Saturday, May 27, 2017

A Caster's Guide to Solo Queue Legendary

There are many different ways to play this game. In order to rank up, you have to figure out which play style works for you. Hopefully my post can provide ideas.


First - Pick a class

*While it's possible to reach solo queue legend with a tank or support class, I would not recommend that. It's going to take a long time to reach legend if you're unable to carry games. I've noticed from climbing, that the matchmaking will often stick you with four clueless team members against fairly competent enemies. These are winnable games if you play smart and carry your team. Tanks and supports can play smart, but it's tough for them to fully carry a game.
**When you do pick a class, stick to that class. Don't change. Even if your team needs a tank, don't trust any other person in solo queue with your role. I used to switch to tank if the team needed it, but then I realized the person playing my role was usually feeding, bad, or just not helpful. All the way through epic, I stuck to my class when we didn't have a tank.

Second - Gold

*I almost never lead my team in gold. Farming is not as easy for a caster as it is for marksmen, assassins, and fighters.
Instead of farming, be there for every team fight. Position yourself so that no matter what fights your solo queue allies get into, you're not far away. Unless you're a marksmen, staying away and farming while your team fights isn't really that productive.

Third - Playing in game

*You should be constantly watching the map. Know or theorize where enemies are the entire game. If multiple members of their team are missing, don't walk into brush alone. Don't go into enemy jungle alone. You have to be the patient one. Wait out their ambush.

**Positioning in team fights is very important. ALWAYS start towards the back. Let them enemies go in first. Once they commit, land your combos. If your spells are on cooldown, you should be repositioning. Never get too close to their team without having an escape off cooldown(like flicker). If you have an AoE spell, try to get as many members of the enemy team with that spell as possible.
***Let the enemy team make mistakes. Being patient is big in this game. If you wait for the enemy to get out of position, then you can make them pay for it.

Fourth - General Observations
*I noticed that it took the longest for me to get through Master and Grandmaster. Those are hard ranks to advance from, because you're often paired with teammates that feed, pout, or just don't understand the game. Try to stay positive during games. If you encourage your team members, they tend to play guilty. This is hard to do, and I would definitely get mad at my team from time to time. "WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?!"

Fifth - Item strategy

*Unless you're playing somebody like Eurora who needs heavy damage burst, build items that can help your team. For example, when I played Cyclops I'd often get frost. This never helped my burst, but it did help slow their team so that my team could catch their guys out.

**If they have a good assassin, get immortality at some point. That ensures you won't be a target for their assassin and one shot early in the match.

Best advice for people climbing rank - Learn Tigreal! +Builds!

There's always going to be people that will snap pick Moskov and not even bother to look at the screen until the match starts. This also applies towards any character that can carry a rank match, but the thing you will always notice...
"We need a tank"
Let's be honest. No one ever gives a damn about the tank until they screw up. That's the sad part of the game where it's essentially a thankless job. An important job, but still thankless.
In order to avoid a horrible train wreck of a rank game, you need to be flexible with your character choices and that means learning to tank on the side. For those that don't know there are 3 golden rules for tanks:
1. You need to be the leader of your team.
2. You need to create opportunities for your team.
3. You need to survive long enough to make encounters worth it.
 The first rule is almost an unspoken rule since it carries a lot of responsibility. Unfortunately, most people don't want to carry any accountabilities for their actions. Maybe that's the social climate we live in, but it's something that needs to be addressed. As a tank, you have to bare the responsibility to lead your team. This means constantly communicating with quick responses and letting them know that your ultimate is ready for a "Flicker Bomb".
You need to keep everyone in line and focus on what matters.
Second rule is creating opportunities for engagements that wouldn't be normally possible. If this means flickering under an enemy turret to push them towards your team; do it. If it means Flicker bombing an entire group of 5 enemies and pushing them towards a desirable position for your team, do it.
Your job is solving stalemates immediately without hesitation.
Finally, do not ever use any of the recommended gear sets the developers created. 9 times out of 10, they are complete garbage. You need to survive long enough for your team to go in and it's meaningless if you die in 3 seconds or so.
For a Tigreal, I would highly recommend the following:
1st: Warrior Boots (physical) or Tough Boots (magical)
  • You want to take advantage of the lane phase by abusing your own turrets. With his already impressive natural movement speed, you want to create situations where you can flicker right behind the target and push them into your own turret. To seal the deal, uppercut them or use your ultimate to pin them down.
Rapid boots are also very good, but it depends greatly against your lane phase opposition.
2nd: Immortality
  • You need to create opportunities! It comes with high risk, but high reward. In order to not feed in the process, you need Immortality to as a back-up plan or a form of insurance for yourself. The fact that it gives you magic resist should also buy you time against a Eudora.
3rd: Heart of Steel
  • Incredibly underrated given the current meta of Moskovs. This will benefit you more than Demon's Advent could ever have. This will allow you to take more straight hits from ADCs, while moving into your desired position.
4th: Blade Armor
  • One of the main reasons why Freya or Moskov can penta-kill with ease is their lifesteal items. By effectively treating everyone on your team as a "blood bank", they can pound away at any character on your team and gain back any life they lost while being hit by another target (especially ones with no armor). By having this item on Tigreal, you don't have to worry about indirectly helping the opposing Moskov surviving.
You'd be surprised how often they underestimate tanks and just try to take you out as a second target, which should buy your teammates enough time to take them out.
5th: Dominance Ice
A combination of everything. With CDR and extra survivability, it provides great tools against ADCs.
6th: Bloodthirsty King or Cursed Helmet
  • This slot is dedicated for extra survivability and being able to clean up lanes for effectively. If your team is ahead of turrets & kills, but all means get Bloodthirsty King to keep it that way. If your team is struggling with downed inhibitors, you need to clean up minions fast. As bad as it was in the early game, it's worst clearing minions in the late game. Cursed Helmet will make it much more bearable and can save your base from an overrun of opposing minions.
For whatever reason you face a 5 mage team... Saint's Refuge and Oracle can be substituted in for Heart of Steel and Blade Armor. This is rare... but it happens. Sometimes.

