Captain Teemo and The Plague Jungle - Teaser

Upon the southern tip of Valoran, beyond the comfortable cities, villages, and bastions of safety, there exists a tropical area known as the Plague Jungles. It lies beyond Kumungu, and is shrouded in the aftereffects of ancient sorcery.  It is said that the Plague Jungles were ravaged by the destruction caused during the Rune Wars long ago. Saturated with residual magic, this is a place where the local flora and fauna have become assiduously warped beyond recognition. The leftover magic has tampered with evolution itself, and has created living organisms that should not exist. Much of the land, where even the most cunning and resourceful travellers dare not to enter, is covered by twisted vines and festering rot, so that even gaining passage to this land is treacherous and daunting.

On this day, however, the ever brave Teemo steps forward undaunted, for he is determined to acquire poisons, reputed to be the strongest and most potent in existence, for his specialized mushroom traps. He is accompanied by Nidalee, the Jungle Huntress, whose knowledge of the surrounding area has proven to be most valuable thus far, but safety in these lands tends to depend on luck rather than experience, and no amount of resourcefulness can prepare them for what awaits within...

Here's something I wrote up over the course of today. It is more or less a sketch of something in development, but I thought it a good idea to share with LoL-Lore enthusiasts. 

Enjoy 

Part 1: The Plague Jungle.

Upon the southern tip of Valoran, beyond the comfortable cities, villages, and bastions of safety, there exists a vast tropical area known as the Plague Jungles. It borders Kumungu, and is scarred by the aftereffects of ancient sorcery. It is said that the Plague Jungles were ravaged and destroyed by the the Rune Wars long ago. Saturated with residual magic, this is a place where the local flora and fauna have become assiduously warped, beyond all recognition. The leftover magic had tampered with evolution itself, and organisms that should not exist were created. Even the most cunning and resourceful travelers dare not enter here, as the land is covered by twisted vines and festering rot, so that even gaining passage through it is treacherous and daunting.

On this day, however, the ever brave Teemo steps forward undaunted, for he is determined to acquire poisons reputed to be the strongest and most potent in existence, to be used in his specialized mushroom traps. He is accompanied by Nidalee, the Jungle Huntress, whose knowledge of the surrounding area has proven to be most valuable thus far, but safety in these lands tends to depend on luck rather than experience, and no amount of resourcefulness can prepare them for what awaits within... 

~*~

As Nidalee tried to suppress her rapid breathing, a cold fear caused her senses to heighten. The midnight mist was calm and cool against her perspiring body-she shivered, and the feeling of uncertainty sat uncomfortably in her racing mind. The rain pattered lightly upon nearby rocks, and when she gazed up, the moons' light became briefly visible amid the dark clouds, and azure hues of deep blue and purple shone across the nearby vine-coils and treetops. The temperature had dropped too quickly-an uncomfortable chill- and Nidalee wasn't exactly dressed for drafty weather. She glanced down at her revealing fur outfit, let out a brief sigh, and continued to jog at an even pace. However, these thoughts were an acceptable distraction from her feelings of uncertainty. Her quick, controlled breaths were accompanied by visible bursts of condensation.

As night sky continued to appear foreboding, it seemed obvious that this was not the time to be traversing the inner depths of the Plague Jungles, where few had ventured before, and far fewer had returned alive. However, Nidalee's Yordle companion, Teemo, had specifically recruited her for this dangerous task, as her knowledge of the area was far superior than most. This was a mission of the utmost importance, and the pair would not leave until they found what they sought; the most destructive mushroom poison in the entire world! Teemo had caught word of this extraordinary poison from Rammus, who said to have observed the virulent concoction upon making his way to theAlter of Ubermagix, whereupon he received life-altering powers that granted him the strength to enter the League of Legends.

At the moment, the little Yordle was fighting to keep up with Nidalee's lengthy strides, though sofar his efforts had been commendable, for a Yordle. He trailed behind her avidly, bouncing to-and-fro upon his stubby Yordle legs, utilizing his expert scoutsmanship to avoid the pitfalls amid the darkened jungle terrain. The swiftness of Nidalee's reflexes was honed, precise; a product of prolonged endurance training and long nights spent on the hunt. While Nidalee was too modest to admit it, she'd acquired quite a name for herself on the hunting circuits throughout Valoran, and it was unlike her to pursue her prey for many hours, even days, before zeroing in for the kill. Teemo. however, was far too impulsive to appreciate such patience, and he'd rather dispatch his enemies as quickly as possible.

