When looking upon Season 22 of Diablo 3, there was a good chunk of me that wanted to skip it. Right now there just seems to be way too much going on and not nearly enough time to do any of it. However as I got closer to the seasonal start, the more I decided I would ultimately miss the tradition if I had kicked it to the curb even for one season. When I found out that my friend Grace was planning on doing the season regardless it changed my tune a bit and once again we were spending Friday night starting brand new characters and beginning yet another seasons journey. Thankfully we had quite possibly the easiest challenge rift ever to get some initial goodies to begin the process.
Admittedly one of the things that made me a little hesitant was the fact that Haedrig’s Gift this time around was a selection of the newest sets. I had not tried Gears of Destruction for example on Hunters and was not sure how I would like this up close and personal strife/fan of knives build. The end result however is complete nonsense as this is essentially the “Spin to Win” Demon Hunter that plays much like a “Whirlrend” Barbarian. Like so many builds it takes a few seconds to prime the pump but once you are up and running it is pretty easy to maintain a rapid whirlwind of death as you clear the map. For the most part my current build is patterned off of this guide on Icy Veins, though it took a lot of changes along the way as I spent the majority of my time leveling with a grenades heavy build.
Friday night we managed to grind up past 50 before sleep claimed us, and then Saturday morning we wrapped things up pretty quickly and before I knew it all I was missing for my seasonal journey was the solo 20. After getting those first four steps however I of course enlisted in the later goals. Currently slayer is hanging by a thread with only a set dungeon in my way. Set dungeons are the bane of my existence because I hate being asked to perform on a timer. Sadly the Gears of Destruction set does not have a dungeon, which means I am having to farm the components for other builds. Most of the hunter set dungeons are somewhat fiddly and since I am going to need multiple classes to finish the conquests I might push up something a little easier.
The conquests are ultimately going to be the problem this season. The easy one of course is grind up 3 gems to level 65, and since I can relatively easily run higher tier greater rifts I should be able to knock that one out without much issue. Here is a list of what is available for Season 22:
Boss Mode – Kill all of the bosses in Diablo 3 on Torment X within 20 minutes
Sprinter – Complete the entire campaign from Act I to Act V at Level 70 in under 1 hour
On a Good Day – Level 3 Gems to 65
Years of War – Clear Greater Rift 55 solo with the full bonuses of Six Class Sets
Masters of the Universe – Master 8 Set Dungeons
Boss Mode and Sprinter are things I need to do some research into. The speed of this build is insane given that you move super fast while you are fully buffed up. This might be reasonable but given that I don’t have the best pathing memorized due to NEVER playing the campaign mode of the game… I am not sure how viable that option is. Years of War seems pretty reasonable since you can build out MOST gear sets in a way to be able to clear 55 solo. I hate set dungeons… so I absolutely do not want to do that one if I can at all have any other options.
I’ve reached a point where I can fairly reliably clear Torment XVI, and have MOST of this gear set in the bag. I am contemplating running up a Barbarian for my second seasonal character since there are a lot of really powerful builds there that could make clearing those six grifts a bit easier. Boss Mode is the one that intrigues me the most, and I am wondering if a party of 4 could divide and conquer and take them all out at the same time. That is the part that I need to research to see if that counts. If so then it might be doable pending I find two more speed builds to go along with Grace and I. The other question is… how much I actually care given that tonight Shadowlands opens and I trying to decide how much that pet matters to me.
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Featuring: Ammo, Belghast, Grace, Kodra, Tamrielo and Thalen
Tonight we are down an Ashgar but work our way through a series of topics from the list. First up Bel can in fact confirm that the PlayStation 5 exists and talks about his early experiences. From we talk a bit about Bugsnax and how it is this weird Muppet Pokemon game that also has deeply disturbing Bioshock style undertones going on. Tam talks a bit about puzzle shooter Superliminal and Kodra talks about What Remains of Edith Finch. We talk a bit about parkour ninja game Ghostrunner and Bel shares some of the recent changes to Destiny 2. Finally we wrap up with some extemporaneous viewing suggestions… Duck Tales, Animaniacs, Mandalorian and the Ashens series of movies.
