If you haven't heard of League of Legends, why not? Recently, it was crowned the most popular game online (based on usage statistics) and more than eight million people tuned in to watch their Season 2 World Championship. With more than 30 hours played this week, it's safe to say that I'm addicted.

There's good reason, too. I'm an extremely competitive person when it comes to online gaming, and as of right now League of Legends is able to offer the most competitive experience for me. Every game is a true test of skill. Along the way, you pick up tips and tricks that help you as a player. As painful as it may be, in this post I'm going to share two of my most valuable secrets. It doesn't involve any special sequence of buttonmashing, either. You've just got to download two Windows applications.

I know what you're thinking! I'm about to put you on to some LoL hacks and completely ruin it for you, right? Of course not. From what I've read on their forums, Riot staff do an awesome job of weeding out hackers who manipulate the client and do naughty things like zoom the camera view out further to see more of the map. Cheating is never cool. That being said, let's get into the goodies, both coded by Tyler Haines.

Sometimes, the recommended items that ship with each champion just don't make sense. Who actually buys a Regrowth Pendant on Vayne? Enigma's Recommended Item Changer allows you to be in control of what items are recommended for each champion, which can save you a ton of time. Using this application, you can do a lot:

  • Drag and drop new items into the bar
  • Set up multiple profiles for each champion (specific to each game mode)
  • Filter out and search for items
  • Check the statistics of each item

In the above screenshot, you can see a custom on-hit build that I've set up for Kog'Maw. The plus and minus buttons to the right of the build name allow you to add a new build profile or delete one. Clicking the Save Champion button saves your changes and sets the currently-selected build profile as the default recommended items set when you play LoL.

Above, you can see an example of the list view and item filtering options. Further options are extensive as automated application updates, changing the background image of the application, creating profile backups, and more. This can make in-game shopping so much less of a hassle!

Enigma's Smartcast Manager [No Longer Available]

A majority of the higher-skilled players in LoL use smartcasting. Smartcasting is a way of automating the point-press-click process of casting an ability and dumbing it down to a simpler point-press operation. It's a bit of a risky move for champions like Ezreal and Ahri, who have ranged skillshots, that you'll need to get a feel for. When you master it, the time you save can be the difference between a kill and a death.

The application features the following:

  • Setting smartcasts and key binds of abilities per champion
  • Set abilities to automatically smartcast or self cast
  • Change the key binds of Summoner spells per champion

In the above screenshot, you'll see that I've got Talon's Rake ability set to automatically smartcast. I've also got default Summoner spells set up for him, with Ignite on an automated smartcast also. If I wanted, I could change the keys for his abilities or Summoner spells and they'd be specific to this champion only. Afterwards, click Save Hotkeys and you're all done. It couldn't get any easier.

On the official League of Legends forums, Riot has acknowledged that applications like these are completely legal and acceptable. Riot even offers an API for developers to create similar applications. You can feel safe and comfortable using both. It should make your gameplay better if you use them effectively. Let me know what you think of each of them in the comments!