ESTES FACTOR

You know what's worst than an over fed Moskov? An Estes supporting him... So not only do you have race against a lifesteal Moskov, but you have to do it all over again if Estes' ultimates at the right time.
Seeing how everyone else has a specific role on your team, their item builds are rather strict and can't deviate without sacrificing damage. Since Tigreal and most tanks aren't designed that way, you can afford to build Deadly Blade early on, while not sacrificing too much compared to your team.
Against Estes & Moskov, your item build order would look like so: Warrior Boots > Deadly Blade > Immortality > Blade Armor > Heart of Steel > Dominance Ice.
Try not to use Attack Wave right away and save it right before you think Estes needs to Ultimate. While Deadly Blade won't necessarily stop the life gain, it will make it more manageable.

WHY TIGREAL?

Tigreal is the easiest character to use, in addition to being one of the cheaper ones at 6,500 BP or 299 Yellow Tickets. His skin is also made accessible through the fragment shop for 65 fragments.
Tigreal is simply put the most flexible tank in Mobile Legends. Combined with the Flicker battle spell, Tigreal can create a lot of opportunities that wouldn't be possible otherwise. "Flicker Bomb" or bombing means seizing an opportunity where 3+ opposing characters are close together and Flickering Tigreal into them, followed by his Ultimate. After this, you can choose to push them (Sacred Hammer) towards your team or let your team sort them out, while preserving Sacred Hammer for peeling.
The fact that Sacred Hammer can be used offensively and defensively just gives Tigreal that edge in competitive play.
I hope that more people are open to using Tigreal in the future, rather than snap picking "OP character of the month".

Thursday, May 18, 2017

Stealing the Blue Buff without Retribution

In this brief article I'm going to cover some important aspect of being a team player.  If you read, understand and follow my 3 important tips it will more likely lead you to a Glorious Legend title or at least Grand Master. And if it doesn't do any of that, at least it'll make you a better, more socially acceptable person.

1. Don't be an A**hole.
I understand that this can be difficult for some people to comprehend but it starts with one simple step. Don't bother talking. If you have nothing good to say to your teammates then just don't say it.  Calling your brother/ sister's in arms a "noob", "idiot", "idiot team ever", "worst ____ ever", or any other racial, vulgar slurs actually won't make them feel any better.  In fact, you may end up finding yourself responded with "u noob" or "stfu".  The time it takes for you to waste your precious time in game, you could be taking towers, jungling, clearing lanes, or even killing opponents. Whoever told you that talking down to your teammates was going to help you, was wrong.  Don't be an a**hole.

2. Don't be a noob
Understand your characters limits. If you're a support, don't go and clear lanes, always find someone to "support".  If you are an attacker and you see your support alone in a lane, go join them and help them out. Supports can't clear lanes and you're wasting time having them do so. Personally, I find myself getting alot of negative feeback from my team when I'm support because my team doesn't seem to want to defend towers. As a result i have to move my estes to def and in the meantime my teammates are crying for help while being attacked. Know your postition and know where you should and shouldnt be. Always be aware of the map.

3. Support your teammates
Give them a warm pat on the back with a "good job" or "hang on and we'll win". This will most certainly give a moral boost to your fellows and increase your chances of glorious victory. This follows more closely with tip #1.  In the early game, if your teammates are killed, don't call them "noob" or "noob team" instead, give them support. Remember it's still early game and anything can happen once your teammates level up. Give them a chance and give yourself a chance in the process.

Monday, May 8, 2017

Get Started With Aurora : Mobile Legends

Skills and Passive
Passive [Pride of Ice]: Every time Aurora casts a skill she gets 1 unit of Frost Energy, when she collects 4 units of Frost Energy the next skill damage will freeze the targets.
All skills cause extra damage to frozen targets.
- This is Aurora's distinctive trait, it gives her useful and flexible CC and makes her nukes stronger.

1st Skill [Frost Shock]: Aurora fires a Frost Energy Missle in a line, it will explode upon impact with a target or after traveling a certain distance, when it explodes it deals AOE Magic Damage and slows damaged targets.
- A very spammable skill to use to build up your passive, to farm and harass in lane.

2nd Skill [Bitter Frost]: Deals Magic Damage to a target and slows his movement speed by 80% for 1.5s.
- It's insta-cast \ insta-hit, very good when paired with Aurora's Passive, even without it the slow is very strong and the damage is very severe too.

Ultimate: [Coldness Destroy]: Aurora summons a giant Icy Rock to hit a certain area. Enemies hit by the impact will be slowed down and receive Magic Damage.
- Very strong AOE damaging skill, potentially huge AOE CC thanks to her passive.

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Item Build

1st Item - Eternal Scepter: It will give you nice sustain on the early minutes thanks to Elegant gem and in the end it will give you a ton of magic damage, hp and mana to play with.
2nd Item - Magic Shoes: This build goes for 30% CDR and this is the first piece of it.
3rd Item - Fleeting Time: 20% more CDR but we also get more CDR from the passive when we get kills which we should be able to do. For the rest it gives us nice stats and mana regen.
4th Item - Guardian Relic: A very high amount of magic damage, the +25% magic damage will make every item we have even stronger!
5
th Item - Astral Wand: It's a very cost efficient damage for the damage it provides, thanks to the magic penetration tanks will have a hard time countering you. (note that in the video I built this as my 4th item because we had many magic damage dealers in the team so I didn't want the enemies to counter me quick and easily by going with a lot of early magic resistance)
6th Item - Blood Wings: Even more magic damage and some nice HP on top of that to make us a little harder to burst down. Anyway you can consider this as a flexible spot so you can experiment with it.
Starting Item: Not really the starting item because it's just a component of Eternal Scepter but the first part of it you must build is Elegant Gem.



Emblem Set: Magic is the best one for her unless you have Magic Assassin set really high leveled, in that case it would be a better choice.

