zircon

They are pretty balanced, but there are still tiers. Corki is not bad. However, he's very squishy and very mana-reliant compared to Graves. His poke is not as good until level 6, and even then, Graves scales harder. Basically, Graves does everything Corki can do but better. I pretty much never lose to Cait as Graves either. Her poke is decent but she has to stand still to do it, and it's linear. You also can't use it quickly in teamfights due to the long windup. Graves can E+Q her in the face easily and there's not a lot Cait can do about it. Traps help, but with proper warding, you can achieve the same effect elsewhere. Tristana's attack speed buff is comparable to Graves, but the latter also has 2 AD-scaling abilities while Trist has none. Trist is still good but in a different way. She has more mobility and can deal with high-heal comps better. However, her earlier game is a lot worse and might not make up for it. Kog I think is best played as a hybrid. He does more damage than almost anyone in the game so I agree he's a beast. Too bad he's so squishy with no escapes, though.

Yep. I would put Tristana and Ashe as near the same tier, personally, since the former has an escape and a massive steroid, while Ashe has the double W/R burst and harass. However none have the ridiculous complete kit of abilities as Graves. I actually think Vayne is pretty weak. She is all single-target damage so most competent teams can deal with her easily. She has very little range and no poke. This means her early game is really poor unless you have a very skilled and aggressive lanemate, but even then, a competent enemy will ward bushes and prevent aggression that way.

So I think I've decided that Graves is the best ranged AD. Even though he's been nerfed several times, his kit is way too good. His Q allows him to poke and do tremendous AOE damage. W is great for covering escapes or for messing up enemy carries - all-around good utility. E is a fantastic steroid and escape. And the damage on R is absurd. He can burst down most any champion from practically full health with E->R->Q and a few auto attacks, and survive gank attempts extraordinarily well. Plus, he scales very well into lategame and is able to stay safe in teamfights between his ranged pokes and E. It seems like there is little reason NOT to play him.

For example, your average CD player or car system will typically support MP3 CDs, not AAC or M4A CDs.

A number of people in the thread seem to be in disagreement about whether sexism exists, I guess? Don't be pedantic. My point is that the industry has been male-dominated since before we could even get to the point of making male-fantasy characters, when it was all pure text and abstract graphics with no stories or characters whatsoever. The sexism that we see today with female characters is a symptom, not a primary cause, of women not wanting to be involved. Make sense?

When did I say it wasn't a problem? That's up for debate. Keep in mind the video game/software industry has been around since the days when it was impossible to actually render a scantily-clad female to begin with. There are a lot of theories as to why females are generally less interested to pursue a career in math, computer science, engineering, etc. Aptitude doesn't seem to be related, though some people have suggested females that are good at math (etc) also tend to be good at verbal skills, so given the option they pursue a career involving the latter. It's also been suggested that women avoid careers that may make it harder to become a mother (something that requires flexibility in time + scheduling). The game industry is notorious for requiring grueling hours, crunch time, and so on. It does not lend itself to flexible schedules and people taking lots of time off due to pregnancy/childbirth. Even if the problem were simply, "the game industry is sexist" and there were no other factors at work, the solution would still be to address some of the related issues. eg. Make it easier for women to take time off and have flexible schedules (reduction in crunch time, which is a problem for both genders), have more support in public schools via programs/grants/clubs for women to get into CS/programming/design... the solution is not forum threads and telling males to be less sexist. That's idealistic. It's to create an environment where more women want to get involved in the industry DESPITE any existing sexism, since simply having more of a gender balance will help address issues across the board.

The adoption of AAC/M4A is definitely not nearly as widespread when you look at the full spectrum of players, plugins and hardware devices.

That female characters are often designed for the pleasure/satisfaction of males is pretty obvious when you consider that most people in the game industry are males. So, of course when you have primarily men making games, they are generally going to make games that appeal to them. That's why there are tons of adrenaline-pumping FPS action games and skimpy female outfits. Does anyone really disagree with this? It would be more shocking if things DIDN'T turn out that way (eg. if a male-dominated industry produced content that appealed to both sexes exactly equally). The solution is to find ways of getting females more involved with the game industry.

