Yesterday I decided to give Microsoft $25 to access Avowed early. Essentially I noticed that Battle.Net was showing it as available through Gamepass but only the Deluxe edition could start playing early. I would honestly love to see Microsoft migrate all of the Gamepass PC games over to the Battle.net launcher, because really it feels like a better interface than essentially going through the Microsoft store via the Xbox app. Essentially Avowed is what if Obsidian made their own Elder Scrolls Game, this time set in the same universe as Pillars of Eternity. So far it feels very Morrowind to me, in that you are arriving on the docks of a far flung destination… filled with all sorts of creepy fungus growing everywhere. I am playing a melee character so far and the combat feels pretty enjoyable.
I got my first companion, which is essentially a Shark dude straight out of the Tigersharks Cartoon. Essentially we are adventuring together out of convenience at the moment, but I assume some events are going to happen that bind us together going forward. I know there are other companions but right now I am digging Kai because he gives me the ability to burn things down, since I am not going down the magical route. I believe I can make my own firebombs eventually out if this plant that I occasionally find laying around. One of the objectives of the tutorial area was to shoot one of those plants down so it fell onto some vines and burned it to open up a new area, which makes me think at some point I can use the same plant to do the same thing in other areas.
I’ve not made it super far but I am enjoying it. There are these adorable Aye Aye meets Lemur meets Cat things all over the island that sort of purr when you get close to them. Unfortunately this particular one meets a grim fate in the opening cinematic. I’ve heard this is around a 40 hour campaign start to finish, which seems fairly reasonable. It is open world, but open world within the confines of a fixed map level so there are is a lot of exploration, but it doesn’t really let you stray too far off the beaten path. I am hoping at some point I find a companion with some healing spells because right now I am having to chug a lot of healing potions to keep topped off after combat. I specced into this thing that heals back 50% of the damage that was dealt after combat, but that still makes a lot of the fights a battle of attrition.
Over in Pohx League I did a safehouse and got one of the crafting benches that allow you to swap one Divination Card for another random one. The first one I turned in was nothing special, but the second one landed me a Brother’s Gift card which I immediately turned in for 5 Divine Orbs. I’ve not been terribly wealthy during Pohx league, but then again I have not really focused on trying to make currency. Given that it is a private league, everything costs way more than it would during a normal league economy. This is especially noticeable on the currency exchange, because buying relatively simple things… like a Tainted Fusing for example costs around 50 Chaos each. Gemcutter’s Prisms similarly are really expensive so I figure at some point I am just going to chain run a lot of Labyrinth to get gems upgraded. I purchased every single Ice Trap of Hollowness in the entire league and have been leveling them all to 20 so that I can attempt to corrupt a 21/20% gem.
Immediately after turning in the Brother’s Gift card, I took four of those Divine Orbs and converted them into an Omen of Connections. Now that these exist in the game, this is more often than not who I end up getting my six-linked chest. I was running a Ritual/Einhar Atlas quite a bit trying to get either this or a Black Morrigan so I could use beast crafting to do the same thing. The new Gem that I have mixed in is Cold Penetration and lord does it make a massive difference. I also added Bonechill to my Skitterbots and together I am dishing out a ton more damage. I bought this chestpiece ages ago and I had been throwing fusings at it in vain thinking that either I would six-link it the old fashioned way or I would earn enough currency to do it the easy way. I’ve since corrupted my old one and got a white socket on it, so I will probably throw the first tainted fusings at it trying to six-link it so I can sell it for a decent profit.
I am pretty happy with my progress in Pohx league and honestly… would be fine if I don’t make it any further. I’ve completed 110 out of 115 maps, with the remaining 5 maps all being uniques. I will probably start using Singular Scouting Reports when I get Kirac missions to try for the remaining maps since I can’t really afford to buy any of them off the market right now. I’ve finished two of my voidstones, and I might make a run at Uber Elder and Maven, but I am in no rush to do either. If they happen organically it is cool, but I am not necessarily going to push my way through it. I still do not love bossing and I also feel way too squishy to reasonable deal with the damage output from those encounters. I would essentially have to perform both of them perfectly… and I can’t say I have ever done that. I did however do a no-death Eater of Worlds which made me happy. Searing Exarch though was a complete and total mess, which is funny because as Righteous Fire that fight is a cakewalk.
I say I am happy with my progress in Pohx League in large part because I know come the 20th I will not be playing it anymore. Yesterday GGG released the full trailer for the Legacy of Phrecia Event and with it came the start date of February 20th. Which gives me eight days of undivided attention before Monster Hunter Wilds comes out and I tag out to play that with friends. I have no clue at all what I am going to play. Right now I am leaning towards either doing Poison Summon Raging Spirits on Servant of Arakali Shadow or try and build something Righteous Fire themed on either Ancestral Commander Marauder or maybe Polytheist Templar. The problem with that last one is I do not think there are four ascendancies that will help me out… Scavenger Scion could probably also work. If I do go RF, I will probably wait to see what ideas Pohx has before going down that path. I am also somewhat interested in 100% melee with Behemoth Marauder.
