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Thankfulness

November 22, 2017 by Belghast

I have this horrible habit of starting things and then just letting them sorta die. One of those things was the whole “Month of Thankfulness” that I did back in 2014. The idea was simple enough and it effectively meant that at the bottom of every post I made a little note about something I was thankful for. In theory I should have been doing this every year since during the month of November leading up to Thanksgiving. That however never actually happened and I finally jog my memory about a week into the month and think to myself that if I didn’t actually start on time… then it isn’t really worth doing. That is not to say that I am not extremely thankful for a bunch of things in my life. The weird thing about depression is that your brain can contain all of this self loathing at the same time as a whole lot of gratitude towards other people. However the hell this works I figured that I would make a post on thankfulness on this Thanksgiving Eve here in the USA before I troddle off to work. In theory I should have taken today off but my work schedule has been crazy.

My Wife

I feel like I can’t really start off a post like this without taking some time to acknowledge how awesome my wife is. We are an odd pair that on paper doesn’t seem to work that well given that we are both into some very different things. However her strengths are my weaknesses and as a team we compliment each other in so many ways. Each of us is stronger as part of the whole than we are individually. More than that she “gets” me, and even though she doesn’t necessarily get any of the many things that I am super obsessive about… she understands that they are important to me and as a result supports them. She isn’t a “gamer”, even though she spends plenty of time playing games on her iPad or phone but gets that all of these related hobbies are at the core of my being. She has patiently dealt with so many “just a second” moments that turned into thirty to forty minutes and generally taken it in stride. For the last few years she has sacrificed several of her very limited stock of yearly personal days, just to travel with me to San Antonio for Pax South because she knows it is a big deal to me. It is impossible to grab words that do justice out of the air how awesome she is and how much I love her. I am thankful I met her so many years ago and exceedingly thankful for the last twenty one years.

AggroChat

In truth it is less about the AggroChat podcast and more a short hand for a very tight knit inner circle of friends that also happens to involve all of the members of the podcast. I have this habit of collecting people and over the years much like a hermit crab I have taken a shell encrusted with so many awesome friends along with me on my journey through life. We often talk about having a surrogate family through our online interactions, but in this case I legitimately mean it. These people are my family and fate willing will grow old with as we talk on a daily basis about all sorts of important and completely frivolous topics. Its been weird to watch how this dynamic has shifted and changed as we all aged from being largely a group of people who met during vanilla warcraft progression raiding, and then saw that relationship morph into something else as time moved on. Others are significantly newer but no less precious, and even though I occasionally go into turtle mode… and disappear for awhile, I always make a return when it is safe to poke my head out of my shell. These are my people and I am so happy I found them.

Twitter

Twitter can be a horrible place, and in this year of presidential proclamations occurring in 140 characters… it seems odd to be thankful for it as a medium. The thing is… “my” twitter is a different place and while I see the echos of the larger events going on around me… it is largely the eye of the hurricane filled with a bunch of people who are also taking shelter there. I originally started my twitter account around the release of this blog back in 2009 and in many ways the original intent was to have a way to communicate with the other bloggers. We’ve tried so many different platforms to carve out a sense of community, but the only one that continues to stand after shrugging off so many is twitter. It is that common ground that still contains all of the voices that I want to keep track of on a regular basis. There are so many people that are so much better at doing this thing than I am, and I love being surrounded by them. Lately though I go for periods where I just lurk, followed by a bunch of random commentary and I am sure this gets annoying at times. So additionally I am thankful to all of the people who tolerate my nonsense in this already cluttered medium. If we are “mutuals” this thanks goes out to you because you make my life richer because of your interactions.

