League of Legends: Difference between revisions

[[File:rsz_lol_7522.jpg|frame| [[Loads and Loads of Characters|There's more characters. A lot more.]]]]

 

 

 

 

The [[Excuse Plot]] is that magical "summoners" do battle with each-other by summoning creatures, heroes, and champions and pitting them against each other in gladiatorial combat. Your [[Player Character]] is one of those summoners; it is persistent and gains experience with every battle, as opposed to champions who start every match at Level 1. This opens up various customization options which have a practical effect on gameplay: summoners can bring two [[Support Power|Support Powers]] into battle, and have access to "Runes" and a "Mastery" skill-tree to directly improve a champion's stats during gameplay.

The [[League of Legends/Characters|Characters page]] lists every commercially-released champion, and a few others to boot. The numerous [[Memetic Mutation|memes]] spawned by the community can be found [[League of Legends/Memes|here]]. The numerous [[Shout-Out|Shout Outs]] to other medias can be found [[League of Legends/Shout Out|here]].

 

* [[All Your Base Are Belong to Us]]: The end result of any game. The question is ''whose'' base are [[Translation Train Wreck|belong...to...um...who.]]

** Exhibited by how every game ends with the camera going to a position centered on the losing team's Nexus blowing up - this happens even if one team surrenders.

* [[Art Evolution]]:

** In-game art became much better post-release.

** Summoner's Rift recently had a Graphics update, complete with a new Yordle Shopkeeper.

** Some of the older champion portraits are being redone. Morgana above has a new portrait, as does Sivir, Veigar, Kayle, Tryndamere, and others. You can really see a difference between the old style of art and the new ones.

** Of course, some champions play this trope perfectly straight (at least when they get well-farmed) like Olaf and Tryndamere, capable of simply ripping into the enemy team and slaughtering everything within reach of their blades.

* [[Authority Equals Asskicking]]: Barbarians and Noxians.

* [[Ax Crazy]]: Played literally with Dr. Mundo, Sion, and Olaf, all three of which wield axes, have abilities that hurt themselves in the process of hurting the enemy, and are designed to charge straight into a fight.

** Olaf especially was designed to be an "Ax wielding maniac".

** Darius decapitates others with his huge axe.

** Everyone respawns after death for sometime. As it likely gave your enemies time and extra gold over you, it will eventually get to a point where a dead team's buildings and base should logically be razed by the other side before they can respawn.

** The respawn timer increases as the game progresses.

** Soraka has two heals, a silence and a mana refill and one damage spell.

** Janna technically has several damage spells but they do little actual damage and are loaded with slows, knockups and knockbacks. Her most effective playstyle involves leaving every single minion kill to her allies, falling hopelessly behind in terms of levels and gold, but using her spells to set up enemies for her team, earning her team potentially a dozen kills while doing insignificant amounts of damage herself.

** Taric can actually do some decent damage himself, but his main job is supporting his team. He can heal his allies, passively boost their armor, stun enemies that would otherwise cause trouble, but his Ultimate is the real kicker. It does a decent amount of AoE burst damage, significantly boosts Taric's offensive stats, and gives nearby allies half that bonus for 10 seconds. It's absolutely fabulous for teamfights or tearing apart a tower.

** Averted by Karma, whose abilities both make her allies stronger and deal significant damage themselves. This leaves her in a bit of a weird spot in the metagame.

** Jarvan has a spell that summons an actual shield (as in the kite-shaped object) in a transparent hexagonal shape.

** Poppy's ultimate puts a miniature barrier around her.

* [[Beware the Nice Ones]]: All Yordles except Veigar, who is a megalomaniac, and Rumble, the Yordle equivalent of a mad scientist in a mech with tasers and flamethrowers.

** Especially scary with Teemo. It's heavily implied that the constant use of his abilities for assassinations, as well as the isolation he suffers, is slowly driving him insane, which gives nightmare fuel when you look at the constant smile he always wears. He's starting to crack, and it won't be too long until he uses his poison outside of the League.

** In a meta example, Riot Games themselves: "Hi, guys, there's a popularity contest for online games over there, the winner is decided by number of votes. Oh, and if we win, everybody will get a free rune page. Here's a vote link. No, we're not implying anything."

** However you need the IP boosts if you want to quickly get IP at an early level. Once you get past level 10 you no longer have IP bonuses.

* [[Cast of Snowflakes]]: In addition to each champion having a very different physical appearance, they each perform a very unique role in team compositions.