Topics Discussed:
Right now my low key chill game has been Destiny 2 as I slowly and methodically work my way through the various opportunities for light levels each week. I’m enjoying the new seasonal hunts quite a bit even though the formula itself is rather repetitive. You essentially “do some things” in order to gain a charge for your lure and then fill out the 3 slots on the lure to determine who you are going after. Finally you plunk that puppy down in the Tangled Shore, fight a mini boss, and chase glowing green goo until you reach the lair of the boss you are going to fight. Lastly you damage specific majors in the encounter in order to drop the invulnerability shield on the boss allowing you to burn it down and get your loot.
What do you get for a reward? Well largely a series of weapons of which for me at least there seems to be one available at any given time. The loot acquisition is so much slower than some of the other seasonal events, and I think that in part is what has made it feel like we just aren’t getting as much useable drops. Corsair’s Wrath is a perfectly cromulent linear fusion rifle, but as far as heavy weapons go… it is not my favorite archetype to use. I greatly prefer a Rocket Launcher, Machinegun, Grenade Launcher or a Sword. I mean I will hold onto this for the times when I get bounties that require one.
This however is what I was wanting to get my hands on. Wave Frame grenade launchers are special in that they fire out a wave of elemental energy after the detonation. As a result you often times don’t even care about the detonation but are instead using them for wave clear. The Season of Dawn had some of my absolute favorite weapons to be introduced into Destiny 2 and one of them was a wave frame grenade launcher called Martyr’s Retribution. In practice it was essentially an on demand Titan Thermite Grenade, and it was amazing… and also sadly sunsetting after this season. Deafening Whisper steps in to take its place and instead of a wave of Solar damage it deals a wave of Void Damage. Hoping to get a good roll on this that I can hold onto for awhile.
Another interesting weapon that I managed to pick up is the Coriolis Force, and it too is a special type of weapon we have not really seen before. Usually fusion rifles have a vertical spread as you fire them as a sort of energy shotgun. Coriolis Force instead has a horizontal spread pattern allowing you to spray an oncoming wave of mobs with charged energy particles. The “One For All” perk works with this nature and if you hit three different targets with one spread, it gives you a damage boost. I am sure one could build around this in some interesting ways.
I’ve also reached a point of peace with the Behemoth Stasis class for Titans, as I finally got a grenade that I actually like using. Coldsnap Grenade freezes whatever it hits and then spreads ice out freezing whatever it touches. This seems to be more predictable than the other two options which are effectively a freezing fog bubble or an ice wall. Last night I spent a lot of time playing Striker for the vanguard weeklies and it felt odd NOT being Stasis, and it seems like some of the new content was designed expecting guardians to be using that spec. The new Disgraced strike, which is essentially a rebrand of the Omnigul strike… was sheer madness without the crowd control that Stasis provided especially with waves of thralls and the fact that we had the affix that increased melee damage.
The real news however is that this weekend the Deep Stone Crypt raid race starts on Saturday at 10 am PST or 12 my time. This is one of the few “esports” activities that I actually care about and I had a great time watching last year as folks raced through the Garden of Salvation raid. I am not sure who is going to be commentating the race this time around, but last year a team effectively came from out of nowhere to get the win so it isn’t like one of the big name teams is absolutely going to take the prize. What is going to be interesting is that for the first time I am going to have a clan that is actually participating. What is even cooler is that my friend Warenwolf that I have known since Vanilla WoW is on the roster. Right now the team is comprised of:
I am not sure if there are going to be multiple streams going or not, but I do know that CajunGeek plans on streaming Tequila Mockingbirds attempts. At a minimum I think they want to make sure they get the day one clear. Initially Deep Stone Crypt is going to be open in what they call Contest Mode where artifact power is disabled and your light level is capped at 1230. While there are absolutely players in the game sitting at the 1260 cap… this attempts to even the playing field so that builds and group composition matter more than who ground the hardest. Seeing that I am sitting at 1225 and have been pretty casually playing this seems like a completely doable number for everyone to hit that was super serious about making this raid race.