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Battle Spell

Flicker: It'sextremely useful on her because it improves your offensive abilities and also gives you some mobility you desperatily need since Aurora has none to begin with. If you don't have it go for Assault or Purify.
 
Tips

1) Blue Buff is very good on you, try to get it whenever it's possible. Red Buff isn't much important, nice to have in the lategame but other allies probably need it more.
2) Max out your 2nd Skill first because it gets a lower cooldown for each skillpoint.
3) Remember that your 1st Skill explodes when it hits minions, this is very important for when you are trying to do a burst combo on an enemy hero, make sure that there are no minion in line so that you can hit them with your 1st Skill too when they are frozen.
4) Try to have your passive charged when you are expecting a fight (and to do so don't be afraid to spam your 1st Skill hitting no targets) and when you are expecting a fight make sure to keep it charged, don't use skills wasting the freeze until it's safe to do so.
5) With your passive charged your 2nd skill is an instant stun you can use to unleash your combo, this is mostly good when you want to combo a single target. Your 1st Skill could also be a nice freeze initiation for your combo, it's nice because it has a longer range and can potentially freeze more enemies. Your ultimate can also be the freeze initiation of your combo but it's harder to use it like that compared to the others.
6) Always try to hit enemies with all 3 of your skills while they are frozen to maximize damage.
7) Your 1st Skill is a very nice lane farming and ranged harass tool, during the laning stage try to use it to hit both the minions and the enemy hero\es with the small explosion.

Saturday, May 6, 2017

Ultimate Minotaur Guide : Son of Minos

1) Introduction:
 
Minotaur is a tank hero. You are a living shield, designed to control the ennemy team and tank their damages while your teammates take them out one by one.
As a consequence, your whole stuff will be based on defensive's stats. Keep that in mind: you are useless if you're alone, and your mates are helpless when you're away. Protect your carries at any cost, even your death is worth if you save them.

Tank role is not the most rewarding one, looking at the stats. But you are one of the most important characters of the team.
In practice, to master Minotaur you'll have to learn how to engage properly, knowing the situations in which you can win the fight. Your engage is the most important moment of the fight, the following moves of your mates and the ones of the ennemy team will depend of it. Playing a tank is before anything else taking decisions.

Play Minotaur in a duo lane if possible, to maximise the power of your second spell. You can also play him solo on a side lane, if your team got a jungler, as you are hard to kill, to keep the lane safe. Do not play him middle, as you can't farm the side jungle's camps, and have no roaming* possibility (you'll lose your rage meter while roaming).


2)Skills and attributes


Skill maxing order: 3/1/2
(1/2/1/3/1/2/1/3/1/2/1/3/2/2/2)

1st skill: Despair Hammer
Wields a warhammer and deals 330/360/390/420/450/480 physical damage to enemies within melee range in front of him, also lowering their movement speed 65%/65%/65%/65%/65%/65%. If in Rage Mode, attack range will greatly expend.
Use this skill to increase your rage faster, deal some damages and mostly to slow down ennemies.

2nd skill: Motivation Roar
Encourages himself and surrounding allies, regening 340/370/400/430/460/490 HP for himself and giving allies 50%/50%/50%/50%/50%/50% healing. If in Rage Mode, a Rage Regen effect will be activated for 2/2/2/2/2/2s, allowing him to sustain HP loss after taking damages from autoattacks.
This skill will allow you to sustain damages in lane, mostly for yourself, but also for your lane mate. The rage bonus will help you diving ennemies, grants you tankiness against ADCs* and AD* fighters based on autoattacks.


3rd skill (ultimate): Minoan Fury
Strikes the ground in a row, causing shockwaves that deal 180/240/300 pts of physical damages to nearby enemies as well as 180/240/300 pts of true damages*. Also lowers target's movement speed 70%/70%/70%. If in Rage Mode, his striking speed will increase, he will deal an extra attack, and enemies will be knocked airborne.
A successfull engage depends of your ultimate. If you catch many ennemies in your ultimate while in rage, you'll stun ennemies for a long time and deal a huge amount of true damage*. If you are getting engaged, always try to fill up your rage meter before using your ultimate, unless you can finish off an ennmy with it, or if you know you won't be able to stack it fast enough ; in this situation, use it as early as possible to start your rage mode, and support as well as possible your team in the fight.

Passive: Rage Mode
When abilities or basics attacks hit enemies, Minotaur will become more enraged. When Rage is full, Minotaur will enter in Rage Mode and receive extra armor and magic resists (effects increase with level), as well as extra effects for his abilities. When Rage Mode subsides, Mintoaur will be unable to build up Rage for a time.
The rage is the most difficult feature to master as Minotaur. You will either be a good Minotaur or a bad one, depending on the way you stack your rage. Always try to keep it high, waiting for a good upportunity to engage a fight, but don't let the rage meter get filled until you're ready to start the fight. For this reason, be careful with the poke* of the ennemy team.
You will generate 2 rage points for every successful autoattack, 2 other points every seconds you are spending in fight, your 1st skill and ultimate will give you 2 rage points for every ennemy you hit and for each hit.
Your rage starts decreasing after 5 seconds without getting any rage point. You lose 3 points of rage every second, until you reach 0.

Your rage duration is 10 seconds, and your rage generation cooldown is 5 seconds.
Always try to keep your rage meter around 90/100. (tip: you can see your current rage count by looking at your characters stats, see them by clicking on the arrow on the right handside of your screen)
EDIT: Since patch .82, rage loads faster.