Work

I talk sometimes about how stressful my work is, and it absolutely is there is no discounting that fact. That said I have some pretty awesome people that I work with on a daily basis and I could not keep doing what I do without them. While this year saw some significant changes in many directions and saw Rae who previously was on the AggroChat podcast finding another gig… the folks that remain are pure gold. We do this performance review process each year, and yesterday I met with each of my direct reports as I completed theirs. I was struck by just how lucky I am to work with the people that I do. I’ve always been great at compartmentalizing when it comes to work, and so long as my little silo was doing okay… I could deal with the rest of the ship being torn to bits. I have a really great silo to keep my eyes focused on from my upper management all the way to my staff, and especially the various peers that I work with on a daily basis. There is a sense of dedication to getting things done whatever it takes and I appreciate that, especially when I am going into the first holiday season in a really long time that I have not taken any significant time off for. Camaraderie through shared struggle is a powerful force and I am thankful for those who fight for me as I fight for them.

My Readers

At this point there are so many things that I should be putting on this list, but I wanted to keep it fairly brief. I do however want to close out with one more bit of thankfulness. I am thankful for each and every one of you out there that regularly or just occasionally reads this blog or consumes anything else that I toss out into the world. For me my blog is as much therapy as it is anything else. Sitting down each morning and siphoning thoughts from my brain and committing them into text format helps me clear the slate. If something was bothering me it often makes its way onto the virtual page and as a result I can begin the “getting over it” process. I often times write like I am not actually talking to anyone other than myself, and as a result I am always sorta shocked when I find out that someone actually read the words that I cast into the void. Please do not mistake this shock for a lack of gratitude, but instead it is surprise that anything I said was really worth consuming in the first place. There are so many of you who have been with me in this journey for years, and I don’t always take the time to recognize the other people standing on the deck of this ship beside me. Thank you so much and lets commence with the exploration of new and interesting worlds!

Xur Week Seven: 10/27/17

October 27, 2017 by Belghast

Xur Destiny 2

This week Xur is located on Io in the Giant’s Scar area. He is off to the left side of that area inside of a cave. If you turn around and face away from Xur you should also find one of the region chests if you have not actually looted it. This week is important because it is the first time Xur is available for PC players, and I have in fact double checked that the inventory on console and pc is exactly the same. I however took my screenshots console side because I am still in the process of leveling all the things on PC and only have the Titan to 20… and even then I am not all of the way through the main story quest. I noticed that the exotics were showing as level 19 and 254 instead of the 270 I was expecting, so wondering if finishing the game is a trigger for that shift to level 20 items. I throw this out there just for folks to be careful when you spend your oh so precious legendary shards this week on the PC side of things. Xur will be available until the weekly reset instead of disappearing sometime during the night on Saturday, so you have plenty of time to grind out more shards or get through the story.

This week for the weapon we have D.A.R.C.I. or as I have referred to this every time I have decrypted it from an engram… infusion fuel. What makes this weapon interesting is that while aiming you can view the health and other information about your target through your scope with the Personal Assistant perk. This blends with the target acquired perk that causes you to have better target acquisition and precision damage while the Personal Assistant perk is in action. My general problem with the weapon however is that I just don’t like medium impact snipers. This weapon has 55 impact and the snipers I tend to use personally are in the 70-90 range. Now is the point where I start speaking out of my depth, but I always feel like this medium impact variety has to be targeted at the crucible right? It has really high stability and handling which should in theory make scoping in on your target extremely snappy. I just have zero interest in using a sniper rifle in PVP, and if I am going to use one in PVE I want it to pack a bigger punch. PC players it will probably still be worth a pick up for the power level bump if nothing else.

As far as armor goes this is a really phenomenal week and includes sort of a greatest hits collection of universally useful items. Actium War Rig is one of the options that you can get on Titan, and if you are an auto rifle fan like me… it is probably going to be what you end up using. The Auto-Loading Link perk causes ammo to loaded into your magazine when you stop firing the weapon at a tick rate of roughly one second. What this means is if you are burst firing your weapon you can greatly extend the amount of time you can put off reloading giving you way more time to mop up enemies. This works extremely well with weapons that have the rampage perk because you can keep rolling between targets without having to take the time to wait for reload, just allowing the weapon to tick once between bursts of fire. Definitely going to pick this up for the power level and to have a more current version of this item rather than the level 105 item the game gives you.