* [[Catch Phrase]]: In nearly every champion spotlight since Yorick (as well as many times he shoutcasts games or in other League-related videos), Phreak makes it a point to use the phrase "tons of damage."

** Some champions have passive abilities that boost a stat according to how high another stat is. This both nudges the player in a certain direction for building items and makes stacking one stat a bit more viable. Examples include Singed (+1 HP per 4 mana), Galio (ability power bonus equal to half his magic resist score) and Rammus (attack damage bonus equal to one quarter his armor). However, none of them are strong enough to encourage overspecialization to benefit more from the passive (The examples respectively would be have too much mana and nothing else, be vulnerable to physical damage, and be vulnerable to magic damage).

*** To a point also Malphite, whose most practical general-use attack scales its damage to his defense.

* [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]]: As an in-game/in-universe meta-example, it should be noted that the game is designed to give the players this feeling. There's lot of ways to win a situation in ways that make you feel like an epic fantasy hero. Having the narrator announce to the world that you are "unstoppable" and "godlike" and all that kind of stuff doesn't hurt either. ''Never mind'' if [[Hero of Another Story|your enemies]] get these moments ten times as often as you do.

* [[Crutch Character]]: Any character that is said to not scale into "late game" is this. The trope isn't nearly as bad as it may seem, as each game has all champions start over from scratch at level 1. Using a early-game monster to kill and stop [[Magikarp Power|the enemy carry]] from becoming the late-game powerhouse that he will become is as valid a strategy as any other. Of course, if the enemy can hold out they will have a major killing machine in the game's crucial last moments while you are left with a below-average champions under your control. [[Competitive Balance|Part of the fun and strategy of the game is figuring out when such a strategy is viable and when it isn't]].

* [[Double Entendre]]: [http://youtu.be/WPDtBsQsxV4 Start at 1:30 for this "commentary" on the Season 1 CG trailer.] The actual [[Double Entendre]] is at 1:38.

** [[Ms. Fanservice|Miss Fortune]] has abilities named "Make It Rain" (a shower of bullets from the sky) and "Double Up" (a bullet that bounces and hits two enemies).

* [[Dynamic Entry]]: Any champion with a dash or a blink really.

** Turned up to eleven with [[Death From Above|Pantheon's Grand Skyfall]].

* [[Drop the Hammer]]: The item Phage, which can be later upgraded to the bigger hammers Frozen Mallet or Entropy.

** Taric and Poppy both use hammers, as does Sion while using his Hextech Sion skin.

* [[Eldritch Abomination]]: There are a few here and there. Cho'Gath and Kog'Maw are monsters from the Void (which is apparently filled with such creatures), Fiddlesticks is an extraplanar horror who killed the guy who was stupid enough to summon him, and Nocturne is a dream-born monster who hunted and killed Summoners in their sleep until he was dragged into this world. Xerath also borders on this, considering that he's become entirely inhuman in almost every way, including personality, and is absurdly powerful even by the standards of the League.

** Jax may be an example of this. While he appears to be human, it is not known where he came from. What is known, however, is that when he joined the League, he got so many consecutive wins that they forced him to use a LAMPPOST instead of a real weapon. The worst part is that it apparently didn't affect his chances at all, so the requirement was rescinded while he kept using the lamppost.

* [[Elemental Crafting]]: Referred to in the basic armor items: Cloth Armor grants some armor, while Chain Vest grants a lot of it.

* [[Elemental Powers]]: Brand and Annie use [[Kill It with Fire|fire spells]], Ryze and Kennen cast [[Shock and Awe|electricity]], Anivia uses [[An Ice Person|ice]], Malphite uses [[Dishing Out Dirt|rocks]], Janna is a spirit of [[Blow You Away|wind]], Fizz and Nautilus use [[Making a Splash|water]], Lux's spells involve bursts of [[Light'Em Up|light]], Nocturne uses [[Casting a Shadow|DAAARRKNEESSSSSS]]... yeah, the whole spectrum gets represented in this game.

* [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]]: The Cloak and Dagger item... is made from the Cloak of Agility and Dagger items.

* [[Everything Trying to Kill You]]: You can be promised from the start of the game that only your team will have disconnects, only your team will have a support that doesn't know how important wards are, and only your team will have the Jax that does bad. It's positive that THEIR team will have the Akali that gets 12 kills by 10 minutes, their team will know how to communicate, and their team will always have the better jungler.

