Odds and Ends: Year of the Rabbit Edition

First off, My man HebeGB threw down some heat to cap off 2010 on Dirtbox Radio. You can grab the recording from the Dirtbox Radio archives or directly here.


Secondly, last I battled Legoman, the impending arrival of his blushing bride and some distractions arising from his distribution gig may have taken his eye off the ball. Leave it to Killa to make the most of the situation. We played only three matches: Dudley vs. DeeJay, Makoto vs. Dhalsim, and Cody vs. Honda. I won all three.

Step ya game up, Lego.

I feel like I can maintain optimal spacing in the Honda match better than before. Fake rock and roundhouse Ruffian keeps him guessing, and I've started to take more control on the ground from midscreen, readying Bingo to punish his Focus attacks, or using Crack Kick > EX Criminal to stuff most of his other advances.


Thirdly, Phoenix and Mike Haggar were revealed today for MvC3. Looks like the Lupinko list I inscribed here is dead on. If they're going to throw a curveball, it better be soon. I think the only surprises will be the DLC down the road. The Dark Phoenix mechanic, seen at about 0:50 in the clip, seems really cool. And, as I stated before, I would've taken Alex or Cody over Haggar.




Finally, as expected, I've picked up Caitlyn, the new sniper champ in League of Legends. (Not Legal Legends, ffs. Due to my poor pronunciation a couple of cohorts assumed I was playing a multiplayer online courtroom drama, to which I objected.) Took me a little while to wrap my head around the build. At this point, she is strong, but requires a high degree of discretion. I'm running armor penetration quints and marks, and mana regen per level seals and glyphs. Masteries are 9/0/21 for cooldown reduction and movement speed. Ghost and Cleanse as summoner skills for escapes.

I start her with Doran's Blade and one health potion. From there I buy the new CDR boots, then Brutalizer, then Phage. I then ditch the Doran's to make Black Cleaver, then upgrade Brutalizer to Ghostblade and Phage to Frozen Mallet. This set inflicts a lot of damage on enemy champs she can outrange, as every hit lowers their movement speed and armor. While this doesn't always set up a kill, it does disincline enemy champs from trying to take her on directly.



The concept artwork is by Eduardo Gonzales, who also did the Miss Fortune concept design I liked so much.

Wriggle's Motherfucking Lantern and MF=Doom [LoL Miss Fortune Impressions/Build]

I unlocked League of Legends' newest champ last week, the haughty pirate wench/bounty hunter Miss Fortune. I had been working on my Twisted Fate, as a physical damage counterpart to my Malzahar, and I had been having mixed results. The sheer concentration to effectively use Pick-A-Card was draining, as was being so flippin' squish. (Destiny ganks are a lot of fun, though.)

I'm always looking for a new champ to grab my attention, and MF not only caught my eye, she has the best abbreviation. Early on in a character's career in LoL, avid players approach building the character (in terms of Rune sets, Masteries, equipment, and skill development)in many different ways. I watched an early leaked video of Miss F. wherein she had been beset with one pair of Boots of Swiftness, and five Phantom Dancers. While the huge boosts to attack speed, critical, and dodge chance were awesome, in my experience there was a severe lack of attack damage.

I had bought Sword of the Divine with Twisted Fate to increase the overall damage per second I was dealing. (Sword of the Divine does an additional amount of magic damage on every fourth attack, which meshes well with TF's Stacked Deck passive ability which deals additional damage on every fourth attack.) MF's Impure Shots passive stacks increasing magic damage on every consecutive attack, and I originally focused on this ability so that my Fortune could deal the same sort of hybrid damage. Turns out Impure Shots passive is really not all that, and certainly not her most important ability.

Double Up (Q skill) is her most important ability. Double Up hits a target within range for a large amount of physical damage, and then another target behind the first for even more damage. This is a great skill in the laning phase, as it allows you to damage enemy champs through their back line of minions, while keeping MF relatively safe. To try and keep up with the mana cost of DU in relation to MF's small starting mana pool, I started building the newest item in LoL, Manamune. Manamune has the unique Tear of the Goddess effect of building max MP by using abilities but also slightly increases max MP by attacking, as well as having a passive increase to attack damage equal to 2% of max mana, and some base attack damage, mana and mana regen. This acts as a mini-snowball item, improving MF's attack damage and MP as the game progresses, though it caps relatively early. It does however help one to use Double Up more often. But, no, this isn't the essential item.

Big Sis Prinny had been trolling the Penny Arcade forums LoL thread to claim that Miss Fortune was a rip off of Keira Knightley, and stumbled upon the closely guarded Penny Arcade forum LoL thread secret: Wriggle's Lantern.

Wriggle's Lantern is another relatively recently added item recipe. Vampiric Scepter and Madred's Razors deliver a relatively cheap item that provides attack damage, armor, lifesteal, the Madred's effect (20% chance on hit to deal 500 damage to a minion), and a free sight ward every three minutes. After she relayed this information to Killa HQ, it took me some time to digest it. Why Wriggle's Lantern?!

