attack Speed/Defense > Health
Item cost: 2300g (775g)
Sell value: 1610g

The Lightbringer
Tier: Advanced
Effects: 50% attack speed +20 attack damage[1]
Passive: On hit, target is revealed for 5 seconds.
Menu: Attack > Attack Speed
Attack > Damage
Item cost: 1750g (285g)
Sell value: 1225g

Priscilla's Blessing
Tier: Advanced
Effects: +25 health regeneration
Passive: UNIQUE : +15% Capture Rate (Does not stack with other Capture Rate modifiers)
Active: Unique: +30% movement speed for 2 seconds. 60 second cooldown.
Item cost: 1600g (1100g)
Sell value: 770g

There are multiple other items that replace Summoner Rift items and are only available during Dominion. You can see the list here:
http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/Dominion/Items

Anyways, I do suggest hopping back on the game whether you've continued playing it or you are a bit rusty ... it does make the game a little more interesting. The best part is the games are fast paced and short lived!

Picture this. You are Miss Fortune. Your team has been doing well through the laning phase. Winning the one on one fights without much issue. Ganks are going well. That is to say, they are going well against everyone except one. You know that one. Stacking armor and magic resistance. Stopping you dead in your tracks with his stuns and lockdowns. As the game goes on and lanes get pushed, the team fights begin. This is where he shines. Locking down your team with his unstoppable wave of crowd control. Soon, your beautiful replay you were going to post on YouTube is nothing more than another piece of fodder to prove that team composition matters, and that you should have picked a Tank.

List of Tanks (as of July 22, 2011)

• Alistar


• Amumu


• Cho'Gath


• Galio


• Leona


• Maokai


• Rammus


• Shen


• Singed

So, the first thing I think needs addressing here would be how short this list is. I did address this some in another article, but Tanks have the disposition of not being as viscerally fun. What I mean by that is that Tanks don't get the big numbers. They don't get the big kill streaks. But, they are the cog that moves the team past the laning phase. The time spent farming up minions and avoiding death is well spent come the mid-point of the game when you're the bane of the enemy team existence. In any rate, this leads to a lack of Champions with the disposition of "Tank" stuck to them. You could call other Champions "Tank" (Dr. Mundo, Nasus, Blitzcrank, ect...) but they lack in some places that a true Tank excels, or they are better in another role. So, for this discussion, I will only cover those Tanks listed.

Do keep in mind as we continue, Tank is a hard role to generalize. As anyone who has played most or all of the above Champions can tell you, while they are all Tanks, they all play very differently and could not be all generalized in a simple group. So I will be concentrating on the big similarities, but will cover differences if I feel they should be covered.

Tanks excel in 2 places. Survivability and Crowd Control. Tanks can stay alive through some of the biggest burst from some of the hardest hitters in the game. Crowd Control is a must as well since you won't be the one dishing the pain. You need to stop the enemy (or at least slow them down) to let your team do the dirty work. Without these things, a Tank is not a Tank.

Tanks are weak in all the obvious places. They don't deal large amounts of damage if build solely to Tank. Many also fall short in the ability to farm, though this isn't role wide. Singed and Maokai can be farming machines around mid-game.

Truly, the role of a Tank should be obvious; take damage for your team, stop the enemies, rinse, repeat. While this can seem overly simple and possibly as entertaining as watching grass grow or paint dry, there are a lot of intricacies to deciding WHEN to do these things.

There is a Veigar, a Vayne and a LeBlanc pushing your first mid tower and you are there with a Miss Fortune. You're all levels 10-12 and 2 of your team is dead. When do you push in? Do you push in at all? Is your Ultimate up? Is Miss Fortune's Ultimate up? Is your 5th member going to make it if you move in now? Who do you target with your Crowd Control?

See what I mean? Not to mention all of this needs to be decided in less time than it took you to read that. The Tank can be the hero or the martyr, and its all based on your choices.

Now, down to brass tacks. Why should you play a Tank? Could be because you enjoy rushing into a fight as Amumu or Galio, having all your teammates follow and destroying the enemy team. Could be that you like the harassment potential of a Singed, Alistar, or Cho'Gath, pushing the enemy team around where you want them. Could be that you like the ability to support your team from practically anywhere faster than anyone as Shen or Rammus. Could just be that no one else wants to do it. All of these are good choices that show that knowing at least one Tank can drastically improve you overall as a Summoner and make you CREDIT TO TEAM!