Warlocks have a similarly universally good item in the form of the Eye of Another World helmet. Similarly this is an item you can pick up on Titan and the cerebral uplink perk causes you to highlight priority targets but also improves the regeneration speed of grenade, melee and rift abilities. Its rare that an item just makes everything universally work better, but that is in fact the mission of this helm. Once again I highly suggest picking this up for the power level if nothing else, but for anyone who chose poorly on Titan… then here is a nice second chance to get that item.

I’ve talked about this item before and I am not really sure what else I can add. Knucklehead Radar is one of my favorite pieces of gear from Destiny 1 and I am super happy that it returned to Destiny 2. The upgraded sensor pack causes radar tracking to be active while you aim down sights on every weapon. This is just universally useful and is a crutch that I am not willing to give up while playing my hunter. I used the hell out of the Memory of Gheleon artifact in Destiny 1 year 3… and similarly I love this item. Again if nothing else this is a good level boost for those PC players who are just now getting started. I hope to be able to gather enough legendary shards before Xur leaves on Tuesday to purchase each of these items and have them ready for when I start leveling the Hunter and Warlock.

Xur Destiny 1

As has been the case the last few weeks, I am also doing the information about Xur in Destiny 1 lest we not all abandon the players who are still enjoying that game. You can find Xur in the tower next to Lord Shaxx. This week he brought something interesting… the Jade Rabbit which was previously an exclusive for the PS4 players. I had heard that the embargo had been lifted on selling the PS4 exclusive items, but I am guessing this is hard proof. Here is a quick rundown of what he has brought for us this week.

Legacy Helmet Engram – 29 Strange Coins
An Insurmountable Skullfort – Titan Helm – 13 Strange Coins
Crest of Alpha Lupi – Hunter Chest – 13 Strange Coins
Claws of Ahamkara – Warlock Arms – 13 Strange Coins
Jade Rabbit – Scout Rifle – 23 Strange Coins
Hawkmoon and Moonglow Ornament – 30 Strange Coins 25 Silver Dust
Tresspasser and Crucible Assassin Ornament – 30 Strange Coins 25 Silver Dust

Advertisers Suck

October 14, 2017 by Belghast

Okay this is going to be a bit of a departure from my normal content. However one of the things I get sick of as a blogger is dealing with the constant deluge of people wanting me to link to something, or do some sort of half baked paid content scheme to increase their SEO numbers. I’m feeling a little vindictive today so I am posting the sort of thing that I deal with on a regular basis.

Hey quick question –

I hope everything is going well on your end

My name is [Dude You Can Google Keywords], and I’m on the content team at [Cloud Storage Company I Have Never Heard Of].

I just finished going through your article here: http://aggronaut.com/category/games/action/. Thanks for the resource!

My colleague [Some Writer At The Company] recently put together a pretty comprehensive piece on cloud storage for photographers. This really is good information for anyone in this realm. There is a ton of information out there; our guide was designed to cut through the noise a bit.

The post is here: [Link to a post about hosting photography]

Would you consider linking to it in the article of yours I mentioned above? I saw you linked to store.playstation.com in there, so I figured I’d see if you’d link to mine as well. Perhaps your visitors find it helpful, but hey, it’s up to you.

Thanks,

– [Dude You Can Google Keywords]

P.S. I respect the relationship you have with your readers, I wouldn’t ask you to link to anything I didn’t think was an excellent resource for you guys.

So firstly… my blog is not a photography blog. Secondly he is linking to one of my categories, this one specifically is for action games so nothing to do with photography. The reason why he suggests I link to it… is because I link to store.playstation.com??? I mean I do this thing because I am talking about how to claim your Playstation Plus titles without logging into your console. Anyways this makes zero sense given what my blog is. As is usually my first line of defense I just ignore the email hoping they will go away. However this doesn’t always work as is the case with the follow up email that I get.