I deduced fairly quickly the advantage of rushing the Lantern first thing in the build. Double Up triggers on hit effects, in this case the Madred's effect. Once the item is built, MF is notably stronger and can begin to really shine as an early game farmer. But if you recall the "shooting-through-the-back-row-minion" trick, you'll see the true power of the Lantern in Miss F's hands. If the Madred's effect triggers on a Double Up, then the minion is disintegrated by the 500 + Attack Damage hit, which restores a healthy amount of HP. But if you line this up to second hit the enemy champ behind, they will be dealt a remarkable 600+ damage, which restores another nice slice of HP pie to MF. Being able to deal so much damage to an enemy champ by level 5 is huge, and being able to do so from relative safety (and without losing the innate Strut movement speed bonus) makes her extremely potent.

My shopping list now starts with Vampiric Scepter, made as quickly as possible into Wriggle's Lantern. After that I pick up Boots, usually of Swiftness, but, depending on the team, Merc Treads or Ninja Tabi may be favorable. I then build Manamune, so I can get a lot more attempts at the DU big damage setup. If I've farmed up a lot of gold, I may buy BF Sword before Manamune, but I haven't been comfortable dropping the mana from the build yet. I build the BF Sword into Infinity Edge when the gold is available.

After |Wriggle's Lantern, Boots of Swiftness, Manamune, Infinity Edge| I look to Youmuu's Ghostblade and then for Frozen Mallet to effectively make a chaser character, who has a multitude of ways to accelerate oneself and slow the opponent, while doing huge damage whenever in range. And chasing multiple enemy champs is great, since you can Double Up one in the back while blasting through to the other.

Usually an opposing team cannot withstand the build(/my team) beyond the Ghostblade. I think depending on the situation, I would drop Ghostblade+Frozen Mallet for either Bloodrazors+Bloodthirster against a tank heavy team, or Banshee's Veil+Guardian Angel for survivability. As always, staying flexible and building to counter your opponents is paramount. In a gg last night I built Guardian Angel and then Frozen Mallet (mostly for the health) since we kept taking it on the chin in teamfights.

As a carry, however, Miss Fortune is very reliant on her ability to amass money. Her attack speed and AoE skill Make It Rain help a lot with last hitting. Overall, though, she is a glass cannon in the vein of Ashe or Tristana in that she can dish it out, but she cannot take it. I am no stranger to being squishy as my previous main champ Malzahar is quite so, but the use of his silence and stun give him many more escape options, and I am usually less inclined to use Ghost to chase down an enemy champ with Malz, so it is more often available as an escape option.

My Malz is infamous for running Mejai's Soulstealer, a snowball item that increases Ability Power as you accrue kills and assists, though the boosts are siginificantly lowered on death. While it's a great item for getting early kills and staying OP the rest of the game, Miss Fortune has to commit to combat, and I've decided to avoid items that would penalize her for dying.

Also to note: Her Impure Shots active has the Ignite effect on hit of halving healing and regeneration (that Gangplank and Katarina can also induce). Make sure you have it activated before engaging another lifestealer, particularly Warwick or Vladimir, or even a big tank that relies on regen, like Mundo or Sion.

If anyone finds any piece of information remotely as valuable as Wriggle's Lanten, send it in or leave a comment.

Funk DeVille [League of Legends Malzahar]

Yeah, I think I've got the hang of Malzahar.

Funk D'Void [League of Legends New Champion Malzahar Review]

I'm up to Level 19 now in LoL and have continued to enjoy the experience completely free of charge. My first champion purchase was Ryze for 1500 Influence Points, and he has carried me pretty damn far. I did dabble with Warwick during his rotation as a freely available hero, but I was still searching for my next focus, as I steadily rebuilt my supply of IP. And, lo and behold, Riot Games announced a brand new champion, Malzahar. I spent nearly all of my saved points on a character I had never even seen in action; 6300 (the price for top shelf champs) well spent if you ask me. Now that I've got a handle on his skills, he's easily as dangerous as my Ryze.

Malzahar is a magic user, like Ryze, which means that much of my rune loadout remains the same (Magic Penetration, Cooldown Reduction, Ability Power). The biggest difference I find between the two is that Mal can act as a strong farmer, easily able to carry the middle lane, something I wasn't very comfortable doing before. Malefic Visions (his E Skill) is a sort of contagious damage-over-time spell that spreads from one target to the next if it is in effect when the target falls. This can make mowing through a squad of creeps and potentially warding off an enemy Champ pretty damn easy. Oh, and each foe farmed by Malefic Visions restores mana to Malzahar, so, yeah, pretty awesome alternative to Ryze's Spell Flux if you ask me.

On top of that, (Q) is an AOE that inflicts silence and (W) is a damage-over-time AOE. His (R) Ultimate is a stun plus damage-over-time and his best offensive weapon. His passive causes a Voidling to spawn after every five spell casts. It's a relatively weak creature that grows over time, attacks your target, and dies when either not engaged for a short period or takes a moderate amount of damage. Very handy for pushing lanes, but unfortunately the Voidling will sometimes chase an enemy champ past an unfriendly turret, causing the turret to target Mal. Not a huge deal, but something you need to be aware of.