Right now I plan on trying to keep the TQMB stream up while also watching any official coverage from Bungie. I am sure I will be tweeting out links and such tomorrow as it is going down.
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Well friends, I find myself in the odd position of having way more things right now that I want to play than I can possibly find hours in the day to play them. To be fair I am notorious for trying to juggle two or three games at a time, but I find myself in truly anxiety ridden territory right now. With the blog in theory behaving properly and me getting back in the swing of daily posting, lets delve into what happens when everything gets pushed off to the end of the year.
Destiny 2
This is the game that has been getting the majority of my attention since the launch of Beyond Light. I wrote the other day about the frustrations that came with the weapon sunset and the removal of content, and those frustrations still exist but have lessened a bit. Firstly with the beginning of the Season of the Hunt we have a new method to target specific drops, which helps to fill out that weapon vault once again. Additionally the content seems to have a longer tail than a traditional D2 expansion and I am still seemingly unlocking content long after finishing the story. Lastly I have found out that I can just kill roaming rares on Europa to get a shot at the entire weapon pool from that destination and as such have picked up several options including a new functional legendary Machinegun.
Now the thing that makes ZERO sense to me… and I wish someone could explain is that each time I have run a strike and a legendary has dropped… it has been this legendary. I have looted so many copies of this weapon, but the original roll that I have been holding onto seems to still be the best. Not saying this isn’t a solid weapon, but I would love to see more of the loot pool than just this one shotgun.
Genshin Impact
Genshin Impact is the game that is suffering the most right now due to my many distractions. There are a few events happening and I am failing to participate in them. The challenge with Genshin Impact is that it feels like this game really wants it to be your ONLY game right now. We went from the challenge of not having enough to do in a day to having WAY MORE to do than you can possibly get done. This is awesome for those who are still mainlining this experience, but for me who has pushed it to the back burner I feel like I am getting further and further behind. Grace and I are now no longer on the same world level which limits what we can do together… which is frustrating.
Diablo 3
Diablo 3 Season 22 starts on Friday, and originally I had contemplated just giving this one a skip. The conquests are not super enjoyable looking, but the book pet is sorta adorable. Grace was planning on doing this one solo even if I decided to skip, and as a result I have decided I am going to do the thing as well. More than anything I think I could just use the chill hang time that a Diablo seasonal grind always represents. In truth it doesn’t really take all that much time, and I plan on going easymode demon hunter in order to complete things quickly. May the luck be in my favor that I get a primal ancient yangs or something like that to help push this along faster. The 4th cube slot is going to provide some really odd builds.
Godfall
I feel like in another world and another time this game and me might have had something. However given its relatively lifeless state and the fact that I have so many other things on my plate right now… I am mostly okay watching it whiz by. To be honest I think the only reason why this game is getting any notice is the fact that it is one of the next gen experiences available for the PlayStation 5 right now. I have it on the PC and it has some significant performance issues on my 1080 ti, which admittedly is part of the reason why I am fine not playing it. I hope it gets some tuning passes, but the bigger problem is that the game as a whole feels like it doesn’t really have a soul to bind you to it. It reminds me of all of the story problems that Destiny 1 had of making you feel like you are dropped in the middle of something that was already happening and giving you zero explanation of what the hell is going on. The problem there however is that Destiny 1 had compelling enough gameplay to make me overlook that but Godfall does not.
