It's only been about two weeks now since Riot Games released one of their newest champions, LeBlanc, the Deceiver but, in that short space of time, a new champion has already been released (Irelia, the Will of the Blades) and a shiny new patch has made its way into the game. Talk about moving fast, Riot! Regardless of any new things coming down the line, however, I'm still quite excited to talk about this week's Buyer's Guide to League of Legends, because LeBlanc the Deceiver is probably my favorite caster champion of them all! Let's get right into this week's Buyer's Guide to League of Legends.

When I first heard about the mechanics behind League of Legends' latest champion, Lux, the Lady of Luminosity, I'll admit that I was more excited to play her than what warrants my normal response to a champion release. A week prior to Lux's arrival, I had managed to convince a former competitive gaming partner of mine to play League of Legends, and so we were going through the process of finding a solid champion duo to play. He prefers to play strong physical DPS champions, so I advised him to start out with Tristana, a powerful ranged carry who, with a little bit of support from her team, remains effective at all stages of the game. Now, like any of the defensively squishy ranged DPS champions, Tristana synergizes best with someone who can protect her back with stuns or snares so that she can maintain her offensive positioning. Originally, I had been playing Morgana as my complimentary support champion, but since I've been a consistent Morgana player since closed beta, for well over a year now, I was really craving a new champion who played similar to my favorite fallen angel.

Riot Games has been quite consistent with their new champion updates and, while they have just released the newly re-worked champion, Lux, this week's "Buyer's Guide to League of Legends," will be on the champion introduced about two weeks back: Swain, the Master Tactician. Now, before I begin, many of you have probably watched Phreak's Champion Spotlights where, while he does a great job of highlighting his champions' individual strengths, I would warn you against just directly copying his build for all games that you play, especially as you move up the competitive ranked brackets. Some champions can end up feeling quite sub-par if you don't build items that capitalize on their strengths in relation to teams, and sometimes Phreak's item builds (like for Swain) can be problematic as teams get more organized and roles become more defined.

Before I begin on the guide, a hearty congratulations goes out to Riot Games and League of Legends for winning an astounding five awards at the Game Developers Choice Online Awards! The team earned awards for Best Online Game Design, Best Online Visual Arts, Best Online Technology, Best New Online Game and the Audience Award. This means that this weekend will be a great chance to check out any Champion you want, as all Champions will be going free-to-play this weekend in celebration. And now, on with the Buyer's Guide to Sona!

It was only two weeks ago that Riot Games first introduced Sona, the Maven of Strings, but she has already made herself quite comfortable within many top-tier premades around the world. I've  been playing Sona with great success - so much to the point that she has become my new go-to support champion when my team really wants to get that win of the day (it used to be Zilean, to give you an idea of the role I play her in).

For the past week now, the League of Legends (LoL) forums have been ablaze with discussions centered on two very hot topics: LoL's problematic server stability and massive discussions as to whether or not the newest champion, Miss Fortune, should really be worth 6350 IP / 975 RP (in other words, she is the highest "tier" of cost in relation to other champions), given the perceived "lack of originality" with her skills. Now, for the former matter, while it can sometimes be frustrating when servers go down for hours on end, server problems tend to be unavoidable, especially given LoL's monumental global growth. What I'm interested in, however, is that second question, especially given the fact that this is a Buyer's Guide to League of Legends! So the question for today is… is Miss Fortune really worth her hefty price tag?

Ever since I began playing League of Legends over a year ago, I've always been really partial to playing some of LoL's most powerful spell casters, like Annie and Morgana; there seems to be something so satisfying about exploding someone just for making one little mistake. These days, however, as I have begun making my way up the rankings to play harder opponents, sometimes I'll get into games where mistakes aren't being made, and I end up feeling like playing something a little bit more aggressive. Of course, trust Riot Games, with their incredible team of psychic developers, to drop their new champion, Urgot, right into my lap, just as I start looking for that aggressive early-game champion.

Urgot is, first and foremost, one of the strongest early game heroes I've seen in quite some time, and his ability to harass and dominate a lane, especially if he has a partner who can stun for him, is virtually unparalleled. I recall playing one game with a friend who was trying out Ryze, and it was amazing how we could, literally, force an enemy champion to return to his or her base if we managed to catch them in a snare just once. If all of this sounds great to you, and early game pressure is something you want to be one of the best at, then read on and find out if Urgot is the champion for you and your team!

It's been about a week since Vladimir the Crimson Reaper made his debut within League of Legends (LoL), and he's already managed to impress much of the LoL community with his unique health points based play style. But is Vladimir the hero for your team? Let's find out!

To give a quick rundown on Vladimir's abilities and passives, all of Vladimir's abilities cost HP to cast, as opposed to most classes that use mana, energy or cooldowns (which means they have no real "resources" to draw from, they can simply cast their spells whenever they are up). Probably the scariest thing about Vladimir is really how much area-of-effect (AoE) damage he can deal with his combination of Tides of Blood (if maxed, this can deal some decent damage), Sanguine Pool and Hemoplague.

It was only a few weeks back that I talked about Riot Games' latest champion in League of Legends (LoL), Kog'maw, and it's clear that the team is addicted to making as much content as they possibly can. Not only did we see the advent of Xin Zhao, the speedy spear-wielding "Seneschal of Demacia" just last week, but Riot has already managed to get another champion out the door in this short time frame: Vladimir! So many champions, so little time to play them all!

But either way, the show must go on! This week in ZAM's "Buyer's Guide to League of Legends," I decided to spend some extra time checking out Xin Zhao.

Whenever a new champion is introduced in League of Legends, I, like most players out there with limited wallets (and limited IP), tend to wait for critical feedback before I make that commitment. Usually, I play against that champion a few times, and then I might play that champion when its time comes up on the free rotation. More often than not, however, my decision to purchase a champion really comes down to the opinions of those I play with who understand my play style, or lacking that, if I understand their play style and I can therefore see if a champion would "suit" me.

Unfortunately, for me and many of my gaming buddies, we just end up being too busy to keep our IP generation up to be able to purchase champions as they come out and, while we do make small Riot Point purchases now and then, we prefer to buy those awesome skins (Chrome Rammus) while "earning" our champions the regular way. What ends up happening is we just buy champions we think we would like, and this can translate to some frustrating games where you just don't get the synergy you wanted, or that champion just doesn't fit in that way that you need him, her or it to. So, enter ZAM.com and me, as we proudly introduce our new hero review feature for League of Legends, where I will strive to check out those new champions the moment they come out and, hopefully, I can give you just a little bit more insight to understanding if this particular champion is for you.