(x-post from KVR - rejoice, Kontakt users!) In accordance with our policy of keeping our libraries highly affordable, we've decided to permanently lower the price of some of our most popular melodic and percussive libraries. If you haven't checked these samples out yet, there is no better time! Sitar Nation: Classical Instruments of India Price lowered from $99 to $79 Our first deeply-sampled melodic instrument library, featuring meticulously-recorded sitar, tambura, tabla and baya. Multiple velocity layers, round robins, crucial articulations, phrases and even MIDI files for percussion. One of the deepest North Indian libraries ever. Koto Nation: Classical Instruments of Japan Price lowered from $99 to $79 Following in the tradition of Sitar Nation, this library extensively samples the koto, bass koto and shamisen. The instruments were performed by Masayo Ishigure, a world-renowned koto player who performed on the Memoirs of a Geisha soundtrack composed by John Williams. We sought to capture a very traditional, yet flexible, style to a degree that no other library has even approached. Groove Bias: Vintage Drum Sounds Price lowered from $79 to $49 A collection of authentically vintage, multisampled acoustic kits (up to 10x velo and 10x RR!) recorded with all retro equipment and recording techniques. No advanced digital EQs, compressors, reverb or fancy new mics here. We used all analog gear and tape to capture a phat sound typical of 50s/70s drums and ideal for recreating old-school style breakbeats, funk, rock, jazz and even disco. Impact Steel: Cinematic Metallic Percussion Price lowered from $59 to only $49 Our very first library that has been used by countless film & TV composers since it was first released in 2007. Impact: Steel captures custom-made/found metallic percussion with depth and incredible playability. Fits perfectly when layered with libraries like Stormdrum or other 'big percussion' samples, as it adds a very unique and cutting metal sound simply not found in any other collections. ----- With these price drops, we've also tweaked our available bundles. You can see these special offers on the relevant product pages or the front page of ImpactSoundworks.com: Sitar Nation + Koto Nation - $130 Shreddage, Shreddage Bass, Shreddage X - $109 Hope you all enjoy and check out these fantastic libraries if you haven't already!

I doubt that is enough for any meaningful coverage, though it will help. http://www.musiciansfriend.com/accessories/auralex-studiofoam-designer-kit These were on sale a couple months ago for about $60, and you get 32 per package. Might be able to find a similar deal elsewhere. But yea, call Auralex!

You might consider some movable baffles/gobos. http://www.interstatemusic.com/34951-Clearsonic-S5-2-Sorber-48-And-quot-x66-And-quot-x1-5-And-quot-Square-Dark-Grey-Sound-Baffle-Panel-w-.aspx?sku=PB2885&source=Google+Base_CASCIO&source=Google+Base_Cascio&utm_source=google&utm_medium=product&utm_campaign=gbase We have two of these (each one is like two 'panels', that pic has three of them lined up. They are light and provide good isolation/dampening. Adding blankets, pillows or cushions to the corners will help seriously soak up bass response. You could also try simple foam pads for your monitors/sub that will absorb some excess resonance. We are working on a recording room ourselves. We bought a ton of 1x1 Auralex squares at a pretty low price. According to Auralex (who will help you with this sort of thing over the phone), you want some good even spacing and coverage on the walls, and avoid parallel drywall.

OR... use headphones Unless this is for recording. Is it?

We played two games with my proposed strategy last night. First one, we won. Second one, we lost, but I attribute that loss to feeding-level play by one of out bot laners Thoughts: * Teemo as solo top is a great idea. * Corki works pretty well as a solo mid thanks to his excellent last hitting, pokes and escapes (with Flash and Heal plus his W, he's damn near impossible to gank and can get kills easily.) Tristana is not bad either but I think I like Corki more. * Zilean is strong as one of the bot APs for his ridiculous bomb harass. Annie also seems to be a solid option to get farmed. * Nautilus as jungler is real good.

Tetris is the ONLY exception. Anything else is not eligible to use as source material. You can reference it briefly, but no more so than any other non-vgm song or tune.

This is why I'm waiting for homebrew + a revised hardware version. Same with the 3DS.

I have three pages and swap pretty regularly. My typical builds: Ranged AD page looks like this: * 6x Arpen reds * 3x AD reds * 3x AD quints * 6x mana regen/lvl yellows * 3x armor yellows * 9x magic resist/lvl blue Standard AP Carry: * 9x Magic pen reds * 9x mana regen/lvl yellows * 5x AP/lvl blues * 4x flat AP blues * 1x AP quint * 2x HP quints (that extra 50 hp has saved me many times) Jungler: * 9x attack speed reds * 9x armor yellows * 9x magic resist/level blues * 3x movespeed quints Top bruiser: * Attack speed, AD, arpen reds (depends on who) * 9x armor yellows * 9x mr/lvl blues * HP, AD and movespeed quints vary on character Vladimir, Leblanc * 9x magic pen * 9x AP/lvl blues * 3x AP quints * 9x AP/lvl yellows Support * 4x gold yellows * 5x mana regen/lvl yellows * 3x gold quints * 9x armor pen reds, but I am switching over to 9x flat armor reds * 9x mr/lvl blues

Something is messed up with that link. You probably got the acoustic guitar song, right? The YouTube URL is all messed up. It's like two vids are loading from the same one. We need a correct YouTube URL. Edit: THIS is the right one. http://youtubedoubler.com/?video1=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DbYiUZZxKPOY&start1=0&video2=www.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DxoMyysW7Vno&start2=&authorName=musicmana And they are definitely the same song.

