diablo 3 | Kor'kron 501st

Totally not the cow level

Posted by Peter (Devee) on May 17, 2015

Posted in: Diablo III, Journal, Reaper of Souls. Tagged: cow king, cow level, cow queen, d3, diablo 3, diablo iii, herald to the queen, not the cow level, reaper of souls, ros, the cow king, the cow queen, totally not the cow level. Leave a comment

There were rumors of a bovine invasion this weekend, but “Management” was quick to give notice to the Citizens of Sanctuary that the rumors were unfounded.

…while the idea of some sort of “cowpocalypse” (as one terrified farmer has taken to calling this) is udderly ridiculous, it is worth noting that one can never be too careful. And so, after consulting with our local Horadrim chapter, we have elected to issue an advisory… it is also recommended that you avoid entering any strange portals that may or may not lead to alternate planes of existence. This activity cud be potentially hazardous to your health and, in the opinion of this humble civil servant, is a veally bad idea in general.”

Debunking the Cowspiracy, Management, Diablo III Blog, 5/14/15.

After about an hour of searching, I found a Herald to the Queen. Moogle joined me, and we explored the portal together.

Leads to a place that does not exist. The Burning Hells are not responsible for events that transpire there. If you claim to have been to this place, you will be called a liar. Void where prohibited.

We defeated The Cow Queen, met the Ghost of the Cow King, and killed hordes of hellbent bovine.

…except that never happened because the place doesn’t exist, of course.

Also the music was excellent.

D3 Season 2: Introducing Mooglie

Posted by Peter (Devee) on February 17, 2015

Posted in: Diablo III, Journal. Tagged: d3, d3 season 2, diablo, diablo 3, diablo iii, monk, reaper of souls, ros, season 2. Leave a comment

Shhh, no one tell Mooglegem that I stole her name. This is Mooglie, my monk for Diablo 3 season 2. I’m still fairly low level, but she’s been fun so far.

The true Warlords of Draenor upgrade process

Posted by Peter (Devee) on November 14, 2014

Posted in: Blizzard and Battle.net, Diablo III, Reaper of Souls, Videos, Videos, Warlords of Draenor, World of Warcraft. Tagged: d3, diablo 3, diablo iii, draenor, mousepad, reaper of souls, ros, tanaan jungle, upgrade, warcraft, warlords of draenor, wod, world of warcraft, wow. Leave a comment

This is the really satisfying part of the upgrade that no one ever mentions.

In all honesty, I do enjoy the Blizzard mousepads. When I get a new Blizzard game, I always enjoy switching mousepads. Sometimes I might find myself thinking, “wait, what was the latest release?” and then I can just look under my mouse. Okay, that never happens.

As for Warlords of Draenor, I don’t want to dwell too much on it here. I’ll probably talk about it more over the weekend. However, I’ll briefly discuss my initial thoughts. Despite server troubles, I’ve really enjoyed it. The introduction experience in Tanaan Jungle is sweet, and I love the cinematic way of introducing the warlords (or buildings in the garrison). I love feeling powerful and being recognized as a hero. The garrison is super fun. I’m very happy.

Hit 70 on my crusader

Posted by Peter (Devee) on November 13, 2014

Posted in: Diablo III, Journal, Reaper of Souls. Tagged: adventure mode, crusader, d3, diablo 3, diablo iii, diablo iiir, greater rifts, master, nephalem rifts, reapoer of souls, ros, season 1, torment. Leave a comment

On the launch day of Warlords of Draenor, I thought I’d change it up and talk about Diablo. I recently hit 70 on my crusader – the first time I’ve hit the level cap in Diablo III. I never actually posted about this character at all. After gem and I finished Reaper of Souls near the end of September, I created a seasonal crusader and leveled only through Adventure Mode. The game is much more fun and quick in Adventure Mode, so I was very happy with that. I enjoyed the crusader as well. He has a strong and steady feel like he could walk through any barrier. I particularly like using flails, but I use whatever’s best.

Now that I’m at the level cap, I could check out endgame. I’m playing on Master currently because I can’t quite handle Torment. As such, no Greater Rifts for me yet, but I did try my hand at Nephalem Rifts. They’re… not that fun. In addition, combining gems has always been one of the most satisfying parts of the game for me, but now I can’t afford to combine all my gems. Boo! I intend to play some more, pushing into Torment and trying Greater Rifts, but I don’t know if it’ll happen. After the first night of being max level, my drive to play fell greatly. However, I know I’ll be back in season two to try a new class!

Ready to stop the Warlords of Draenor

Posted by Peter (Devee) on November 12, 2014

Posted in: Carpe Flux Capacitor, Raiding, Warlords of Draenor, World of Warcraft. Tagged: alot, d3, diablo 3, diablo iii, gamestop, Mists of Pandaria, reaper of souls, warcraft, warlords of draenor, wod, world of warcraft, wow. Leave a comment

It’s hard to concentrate. I’m too excited about Warlords of Draenor. With the game releasing very soon, there are a lot of feelings swirling inside of me.