3)Loadout: stuff, mastery and emblems


Stuff:

Recommanded gear (stuff):
Core items: (cost 7100)
-> 1. Demon's Advent
-> 2. Warrior Boots
-> 3. Cursed Helmet
-> 4. Bloodthirsty King


    -> 3 examples of builds

1. Demon's Advent: costs 2170 ; 920 HP, +54 Armor
Deter: When an enemy hero attacks, this ability will reduce his/her attack power 6%. This effect lasts 2s and can stack up to 3 times.
Many Minotaur players start with Blade Armor. But it only gives armor, meaning that you are defenseless against magic and true damages. Furthermore, it's passive is not worth it early on, as autoattack damages are too low to efficiently reflect them.
Demon's advent will give you both HP and a good armor buff, giving you tankyness against all characters, you'll be more efficient in early tanking  this way. Moreover, the passive effect of this item will reduce your ennemies damages up to 18% if fully stacked, for you and your teammates. Great help in supporting your team.
Synergies well with warrior boots and Cursed Helmet, which are the following items you'll buy.


2. Warrior Boots: costs 690 ; +22 Armor, +40 Movement Speed
Valor: Physical defense will go up 3 with each basic attack recived, for an increase of up to 15 points, lasting 3s

High synergy with Demon's Advent, the more you'll stay in fight, the more you'll tank physical damages and the less your ennemies will hit.


3. Cursed Helmet: costs 1860 ; +920 HP, +50 Magic Resistance
Sacrifice: Deals 1,5% of one's max HP as magic damage per second to nearby enemies, and inflicts 50% bonus damages to minions.

NECESSARY item. Will give you a slight protection against magic damages, increases your health pull and deals huge magic damages around you. The more HP you have, the more magic damages you will deal around you. For this reason, Demon's Advent is better than Blade Armor as first item, which will only give you armor.


4. Bloodthirsty King: costs 2380 ; +1550 HP, +75 HP regen
Bloodlust: A kill or assist regens 20% of hero's HP within 5s. 10s cooldown.

This item will give you an enormous pull of HP, that scales with Cursed Helmet. Besides, the passive effect will almost always ensure you to be safe in fight as soon as an ennemy dies.


Late items: Mostly depends of the ennemy team characters and builds. Sometimes, game won't be long enough for you to get those items. Here is a list of the items that might be worth to buy, depending on the situation. Get another armor item in most of situations, unless there is 3 AP* characters or more in ennemy team.

-> Heart of Steel: costs 2260 ; +880 HP, +30 Armor, +35 HP Regen, +20% Crit strike rate reduction
Use this item if there are many characters that might critical hit you. (stuffed with Blade of Despair, Scarlet Phantom, Thor's Sting, Blade of Destruction...)

-> Blade Armor: costs 1660 ; +90 Armor
Counterstrike: Deals 25% of opponent's physical attack as physical damage to an attacker when a basic attack is received.
Use this item if there are many AD* characters, regardless of their critical statistics. The damage deflection late on will help you taking down AD(Cs)*, or at least preventing them to lifesteal on you.


-> Immortality: costs 2120 ; + 800 HP, +40 Magic Resistance
Rebirth: Resurrect 2s after dying and get 15% HP and a shield that can absorb 600-2000 damages. Shield lasts for 3s. Cooldown for this effect is 180s.
Use this item if there is at least 2 AP* characters in ennemy team, if there are not many assassins in ennemy team, and if ennemy's AD* characters have a big anti tank stuff (Wind Chaser!). This will help you surviving in battle and give you a nice HP buff. Get it if you often die in fight and lose fight because of this. DO NOT get it if your carries are getting killed first by assassins in most of the fights, you'll be left alone and you won't survive after reviving.


-> Saint's Refuge: costs 2050 ; +900 HP, +56 Magic Resistance
Refuge: Every 30s get one shield that can absorb 450-1150 damage. (Shield effect increases as the battle goes on)
Use this item if there is at least 2 AP* characters in ennemy team, and if there is many characters that might poke* you in ennemy team. Gives you more consistant magic resist and HP than Rebirth.


Abilities:


Flicker is probably the best choice. It will help you engaging when your ennemies don't expect it. You'll unlock it at level 19 (account level), and it has a 120 seconds cooldown. Learn to use it in the gameplay's part.
If you haven't reached the level 19 yet, or if you are playing in Brawl mode, get Purify instead. It will greatly help you when you are in the middle of the fight, getting CCed* again and again, to let you use your Rage ult. Unlocked at level 15
You might get Assault (lvl 7) or Interference (lvl 11) if you're too low level. The first will help you engaging, not as efficiently as Flicker, as your ennemies will see you coming and will CC* you. The other one is a great help to dive* ennemies, or take down towers faster.


Emblems:


Get Tank emblems in most of the situations. Because you are supposed to tank. Yeah.


You might get Physical emblems instead, if you haven't unlocked tank ones yet, or if they are too low level.


4) Gameplay


General:
The mechanic is not really hard to understand. You must learn how much rage you'll get by using your first skill. As said in the "skills" category, it gives you 2 rage points for each ennemies hit by the skill.
Your goal is to use Flicker to close the gap between you and your targets, use the first skill to max out your rage meter, and ultimate, everything as fast as possible: you might get CCed* if you're too slow. Do not proc your rage before using Flicker, or the ennemy team will flee.

Early game:
You are really strong early on. Attack as much as possible ennemies, and then heal with your 2nd skill. Try to proc your rage as much as possible, to poke* with your first skill your rage mode skill 2 is an awesome help for diving, do not hesitate to take your chance.
If you are playing with a jungler, wait for him to come and get your rage meter ready, then use Flicker towards to close the gap between you and ennemies, use your first spell to get your missing rage, and instantly use your ultimate. Your job is now done, let your mates deal damages, try to slow as much as possible ennemies with your first skill, tank the towers if needed and if you can dive.
Like any other character, don't forget to clean side jungle's camps between 2 creep* waves when playing a duo lane, to get more gold.

Mid game:
Whenever one of the two towers of your lanes gets destroyed, you and your ennemies might start roaming* a lot. As a tank, you might have issues farming, as you have no real way to deal damages to minions. Try to follow your carry if you were playing in a duo lane, or depush the solo lane you were playing in and gank mid sometimes. Make sure to follow your ennemies' moves, not to let your midlaner getting dived*. Just like early game, if you have a good opportunity to use Flicker and engage the ennemy team, then go ahead.

