League of Artists

This is a great drawing of Blitzcrank done by the Summoner Nafaz.

Public Beta Environment Sign ups Reopened

The sign ups for the PBE have been reopened. It is open to any level 30 summoner who wishes to participate. The goal is to find any bugs before the patches have been released.
The sign up form can be found here:
http://pbe.leagueoflegends.com/en/signup/index

The PBE client can be found here:

http://pbe.leagueoflegends.com/en/signup/download


See you all hunting bugs!

Public Beta Environment

I have begun participating in the Public Beta Environment. You are given a look ahead of time at some of the upcoming changes for patches. You are there to help find bugs and I have been hunting a lot!
I will be posting my thoughts on the PBE as I play more and get more involved.
If you are in PBE feel free to add me, my name is BetaFish

League of Artists - Tsuruga

Great Morgana art piece done by Tsuruga. Check out more art by Tsuruga at 

http://artgerm.deviantart.com/gallery/?q=butterfly#/db98es

Dominion!

Dominion has now been out for awhile and I think that it is great. It is a nice departure from Summoner's Rift and Twisted Treeline. The game is much faster paced and the fighting is abundant. Not feeling as if you cost your team the game because you made one mistake is a great thing. Dominion allows you to try new champions in a less punishing environment and also provides you the opportunity to utilize your favorite champs in new ways.

I will be doing a new version of Uncle Sam Wants You posts for Dominion champions and also be posting about the developing meta, as well as other trends I see developing. We are witnessing the birth of a game, the infancy of its meta and I cannot wait to discover some of the more interesting strategies that are ou there.

Have fun with Dominion and be willing to try things you normally wouldn't. Give champions you don't think would be good a shot, you never know what will work, and what types of crazy fun it can be when something works that is unexpected. Be bold and adventurous with your domination!

I Apolgize for the Brief Hiatus

I am sorry that I have not been posting anything for awhile. I have recently started a new job that required me to switch from working evenings to being up before the sun. I also have been having some problems with the apartment I moved into. I will now get back to posting more frequently and sharing my view on the great game that is League of Legends. Time to get to all the cool new stuff!

My Awesome Friend

My friend MasTeRoF RoMAnCe just gave me an Arctic Warfare Caitlyn Skin code! It was twice as awesome because I didn't own Caitlyn yet, so I got her as well. So sweet!
Thanks again MoR!

Uncle Sam Wants You - Cassiopeia

So it has been a few weeks since I last did an USWY article. At the time I was playing some Veigar and Maokai and I really enjoyed them both. One of the best things about doing this is that I have been trying out a lot more champions than I used to.
Quite awhile ago I purchased Cassiopeia and had some decent games with her but was not that enthused about her. I decided to giver her another shot on a whim and man am I glad I did. Cassiopeia is tons of fun and is an easy farmer. Her burst is often underestimated by opponents and a well timed ult can turn the tide of a team fight.
I prefer to play Cass mid and run a 9/21/0 setup in my masteries and run cooldown per levle glyphs, magic pen marks, mana/5 per level seals, and gold/10 quints. I use flash and ignite. I build Rod of the Ages first, then sorcerer's boots, Rabadons Deathcap and Rylais Scepter, after this I may get a Will of the Ancients or Abyssal Scepter or a defensive item like Banshees Veil.
I passively farm with Miasma and last hits thru level 6 staying far back after dropping miasma. This allows me to farm well and make it very hard for enemies to harass or gank me. I am often able to clear minions with miasma and let the minions push into the enemy tower while I stay safely back. This helps me to gain an advantage on them. At level 6 I choose my time to be aggressive and flash in and ult my enemy. I then lay miasma, ignite them and twin fang like a mad man. If I stun the enemy with my ult they are most likely dead even with flash the DOT is often too much with the initial burst.
In team fights stay back and pick the right time to flash in and ult. When done right you can ult 3-5 enemies and often stun 2 or more if not all. It is great if someone can kite the enemy team to a waiting Cass so that all enemies are facing one way. After ulting and throwing down miasma under the group, ignite and twin fang the enemy teams carries. Cass can drop other squishies incredibly fast and a well timed ult can lead to multiple kills. Building some survivability on Cass allows you to choose the time to get in close to the fray and do your damage.
I recommend you all give Cass a try,  she is really a great champion and has been added to my rotation. She has great burst and people's lack of familiarity with her often results in them being overly aggressive and out of position. Use this and follow a few of my tips and you should be able to have some great games with her and most importantly a lot of fun.

