League of Legends finally applied a nerf to controversial champion Nidalee, but players warn that it won’t harm her jungling potential. Riot Games has also decided to run this year’s World Championship tournament series in Europe and revealed the event venues it will use. Hearthstone‘s community manager confirmed that modding the game in any way is not allowed and those caught using any mods will be banned. Armored Warfare released a new sneak peek video on its upcoming M551 Sheridan tank, Infinite Crisis released new champion Lex Luthor, and Bloodline Champions ran its first cash tournament in a long time.
Star Citizen Alpha 1.1.1 was released this week, and developers discussed two new innovations to the game’s FPS module with its stance and breathing mechanics. MassivelyOP got an advance look at Path of Exile‘s colossal upcoming Act IV update, and signups have now opened for the Act IV closed beta to be released on April 20th. Five Elite: Dangerous players have won brand new Geforce Titan graphics cards in the game’s recent scavenger hunt contest, and the latest newsletter revealed the the highly requested cargo drone is coming to the game.
Read on for more details of the above stories and more news from the wider world of online gaming in this week’s Not So Massively.
The day has finally come: Nidalee is getting nerfed! Nidalee has had a long stint as one of the most controversial champions in League of Legends, frequently showing up in competitive play and earning a much higher than average win rate in several major tournaments. Complaints were renewed with the recent Jungle changes, which saw Nidalee emerge as one of the most effective junglers in the game.
Complaints about Nidalee have been raging online so much lately that Riot saw fit to include her in the Patch 5.6 patch notes with a justification for not changing anything. The notes for Patch 5.7 tell a different story, with a decrease in Nidalee’s base health and health per level to make her less survivable. Players have predicted that this will only harm the champion’s laning potential and won’t impact popular jungling builds, cementing her role as a top jungler.
The venues have been selected for this year’s League of Legends World Championship, which will take place in Europe this October. The group stages will hit Paris, London, and Brussels before the winners progress to the quarter- and semi-finals in Berlin. There, the remaining two teams will battle it out to become World Champions.
Blizzard also announced this week that it won’t tolerate any modding in Hearthstone. In response to questions, Community Manager Zeriyah told Twitter that “if it is modifying the game files, regardless of purpose, it is an offense that can get you banned.”
Upcoming tank shooter Armored Warfare released a new sneak peek at its M551 Sheridan Light Tank, an agile tank designed to get behind enemy vehicles and attack from the less protected sides and rear. For the history buffs among you, the developers have published an article on the history of the Sheridan. Armored Warfare is currently in the alpha stage and is accepting signups for its upcoming beta stage.
With its last update, Cloud Imperium recently announced that it would now be simply referring to Arena Commander as Star Citizen. This sparked complaints from backers, who argued that calling the update Star Citizen 1.1 implied that the game was fully complete and may mislead people who have never seen the game before. In response, this week’s version 1.1.1 update has been renamed to to the more intuitive title of Star Citizen Alpha 1.1.1.
Work on the first person shooter module continued this week, and fans were treated to a look at the design of new Stance and Breathing systems. Players will be able to switch between a lowered gun stance that allows fast movement and shooting from the hip, a ready aiming stance that prevents fast movement but gives better aim and recoil, and a stance that lets you aim down your sights for high accuracy. Soldiers will also have to use stamina to run and can manually manage their breathing to make aiming more accurate.
Path of Exile‘s huge incoming Act IV expansion will enter closed beta on April 20th, and you can sign up now for a chance to be involved ahead of its official June launch. Act IV represents the largest content update to the game yet and has been in production since the game officially launched back in 2013.
The development team split in two at launch, with one team dedicated to Act IV and the other focusing on smaller updates to keep the game fresh. MassivelyOP’s MJ Guthrie grappled with the monumental update this week, which features tons of new monsters, zones, skills, and storyline quests.
Infinite Crisis added new champion and notorious supervillain Lex Luthor this week. Luthor is a powerful ranged attacker who uses advanced technology to deal damage and control the battlefield. He can build sentries on the battlefield that link together to create damaging beams and can even be set up as a triangle to box enemies in. Sentries can also be augmented by other skills and will fire lasers at nearby enemies. Luthor’s ultimate skill calls down a strike from his own personal orbital laser cannon.
The latest Elite: Dangerous newsletter has been released, with details of the upcoming Powerplay content update, the Mac beta, and a sneak peek at a Cargo Drone that will automate collection of floating cargo. Manually collecting cargo containers is a major pain for a lot of players, so the new cargo drone will come as a welcome addition. This will be the first in a new series of consumable convenience items that you’ll have to replenish at a starport. A fuel drone will also let players transfer fuel to each other mid-fight.
The Titan Black scavenger hunt has now ended, with only 20 players managing to hunt down the elusive station selling the Titan Blacks and deliver them to Godel Ring in the Ededleen star system. The first five players to locate the station and successfully deliver the items have been named, and each one has won a real Titan Black graphics card.
Stunlock Studios ran a new competitive tournament for its indie MOBA Bloodline Champions this week. The Champions Summit tournament series was hosted yesterday and featured a total prize pool of $650 US. Bloodline Champions released in January 2011 with an alternative to the traditional tri-lane MOBA and quickly became popular in the competitive gaming scene, with several cash tournaments and a good presence each year at DreamHack. The game has fallen on hard times lately as player activity has dwindled and tournament support has fallen away. It’s hoped that this latest tournament will combine with the game’s recent Steam release to help reinvigorate the playerbase.
- Riot Games received some backlash this week for selling simple recoloured versions of the standard champion skins, something Heroes of the Storm offers for free.
- Diablo III‘s season three has now officially begun.
- Dungeon Defenders II revealed its new pet system in its latest devstream.
- Sins of a Dark Age released Update 38, which focuses on new Horen faction art assets.
- Rockstar revealed details of GTA 5‘s director mode, a PC-exclusive feature that will let people record and play back gameplay. The new Rockstar editor will work for GTA Online as well.
Every week, Brendan Drain scours the net to bring you all the latest news from from the world of MOBAs, lobby-based games, and other online multiplayer games that aren’t quite MMOs in Not So Massively. If there’s anything you want to see covered here, post a comment or send mail to brendan@massivelyop.com to let him know!