'Are you sure you know the way, Miss?' Teemo inquired, barely able to catch his breath.
'Just stay close, and follow,' she replied, not looking back for a second. She imagined for a moment that the golden aura of natural light emanating from her lantern seemed to act as a beacon for night-dwellers, who, would like nothing more than to stalk some easy prey. 'It can’t be much farther... if only I had the stars to guide me' she whispered faintly, glancing up to the shrouded sky.
'Are we there yet?' he insisted.

'No' she shot back, with a hint of annoyance. 'Please - stop asking.' It was hard to carry on a conversation in the rush of their rapid movement, and she didn't want to alert the entire Jungle of their location. Unlike Teemo, she lacked the abilities to stealth.

Ancient trees creaked and swayed in the wind. The jungle seemed to close in around. Almost there, thought Nidalee,just a bit longer... oh please. The yordle was beginning to seem too persistent and annoying for his own good.

~*~

After what seemed like hours of covering ground, they pair decided to take a brief break, and eat some candy corn-rations, specially provided by Teemo.

Teemo was in a good mood altogether, so he didn't let the ill weather detract from his exuberance. It became obvious to him that this expedition would enable him to construct some of the most powerful mushrooms ever conceived of, so there was little time to consider the matters of cloudiness and rain. He'd never before ventured further than the Kumungu Jungles, which were also the birthplace of Nidalee. In fact, she had rarely exceeded the borders of her native Jungles as well, though from having grown up there, all those night she spent staring over the treeline at dusk, she had a curiosity about the Plague Jungle that needed to be sated. 

The unlikely pair waded through pools of mud and protruding underbrush. By now the rain had subsided, causing a thin layer of mist to circulate at ground level. As the champions progressed deeper into the abyss, the amount of dangerous obstacles increased, becoming ever difficult to avoid. Rotten branches and twisted, wicked vines groaned and snapped underfoot-there was no time to stop.
'Oh, why do these things always happen!' complained Teemo, 'I just want my poison. It's the best poison in all of Valoran!' His he became more and more out of breath, his words were less coherent. Nidalee ignored the banter, and instead focused on finding the best available route.

While deep in thought, she heard a sound that caused her to stop dead. A spine chilling howl pierced through the entire jungle, followed by a torrent of flapping that came from the wings of terrified birds. The cry was wolf like; it was probably tracking her scent. Not knowing to either hide beneath the forest floor or to sprint away, she began to panic....

'What is it?' asked Teemo, a slight inflection of nervousness in his shrill voice.
'Quiet!' she snapped. Nidalee crouched low, made her body as still as possible, and motioned to Teemo with a finger to her lips. The tiny Yordle waddled over as quietly as possible, his miniature feet pattering effortlessly across the jungle floor. Had he been better prepared, he would of silently circulated the area, placing destructive, poisonous mushrooms everywhere possible...

Rift: Riftstalker - BD vs. Ranger

Back when I was new to the Rift guild Addiction (world first Alsbeth and GSB), I decided to write an article about Riftstalker tanking. It basically was to determine what was a better spec for tanking, and it is needlessly complicated ~_~ 

Oh well!

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Current build: HP: 10762, Dodge: 8.27%, 6% -dmg.

Rift barrier: 35% damage reduction, up to 26905.

Boss damage needed to break shield:  81483 (6% of 76871 is 4,612).

BD build: 10762 – 538.1 = 10223.9, 18.27% dodge (50% for 15 seconds).

Rift barrier: 35% damage reduction, up to 25559.75.

Boss damage needed to break shield: 73028

Results.

1345.25 damage absorption

In a 1 minute fight, a boss attacks once every two seconds, for 3,333 damage each hit, and a total of 30 hits. This amounts to 100000 damage.

For one with 8 points in ranger, this becomes 94000 damage.

[(.6827)(15s)+(. 1827)(45s)]/60s = ~30.8% dodge over 1 min.

So, assuming 30.8% of bosses melee attacks will be dodged, this is a potential mitigation of ~9 melee attacks, or practically 1/3^rd of incoming hits (30,796 damage).

For a 2 minute fight (the cool down timer for sidesteps), dodge becomes [(.6827)(15s)+(. 1827)(105s)]/120s = 24.5% (~14.7 hits: 48,995 damage mitigated)

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So, this is a 16.23% dodge increase over ranger. 16.23% dodge alone works out to 32,456.8 damage mitigated over the 8 minutes. By comparison, the damage reduction from ranger works out to 11,998.8, and 16,538.346 from dodges = 28,537 damage total. Now take 60(3333)/26905 = 7.43 applications of rift guard needed to sustain it. With 1345 higher damager absorption for ranger over BD (5% health increase), this amounts to 9,997 in absorption over 2 minutes. This brings the total mitigation for ranger to 38,534 for this 2 minute, simulated fight.  