Have you played any of Avowed yet? Are you going to be joining the nonsense of the Legacy of Phrecia Event in Path of Exile? Drop me a line below with your thoughts.
The post Avowed and Brothers Gift appeared first on Tales of the Aggronaut.
Hey Folks. I have to fight the urge to open with morning, because by the time I end up posting this it will be afternoon. Yesterday was a weird schedule which meant that I never got around to posting anything, and then this morning… I sat in front of the screen and was just not feeling it. I am very sensitive to my routines and when they are off… everything in my life is off. I had to be in the office very early yesterday, and then today was a snow day and as such my wife is home with me… essentially throwing off my normal patterns. You know how when a washing machine gets off balance, and the longer it goes the worse it gets? I feel like that is me with my routines… and the further I stray from them… the less that is right with the world. Which is weird because growing up I used to always think of myself as being highly adaptable.
The pandemic and the transition to remote work… has meant that in many ways I just don’t force myself to operate in uncomfortable parameters anymore. When I am forced to be in person… it is almost like trying to use a muscle that has atrophied from lack of use. I get so damned drained that when I do make it back home… I am just mentally dead. I was never an extrovert, but I’ve also stopped fighting against my weird tendencies and pretending I was perfectly normal. However when I am in person again, I feel like I have to fake it and push myself out there in ways that I am just no longer used to. Essentially this combined with the break in my routine did a number of me. Suffice to say… I just have not felt like putting pen to the virtual page and spawning forth a blog post. Granted it is probably weird that I just devoted two full paragraphs to get to that point.
Last night I finished up the first book in the Dungeon Crawler Carl series and it was a delight. Essentially what if you had Duke Nukem… but lovable and begrudgingly caring, thrown into Smash TV but its a dungeon crawler… and forced to fight for his life as a namely corporation attempts to convert the Earth into raw resources while using Humanity as extras in reality television. Combine with that the fact that he entered this dungeon with a cat named Princess Donut, who developed the ability to talk… and cast magic missile… and hilarity ensues. I started the second one and it is just as great as the first one, so I highly suggest checking this out if you have it available.
I’m still futzing around in Path of Exile, but not taking it super seriously. I really enjoy this build, but also feel like I don’t really have access to enough currency or even items available in the private league to fix the problems the build has. I have made it stable, but the survival is definitely a thing that I struggle with. Essentially any time I take any manner of damage over time it is a struggle because I am not recovering enough life through regeneration and don’t have access to leech due to the way the build works. I tried the whole Mind Over Matter thing for awhile, but honestly it just caused more problems than it was worth. It would lead me to run out of energy shield… which I am using as mana… causing me to have to run around hoping to get clear and free long enough for my energy shield to start regenerating. It feels easier to just watch my health with a potion and top off whenever I take a hit. I’ve gotten my evasion up to a little bit over 70% and wish I had a way to make it lucky.
I’m also keeping close tabs on the Legacy of Phrecia event league and some of the information coming out is pretty freaking wild. I can see a bunch of different builds that would be interesting to create, but am still leaning towards trying a Poison SRS league start. The Paladin shown above looks interesting, as does the build that focuses heavily on stacking heralds. I’ve always loved the interactions between heralds and could see that being extremely fun. It still looks like we are a few weeks out and will likely be happening in March… which will be a fun time and I will likely have run out of gusto for it before Last Epoch Season 2 drops in April. At least I am hoping it plays out in that manner because if I have to choose between this and Last Epoch I am going with Last Epoch.
I feel like the sort of thing that I am doing is not really interesting for anyone but myself. I am doing super chill mapping and delving while listening to audiobooks, and the combined total is delightful. I am pretty pleased with how easy it has been to farm cluster jewels. This has turned into a not-insignificant profit center for me. I’ve been dumping these into a 20 Chaos tab and selling quite a large number of them. I am probably selling them cheaply, but it is pretty easy and does not require any thought. It isn’t like I am getting spammed for any of them, which is usually the sign that you are WAY too cheap. I hate the thought of price gouging someone, especially in a pretty chill private league economy. However 20 chaos is pretty much the least amount of currency that I am willing to stop what I am doing in order to go sell an item for.
Anyways… I am still alive. I am just off balance from a few weird days. I am sure at some point I will get back to normal and regain my gusto for morning blogging. Gracie was super snuggly last night… as see in the photo at the top of this post so that helped a bit.
The post Spud is Eepy appeared first on Tales of the Aggronaut.
Hey Folks! I spent most of this weekend playing Path of Exile while listening to audiobooks, which is a pretty freaking great time. I am still progressing slowly, because I die way more often than I would like on this character. However given that I am playing in a semi-private trade environment the items that I want are either not available or priced way the hell out of my reach. If I had more evasion, and a way to fix elemental ailments… all of my woes would probably be solved. I also have negative chaos resistance still, so that is still a massive problem. However I got through the first of my voidstones yesterday so that was at least good. Once I get another t16 map I will try and tackle the Eater of Worlds fight as I am one map away from unlocking that.