So I watched the livestream that that Riot had for Leona on July 6th, and I have to say, I'm not sure Riot knows what a Tank is. I mean, half the team is from Wold of Warcraft, so this isn't coming as too much of a shock, but when I'm promised a Tank, that's what I want.

First a quick run down of her 3 core abilities:

Q - Shield of Daybreak: Leona's next autoattack deals an additional 40 (+ap) magic damage and stuns the target for 1.25 seconds

W - Eclipse: Leona raises her sheild to gain 10 bonus Armor and magic Resistance for 3 seconds. When the affect ends, she deals 60 (+ap) magic damage to nearby enemies and prolongs the effect for a bonus 3 seconds if any enemies are struck

E - Zenith Blade: Leona projects a solar image of her sword, which deals 60 (+ap) magic damage to all enemies in a line. When the image fades, the lash champion struck will briefly immobilized and Leona will dash to them.

I never got to see the details of her passive or Ultimate, but her passive works like Lux's from what I can tell, causing the last person hit to have "sunlight" applied to them and taking bonus damage because of it. Her Ultimate is an AOE akin to Veigar's Dark Matter in that it has a delay after casting (about 1 - 1.5 seconds). There are 2 AOE's to this spell though, and inner and an outer. The inner circle is a stun and bonus damage while the outer is an 80% slow and less damage.

Leona looks like a flaw in design. It looks like Riot understood the same things I was saying in the previous article and attempted to address them, with monstrous effects. Leona appears to be the spawn of LaBlanc and Jarvan IV (let the fanfic begin!).

But that's the problem. We didn't ask for a Burst Tank (one of the most contradictory classes I've ever heard of), we asked for a TANK. The version of the stream I watched had the first thing Phreak says being "After everything is maxed, she does about 1000 burst damage." I really hope this turns out to be a troll comment because, I'm not sure if you've ever been hit by 1000 damage at one time, but I know it's never come from a Tank.

Some simple changes could have been made to make her abilities more "Tank" and less "Burst" are as follows:

Q - I actually like this one. Forces you to get in close and in the fray, deals a light amount of damage (depending on the AP Ratio), and has a CC effect.

W - From what I saw on the stream, the burst from the shield deals quite a bit of damage. I think a simple change here could have been to change how the shield gets boosted. A two second boost for each Champion hit seems tolerable, causing the max limit to be 13 seconds. Then add a damage limit rather than having it be indestructible.

E - This is kind of ok as well. Kinda looks like it would feel like Jarvan's Dragon Strike when paired with Demacian Standard. Good for farming creep waves.

R - This should be the only major damage ability in my opinion. Moderate damage along with moderate CC would be a great Tank Ultimate.

Small changes. Takes away some damage and adds some defense. Sounds more like a tank, doesn't it? I think Riot needs to stop worrying so much about making Champions that are liked by fans and make Champions that are good for the game. Let's just hope, yet again, that I'm wrong and she's tankier with a different build... or maybe a better player?

Welcome to the first in a series of articles called "Know Your Role and Shut Your Mouth" where I explain the basic principles behind particular roles, as well as how they differ from other roles, the strengths and weaknesses of these roles, how they tend to do throughout the game, and any other information that could explain the role as a whole. Please keep in mind I will be speaking generally. None of this is specific to one particular Champion. I will do my best to be objective and cover as many Champions in this role that I can. I thought, with the release of Yorick, I should cover one of the most talked about and in most cases, misplayed roles in League of Legends, Tanky DPS.

Tanky DPS Champions (List is as of 27 June 2011)

• Dr. Mundo


• Garen


• Irelia


• Jarvan IV


• Lee Sin


• Nasus


• Olaf


• Pantheon


• Renekton


• Trundle


• Udyr


• Xin Zhao


• Yorick

Tanky DPS is one hell of a role. Taking damage while dishing it out is the name of the game. These Champions are defined by their early game presence (so much so that I have heard them referred to as "First Blood" Champions) as well as their ability to not get damage items and still dole out major pain. They have one or two Crowd Control (CC) abilities ranging from silences to slows to stuns. They also come equip with high damage abilities that can (at times) take down a squishy Champion without much effort.

With an intro like that, you could be saying "Well, I'm never gonna play another type! These guys seem unstoppable." But, they have some major downsides as well. The lack of damage items tends to make them reliant on abilities rather than auto-attacking. They also have some long cooldowns on said abilities as well, making them somewhat bursty. So if your abilities are on cooldown, you just standing there hitting for almost nothing, and taking damage. Along with that, these types tend to have some poor damage scaling, so late game, they are more of an annoyance than a threat.