Hey again –

I figured I’d try one more time

Did you happen to get my last email? If you have a moment, could you let me know what you think about this idea? Or maybe you could put me in touch with the person in charge of content?

I’d love any help you can give!

Thanks!

– [Dude You Can Google Keywords]

Now one of the things I have learned the hard way… is that if they ever do this… email a second time… you are NEVER getting rid of them unless you give them a forceful shove off. I had one person from a website on e-sports betting pester me on and off over the course of an entire month through a string of probably twelve emails where I kept trying to politely say that I am not interested… and that they kept trying to get me to allow them to post promotional content on my site. So as a result I have to end up sending an email like this one…

Hey [Dude You Can Google Keywords],

I had not responded to the first email in part because I just get tired of responding to emails like this one. Tales of the Aggronaut is a personal blog and anything that appears on it means that its there because I personally suggest people checking it out. I don’t do paid ad placement nor do I link to products or services that I did not find organically and I am not actually using myself. Firstly you included a link that makes zero sense given that it is the action games category of my blog and has nothing to do with photography. Secondly… the fact that I link to Store.playstation.com also makes zero sense giving that its a tutorial on how to retrieve your Playstation Plus games of the month through the web interface without having to log into the console. Essentially nothing you wrote me fits in any way to what I actually write about. Clearly you spent exactly as much time reviewing my website as was required to fill in what is essentially a madlibs style form email.

None of this makes me interested in your product. Had you actually found a way to relate this back to my readers in any fashion, and simply approached me with an offer of “we have this awesome product, is this something you maybe want to review? Here is an account to check it out. Let us know what you think and tell your readers if you like it.” then bam that is a reasonable way to approach a content creator. This just feels sleazy.

Anyways hope you have a good day.

Bel

Here is hoping that I never hear from this person again… but deep down in the back of my mind I know that I will. There is a slimy underbelly that exists when you get to a certain point with a blog, where all of these people start crawling out of the woodwork wanting to use an anchor on your site as part of some network to increase their search engine ranking. Some offer to pay… somewhere between $50-100 for placing an article laden with links to their product on your site. Others like this schmuck seem to want you to do it out of the goodness of your heart. One guy claimed that it was unfair to my readers to only show part of the story, because I had linked to Libsyn a hosting provider that I use myself for AggroChat and have zero business relationship with. I could go to the trouble of writing a rule or flagging it as spam, but that doesn’t stop the constant onslaught of people just like them. Writing this post more than anything is for me personally… because sometimes I just want to scream obscenities at my email. Instead I am creating a post which is at least somewhat therapeutic. Monday we will return to our normally scheduled posts.

Faction Rally 1: DO Edition

October 3, 2017 by Belghast

Once again by the time this post comes out it is going to likely be of zero use to anyone, because if I am understanding the Faction Rally correctly… it would have just ended and we will be entering the phase where a winner will be chosen. I am doing something super dangerous in that I am staging this content on the weekend to post Monday and Tuesday. So by the time this actually goes live we should know which weapon we have available. I took the route of choosing a different faction for each character, and this has also given me the opportunity to collect all twelve unique faction based drops that are available from packages. Yesterday I wrote about New Monarchy, and last week about Future War Cult… so today is the time to talk about everyone’s favorite chromatically challenged faction… Dead Orbit. This faction will always have a special place in my heard due to the fact that the majority of my time playing Destiny… I was pledged to Arach Jalaal desperately hunting that cool emblem with the axes. In Destiny 2… I was swayed by just how damned good the weapon offering was in the Future War Cult camp. That said there is at least one gem in this lineup, but your mileage may vary.