* [[Evil Twin]]: A confusing instance on Riot's forums. There is an Associate Game Designer, Shurelia. There is also an apparently official Riot account posting on the forums called DarkShurelia. Who is comparatively ruder and [[Deadpan Snarker|snarkier]] while posting. One other Riot poster seemed to indicate this was because people made fun of [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kxGQ3gWdrM her voice].

** A few classic champions got their prices lowered, perhaps helping even out the average somewhat. Even if it's not that big a difference.

* [[Fan Service]]: See Stripperific.

* [[Fighter, Mage, Thief]]: Shen, Kennen and Akali, the three ninjas, are a tank, a fast medium-range nuker, and fragile speedster, respectively.

** The three champions available in the Battle Training tutorial -- Garen (front-line fighter), Ryze (mage), and Ashe (ranged damage dealer).

* [[A Good Name for a Rock Band]]: "Pentakill" (the [[Announcer Chatter]] when one player kills 5 enemies in a very short space of time). It's been officially recognized, with Sona (on keyboard), Yorick (on bass guitar/[[Shovel Strike|shovel]]), and Mordekaiser (on guitar/[[Stealth Pun|axe]]), and Karthus (lead singer) getting Pentakill skins and an article on them in the Journal of Justice.

* [[Good Is Not Nice]]: Demacia is the moral opposite of the [[Chaotic Evil]] Noxus... which [[All Crimes Are Equal|punishes all crimes equally]], has universal three-year conscription for all citizens, and does not allow its soldiers to [[Attack! Attack! Attack!|surrender, flee, or make excuses]].

* [[Guide Dang It]]: If you have never played a game like this, you'll probably need to ask for help from more experienced players to get your head around it.

** Needless to say, due to the negative effect of just [[The Load|one single newbie]] on your team, if you actually ask for help during a match you are more likely to get bombarded with insults and reported for intentionally helping the enemy than to receive advice.

** Caitlyn has her trusty rifle.

** [[Outlaw|Graves the Outlaw]] uses a customized double-barreled shotgun. And an ability that fires [[MST3K Mantra|three bullets simultaneously]].

* [[Hammerspace]]: You can carry up to six items, which can be breastplates, katanas, axes... none of them are even shown being held by your character or appear on their person. Some of them cause your character to have specific auras to let the enemy team know you have the effect up, but you never see the items themselves.

** Possibly hand waved with the idea that the champions themselves don't get the item, but the summoner backing them does and merely channels the artifact's power to increase their champion's abilities.

** Olaf's Ragnarok.

** Poppy's Diplomatic immunity. The text states that she focuses SO INTENTLY on her target that the rest of the enemies attacks and abilities do nothing to her.

** Ezreal's dance is the dance from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya

** [[Captain Ersatz|Nasus]] [[Don't Explain the Joke|walks like an Egyptian]].

 

'''Akali:''' So many noobs. Will matchmaking ever find true balance? }}

** “Come on, Orianna. Time to learn how to tower dive."

* [[Leeroy Jenkins]]: This is both the worst kind of feeding and the best way to [[The Millstone|lose the game for your team]].

* [[Loads and Loads of Races]]: Most champions are human with Yordles as the most common after them. The rest are a wide assortment of monsters and humanoids that range from animal-like humanoids to [[Eldritch Abomination|Eldritch Abominations]], with a few "classic" creatures like trolls and minotaurs thrown in.

* [[Loophole Abuse]]: Whenever a deal to unlock a skin for free with a champion is offered, if you don't have that champion but take advantage of the offer, you can get the champion ''and'' the skin, sometimes for free. In November 2011, a code was published in PCGamer magazines that would unlock unlock Caitlyn and a skin. As you guessed it; a lot of people have reported not getting codes because [[Face Palm|people have been going into stores, writing down or snapping pictures of magazines with the codes in them and using those]].

* [[Luck-Based Mission]]: For most public matches, you don't get to choose who your teammates are.

** Aside from players, chance manipulation is made key in-game through every champ having a chance to critical attacks. (Which can be increased) Dodge used to be part of the game but was removed because it was too random; and one character (Jax) was too overly-dependent on it.

** The trope isn't exactly as positive here as it is in other games, due to the nature of MOBA's to reset character levels at the start of every match. At first glance, having a team full of [[Magikarp Power|carries]] is an excellent idea, but the enemy may capitalize on top of this and grab an early victory by merit of stopping you from reaching your peak in strength and scoring an early victory. See [[Crutch Character]] up above.