New Skins - Victorious Jarvan (Gold and Platinum level reward)

Victorious Jarvan

New Skins (Long Awaited) - New Lead Singer of Pentakill

Pentakill Karthus

New Skins

Reverse Annie

Demolisher Nunu

 Pax Sivir

Talon

Renegaed Talon

Crimson Elite Talon

New Skins

Unchained Alistar

Arctic Warfare Caitlyn

Rugged Garen

Obsidian Malphite

Riot K-9 Nasus

Judgement Kayle

Classic Janna (Skin tweak)

Sandscourge Skarner

Earthrune Skarner

Skarner Release

The long awaited release of Skarner, the Crystal Vanguard has arrived. Time to do some impaling!

Bloodstone Taric

The wait is finally over! A new skin has arrived for Taric and I am very excited for it. Taric is one of my favorite champions and the recolors that he has are just not enough. I cannot wait to get my hands on this!

Poll Winner - Zaun

The first monthly poll has finished up and Zaun was the choice for faction that needs a new champion. I would be very intrigued to see another champion that considers Zaun to  be where their loyalties lie. Janna is from Zaun, but chooses to represent Piltover. Maybe, just maybe there is a leading lady from Zaun that will make her presence known.

Uncle Sam Wants You - ?

I have recently been finding myself trying out a bunch of champions. I have really started taking a liking to Maokai and Veigar. I however, have not played them enough recently to offer my opinion. I will pick one of them to focus in on and be updating this post within the next few days.

Twisted Fated and Pantheon Global Ult Nerfs

I am very interested to see how this change of range from infinite to 5500 will affect these two. While I believe it will make TF much more balanced, he still will have great control and ganks. With 5500 range you are almost able to teleport from mid lane to top or bottom lane. I do not believe TF will need any changes as a result.

Pantheon is going to suffer more because of this. Pantheon's ult was already hard to land and now one of the most useful things about it has been changed. The devs, however have already promised Pantheon buffs in the next patch after people have played with him and can give them some suggestions. The thread for suggested changes to Pantheon is here:

http://na.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=958614&highlight=pantheon+changes

League of Artists

This is a spectacular piece of bead perler art depicting Sona. It is done by MasterLoki.

Check out some more art by MasterLoki at

http://na.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=971308

Wukong The Monkey King Live Preview Reflection

It was a very short preview, but man was it awesome. Monkey King is a melee/dps champion who has high mobility and some intriguing spells. He looks like he will have some interesting initiation and escape possibilities.

Passive - Stone Skin - Buffs armor and magic resistance based on the number of enemy champions around.

Q -  Crushing Blow- On hit spell that deals damage and lowers armor, this spell behaves like Poppy's Devastating Blow. 

W - Decoy -Leaves a decoy of Wukong and he is stealthed for a small period of time, upon leaving stealth decoy spins around and deals AOE damage

E - Nimbus Strike -Dashes and hits target enemy, if there are units within range it will create up to 2 clones to hit up to 2 more units at the same time

R - Cyclone - Wukong extends his staff and spins rapidly gaining speed as he does. Wukong is able to  move while spinning dealing damage to enemies hit and knocking them up

Wukong The Monkey King Live Preview

Riot is about to do a live preview of Wukong The Monkey King on their high definition stream

http://www.own3d.tv/live/8624/Riot_Games_High_Definition_Stream
I will do a review of what I see afterwards

Singing Summoners

Breathe (Singed Tribute) by Visix

This video is so great, I just love this and had to share it with everyone.

Be sure to check out the other great videos by Visix

League of Artists

King of Fate

This is an awesome drawing of a skin idea for Twisted Fate

by AestheticMachine

If you would like to see some more great art by AestheticMachine click on the link below

http://www.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=149225

Uncle Sam Wants You - Singed (Solo Top)