After a bit of reading, I was curious to see which is a better use of points for rogues who want to tank. Once you've put the standard 7 points in bard and 51 in riftstalker, you have 8 points left. What to do with these? Well, you have two options. Blade dancer clearly seems like the more attractive option, as it offers 10% dodge, a 50%, 15 second dodge cool-down, and a reactive cp generating ability. For ranger, you have 6% damage reduction, and 5% hp.

Now, it would seem that BD is the clear winner, as having all that extra dodge is quite helpful. However, I want to put forth an example that compares it to ranger, using a dumbed down boss scenario.

First of all, here are some numbers, using my own stats in mediocre tank gear.

With 8 in ranger: | HP - 10762 | Dodge - 8.27% | (6% damage reduction)

With 8 in bladedancer: | HP - 10224 | Dodge - 18.27% | (50% dodge for 15 sec.)

There is only a 538 health point difference between the two, and clearly 10% dodge is far better than a mere 538 hp. However, there is more to consider.

Consider a boss that melee attacks for 3333 every 2 seconds. Over a 2 minute interval, he will deal 60(3333) = 199,989 damage.

No, with sidesteps factored in, your 2 minute dodge percentage with NB is going to look something like this: [(.6827)(15s)+(. 1827)(105s)]/120s = 24.5%. So, 18.27% + sidesteps becomes 24.5%. Even better, right?

I'm not done. Firstly, this is a 16.23% dodge increase over ranger, which would in this case account for (60)(.1623)(3333) = 32,457 points of potential damage mitigated.

By comparison, taking the equivalent damage and factoring in the 6% reduction from ranger gives us 11,999 damage ignored. With 8.27% dodge from ranger, you can expect to mitigate about 16,538 damage in this case. This amounts to 32,457 damage mitigated by bladedancer, and 28,537 mitigated by ranger. But there's more.

That 5% health buff in ranger gives a nice benefit to rift guard. Since improved rift-guard provides a 35% damage reduction, up to 250% of your max hp, this would give me 26905 points of damage absorption over 30 sec, vs. 25,560. This is a difference of 1345 points, which at first does not seem like much, but over 2 minutes, against a boss that deals 1,666.5 dps, roughly 7 applications of the shield are necessary to keep it active. This amounts to 7(1345) = 9415 greater absorption by ranger. This totals to 37,952 points of mitigation for ranger, vs. 32,457. The 8 points in ranger have provided the rogue with an additional 5,496 points of damage mitigated.

I should also mention that dodge is completely useless against magic damage.

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Revised:

After a bit of reading, I was curious to see which is a better use of points for rogues who want to tank. Once you've put the standard 7 points in bard and 51 in riftstalker, you have 8 points left. What to do with these? Well, you have two options. Blade dancer clearly seems like the more attractive option, as it offers 10% dodge, a 50%, 15 second dodge cooldown, and a reactive cp generating ability. For ranger, you have 6% damage reduction, and 5% hp.

[Disclaimer: since I am not fully versed in tank knowledge, there could be a few mistakes here]

First of all, here are some numbers, using my own stats in mediocre tank gear.

With 8 in ranger: | HP - 10762 | Dodge - 8.27% | (6% damage reduction)

With 8 in bladedancer: | HP - 10224 | Dodge - 18.27% | (50% dodge for 15 sec.)

Next, consider a boss that melee attacks for 3333 every 2 seconds. Over a 2 minute interval, he will deal 60(3333) = 199,989 damage.

Now, with sidesteps factored in, your 2 minute dodge percentage with BD is going to look something like this: [(.6827)(15s)+(.1827)(105s)]/120s = 24.5%. So, 18.27% + sidesteps becomes 24.5% over 2 minutes. This becomes (60)(.245)(3333) = 48,995 points of avoided damage.

Now taking the equivalent damage and factoring in the 6% reduction from ranger gives us (60)(.06)(333) = 11,999 damage mitigated. With 8.27% dodge from ranger, you can expect to avoid about (60)(.0827)(3333) = 16,538 damage in this case. This amounts to 48,995 damage avoided by bladedancer, and 16,538/11,999 avoided/mitigated by ranger.                                                                          Even with 35% damage reducing (up to 250% of health) benefit to rift guard, you only end up with 1345 points of absorption higher with ranger. Over a 2 minute interval, against a boss that deals 1,666.5 dps, roughly 7 applications of the shield are necessary to keep it active. This amounts to 7(1345) = 9415 more points of damage mitigated than the bladedancer. This totals to +9415 points of mitigated damage for ranger vs. 48,995 of avoided damage for the bladedancer. The 8 points in bladedancer have provided the rogue with an additional 11,043 points of avoided damage.

Against non-physical oriented encounters (are there any?) ranger might be more viable, but overall it would seem that BD will provide you with more survivability.