Before I continue, I'd like to cover the difference between Tanky DPS and "Bulky" DPS. Some would call these two different types of Champion, but I will be including them both in this article. Why, you ask? They play, build, act, and basically ARE the same, with one difference. Crowd Control. Bulky tends to have none or one weak CC. Champions I have listed that fall into this "sub" category are Dr. Mundo, Irelia, Lee Sin, Nasus, and Trundle.

Now, after everything I'd just laid out, you'd still like to play some Tanky DPS? Well, your in luck. Tanky DPS isn't so much a situational type of role. This is the type of role that could and should be included in just about every game. If DreamHack was any indication, Tanky DPS is far superior to Tank in the current meta-game. So no worries on when you should pick Tanky DPS. Just keep in mind good team composition and don't overpick.

So, you enter a game to see that your up against the dreaded Garen! So, that means it's GEEEEGEEEE! No. Tanky DPS isn't as hard to counter as most people think. As I stated before, they have weak points, so exploit them!

If you're in a Ranked/Draft game, there are some great Champions to pick up to counter Tanky DPS. (though some of them are Tanky DPS) Look for True damage (Ex. Olaf, Vayne, Cho' gath, ect. ) CC to stop them from dealing damage (Ex. Any Tank, Anivia, Heimerdinger, ect.) or damage based on health percentage. (Ex. Vayne, Xin Zhao, Mordekaiser, ect. ) These are not the only things to look for, but they are some great places to start.

"But I'm in a Normal Game and/or I don't like/am not good at those Champions. What in the world can I do?" Well, Little Billy, there are other options. If you play Attack Damage Champions like Teemo or Master Yi, get a Madred's Bloodrazor. That will counter them nicely. If your anyone else, do what your meant to do. All you can do is what your meant to do. and support your DPS in taking them down.

Tanky DPS is quite the foe to come across. Heading into a team fight with a good Olaf or Nasus can turn the tieds of this fight. But, as I will always point out, it takes a team to win a game. Knowledge on one role will not win you a game. You need a good team composition as well as competent team mates. So, know your roll, shut your mouth, and GO WIN SOME GAMES!

Originally Posted by Jezanee

All of you should know that MajorMayo and I are getting married when he comes home from deployment.

The date is set for March 16, 2012.

I had our Save the Dates made up and wanted to share, cause I think they kick arse.

All Ironfisters are invited and I know a few are going to be there already.

Attachment 590

If anyone wants their own Save the Date sent to them, let me know your address and I'll mail it your way! If you would like a formal invitation sent this Summer please let me know.

Until then ... enjoy this!
http://www.mywedding.com/alexandjosey/

I've run into some technical problems with my server, in the midst of finals week. The Minecraft server will be inaccessible until I can resolve these problems.

I have been able to safely pull the Minecraft server data and back it up, so there should be no concerns with the loss of the map files; they are safe and sound.

As much as it is about individual characters, ARAM is about the over arching type.

First off .. runes... Flat mana and flat health will probably give you a good start but wont matter after level 6; don't do health or mana per level... that is a total waste. Health regen and mana regen will also do very well. All quints should be movement speed. ARAM is a cant and mouse game.

Always spec tank.... make sure you get enhanced heal and clarity skills. For characters not using mana, try this mastery load out.

http://www.fieldsofjustice.com/maste...PauaeyawxyuaZw

Most however do use mana, so proceed as follows

http://www.fieldsofjustice.com/maste...alaZlwlyyaZwZy

Your builds should be adjust to reflect accordingly. So just a bit of start up insight...

Your first items should rejuvenation bead and faeries charm. This should be advanced to a tiamat. The early game health and mana regen is too good. Tiamat gives your team a farming advantage. The hero that benefits the most is Tristana, so keep your eyes peeled. For casters, instead of tiamat go to mana manip -> soul shroud then rejuvenation bead-> warden's -> randuin's omen (don't rush these but plan to build them). WTF ev1ld33n why omen? Look at the uniques, it might keep some ranged dps off you back on a retreat attempt. why not spirit visage? When a tryndamere rushes your face at level 6, we'll talk. The extra health and armor will make the difference between being 1 shotted and 2 shotted. since most casters have CC of some sort, you may be able to keep your head up. If you have a no mana character a health pendant - > force of nature will go so far!

From there its boots. It's either mercury's or lucidity... Depends, casters actually don't need lucidity as other items will supply good cool down. Merc treads on a caster means that CC doesn't always equal death. cool down on fighters, tanks, assasins, support is too good, especially those types of non casters with cc. obviously the other teams make up will sell the merc treads or just take them off the market for you. But most aram teams feature some sort of CC. Then rush a main item.. Rabadon on casters, blood thirster on dps, hextech on hybrids like jax and teemo, Warmogs on tanks.

