There has been hype of all kinds the last few years in PC Gaming. I have embraced some of it (See SWTOR, Skyrim, Arkham City), and have avoided others (League of Legends, Minecraft, Dungeons of Dreadmore). LoL is the perfect example of one that I have not entirely avoided on purpose. Although I am not really a huge PvP gamer in arena-type matches, I do LOVE being able to play games in a team vs bots (AI controlled opponents).

Recently a buddy of mine John had mentioned that his regular online gaming group was switching from Dawn of War over to LoL for now and had invited me to join them. Since I am a gamer and love co-op stuff I figured a group of 5-10 was a decent enough way to play a new game. The group uses team speak (TS) so playing a game like this with new friends and not having to go up against “ringers” all the time was definitely the way I wanted to learn the game.

Now, when I get into a new game, especially online games such as any MMO or here, LoL, I tend to dive in head first into the game. I read all sorts of blogs, tips, hints, forums etc. after I play a bit. Then it was a time that I still knew nothing about the game so forums would do me little. The terminology would mean nothing and the myriad of Champions would be names I would have 0 idea what they meant. So I DL the game and did some of the initial tutorial type stuff. Right away I wasn’t too happy with the game play. My PvP typically is of the FPS variety or MMO variety. Out smart someone with terrain and powers and think your way with maneuvers to victory in little skirmishes. Sure LoL has quite the depth of strategy but right away in tutorials I noticed it’s WAY too much running away and trickery to stay alive for my taste. I would often have some AI bots down to a sliver only to have them run somewhere and get away, or find a way to get to a super turret before me and I would be mince meat before being able to kill anyone. It was frustrating as all hell, and I hadn’t even gotten out of the tutorial. I grew tired of the voice from above saying “STAY BEHIND YOUR MINIONS!”. Well the extra time i had to learn was over, and it was now time to play against the living on my 1st night.

So I met the guys and they were all real nice guys, and all knew each other for years and were ALL way ahead of me in the game already. The game uses both a leveling outside of it from 1-30 and an in match leveling which is all part of the game play. I have NEVER really been a huge fan of any game where a leveled up player has a huge advantage in game play. Sure I have no problem with them having an advantage of putting in the extra time, but in some games (Call of Duty I think is another in online matches) it just equals being able to stay alive after 5 shots to the head and then one shotting the lesser guy easy. Not my cup of tea. I would rather see a way to up level a player in matches to the avg levels and then have a way that the other players could have their slight advantage but not an overpowering one. BUT alas I am playing LoL and so I will have to just deal with it.

Right away when playing the guys I was getting just slaughtered all over the place. It was still my not knowing the different heroes I was playing and also not knowing the tactics. I picked things up gradually over the first night but a player kill by me was few and far between. As with the bots the most mind-numbingly frustrating thing was having a player on the ropes with less then 100 HPs and chasing him (being at full myself) and having no way to finish him off. Then he turns around and somehow manages to take out my WHOLE life pool before I could even get that last kill. And thus I was to the edge of my rope and I had had it with this damn game. Luckily that was the last full 5v5 match we had with all players of the night. I had played 3 or 4 with them and I was just tired of getting 2 kills (if any) 16 deaths and 4 assists in each. Win or lose on the match it’s frustrating. Luckily as well, we had 4 other guys willing to play more so we got in some 5v5 vs beginner bots matches in. Those 2 games playing with a consistent champion was MUCH better. I felt a sense of teamwork and teaching and the wins meant more to me. I CONTRIBUTED to the greater good.

Over the next few days I thought about my experiences playing LoL and I wasn’t so discouraged by it all as I had been the 1st night. SO I went back on by myself and played some 5v5 vs bots with other players. This went well some matches and not so well others. I had used Heimerdinger with some good success the last few games the previous night so I thought support would be decent for me, but alas it was a new week so some NEW champions were free instead of the previous week’s roster of freebies. This night I tried out another support champ, LuLu. While I liked her as a whole, playing in a random PuG (Pick up Group) of 5v5 was hard. Normally with friends on TS you can co-ordinate and I could have a regular partner stay with me to buff up with her abilities. In this match it just wasn’t happening. People had their own things going on and sticking with one guy was impossible. My next match I would finally find a champion for me. Malphite. I took the big stone brute b/c the previous match I was tired of the bot killing me a ton with a Malphite/Annie combo in my lane. I also figured even if people left me alone I could hold my own vs beginner bots.

In those last 2 matches of my solo night playing I did just that. I was actually holding my own! I was 2nd on the kill list once and even had a very small (<2) number of deaths. While I honestly didn’t feel “confident” I felt like I was making progress in learning the gorilla warfare tactics of the game and coming to terms with them.

But Like I mentioned, there was still SOMETHING missing. I figured I needed someone to point me in the right direction. One big thing that was missing in my game was knowing what gear to buy in game and then also buying runes for these empty slots. I know enough about mastery trees from my MMO days but I needed some help with picking them as well. I decided to see if a buddy of mine was up to the task of mentoring me, and helping me pick out one or two Champions I will stick with on a real consistent basis when I play for the next 2 months or so. This buddy was former PC Gamer Associate Editor Josh Augustine. I had been reading about LoL in PCG for the time it’s been out and Josh was a LoL vet. Ever since we had him on our show, The Geek Allstars, on episode 6 (where he also gave us some tips to play LoL) I had kept in touch and spoke a bunch on twitter. So I hit him up and asked him if he was up for the challenge of turning the GeekJock from noob LoL player into a boneafied threat on the battlefield.

Be it pity, the challenge, or just being a total nice guy, Josh was excited and raring to go! I told him a bit of my experiences and how I liked playing and he went to the drawing board thinking of what one or two champions I would be working on for the next few months.

To hear how the first installment of our audio segment goes, you will have to listen in to the next episode of The Geek Allstars, which will be posted late Sunday early Monday on itunes. It will have the full 20-25 min conversation where Josh gives me some pointers and also picks the Champion(s).

Then that next day I will post the next installment of my noob diary right here!

Thanks for reading and if you have any tips please feel free to comment. If you would like to play with me add me as a friend on LoL my name on there is: CanesRx

–GeekJock

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