** Nasus and Veigar recieve special note here. Most carries scale into the late game by getting better items. Veigar and Nasus, however, can scale without items. Veigars basic energy blast skill will give him extra ability power whenever he kills an enemy with it, including minions. Nasus basic special attack skill does more damage for each target it's killed. While fairly weak early game, a well fed Veigar or Nasus is capable of absurd amounts of damage late game, as their power scales off of more than just items or levels.

* [[Mana Meter]]: Most champions use mana when they cast spells. Both their total mana reserve and the rate at which it replenishes itself increase with champion level and items. There are some exceptions and variations on the theme:

** Akali, Shen, Kennen, and Lee Sin use Energy, which has a fixed cap and regeneration rate. The cap is low, but the regeneration is high, putting a limit on how man spells they can cast if they don't space them out.

** Tryndamere, Renekton, and Shyvanna all use the Fury resource very differently. About the only consistent features are that it generates when they attack an enemy and they can expend it to enhance at least one of their abilities.

** Instead of draining mana, Rumble ''gains'' Heat whenever he uses one of his abilities and his abilities get a boost if he has enough. If he maxes out, though, he [[Overheating|overheats]] and is briefly silenced, giving his attacks a little extra punch until he cools down.

** Garen, Katarina, and Riven don't use any resources and are completely reliant on cooldowns to cast their abilities.

* [[Multiplayer Online Battle Arena]]: [[Trope Namer]]. The term ''MOBA'' was coined by ''Riot Games'' for ''[[League of Legends]]'' as a marketing term specifically because everybody referred to the genre as "DotA clones" and they didn't want their game always being compared to ''DotA''.

* [[My Rules Are Not Your Rules]]: As the computer says, "Lag? What's that? Disconnectors? Griefers? You can do that?" They receive items on a timer, rather than buying it. Also see [[The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard]].

* [[The Napoleon]]: Veigar, the Tiny Master of Evil. Emphasis on Tiny.

** "'It's just a short way?' ''WAS THAT A SHORT JOKE?!''"

* [[Perpetual Beta]]: Sort of. The game is in its official release, but it's patched roughly every two weeks. This will probably only end if the game's plug was pulled entirely. Being a PC-multiplayer game (As well as Riot's sole product), this was probably expected.

* [[Play Every Day]]: You get an extra 150 IP from winning once every 22 hours.

* [[Power of the Void]]: There are two champions who draw their power from this, and [[Eldritch Abomination|there are two who are FROM there]]. And you had better fear them, too; all of them have relatively high difficulty ratings, but all of them are quite powerful as well.

** Cho'Gath is a powerful tank with a silence, knockup, and a devastating ultimate that inflicts heavy true damage. He can also grow in size and health by using his ultimate to get kills, making him large enough to simply prevent the enemy from clicking on the carries as targets.

** Pantheon, for sure: ''"They disgrace the art of war!"''

* [[Rasputinian Death]]: Are you a tank? If yes, are you out of escape buttons? If yes, are your enemies all present at the same time your teammates are all absent? [[This Is Gonna Suck|Take a deep breath. This won't be over any time soon.]]

* [[Red Oni, Blue Oni]]: The warmongering Noxus is Red, Ionia and Demacia are Blue with spiritual enlightenment and pursuit of justice, respectively.

* [[Retcon]]:

** Originally Yordles and Meglings were seperate races -- the tiny Yordles varied from somewhat animalistic little critters like Teemo to gnome-looking fellows like Heimerdinger and Corki, while Meglings were equally tiny, blue-skinned and white-haired, but otherwise humanoid. This was eventually retconned to make Tristana and Poppy Yordles as well, with "Megling" becoming the name of the Yordle commando unit that Tristana belonged to. [[Word of God]] is that this change was made because [[Viewers are Morons|players would be confused by two species of tiny humanoids at once]].

* [[Rocket Jump]]: Tristana's Rocket Jump skill. [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]].

** Ziggs can use his Satchel Charge to leap over map geometry.

* [[Rule 34]]: Compared to every MOBA Game out there, League Of Legends is well known for it's rule 34 and a doujin dedicated to it...god help us when Japan properly gets League of Legends with their own seiyuus voicing the game.

* [[Running Gag]]: Tamat, Lead Community Manager at Riot Games, is well-known for his favourite champion being Pantheon. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=se2_mp3hX3g This patch preview featured him looking slightly unhappy hearing about upcoming changes that would reduce Pantheon's power]. A later patch preview had him say he took a break from Pantheon to play Nocturne, and asked how he would be buffed. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkdP-Xp0N6o Morello holds in laughter and tells him Nocturne would be nerfed]. Tamat is again, displeased.