Late game:
In late game, when many towers are destroyed, many players will clear really fast lanes and jungle. It will be really hard for you to keep your rage around 90%. Ask your team to let you a jungle camp to keep it high (just let him attacking you, no need to finish it off, keep him alive for later if needed), or try to get slightly poked by the ennemy team. More than ever, your engages are REALLY important. Any awesome engages might make your team win, any fails might make your team lose. Always make sure that your 4 mates are behind you before engaging. React as fast as possible whenever one of your mates gets caught, if you can save him. If he is outpositionned, then let him die. If you try to save him you'll end up getting killed, and your team might die as well trying to help you.
If you are playing with a splitpusher*, keep pressuring the lane you are in with your 3 other mates, and as soon as someone in the ennemy team leaves the lane to depush, engage the fight.


5) Counters


You are weak against:

-> Any characters that can catch and kill your carries easily counters you. If your rage is too low, you won't be able, most of the time, to save your mates:
- Franco
- Akai
- Saber
-> Characters with big dashes or stuns, that might either escape from your ultimate, or stun you instantly after using Flicker:
- Nana
- Bruno
- Clint
- Fanny


You are strong against:
-> Fighters that can't deal you significant damages:
- Balmond
- Sun
- Alpha

-> Characters with no instant/big dash:
- Karina
- Ruby
- Bane
- Layla

-> Characters that DPS* mainly with autoattacks:
- Miya
- Yun Zhao
- Moskov



*Glossary:*

- AD(C): Attack Damage (Carries) (physical damages)
- AP: Power Damage (magic ones)...

- Carries: Characters that scale* the most of the game, meaning that they are quite weak early on, but will deal most of the damage late on. AP carries deal magic damages, AD carries deal physical damages.
- CC(ed): Crowed Controll(ed), abilities used to prevent an ennemy player from doing actions, such as attacking, using spells or moving. Roots (can't move), Stuns (can't move and attack), Slows (movement slowed down), Silences (can't use spells) and so on are all considered as crowd controlling effects. They get cleansed by the ability Purify.
- Creep: Also called minions. Spawn on lanes to attack towers. Kill them to get gold.

- Dive: Attack an ennemy under his turret's range.
- DPS: Damage Per Second. One of the main roles of any MOBA*, with support and tank. They get offensive stuff to burst down the ennemy team, with AD* or AP* damages.
- MOBA: Multiplayer Online Battle Arena. Kind of games whom Mobile Legends is classified as.

- Poke: Abilities of characters to deal you damages from afar and flee without you being able to deal them damages. Shields/Recover items/abilities will help you countering them.
- Roam(ing): Move out of your main lane, to go on another one and try to kill the ennemies' laners.

- Splitpush: Pushing multiple lanes at once, by letting a character alone on a lane, while the other players of the team pressure another one. The splitpusher must be a good duellist, and must have efficient ways to escape whenever ennemy team rotates.
- Scale: Characteristic of a skill/character to grow up in power with time and stuff. A good scaling skill often has a good damage ratio, but low basic damages.
- True damage: Damage that aren't reducted by any resistance in the game. To tank true damage, get more max HP.

Thursday, May 4, 2017

How to Play Kagura Mobile Legends

INTRO:
Kagura’s role is that of a straight damage dealer. She will simply deal insane damage to the enemy team while being extremely hard to kill once you master the ability combos we’ll go over in this guide. In a 1v1 situation, Kagura can deal a ton of damage while bouncing all over the map and stunning the enemy. Additionally Kagura is a natural counter to most heroes. In a team fight, Kagura has an array of HUGE AOE damage abilities and is capable of winning a team fight single-handedly.

SKILL ANAYSIS:
Passive skill name : Yin Yang Gathering
when the hero and Seimei umbrella Become as one, will create a shield absorbing 300pts of magic damage and stun nearby enemy 0.45 seconds, slowing them down. this effect can only be triggered by a 4,5s
at most. (will not affect the cooldown of this skill)

Skill 1 : Seimei Umbrella Open
Moves seimei umbrella to the designated area dealing 300pts of magic damage to the enemies along the way and slowing their movement speed by 60%

Skill 2 : Rasho Umbrella flee
with seimei umbrella : using the skill will remove all debuffs from the hero, kagura moves in the spesified direction and leaves umbrella on the spot. without seimei umbrella : Kagura Moves to the umbrella's position and retrieve it, dealing 205 pts of magic damage to the nearby enemies

skill 3 : Yin Yang OverturnWith seimei umbrella : deals 300 pts of magic damage, knocking back nearby enemies and slowing them down. without seimei umbrella : Generates a link with the umbrella for 6sc and refreshes the cooldown seimei umbrella open immediately. when the umbrella moves any enemy touched by the link also will be slowed down and receive 225 pts of magic damage


ABILITIES:
Take skill 1 when the first level
Level 2 : Take skill 2 to escape from enemies and combo with skill 1
Level 3 : Take skill 1
Level 4 : Take skill 3 because this is the strongest skill kagura
To the next level Raise the level of skill 1 because This skill can be more painful and reduces the cooldown
max skill 1 first and ulty after max we can max up skill 2

COMBO ANALYSIS :
skill 1 throwing behind enemy while activating ulti and use one more ,skill 2 and ulti This is an instant kill combo for marksman and mage ( Basic combo )
kagura trick against enemies using melee:
1. Always take your umbrella because there will be a stun to the enemies around and bonus armor for you based on your ability power
2. do not forget to maximize skill 2 to avoid damage from enemies
Kagura vs range hero/mage :
kagura very easy to kill the hero with a soft hp
what you do is just hit the enemies do not give them a way to escape

Battle Spell:
here I use flicker spell why?
Flicker : teleport a certain distance in a spesific direction. for 1sc after teleport, duration of disabling effects recieved will be reduce 50%
This spell better than other spell, this spell can be easy to pursue the enemy fled and complement your combo
Note : U can use purify if flicker spell locked
level 19 accont to unlocked this spell