World of Warcraft Shadowlands
I was more than happy to largely ignore that World of Warcraft existed for the last few weeks. I spent some time doing the Icecrown rares with my guild and managed to gear up my Paladin and even got the much coveted 34 slot bag. However without realizing it… we are now on the cusp of a new expansion launch. Monday night at 5pm my time I will be venturing forth into the Shadowlands and as a result I am preparing for this to suddenly take all of my focus. I’m even contemplating cooking up something in the crock pot during the day so we have a hot and ready meal waiting on us that I can just fix a plate of whenever I get hungry. That way I can focus all of my attention on being frustrated as the servers burn down around me. Given the state of this year I am expecting anything but a smooth launch, but have a glimmer of hope that I will be pleasantly surprised. Regardless it is leveling in a new expansion time and that is a rare and precious thing that I am going to cherish.
Demon’s Souls
I have no idea why I suddenly find this game so damned compelling. It might be that I Just bought a $500 console and I feel like I need to justify that purchase and this is the only truly next generation game available for it. It might also be that I have always been intrigued by the Souls game genre but never really allow myself to get into it, and there is something oddly compelling about the gameplay. I rerolled last night as a Temple Knight, so that I could start out with a decent twohanded option or at least one that can switch hit between one and two. The two handed no block style is definitely more of my jam, and as a result I made it quite a bit further last night before dinner arrived and I got distracted by the comfy sofa. I realize I live in opposite land where my consoles are all hooked up in my office and my sofa is where I do chill laptop gaming. I still have no clue what I am doing but I am enjoying myself so I guess that is the first step?
Ghost of Tsushima
I finally have my PS5 and you are so damned gorgeous and play so incredibly smoothly. Now I just need to figure out a way to duplicate myself so I can enjoy all of these experiences at once without feeling like I am leaving anything on the table. Hold tight my sweet… we will have our time eventually once I stop being so damned distracted.
Bugsnax
In another time and another place we could have been friends weird muppet pokemon skyrim. You just aren’t compelling enough when compared against all of the other things on my plate. I am glad you were given to me freely by the good folks that set up the PlayStation Now games, because I would have felt awkward ignoring you. I know Tam is your friend, and I am sure I am going to feel pangs of regret this weekend as he tells me how wonderful you are. Seriously though… just can’t right now.
Watch Dogs Legion
Legion is a really interesting game, but there is just something about it that never really grabbed me. I love how rich the world is… but it also feels like there isn’t a lot to do in it other than walk around. I feel like this is a game that Grand Theft Auto players would really be into, given that it is mostly a cycle of steal a car, drive to the mission, do the mission and then try and escape and lay low until the heat has dissipated. That has never really been a super enjoyable format for me, because firstly I don’t love driving cars in these sort of games. Secondly I found myself wanting something to do in the points in between the missions. At least in a game like Division where society has fallen… there are random combat encounters as I wind my way across a painfully detailed landscape. Here you just have a bunch of civilians and occasionally one of them might be interesting enough to want to recruit, but mostly you are traversing large spaces to get to small bits of micro content. I want to return to it someday but I am very glad that I chose to go the Ubisoft subscription route rather than plunk down a large wad of cash on this given how distracted I am right now.
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
This one I feel real sad about because I have it installed… but have not even booted it up. Too many other things pulling my attention in too many other directions. I also know that since the way I play this game is in a purely single player fashion, that I will get just as much enjoyment from playing it in 2022 as I will in 2020. Someday I will visit it and roam around in its Norse goodness. This is also another situation where I am real glad I opted for the monthly sub rather than buying it outright.
There we have it friends… my very first world problem that I am lucky to have. On the other side of the coin I am still regularly playing caretaker for my parents, and more of my family has contracted covid so there are stressors there as well. I am thankful that I am so lucky as to be constantly distracted by my hobbies, because this is a year where I am clung to them like a safety blanket. They have been what has allowed me to stay sane through all of this, and while I am in sort of overload mode right now it will give me plenty to focus on as we go into 2021 and realize that things are not going to be magically better. I fully expect that 2021 will feel an awful lot like 2020, minus one major factor… that we will have a change in the oval office. The plague will still be out there and even though vaccines are on the cusp of release it is going to take a significant amount of time to distribute them far and wide enough to make a dent in the numbers. I am very thankful to have many other worlds that I can escape into when this one is just too much to handle.
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