Singed has always been one of my favorite champions. He was the first champion created by the team at Riot. The simplicity of his moves belie the fact that they are a very strong kit. Long ago I had chosen Singed as my main in 3v3 games and always did very well with him. The problem was that I struggled in 5v5 with Singed. It wasn't that he wasn't viable, I just couldn't seem to make it work.
With the recent changes to his ult, I have fallen in love with Singed in 5v5. By changing Singed's ult from a attack damage/speed mana/health regeneration steroid to a more defensively minded ultimate with improved AP, Armor, Magic Resistance, Movement Speed, Health regeneration, Mana regenration, and improved tenacity during its duration.
I start the game with a regrowth pendant and blue pot. The regrowth pendant provides great early game health regeneration and provides me a lot of early survivability. In a 1v1 situation I am able to farm and for the most part ignore the damage of my opponent in lane. With some smart play to take time to regen health I am able to push minion waves into the enemy tower and force them to lose experience and gold. The ability to farm well from the start of the game often gives me an advantage over my opponent in lane. I max out my Poison Trail first, taking one point in Fling followed by one point in Mega Adhesive. I level up Mega Adhesive next after Poison trail taking points in Insanity Potion whenever I can. The slow on Mega Adhesive during the first couple levels is negligible, but at levels 4 and 5 it becomes one of the best slows in the game.
My build generally consists of Force of Nature, Boots of Swiftness (Mercury treads for heavy AP/CC teams), Heart of Gold, Guardain Angel, and then I tailor towards the team I am playing. If I am playing a heavy AP team I will pick up Banshees Veil. If the team is heavy AD I will pick up Thornmail. I will also pick up Aegis of Legion, as I feel it is a great pick on tanks and provides a lot of help to the team. If I am playing an off tank role I will pick up Rod of the Ages. I will also often pick up a Rylais Scepter when going off tank or when I have determined my team has the advantage. A Singed that can slow all the time is a great asset to a team.
My masteries are 0-21-9 taking Nimbleness and Tenacity in the defensive tree and taking all 4 ranks of Expanded Mind and also taking Greed in the utility tree. My Runes are flat health quints, flat magic pen marks, flat armor seals, and flat MR glyphs. Fr my summoner spells I take Ghost and Teleport. Ghost gives me the ablity to run practically anyone down, especially when Insanity Potion is active. Teleport is great for split pushing mid to late game.
When you catch me in game playing Singed I will be rocking one of my favorite skins in the game, Hextech Singed. Many people like his Surfer or Riot skin, but Hextech is my favorite.

New Skins

Little Knight Amumu

Ravager Nocturne

Warmonger Sion

Harbinger Kassadin

Valkyrie Leona

Defender Leona

Leona Preview Reflection

Leona is an initiator/tank with multiple stuns.

Q - Is a single target spell that procs on Leona's next auto attack. It deals damage and stuns the target

W- Gives Leona an MR/Armor shield for 3 seconds. The shield explodes and if it hits an enemy the shield is maintained for an additional 3 seconds

E - Is a skillshot similar to Amumu's bandage toss except it passes through enemies dealing damage to all of them and pulling Leona to the last enemy champion hit by it.

R - Is a target area spell that crashes a fireball into the targeted area damaging enemies in the area. Once hit it stuns enemies in a small zone in the middle of the target area and slows the others in the rest of the affected area.

Passive -Leona's passive places a mark on targets hit with her abilities similar to Lux's passive, however only allies can proc the mark to deal additional damage.

Leona's design reminds me too much of Irelia and Bloodmoon Akali. The color scheme used also seems to be just a little off. I am not a big fan of her style and feel it lacks originality. I do like Leona as a champion, however her skills also mostly seem to be recycled off of other champions. Leona is a balanced tank in term of resistances, not leaning towards MR like a Galio or armor like a Malphite. Her mana costs seem to be in line and all of her abilities have AP ratios so she will offer some versatility for those who like to experiment. Early game she is not a great farmer but her passive offers a lot of advantage to AD carries. Mid to late game her shield helps her farming, but if you are concerned I would definitely recommend picking up a sunfire cape. 

In game Leona is very strong in a dual lane and offers the ability to pick up kills early with a combination of E,Q. She is also very viable as a solo lane champ, but the effectiveness of her passive is lost. In team fights Leona really shines offering great initation with E and being able to stun multiple targets. Once gaining her ult she increases her damage and gains an AOE stun. Her shield is also perfectly designed for being surrounded by enemies and offers protection for 6 seconds. 

When summed up I am not a fan of Leona's art, but I am a fan of her skill set and what I have seen in game. I am more concerned about how a champ plays then how a champ looks, plus there are always skins. Leona fits the mold of champs I prefer to play, tanks who can initiate. She is right up my alley and seems like she should be a great addition to the League, I will be purchasing her with my IP when she is released.

Live Leona Preview

There is a live preview of Leona about to be played on the high definition Riot stream. Phreak will be controlling Leona. Hope she is a great addition to the League. I will be giving my thoughts on what I saw after the preview.
http://www.own3d.tv/live/8624/Riot_Games_High_Definition_Stream

League of Artists

This is a great drawing of Loch Ness Cho by Tenant

If you would like to see more champion drawings by Tenant click on the link

http://www.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=810858

Item Inspection

In this weekly segment I will be discussing an item or items. Generally I will cover the statistics of the item, champions to use the item with, strengths and weaknesses of the item, and comparable items.

Uncle Sam Wants You - Jarvan IV Jungle

The first in a weekly/bi-weekly segment featuring the champion I have been playing most recently. I have been jungling Jarvan recently. I find that he is decently fast in the jungle, but I love his ability to gank. I start at blue with a leash and move from there to wolves. I really like to gank at level 2, especially if top is a solo lane. Once i have picked up Demacian Standard and Dragon Strike I find the disruption is often enough to secure a kill for me or my ally and if not at least get them to use a flash or ghost. I use 9-21-0 masteries and take smite and ghost as my summoner spells.