Haha, just played quite possibly the dumbest game ever. Enemy team was a solid comp of Ziggs, Cait, Soraka, Lee Sin and Gangplank. Good, right? Our team was Ashe solo bot (me), Lux/Trundle top, Nautilus jungle, Kassadin mid. We somehow rolled them absurdly. I ended up building Wriggle's, Youmuu's Ghostblade and Warmog's, along with the standard Infinity Edge. No idea how or why we won. I guess better ganks and better play.

If you're playing Graves mid, what can a standard AP champ really do to you? Your auto harass and last hitting is way better, Q harass is 1050 range, use E to dash away from kill combos. Combine with tanky item build and I don't see how you can die. The few times I've been forced into mid as a ranged AD I've generally done well. Someone like Vayne who is squishy and has no range will get shat on, but those with 1k range pokes?

All you have to do is stun, slow or exhaust him. He's VERY easy to keep down. He has no range and no gap closer aside from the one stun. Compare to someone like Irelia that can constantly bladesurge in your face, slow/stun you repeatedly and poke you with a ranged ult (not to mention her CC reduction.) Sion has garbage base attack speed too so if his ult is down, he's molasses. Tryndamere is way better because he can also tank, but he can slow the entire enemy team, close the gap or escape with his spin (for lots of extra damage) massive built-in crit and reliable self-healing that doesn't require you to be auto attacking. I've never played against a good AD sion. AP Sion was actually on the verge of being OP, which is why he got nerfed, but even then... not really. Two damage spells, both on fairly long cooldowns, only one of which is AOE.

Also, if we can run a 5man at some point, I really want to try a non-traditional meta strategy... I'm thinking: * Strong, high-range AD top (Ashe, Cait, maybe Graves). Builds traditional AD. Uses escape/scouting abilities and wards to resist ganks and farm all day. * Another ranged AD mid, who builds more sustain/tanky (though still with DPS)... builds items to keep sustain/farm in lane without being harassed out. * Tanky sustain/counterjungler. Someone who can clear fast at high HP and give more map control. Udyr, Shyvana, Trundle, maybe Lee/Skarner because they're so good. * Two APs bot that have very powerful lane control and can generally deny the enemy AD farm through their high harass. These guys do NOT need to necessarily get farmed themselves and should focus on harass/kills while staying safe. Karthus, Cass, Brand, Ahri, Annie, Kennen, Zilean all possibilities. All of these guys have escapes/disables except Cass, but Cass so good. A HIGH-range AD top should be able to stay pretty safe while passively farming and harassing periodically with poke abilities and autos. The mid AD can more actively farm and harass the enemy AP with superior health and resistances. Bottom lane shoots to dominate, jungler helps maintain map control. My tanky AD mid would probably build something like Merc Treads, Wit's End/Hexdrinker, Wriggles and then proceed to Bloodthirster/IE and Banshee's Veil. They would not have as high damage output as the top AD but should be able to shred the enemy mid while also staying pretty safe and having way better objective control than a mid would normally have. Thoughts? Possible downsides: * APs don't get farmed/leveled as much. Is this a problem? Maybe, but in theory they will be really destroying bottom lane, effectively making at least one person on the enemy team useless (while the APs, even with lower levels/farm, will still be good.) * No bruiser/tanky DPS at top. The pseudo-tanky AD mid might make up for it, plus there's a tanky jungler. Still.. could be tough. * No traditional hard support like Soraka, Sona, Taric, Alistar. Instead, support items may have to be distributed throughout team, such as Aegis on the jungler, Will of the Ancients on an AP, Soul Shroud on the other AP...

Haha, how is Sion overpowered? Both AD and AP Sion are pretty much average. He is not hard to deal with. His stun is a pain, but it's single target and on a fairly long cooldown. Likewise with his shield. Once he blows that stuff, he's useless as AP Sion. Other AP champs like Ahri or even Veigar bring more reliable, regular burst and powerful disables. AD Sion is melee which already makes him a weak pick, and unlike powerful melees such as Gangplank and Tryndamere, he has no jump/dash or movement boost, no ranged attack or slow, low utility outside of the stun (which is neutralized by Banshees).

Female 1 voice. "Will you fight me?"

Tried my hand at designing a champion. http://www.reddit.com/r/LoLChampConcepts/comments/pnv0s/fccc_jade_the_luminous_sprite_ap_gankersupport/ Let me know what you think. I think it is a fairly unique concept that would be fun to play without breaking any of Riot's rules, while also not falling into the traditional 'hard support' or 'hard AP carry' roles.

Absolutely fantastic work, but I mean... I wouldn't expect anything less Looking forward to the final thing!