** Miss Fortune's pistol barrels are thicker than her arms.

* [[The Smurfette Principle]]: Highly averted, in comparison to other games in the genre- at least a third of the roster is female. This is exceptional compared to its competitors. Although notably, although there are female champions with heavy survivability, none of the female characters was a dedicated tank (until Leona, anyways). There also wasn't a melee female carry until Fiora.

* [[Songs in the Key of Panic]]: In Dominion, when a team's nexus drops below 50% health, the music gets a little more intense.

* [[Spin Attack]]: Katarina's Death Lotus. Rammus' Powerball. Renekton's Cull the Meek. Tryndamere's [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|Spinning Slash]]. Wukong's Cyclone. Now who could I be forgetting...

* [[Spiritual Successor]]: To ''[[Defense of the Ancients]]'', but at the same time, it tries to be different and even diversifies the MOBA Genre with adding a Capture-and-Hold mode.

** A number of individual champions are also Spiritual Successors to their DotA predecessors; Ashe to Drow Ranger, Blitzcrank to Pudge, Twitch to Clinkz, Hecarim to Spirit Breaker, Varus to Windrunner, Shyvana to Dragon Knight, Twisted Fate to Nature's Prophet, Karthus to Zeus, Nidalee to Enchantress, Nocturne to Spectre, Corki to Gyrocopter, and so forth.

* [[Squishy Wizard]]: Many of the mages, particularly Annie and Veigar. An aversion are the "Battle Casters", which are hybrid melee and spell-slingers and good at everything but [[Master of None]]. Even more averted by the ones who can heal others, including themselves. A careful player who can heal may rarely have to return to base aside from buying items.

* [[Summon Magic]]: The justification for the game.

* [[Support Power]]: Most summoner spells, but especially Heal and Clarity which restore health and mana respectively to all nearby allies.

** Ashe and her basic outfit which is similar to Sivir with slightly more clothing (and she lives in the coldest part of Runeterra). Woad and Sherwood Ashe justs amps up the fanservice.

** Akali anyone? Epic [[Sideboob]].

* [[Teeth-Clenched Teamwork]]: When you really really hate your teammates during a match for some reason, but are close to winning your team becomes this.

** This also happens if you get in a team whose strategy is to faceroll the opponents' team so hard they surrender, and the other team is ''very'' stubborn and refuses to surrender. And if you're doing this in a bot game? This will ascend beyond [[Teeth-Clenched Teamwork]] and go into [[And I Must Scream]]. Unlike players, bots don't surrender and get items for free, so really, you shouldn't just decide "I'll farm kills cause it's a bot game" Because they ''will'' outgear you if you let the game go on too long. There is a light at the end of the tunnel though; if the players who turtled the game decide enough is enough they can always turn 'em around and fight Baron or backdoor them.

* [[Thanatos Gambit]]: Many Karthus players ''intentionally'' sacrifice themselves so they can use his passive to take champions down with them. Other times, champs such as Xin Zhao intentionally dive into the fray and allow themselves to die so the team can wreak havoc while they're focusing on them.

* [[The Magnificent]]: Each champion has a title that applies to them examples of such:

* [[Why Am I Ticking?]]: [[Time Master|Zilean]] can plant [[A Worldwide Punomenon|time bombs]] onto units, including enemy champions. It's very possible to get one of these on you while you're running away and accidentally [[Idiot Ball|get a teammate killed]] if you don't keep your distance.

** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9DtuE0QIW8/ And then there's this.] [[Hilarity Ensues]].

* [[World War Three]]: A sort of parallel -- according to the August 3 entry to the Journal of Justice, there were 5 horrific Rune Wars. To avoid another, where [[Real Life]] has the [[United Nations]], Runeterra has the [[Combat by Champion|League of Legends]].

* [[World of Badass]]: League requirement for joining: be a [[Badass]].

* [[Wretched Hive]]: Zaun and Noxus both qualify. Especially Zaun: sure, they may respect sentience of every type (as evidenced by Blitzcrank's freedom), but it's an industrial cesspool that values science above everything else, including morality, and is loaded with complete sociopaths who are given a free run of the place.

* [[The X of Y]]: Most champion's subtitles are this if not simply [[The X]].

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Video Game]]