For the past week or so, there’s two conflicting feelings. First, there’s excitement, which is mainly what I’m feeling. I can’t wait to push the story forward and see the new content. Once I get to playing, I know I’ll experience a lot of boring filler, but the overall story progression is always so exhilarating. I also love the feeling or triumph over progression raid content. The other feeling that conflicts slightly is the constriction of my life by raiding. We’re starting in January (and I’m very thankful for that delay to enjoy the other content), and that means that two nights per week my time is already allotted.

(I’m sorry, but I had to include this. It’s ~~stolen~~ taken from Hyperbole and a Half, and even though it’s not really applicable here since I wasn’t using the false word, “alot,” I like the alot a lot.)

Anyways, in addition to raid time, there are other commitments as well. I feel responsible for a lot of other things in WoW that need to get done, so it’s not just a leisurely game. Raiding is worth the stress for me – the challenge and the friendships are amazing – but there’s stress all the same. Maybe, just maybe, I can keep it more under control. If I don’t enjoy something, I shouldn’t do it… but when I’m part of a raid team, it’s hard to justify that thinking. I don’t know how it’ll be this expansion though without a plethora of dailies or Valor Points.

Now that that Warlords of Draenor is this close, the responsibilities are actually draining from my mind as the hype fills it. I’m just excited.

I pre-ordered Warlords of Draenor Collector’s Edition from Amazon this time. Two years ago I pre-ordered the Mists of Pandaria Collector’s Edition from GameStop and was not happy when they didn’t have my game for me. I don’t want to try them again. I did use GameStop for the Reaper of Souls Collector’s Edition, but I used a different location. This time I decided to try something different. While I’m not in the mood for midnight launches like I was when I was younger, it does mean that I’ll have to wait for the package to come on Thursday. This also seemed appropriate though because I’m working and didn’t want to take time off for the game. I’ll have all night Thursday and plenty of time after that to enjoy the game. Still, I can’t help but be sad now. Most of my guildmates will be playing tonight at midnight.

I’m also annoyed that there wasn’t a proper way to pre-purchase digitally and then upgrade to the Collector’s Edition. I liked what they did with the WoW annual pass and Diablo 3. You got Diablo 3 for free with a WoW annual pass, and if you purchased the Collector’s Edition of Diablo 3, they credited your account with the difference. This time they said that if you bought Warlords digitally and later added the Collector’s Edition, they’d issue you a standard edition Warlords key to give to someone else. I’m sorry, but that’s terrible. Everyone I know is already purchasing the game. That means I can’t play right at midnight, and more importantly, I couldn’t use my free boost-to-90 when I actually had the time to do so. Oh well.

I didn’t mean to get side-tracked with negativity. I’m super pumped! Soon I’ll get to see a smorgasbord of new content as well as many of my friends back in action. I can’t wait!

Stopping Malthael and discovering Whimsydale

Posted by Peter (Devee) on September 26, 2014

Posted in: Diablo III, Journal, Reaper of Souls. Tagged: adventure mode, d3, demon hunter, diablo, diablo 3, diablo iii, malthael, rainbow goblin, reaper of souls, ros, whimsydale. Leave a comment

gem and I recently beat Reaper of Souls! I know it’s been out for a long time now, but we stopped playing for a while.

When we started the game that evening, we were on a quest to find Malthael. It was pretty obvious that we were near the end of the game, but I didn’t realize just how close we were.

Honestly, it felt a little anticlimactic. I wish there were more mechanics to the final fight. Like a lot of Diablo III, it just seemed a bit too easy. Yes, I know you can make it more difficult, but really, we should struggle a little. Also, I think they should have drawn out Malthael longer. If they’re going to introduce a large, new story element – an angel turning against humanity – they should let that simmer for a while.

After killing Malthael, we decided to step into Adventure Mode finally. As we collected our bounties, we came across a Rainbow Goblin!

I knew what was coming, but Whimsydale came as a huge surprise to gem! I’m glad she got to experience it like that, because she seemed pretty excited.

Look how cute that map is!

By the end of the night, my Demon Hunter, Dara, was in the low fifties. I’m not sure what’s next, but I’ll probably be playing a bit more D3 now.

Conan plays WoW, talks to the devs at BlizzCon, Adam Koebel, WoW Insider, 11/21/13.

This is hysterical! You should definitely watch it.

Exclusive first look at Christie Golden’s new novel, War Crimes, Anne Stickney, WoW Insider, 11/18/13.

Christie Golden writes fantastic Warcraft novels. I can’t wait for this one.

Diablo III transmogrification coming to WoW, Anne Stickney, WoW Insider, 11/14/13.

Yes, please!

Doodlegnome answers all of your Warlords of Draenor questions, Scott Helfand, WoW Insider, 11/17/13.

Here’s everything you really need to know about WoD answered in cute doodle form.

Know Your Lore, Tinfoil Hat Edition: Timelines, timeways, and Karazhan, Anne Stickney, WoW Insider, 11/17/13.

Another article on time travel. It basically explains, yet again, that Garrosh will be creating an alternate timeline that interacts with ours and not changing our past.