Hero Gear :
1) Rapid boot +50% movement speed
2) Echantec talisman + 55 magic power +250hp +30mana regen +20% cooldown reduction
Unique passive : a kill or assist regens 20% heroes max mana within 5sc
This is the most important item for kagura because her skill to spend a lot of mana
3) Flame of fury +75magic power +5% movement speed +15 magic damage reduction
Unique passive : Ability will burn the target for 3sc . dealing 6% of the difference between target's current hp and one's own hp as magic damage each second
4) Dominance ice +500mana +70armor +5% crit strike rate reduction
Unique : +15% cooldown reduction
Unique passive : lowers Movementspeed 5% and lowers attack speed 30% for nearby enemies
Kagura is low hp hero and low armor. she is easily killed so this item can minimize the chance of death
5) Guardian Relic +90 magic power
Unique : +25 % magic power
Unique passive : After a skill hits a target magic attack will immediately increase 15% the next skill damage will terminate this effect.this effect can last up to 3sc with a built-in cooldown time 10sc
6) Frost +75 magic power +15 mana regen +7% movement speed
Unique passive: Skills that damage an enemy hero will carry a 15% Slow down effect. this effect can last 3sc and can stack up to 2times
IF you already have frost item:
Your first skill 60% slow + 15% slow if 2 stack 30% slow = 90% if u activate purple ulti im sure the enemy can not move


Set :
Im using Magic asassin emblem level 47 with stat :
+26 magic damage reduction
+18 magic power
+6% cooldown reduction
+55 hp
+4%  movement speed
If i already have full item my total movement speed 324 and this is enough to run after the enemy or to escape
If ur magic asassin emblem lower level than magic emblem. You better use magic emblem
Note : Magic damage reduction will decrease enemy magic armor so ur magic damage will be more pain

Combat tips :
--- Be careful in using skill 2. Why? if your enemy is no Yunzhao franco and other disabler I'm sure you will not survive
---- Try to spam ur skill 1 till enemy hp half or allowed to die with your combo
----- Skill 2 you can get away from all kinds of debuffs ,So try to go in and make the enemy expend skill but not up against you

Team fight tips :
- Use basic combo: Skill 1 throwing backward enemy> Use skill 2 (purple) Blink> Use skill ulti (Blue) and the enemy will be pushed closer to your team
- Always protect ur marksman mate in ur team , Use Your purple ulti to make away enemy approaching marksman In ur team
- Try to aim enemy marksman or mage first make them half hp is also good
getting assists were enough to mage like kagura

Wednesday, May 3, 2017

Top Five Tanker In Mobile Legends Bang bang

Being a Tank in MLBB is not an easy job at all. You have to protect your allies, be the first who jumps in a combat and use your skills to win a match.In Mobile Legends there are 8 Tank heroes in total. The latest one is Hilda. She is with high movement speed and HP. But, I can’t really say that you can use her as a real Tank in a match. i would rather use her as a Fighter. Well, this also depends on which items you use for Hilda.

Balmond is on that list as well. He is a great Fighter, but not a tank. Balmond is a very offensive hero, with high HP and physical attack. But, I don’t recommend him as a Tank.
Next on the list is Akai. One the best Tanks in MLBB. I know he is not one of the favorites heroes in the game, but still, he can take a lot of damage.

Minotaur is on my top 5 Tank heroes list. Using his skills, having the perfect build guide is the key to success with Minotaur. He is with high HP, high armor points, which makes him a great Tank.

Franco, the Frozen Warrior is a great tank as well. The thing with Franco is, if you don’t have the skills to use his hook, then better choose another Tank.

Tigreal is next on the list. I have to say, he is my favorite Tank. So, at No.1 on my Top 5 Tank heroes list is definitely Tigreal.

Jonhson the Mustang has made his way on the list too. A great Tank, who uses a shield to absorb a lot of damage.

For last is the forgotten Lolita. I think she is the only one without any updates so far. However, she can be a great Tank as well. Using her shield and her ult is the key to success.

Here is the list of Top 5 Tank Heroes.

  • Tigreal
  • Minotaur
  • Johnson
  • Franco
  • Akai

Tuesday, May 2, 2017

Being a Support Lord with Estes


Introduction:

Pros:
1. Laning advantages
2.Pushing advantages
3.Battle advantages
4.You can turn the tide of the battle with your AOE healing skill.
Cons:
1.Need lots of mana
2.One of the softie in the game.
3.Team dependent
4.The whole enemy team hate you. (^_^) (^_^)
You are a support.No, you are an annoying support. Estes's every skill is about supporting. Healing and slowing enemy will be a problem for teamfight and laning disadvantage for enemies.

Skill

Passive:Code of moon elves
Code of moon elves will charge energy into estes periodically and improve his basic attack dealing 450pts of magic damage to the target while slowing down. The damage will ricochet nearby enemies dealing 225pts of magic damage.
Analysis- you can use this skill to harass enemies. When No at the bottom of ur screen hit 100, you shouldn't attack anyone but only enemy heroes. 450pts at early is hurting everyone.
Skill:1: Moon light immersion. cooldown-11s ,Mana Cost-130
Restore 200pts of HP for the target immediately and links Estes for 3s which will restore 250pts of HP slowly. Linking with an allies will improve the charging speed of the code of moon elves. Being too far away will break the link.
Analysis- This skill helps you and your laning partner to be aggressive. Since code of moon elves charge speed is increased only if you link with an allies not when you heal urself. So, your hp should always be in great condition.
Skill:2: Domain of moon goddess .
cooldown:12s Mana Cost:80
Guides a flood of moonlight to fall upon a specified area, dealing 350pts of magic damage to enemies unit within it. Afterwards it will turn into piece of domain of moon goddess. If enemies try to escape the domain are, they will be slowed down when touching the barrier of the domain area
Analysis: The only damaging skill. You can use it to steal jungle combine with ur passive and harass enemies and support your fighter. It helps your teamfight too.
Skill:3-ultimate skill-Blessing of moon goddess. cooldown:55s, Mana cost:250
Incarnates into saint king of moonlight for 8s. Intensifying the effect of moon light immersion.After casting the effect of moon goddess, Estes will release moon light immersion for surrounding allied heroes one time. In the duration of blessing of moon goddess, Estes will consistently heal himself for 1000pts of hp.
Analysis: THIS is the AOE heal. THIS SKILL can turn the tide of the battle. This skill will help ur marksman to hit harder with less worrying his HP. But skill cannot totally help a dying allied hero. To use skill to maximum potential, you should be in the middle of your team. Positioning yourself and timing of your skill is what makes you a good Estes user.
#skill max order- max skill-1 first. Get or upgrade ulti whenever possible.

