Summoning Up Our League Of Legends

by Jeff Haynes - IGN.com | 27 July 2009 12:00
 
We get some hands-on time with the Summoner feature.
 
September is fast approaching, which means that online action fans will be looking forward to League of Legends, Riot Games' upcoming online action game based on the popular Warcraft III mod Defense of the Ancients. For some time now, gameplay has revolved around the champions that were summoned into the game and their attacks against minions and rival champions on the battlefield. However, there's more to League of Legends than constantly respawning and destroying towers; your progress within the overall game is based on your Summoner profile. While I'd been told about the basics of this system, I recently had a chance to get some hands-on play with this feature to check out the meta-game within the game.
 
After you install League of Legends you create your profile, which tracks a large amount of information, such as the numbers of wins and losses, as well as the number of games that you've left or dropped out of. It also tracks stats like the recent matches you've played and your favorite champions. Champions are your avatars in battle, and as eliminate enemies you earn experience that levels up those characters for that round (each champion resets for every new match). Based on your success in a match, you'll also receive experience points that will go towards leveling up your Summoner Profile. As you earn new levels, you'll acquire mastery points, which can be applied to one of three separate categories: offense, defense and utility options. These categories will provide your champions with various bonuses, such as reducing the cool down rate on their powers or increasing the amount of gold earned from killing enemies. You're not stuck with the mastery categories you select; you can remove and re-allocate your points to counter opponents that you're going against.
 

Summoners can use their runes and masteries to improve their Champions.

Along with the mastery system, players will also earn influence points based on the total amount of time they play and their success in a game. These points can be redeemed for runes, which have further bonuses to strengthen your champions. Runes are split into three categories: Glyphs, Marks, and Seals, all of which provide a stat bonus of some variety. However, there are some runes that happen to be more powerful when applied to specific traits or stats, extending their power significantly. Players can further expand this system by creating stronger runes by combining them. This is important because while you are only able to acquire 30 mastery points, you'll be able to receive unlimited runes based on your dedication to the game, which should let you completely trick out your champions.
 
There was one other radical change that had been added to the pre-game sessions, which was the inclusion of the champion search and glossary before a session. Now, players that aren't sure what kind of champion they want to play as can select from different options, such as melee, flee or magic, and allow the game to automatically select a character based on their keyword search. This menu also presents the character info and powers of that champion, allowing players to get a sense of what they can do in the midst of battle so you can prepare accordingly. Considering that this hadn't been included before, a hefty amount of games over the past few months were a situation of trial and error. Now, players can immediately get an idea of what can be done with their chosen avatar before they step on the field. This is especially useful considering that players who download the game will be restricted to six champions, versus the twenty or so that will instantly be unlocked with the retail Collector's edition.
 

Battles will rage from forests to tundra.

While much of the gameplay seems to be unchanged from previous months, one new feature is the inclusion of brush that obscures players' view and allow for ambushes. This addition isn't going to be the only one to the game leading up to and post launch. The developers have mentioned that a spectator mode will probably launch post ship, as will a death recap system so players know who killed them in the middle of a battle and with what weapon or spells. Additionally, Riot plans on including a tournament system as well as league play to help your stats skyrocket.
 
Supplied by IGN.com