As far as atlas progression goes, I have unlocked my third atlas tree which means I have completed 100 map bonus objectives out of 115. There are still several red maps that I have not completed, and I am struggling right now with a complete and total lack of Vaal orbs. I really do not want to have to buy them off the market, and I am hoping that eventually I start finding Vaal Cities in Delve and getting them that way. I could in theory run Alva… even though I do not love running Alva… and I could probably get a stash of them that way also. Thankfully I finally have a decent stash of Alchemy Orbs which at least allows me to roll maps without much issue.
My third Atlas Tree is devoted to running Einhar, Ritual, and Beyond which is a combination that can be pretty rippy but fits relatively well together in an atlas as it is all on the same side of the tree. Essentially my goal is to either find an Omen of Connections or a Black Morrigan beast so that I can upgrade into a six link. Buying one outright is not an option as there is only one available right now… and it isn’t even a well rolled one, is corrupted, and has all of the wrong colors. My guess is that it dropped that way because it has 18% quality on it… which if you were going to bother putting any quality on an item… why did you stop at 18%? I guess the corruption could have done that, but still… if I want a six link I am likely going to have to make my own and while I bought a second better rolled Carcass Jack that I am throwing fusings at… I have not had any luck so far.
I’ve been alternating between mapping and delve, which ultimately slows down my atlas progression, but gets me just a bunch of raw currency instead. I’ve been slowly selling resonators that I find for some currency to hopefully begin to buy some upgrades if I can ever find anything. The other option would be to just save all of those resonators and start trying to craft upgrades myself. I’ve held onto a few good bases, because I would really like to get out of the negatives on my chaos resistance at some point. My gloves are about as good as I am going to get currently, but I would really like to craft a set of boots with better movement speed than I currently have. I am also trying to decide if I just want to give up on some of my passive tree to go for cluster jewels.
I’ve been pretty impressed with how many unique maps I have managed to drop to this point. I’ve finished nine so far, but still am lacking the usual suspects of Twilight Temple, Putrid Cloister, and Coward’s Trial. I also need the Vaults of Atziri, but that will show up on Kirac at some point. I am still pretty regularly running Betrayal because I need that stupid trigger cast wand craft. I find it bizarre that I have not encountered it yet on any items. That is ultimately going to cause me to shift up some of my gear and convert Frost Bomb to being triggered by Arcane Brand and shift from Frost Bite over to Assassin’s Mark. All of that will be a significant net positive for the build because right now I am honestly only casting Frost Bomb if I am fighting a boss.
The latest update on the Legacy of Phrecia event shows that we are going to be losing the Atlas Tree during this event league in favor of a system that works like Sanctum Idols. These remind me a lot of the trinkets from Heist league. I think it might be fun as part of an event, but I am hoping this is not a permanent change. As far as I am concerned the state of the Atlas of Worlds at 3.25 with its tree different trees… is pretty much the perfect version of mapping. You spend time unlocking your Atlas and then the reward of having done so, is that you can run exactly the content you want to run in the manner you which to run it. This whole idol system seems like it is going to be a chaotic mess of impossible to optimize mapping. I feel like if they are going to make things random rolls, they need to make each individual stat line stronger than they currently are in the Atlas tree in order for it to work out.
Right now I am really interested in the Servant of Arakaali Shadow Ascendancy that has also been spoiled. Unless something just phenomenal drops in the coming days, I am probably going to start the league as a Shadow and build this into a version of Poison Summon Raging Spirits. Essentially this Ascendancy provides what you get from some of the specific uniques sought after in that build. This would make it much much cheaper/easier to run this type of character without having to rely on those items. You would still probably need a Covenant as your chest-piece, but it would be straightforward enough to get one of those and five link it yourself. Even in a limited trade environment you are able to pick up most unique chests reasonably cheaply if you are willing to socket and link them yourself.
SirGog has been releasing deep dive videos on each of the announcements as they arrive from GGG. I highly suggest following him and checking these out if you want more information.
Featuring: Ashgar, Belghast, Grace, Kodra, Tamrielo, and Thalen
Hey Folks! This week we are down an Ammo which throws Ash off a bit. We start off with a discussion about the changes to the death system and multiplayer in Windblown. From there we talk about the most recent updates to Utopia Must Fall. Citizen Sleeper 2 has been released and Tam shares some of his early thoughts. Dwarven Realms Season 3 is going on and the game continues to get more polished over time. Bel and Grace talk about the Lunar Awakening event and how it represents this perfect example of why Blizzard’s Design Ethos makes the game less fun. Path of Exile has an upcoming Phrecia event with 19 new Ascendancies and we talk about the four that have been spoiled so far. Grace talks about Spirit Swap which is Lo-Fi Beats to Match Three To. Kodra has had a bit of a revival of Ultimate Chicken Horse in his house as his son gets super into it. Grace shares her early experiences with Deep Rock Galactic Survivor and we bid farewell to Kodra’s cat Willow.