Combo analysis

In laning phase- just heal when necessary. Use skill-2 to slow down the enemy to help ur fighter hit harder. Combo should be passive- skill:2-skill:1-ulti(if necessary)
In team fight-skill:1- ulti-skill:2-skill:1 for ultimate healing.

Battle spells

1.Flicker- For escape and repositioning in battle.
2.purify- good, but since it's nerfed so much. Personally i don't like it.
3.Stun- if you are afraid of fighters and assassin aiming u, u should choose this.
4.Retribution- If u intend to dominate the laning phase and steal enemy jungle, this is for you.
5.Interference-Supporting you tank tower diving and helping to take out tower fast.
6.Heal-good too. And simple to use. If you feel confident about yoour positioning skill.

Item build (Gear)

For estes support, Item build should include mana regen, Surival, cooldown reduction. When building your items you should consider these facts. Estes doesn't have damaging skill much. So don't even think about building magic damage items. When considering about orders of items, you should check enemy team composition. Build what you need , dun dream what it should be.

1.Buy 2-3mana regen ..cost:120gold*3=360gold
Analysis-2mana regen if u got blue buff. 3if u dun have buff. His skill use lots of mana and he doesn't have great pool of mana. Instead of buying 2-3 mana regens, you can buy Elegance gem, one item before eternal scpter. It's passive is regen 20%of hp and mana if you level up.
2.Warrior boot-cost:690gold
+22armor, unique:+40movement speed, unique passive:Valor:phyiscal defence will increase 3pts with each basic attack received  up to 15pts lasting 3s.
Analysis- To heal you have to stay near your allies. To stay near your allies mean to take damage. That's why warrior boot is what you should build first. It will help you harass enemies too. Swift boot or magic resistance boot is an option.

Every below items are situational. You should build one that you need immediately first.
1.Enchanted Tailsman-cost:1970gold
+55magic power, +250hp, +30manaregen, +20%cooldown reduction.
Unique passive: A kill or assit regen 20%of mana within 5s.
Analysis-If u team is dominating the game and you guys are pushing and you need lots of mana regen for healing, this item is a first priority.If u guys are just struggling to dominate the game, build enchanted tailsman as 3rd or 4th. U dun need enchanted tailsman early. If u can manage ur mana pool and can time ur healing.
2.Dominance ice-cost:2130gold
+500mana, +70armor, +5%crit strike rate reduction
Unique:15%cooldown reduction
Unique passive:arctic cold:lower movement speed5% and attack speed +30% for nearby enemy heroes.
Analysis- One of the best defence item with cooldown reduction in the game. Cooldown reduction, mana pool boost , armor bonus: these are stat you need. Its passive attack speed and movement speed reduction will make better survival chance against fighters. 5%crit rate reduction is a bonus factor. 
3.Saint refugee-cost:2050gold
+900hp, +56magic resistance
Unique passive: Refugee:For every 30s, get one shield that can absorb 450-1150 damage.(shield effect increase as the battle goes on)
Analysis- As u are annoying for enemy teams, karina and magic burst eudora may aim you. You need to be alive before you can use your ulti to full potential. In this situation, saint refugee is an item of choice.
4.Immortal-cost:2120gold
+800HP, +40magic resistance
Unique passive:Rebirth- Resurrect 2s after dying and get 15%HP and a shield that can absorb 600-2000pts of damage. Shield last for 3s. Cooldown for this effect is 180s.
Analysis: Sometimes i even build immortal early if enemies are clever bastard and will finish estes first. This item will save you from many critical situations and will help your team. As i said, you have to use your ulti to full potential before you die.
5.Heart of steel-cost:2260gold
+880HP, +30armor, +35hp regen
Unique:+20 crit strike rate reduction
Analysis-You should choose this item as late game survival item. At that times, enemy fighter, freya,alucard or marksman got critical and its hurting you and you need to be a little tough. That's why you should build heart of steel.
6.Courage bulwark-cost:1970gold
+770hp, +45hp regen
Unique passive:Bravery- Increase 10% attack power and defence of your nearby allies and increase nearby minions' defence against turrent damage.
Analysis-you are a support. Building support item is nothing wrong.And will buy time to take out towers.
7.Demon advent-cost:2170gold
+920hp, +54armor
Unique passive: Deter:When an enemy heroes atrack, this ability will reduce his or her attack power 6%. This effect lasts 2s and can stack up to 3times.
Analysis-If enemy team doesn't have much crit, this item is good too.
8.Winter Truncheon-cost:2060gold.
+60magic power, +45armor
Unique:10% cooldown reduction
Unique passive:Frozen- when own hero's HP drop below 30%, being hit by basic attack will lower target's movement speed 80% and deals 50%of magic power as magic damage to the target. This effect has 5s cooldown.
Analysis- Its passive is useful for increasing your survival rate. Increased magic power is not that bad too. Since Estes doesnt have escape skill, its passive will give you a chance.
Above items i mentioned are all you should consider building and as you have experience, you will know when to build what items. For the item frost, I don't like it bcoz its passive will not work much since estes doesn't have many damaging skills

Emblem

Magic emblem- Since most player highest level magic emblem is Magic emblem and if there's nothing better to choose, just choose magic emblem.
Magic assassin emblem- Well, if u don't play karina, this emblem level would be low too. Choose this if it seems to be necessary and u need a little more movement speed.
Tank emblem- you don't need magic damage output, what u need is to be alittle tough and not to die first.