Once you have your main item your next thoughts should go to a support item. Casters had already started with one, mana manip... the next goal of a caster should be will of the ancients. If you are a tank aegis of the legion will do well. A physical DPS character should look into investing in a starks fervor. Anyone whose going hybrid should look at frozen heart or even shurelya's reverie. If your character doesn't use mana an abyssal scepter or a sunfire cape will be a nice touch.

With the last remaining steps, everyone should buy a banshee's veil and thormail. That's my preferred order but the enemy team makeup and build will dictate the best path.

Congrats on your epic win.

Thursday, December 16 on www.livestream.com/jezanee I will be holding a League of Legends Livestream event to give away FREE RIOT POINTS!
I will also be promoting a charity that 3pg (3 Point Gaming) is sponsoring for Childs Play. (3pg is a well known and prestigious gaming community in TF2.) Donations to the charity will be taken during this time as well. The link to the charity will be given out during the livestream.

Childs Play is a charity that hundreds of thousands of gamers donate to each year. Childs Play puts gaming consoles, video games and board games in children's hospitals all over America to provide entertainment to the kiddos that need to stay there.

This event will be live streaming League of Legends Play and Team Fortress 2 play. The event time is starting at 7pm CENTRAL and ending at 11pm CENTRAL.

Giveaways are:
2 - $10 Riot Point Cards (The codes will be emailed to you)
4 - 3pg Magnets (You will email your address to 3pg for the magnets)
2 - 3pg Posters (You will email your address to 3pg for the posters)

How to win: Simply show up to the live stream between 7pm and 11pm Central time. The prizes will be given away randomly AT ANY TIME! I will be using a random number generator and using my viewer list to give away prizes. So you better your odds of winning something the longer you stay in the live stream!

So, come out Thursday the 16th between 7-11pm Central at www.livestream.com/jezanee to hangout with some awesome people, support a charity and win some awesome prizes!

Final Thought: NO rudeness will be tolerated whatsoever. I have several moderators who will be more than happy to ban those trumping our fun. I am not a "1337" gamer by any means and my ELO is mediocre. I do the livestream for fun and this event because I support this charity. Also, no profit is made off this charity at all. It's for the kids!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone!

Word from Notch is that the SMP patch for Minecraft will launch on Wednesday, November 24th. The new server hardware is still in transit and it looks like the new server won't be assembled until next week. In the meantime, we need to consider how to configure the new server once I deploy it.

Bear in mind, the impending SMP patch for Minecraft enabled Health, for players, monsters, and animals. Minecarts are reportedly fixed, such that they can be properly used for long-distance travel properly. The new server WILL be configured from the beginning so that Monsters and Animals spawn normally, and (if the option exists) PVP flag will be enabled such that players can damage one another.

I feel that our play experience will be best if we set up the server with a "purist" intention, and avoid functionality that makes the game easier or cheapens the experience. As such, I feel that the following functionality should be DISABLED for all users (including admins/ops)

• Warping to locations/setting warps
• Teleporting to a player or teleporting a player to yourself
• Item giving/creation
• Lighter spawning
• Time control (sorry Zilean)

I want to know what other users think about the functions Home and Spawn. Spawn allows a player to warp to the server's spawn location, which can be set by the admin (location where the player first enters the server and where they respawn upon death. Home allows the player to warp to a specific location which they can set uniquely for themselves with /SetHome. I think we should have the following functions disabled:

• SetHome
• Home
• Spawn

with SetSpawn enabled for admins so that a proper respawn area can be built in the future. What are your thoughts on the Home and Spawn functions, and whether or not they should be enabled once our new server goes live?

The server will be running hey0's Mod, which has the capacity for plugins. I hope to enable Stat-tracking and Achievements once the server opens or soon after, and I will consider other plugins. Are there any plugins you think would be appropriate for our server?
Plugins for hey0's Mod

Cartographer will be enabled eventually, I will need to configure Apache on the server before that will be possible. http://minecraft.ironfistclan.com will be configured to display the webpages and Cartographer maps eventually.