Let me get this out of the way first. I do not like sidearms… they have always felt like crappier faster firing versions of hand cannons. In Destiny 1 the only time I broke one out and used it… was when I was working on a bounty that required me to get X number of kills with a specific damage type weapon that was not Arc. Even then the only reason why I used a Sidearm was simply because of the extreme ammo reserves they tended to have. With Destiny 2 they introduced a new class of Sidearm that burst fires… which quickly caused me to start ignoring every single firing gun out there. So needless to say the Eleventh Hour has a bunch of strikes against it out of the gate, but in truth it does have a few things going for it. This weapon is essentially a fast firing low impact weapon… that has an insane upwards kick if you are firing it as fast as you can pull the trigger. That said if you are slowing down and placing your shots a little more carefully this can two precision shot most minions and with a 17 shot magazine… you can pour through a bunch. Where this starts to become useful is the fact that it has Rampage perk giving you a stacking damage buff each time you take down a target up to three. I could see this being extremely good for clearing out thralls or something of the sort. The problem I have though is that there are just dozens of energy slot weapons that I would rather use than this. If you enjoy using it then by all means do so… it just doesn’t really have a place in my world and I will likely shard it once I have finished writing this review.

This is a fairly bizarre shotgun offering, and I am going to try and unpack why. First off this is an extremely hard hitting, slow rate of fire weapon with abysmal range and reload speeds that are amplified by the poor handling stat. What it does well is hit really hard… a single time. So if you think you can one-shot a target with this shotgun then it is probably going to do a great job of it. Now if you combine the tactical mag perk… with the field prep perk the equation starts to change a bit and while crouched you can reload this weapon extremely fast. Now initially I thought… maybe this works while sliding but after thirty minutes of trying to make this work it seems like you just straight up cannot reload while in the slide motion. So functionally in order to do this in the heat of battle I would probably slide behind some cover, reload quickly and then get back into the action. Where the gun shines however is that it has a pretty deep well to draw from in that if you choose specific perks you can have 6 in the magazine and 12 in reserve. For PVE this seems like a perfectly reasonable shotgun… but for PVP I think it is going to lose out every time to one of the full auto options. The best part though is the look and the sound it makes when it fires a shell.

I feel like Pulse Rifles are just in a really awkward place in Destiny 2. They have always lived in this weird place between scout rifles and auto rifles… and in the current meta both are undeniably in better places than this weird hybrid. Three Graves currently lives in the slowest rate of fire and highest impact flavor of pulse rifle, and it brings with it some really nice stability. What it severely lacks however is handling and reload speed… giving the gun a really sluggish feel as you shift between hip and ads modes. The outlaw perk can help with the reload speed because it decreases reload time after a precision kill… which is relatively easy to do given how much damage this thing puts out and how stable it is. The thing that never really gets better though is the handling… so for me to feel comfortable with this weapon I would need to slot in some mods to improve that. The biggest obstacle this weapon has is the fact that I have Innaugural Address the raid pulse… that just feels better to use.

Tons of players love The Old Fashioned, in fact it has shown up on a ton of the top X weapons in Destiny 2 lists. I am not one of those players, and when I first saw Dire Promise in the drop list for Dead Orbit I was not extremely hopeful. There are however a bunch of tweaks that have been made to this weapon that make it feel vastly different than the weapon that is so commonly sharded by me that I didn’t even have one available to directly compare against. Functionally you are losing a little impact and range, and gaining a ton of stability and handing as well as a tiny bit of reload speed as well as 2 bullets in the magazine. As far as perks… you are losing Kill Clip and gaining one of my favorites from Destiny 1… Triple Tap which is shockingly hard to find on a D2 hand cannon. If you feel like you can sacrifice a little stability… you can even push this gun into the 13 in the magazine club. This means that if you can consistently hit precision shots… you could in theory fire 17 78 impact shots without reloading… meaning that is a ton of damage in a very short period of time. While I doubt this is going to dislodge either Better Devils or True Prophecy as my Hand Cannon of choice… this is definitely going to be something I swap to situationally.

Now that you have seen all of the weapons available from the Faction Rally this go round… what are your thoughts? Do you like me feel like Future War Cult had the strongest offerings or are you thinking I short changed one of the other factions?