Combat tips

Early-laning phase- if you go with your fighter, you should dominate the lane. But care enemies that will aim you first not your laning partner(eg. Yz, franco,ruby).  During laning phase, both you and your partner are strong when both are alive. If one of you is dead, you guys won't be strong anymore. Since your passive cooldown time is reduced only when linking, you hp should be more than your partner. If the situation is great as you expected, steal enemies' jungle.
Mid-game- you are a support, you should help teamfight or roam. Don't farm too much or your team will suffer. Always check your mana pool. Good management of heal and mana will help your team dominate the game.
Late game-enemies' fighters, assassin or franco or yz will aim you or your marksman. Be careful. Always check where you are, your team and enemies.

Team fight tips

For you to use your ulti to full extent, you should stay behind the tank and infront of your marksman. This way you can heal everyone. Your priority is to survive ,for that stay behind the tank. DON'T GET KILLED FIRST. Be careful of assassins , yz, franco or they will finish you fast.

Monday, May 1, 2017

How to get Legend / Glorious Legend in less than a month

Since the season is going to end soon and new one is just at the corner (even I have talked to the developer about current season is taking too long, but the reply from the developer is they can't do much on the season period). Then what we can do is to try our best to get up the top rank (glorious legend / legend) as soon at possible so that we don't panic and do the last minute job.

OK, back to the topic. Today I'm gonna share on how to get up top rank in soonest as possible. First and the most important one, PLAY MORE, either match up or rank. Play more will let you be more experienced, it will let you know how to cooperate with different class of hero (if you don't have your own team / squad). Play more will also let you well trained the hero that you always use and soon you will be very pro in controlling it skills. Play more will also let you know the strength of every each of the hero, so if your team need some specific hero, you can help by using it but not just use and don't know how to control it to help in battle.(tank is always the most popular class that team mate will ask). I would suggest, if you want to train hero, you could go to match up or AI (in AI mode try not to die and kill as much as possible by your skill). If you got a group of friends, then you can go random mode to train too.

While you're in early stage (warrior and elite) you can just go in rank, because you will not meet those so called pro player yet. If you are well trained some specific hero, then to win the match is shouldn't be any problem for you at this two stage. After you have go thru warrior and elite, next is master. At this stage, you will meet grandmaster, master and elite player. You will know abit whether your opponent is grandmaster, master or elite from the way they play. At this stage, you will need to know the most suitable gear for the hero that you use. Gear is important, because if you using the correct gear, you might have first blood (with your skill too!) and if you're using the correct gear, to destroy a turret isn't any problem for you even your teammate is on their way to help you. At master division, you should already know jungle is important for you to earn money (but the priority always to defend your own turret first!) and you need to know where and when to jungle so that you won't lose your turret.

After master, you're heading to grandmaster division. At this stage, you might facing epic, grandmaster and master player. If so unlucky that you face epic player (you can realise from the way they play). First of all, you need to make sure that you don't die first. I understand to make sure not to die is not an easy task but try. If you the one who give your opponent first blood and he is an epic player, then the chances to win the match will be not so easy already. It is because epic is the last division before they heading to legend or glorious legend. These people I might consider them as pro player because they are always need to survive from the game when they facing the legend player. These so called pro player also know how to earn gold fast, really fast. So, to make sure you are not the first one who feed them and make them rich. This is the key for this grandmaster division. At grand master division, you have to know how to cooperate well with your team mate (either they are pro or not). You should know how to see map, caution about the signal and help to kill when necessary. Also, you have to know your role well, eg which lane should go by which class of hero is the most suitable one, when should go jungle is more comfortable for you so that you won't lose your turret when you're still kill the jungle minion and etc.

If you're hardworking enough to play when you're still at the warrior, elite, master and grandmaster division. You should be at epic division in less than 2 weeks. (I reach my epic at 16 days of playing the game and most of the time I was just playing match up to train my frequent use hero) . At epic division, here is the most dangerous division, because you will facing legend player anytime and they might send you back to grandmaster division if you're not careful enough. Epic division is the stage that you should already know how to choose the hero base on your team formation and the hero that your team mate choose. Some of the player / team is required one marksman, one mage, one initiator and two attacker (it's all depends !!!) during the hero pick section. You should choose those classes that your team mate need (sometimes this is not so important, because I have seen a win match with three marksman, one assassin and one tank. However? If possible then just choose different classes to suit your team needs). At the early stage of the game, you need to earn as much as possible and buy the gear in soonest as possible. (always remember, turret is the main to defend and it's could help when you want your first blood !) while you're at level 8 (assume gameplay duration is 6minutes) you should get at least 2-3 full gear (not the basic material only!) and your gold should be earned at around 5-6k with no death. If you're the lowest earn at this time, basically you should go for creeps (see where the turret is no hero but creeps already snow balled by your opponent) and jungle more to make sure you get your full gear of 2-3 items (again, go only you have some body help you to take care your lane and not during the group war time!). Try not to solo at any point of time unless you're very sure that there is no one come to you when you 'stealth' your enemy turret. At the game duration of 12-15 minutes, your team by right should take down at least 6 enemy turret or even more. If you or your team fail to do it, basically to lose the game is not a difficult task for your opponent already ( I do agree some times you and your team can counter attack the enemy base and win the game even you and your team have lose out of all turret, but what I'm trying to share here for this tactic is to make sure that you and your team can still feel confident to win the match even your whole team gone at this time. This tactic is very subjective and need to see the situation that time, this is just a piece of advice from me).

P/S : Above my experience on how I get my legend in 22 days of playing. It's not a necessary to follow but at least no harm of trying new way (if you never heard or see the above method yet) right? Of course, if you have any positive / negative feedback you are always welcome to comment. The purpose of creating this post is to share something of my experience and just make it as a discussion for all. We learn together, play together and grow to be pro together. Thanks.