I stick with a lot of the gear I use for Ryze, though I find Mejai's Soulstealer more useful, and I normally grab that on my first trip back, after starting with Doran's Ring. Sorcerer's Shoes and the Deathfire Grasp usually, then I focus on bigger ability power or magic penetration items. With Deathfire Grasp and all four abilities ready, Mal can unleash a ton of damage against a single target, but try to avoid multiple enemy champs, or play it safe retreating and silencing with (Q) Call of the Void. I'm still not sure how much I like Tear of the Goddess for Mal... It encourages me to cast spells constantly to build Max MP in addition to producing more Voidlings, but it seems overall Ability Power and Cooldown Reduction are better areas to improve.

So far, Malzahar has been a blast. Oh, and I'm Kil Initial on LoL if you ever want to team up. Word.

Odds and Ends: Killa Blog Is Not For You Edition

Ryze has gotten me pretty damn far in LoL... Been sticking with a pretty reliable Ability Power build, and going for champion kills early. I'm up to Summoner Level 13 thanks in no small part to his Rune Prison. Just recently switched to using Ignite (instead of Ghost). My normal abmbush goes something along the lines of: Desperate Power > (Lich Bane)Attack > Rune Prison > (Lich Bane)Attack > Ignite > Overload > (Lich Bane)Attack = Kil Initial is on a Rampage.

This week's upcoming available champion rotation includes a couple of champs I am looking at maining next, including Karthus, but most notably werewolf Warwick the Blood Hunter. Apparently, he's best as a "jungler", soloing buff mobs and pulling off egregious ganks. Seems like a natural fit, seeing as I'm a junglist myself, partially lycanthropic, and prone to fits of ganking.

MvC3's roster is slowly being revealed... Marvel's Deadpool and Captain America, Devil May Cry's Dante, and Darkstalkers' Felicia join the fray officially now. I hope Deadpool's inclusion doesn't disclude the possibilty of a slot for Cable. It really shouldn't be either/or; they work so well together! I expect Mag-fuckin'-Neto and Chun Li to be in the next batch of revelations. Anybody think there's a chance for any newer Street Fighter characters to make it? (Say Rufus? Maybe Alex?)

Lego's DeeJay has been pissing me off royally. His time with Honda has taught him the charge inputs well... too well. EX Jacknife Maximum, or whatever the fuck his 'Upkicks' are called, owns a lot of my Rufus pressure. Beginning to think Abel may be a better matchup, as his crossup is a lot safer. Also may try to use Guile more, as I had a really solid set versus Lego's Sagat last night. (Man, is that charge fast now!)

Lost is almost over... This week's episode "Across the Sea" will allegedly reveal Flocke's purpose finally, "What They Died For" will air on May 18th, and five days later (Sunday 5/23) they'll show the 150 minute series finale. Can't wait. I'm pretty sure Jack Shepherd will replace Jacob, though I keep wondering what role Desmond Hume will play in the conclusion of the standard timeline, and also in the alternate scenario.

Give Us Us Free [Free PC Games]

Oh Dijimon Hounsou, you talk so, so bad.

Anyways, recent feedback suggests that the number one most popular aspect of Killa Blog is that it is free. In keeping with that spirit, I'ma point y'all to a couple of really well made and enjoyable games that don't cost a muthafuckin' thing.

Vanguard Princess has been mentioned in this space before, and it is still a free PC fighting game! (You may recall futuristic gunslinger Luna Himeki won KB's GOTY award for Best New Character Design, though, admittedly, I second guess this decision everytime I play as SFIV's Rufus.) Suge9's baby is still receiving updates, and there is unofficial netplay support via Lunaport.

I've more recently dabbled into League of Legends, an online multiplayer action RPG-RTS hybrid based off of the 'Defense of the Ancients: Allstars' Warcraft III mod. It's a real joy to play and highly addictive. Highly addictive, like meth addictive. This may sound ludicrous ("On Killa Blog?! No!"), but it plays kind of like a mishmash of Diablo, Team Fortress 2, and Warcraft (the RTS, not the MMO). It's a great free game, and you can earn anything in it through time and energy, though you can always burn some scratch and unlock anything else you fancy.

Riot Games has a really nice microtransaction system in place for LoL; The game is free to download and play, and all of the Champions/playable characters (as well as many other add-ons, like palette swaps) can be unlocked either via Influence Points earned through playing the game, or through Riot Points that must be purchased in real life. Certain sets of Champions are rotated through terms of temporary availability so that new players without points can use them, and current players can try them out before purchasing.

So yeah, if you're not like me, someone who doesn't really mind plunking down cash on every (BioShock 2) new (Final Fantasy XIII) game (Super Street Fighter IV) that comes out, give these two a shot. It'll be worth your while, yo.