I just got done looking at Jezanee's Blog about the newest character in the Field of Justice, Lux. I saw her Spotlight as well, and I must say, I have never seen a character with so much OP potential since her big brother, Garen. (And before I hear the cries of "MISS FORTUNE!" at least she is squishy!) There is a good chance that Lux will be as squishy, if not more so, than the rest of the support characters we've come to know and love. (With the exception of Sona. SUPER HEALS!) But even so, with the use of a double shield that has the opportunity to shield an entire team TWICE, she could become the new favorite for all support casters. This shield can also be used as an escape skill when coupled with her slowing AOE that also DOES DAMAGE. But it doesn't end there. Along with a highly effective shield comes a Morgana-esk root that actually roots TWO. (In case you didn't know, two is more than Morgana's one) Follow up that with her Ultimate, an instant cast FIREIN MUH LAZAR attack that, with some AP items and somne magic pen, could ANNIHILATE and entire team. I think her least effective skill is her passive that works much like Sona's Power Chord. When you sure a spell on something it charges up an attack to that thing. The more spells used, the stronger your next attack will be.

All that being said, I'm sure your expecting to hear me cry "NERF! NERF! NERF!" But, you would be very very wrong. I LOVE THIS CHARACTER! In a game with SO MANY characters, it's nice to know that Riot is willing to put their necks out there and put out something so obviously OP that it's sick. Lux is one of those characters that has the potential to completely change the strategy of a team. When played right, she could lead at team down by 4 towers to victory.

I see a future for LoL that has more of the same. Champions that are OP to the older generation of Champions. I like that future.

And for those that have not seen it, here is Lux's Spotlight!

Today Riot releases the new Harrowing items. The map will be changed for Halloween, new skins added, runes and other things.

- Limited edition Holiday Runes
- Some sinfully sweet editions of your favorite in-game consumables
- Frighteningly festive costumes for your minions
- A sinister overhaul of Summoner's Rift featuring a more nocturnal motif
- A terrifying new login to get you in the mood
- Limited edition champion skins for a few League favorites who're really in the spirit this Harrowing!

You can see pictures of the map here: http://www.leagueoflegends.com/news/...oliday-content

"Lux" ... Garen's sister comes out today as well!! I just saw her spotlight on Riot's Youtube channel and she looks like she's gonna make all the little kiddo's scream "OP" she's "OP" ... I really hope this is true. I was completely disappointed with Swain overall. Miss Fortune brought so much "OP Goddess Annihilation" to the field and Swain just didn't deliver. Not in my eyes at least. If your opinion differs please post it!

Sorry these blogs are so far and few between!! Ya'll know I've been moving!

I'll be on tonight to play with the new patch.

Okay, so this blog isn't going to be long and it's not about gaming...

But I do have to say this is HILARIOUS!
(I apologize if you have Beiber fever ... but I hate him)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEn1Qo6LvMM

Watch and comment!

ha...

RTStard, yes I used that word. That is exactly what I am when it comes to Real Time Strategy. I played Warcraft III for a total of 30 minutes before getting frustrated after the AI beat me very very quickly and swore to never play a RTS again.

I was not interested in Starcraft II at all. In fact I had no desire to even look up information, watch video's or watch the live broadcast of those in beta. However a friend of mine convinced me to watch one trailer for the game and I was mesmerized by the graphics, strategies and game play. I thought "Hey! I could totally do this", so off I went to buy the game.

At first I was a lost little puppy in the world of elite gamers. Ready to throw in the towel and sell the game off; a few of my gamer buddies took me aside and showed me how to actually play the game online. Convincing me that the campaign would teach me the basics I dove head first into it. Soon I was playing multi-player games that required me to work alone or as a team; as well as enjoying the turret defense maps.

The campaign story (even though I have yet to finish it) has caught my attention. As a female gamer I am caught up in the small love story that is slowly developing between Kerrigan and Raynor as well as picking apart the relationship between Raynor and Tychus. (Is Tychus going to turn on him?) I believe that Blizzard is a gaming industry that is really stepping up to appeal to the female community. While I love a good battle with blood, guts and lots of guns; I love a good story!
(Obviously I have not gotten that far in the campaign so I beg of you; please don't ruin it for me! No spoilers!)

On the other hand, having no previous knowledge of the original Starcraft or the story that was developed in it; SCII makes it very easy to jump right in without having to backlog to learn the whole dialog. This is also a plus for me and new players.

I will say that the community of players (at least the ones I have encountered outside our guild and allies) are a lot nicer than those of Riot games. I have yet to be called a "Fucking noob" or any other variation of that when I am clearly not doing a good job. Thumbs up to you community!

So you can find me on SCII on my down time (which right now due to injuries is most of the time) look me up! My name and character code are on the forums!

Very nice trailer - enjoy! :)

Comment below with your thoughts on the trailer.
The music used is Perfect in Between by DJ Champion