Villains: Get Stormraged.

In WoW’s first expansion, The Burning Crusade, it became obvious that Illidan was the main baddie.

This fact became self-evident at the release of patch 2.1.0 – the opening of Black Temple, where the self-proclaimed Lord of Outland made his debut. He celebrated this event by mercilessly extinguishing all hardcore raiders for weeks to come.

Illidan was the perfect villain. In the extradimensional realm of Outland, this angry elf demon was often seen wielding the wicked Warglaives of Azzinoth, legendary items sought by Rogues and Fury Warriors alike. He appeared to revere cruelty, as indicated by his vicious, shadowy wingspan and demonic horns.

With respect to Warcraft Lore, it’s important to know what made Illidan such a convincing villain. The first thing to know is that his actions in WoW pale in comparison to his former exploits. Essentially, his meddling with the Well of Eternity, Queen Azshara, and the likes of Deathwing serve to better enforce his status as Über-villain.

Addicted to magic, power, and stricken with jealousy (with regard to his love interest, Tyrande), Illidan was banished to prison by his brother for creating a second Well of Eternity atop Mount Hyjal – an act of extreme danger that resulted in the exile of the Highborne after they tried to blow things up with a magical storm!

While in prison for ten thousand years, Illidan had plenty of time to contemplate the finer parts of life;

Isolation can do that to the mind. Now, after all the long centuries you kept me chained in darkness, it is only fitting that I bury you in turn. –Illidan

Upon being released from prison, courtesy of Tyrande, Illidan went off to cause more problems. He allied with the demons, turned into a demi-demon himself (after obtaining the powerful and corrupting Skull of Gul-dan), and escaped to Outland, where he sought to establish dominance. While in Outland, Illidan was once again lead to do evil things in the name of untold powers of magic, a temptations made worse by his demonic connections (Kil’jaeden). He also made friends with Lady Vashj and Kael’thas Sunstrider: reputed to not be the nicest kids on the block.

Now, players who worked their way through The Black Temple may recall Illidan’s distinct omnipresence. Unlike other bosses, Illidan seemed to possess this aura that authenticated his evil villain status. He was not just after unlimited power and glory, he wanted to spread wholesale death and destruction without provocation. When you got to Illidan, it was truly a feeling of epic accomplishment (usually preceded by extreme frustration, courtesy of the Council fight). When his chamber doors became unlocked, the raid would race up dual stair-cases, and fight a few trash mobs. Then, through the final doors (assisted by the Shade of Akama, and some epic cut-scenes), you were in, and there was no going back. The presentation of the encounter was flawless, and the delivery spot-on. When you got to Illidan, you knew that s*** was going to hit the fan, because this was a half-demon that simply needed to be slain. No compromises were to be made. You thought to yourself, Illidan, the one who’s taunted me since the beginning of The Burning Crusade, is about to bite the dust!
This was motivation enough to endure the countless wipes that were to follow.

As far as WoW boss fights go, the Illidan fight was technically impressive to say the least. Raid awareness, reaction time, positioning, and communication skills were all put to the test here, and it took no small amount of elbow grease and Redbull to stay focused. As some might remember of Ensidia’s (then Nihilum) world-first Illidan kill video, their main tank Kungen enjoyed brief internet acclaim for his liberal use of his custom ‘MAX FOCUS’ raidsay macro.

When the fight started, all types of rocket-ships and pain-trains assailed the main tank. Illidan’s leaping shred attack was almost always accompanied by a 1/3rd or more hp cut of even the sturdiest tanks, and this was the easy part. The annoying part of phase one came when he spewed out shadowy elementals that rushed your raid group, exploded, and caused confusion. After what seemed like an hour of this nonsense, Illidan went airborne, and left two parting gifts in the form of ridiculous fire elementals. These elementals were no easier to tank than Illidan himself, and they had to be positioned near firewalls that would instagib if touched. To make matters worse, he blasted the scared, crying raiders with laser beams that only Chain-Heal and Circle-of-Healing spam could remedy. As a healing priest, this had to have been my least favorite part of the fight! From there, with the fire elementals slain, you needed a pro warlock tank to take shadow-bolt hits for a while, and avoid dying to AoE volley attacks that pummeled the raid.

With the warlock tanking phase complete, you bore witness to an epic moment in video game history, that of Maiev Shadowsong finally hunting her long-sought prey. Even now, I don’t want to ruin it for those who haven’t seen this cinematic, so I’ll end it on a suspenseful note. All in all, if you haven’t killed Illidan, and have an active WoW sub, I recommend you do so asap. If not, then go play My Little Pony the MMO, or Hello Kitty Online. I’m sure those games have excellent villains to contend with.