Flying Can Take A Hike, Rongar, BlizzPro, 11/14/13.

Rongar doesn’t mind waiting for flying.

Outlandish Memories, JD Kenada, Amateur Azerothian, 11/14/13.

JD Kenada looks back at the good and bad in Outland.

BlizzCon was this weekend, and I found the announcements pretty exciting. Despite living just twenty to thirty minutes from the convention center, I didn’t go. I think it feels less special as a convention because it’s so close, but I do watch the stream. I’ll be posting about some of the announcements and my feelings about them later. I have something more important to mention first!

What would World of Warcraft be without people with whom to play? Some of my guildies came down, and got to hang out this weekend. I’m second from the right, in the red shirt. I stole the pic from my guild leader, so hopefully she doesn’t mind. I went to dinner with three out-of-towners and Mooglegem on Friday night, and Saturday night the group of us above went to dinner. That includes four people I met (in person) this weekend, which was great.

In the photo, you might notice a cookie jar between a glass of water and a beer. Moogle baked cookies and brought them with her in that jar. While we in line at a restaurant, she handed them out to us. A girl behind us got excited, asking where we got the cookies. Moogle explained that she baked them and brought them with her. She seemed sad, and Moogle offered her a cookie. She got really excited, accepted, tried it, and then told Moogle how good it was! Later, when we were seated, Moogle offered cookies to our waiter and waitress. The waiter took one fairly early and thought it was great. It was later in the meal when the waitress accepted, and she also told Moogle how good she thought it was. A few minutes later, a different waitress came over to us, telling us that she didn’t know who baked the cookies but that her coworker shared a piece with her and she thought they were amazing. Moogle gave one to her too. Everyone loves cookies!

As for the content from BlizzCon itself, I was pretty impressed. I think Warlords of Draenor sounds very exciting and the changes are, generally, good ones. I’m also pleased with what I saw of Reaper of Souls. I’ve never played a MOBA, but I’m optimistic about Heroes of the Storm (and the trailer was fantastic). I’d actually not played Hearthstone in a while, but the convention made me excited to play once more. Adventures sound particularly cool! And I guess StarCraft was there. I don’t play it. I’ll post more in-depth about the announcements in the future!

Diablo III’s console superiority

Posted by Peter (Devee) on September 4, 2013

Posted in: Diablo III, Journal. Tagged: d3, diablo, diablo 3, diablo iii. Leave a comment

Over the weekend, I played local co-op Diablo III with my roommates on PS3, finishing the first act. I went into it expecting that it would be fun but inferior to the PC version. I was wrong. This is the better version.

Of course, the number one aspect is that it allows local co-op. It was a ton of fun to play with my roommates together like that. Each player gets a different colored circular indicator at the bottom of their hero so they can easily identify themselves. Sure, there were times at which I was looking at the wrong character, but it wasn’t a huge problem. If one player isn’t moving and the others run to the right, the one who wasn’t moving will run along with them. If that character gets trapped, it’ll teleport to the party. This is just fantastic. It was easy to eat and have a good time and not worry about stopping the group. If you’re actively in control of your character, it won’t happen. It works flawlessly.

There are a few other changes that I really liked. Not only did they remove the auction house, but they increased drops to compensate. It’s much better. I want to look for loot on the bodies of my enemies, not an auction house. The inventory system was also changed. Instead of having a grid and requiring inventory-Tetris, the inventory now has 60 slots, and each item takes one slot. You can carry much more, and you don’t have to worry about the size or shape. In addition, it shows if an item is an upgrade or downgrade in a few key stats when you select it. You’ll easily see whether or not the new weapon does more damage for example. Of course, you can view the full stats too and make your decision.

The only downside is that you now have to aim with a stick rather than target with a mouse. It’s not a deal breaker, but you do lose some accuracy. Blizzard did a surprisingly excellent job porting D3 to consoles. Console gamers are into a treat, and even if you have the PC version, if you like local co-op, you’ll love this.

Diablo III: Reaper of Souls revealed

Posted by Peter (Devee) on August 22, 2013

Posted in: Diablo III, Reaper of Souls, Story, Videos. Tagged: angel of death, archangel of wisdom, black soulstone, blizzpro, crusader, d3, diablo, diablo 3, eldorian, gamescon, malthael, ros. Leave a comment

Blizzard officially announced Reaper of Souls as the expansion to Diablo III at GamesCon on Wednesday morning. Normally I’d write a Suggested Reading post for Thursday, but I had to give this its own post.

Like most people predicted, Malthael, formerly the Archangel of Wisdom, returns as the Angel of Death, intent on stealing the Black Soulstone. As usual, Blizzard creates an exciting trailer that has be ready to play Reaper of Souls. I got the announcement from Eldorian’s post at BlizzPro.

Highlights include…

the crusader, a new class, a holy knight;
an increased level cap at 70;
a new loot system in which there are less drops but they’re more likely to be optimized for your character;
changes to the paragon system;
loot runs, short, randomized dungeons;
transmogrification and enchants through the mystic

Most of my friends weren’t happy with Diablo III, but I really enjoyed it. Part of this probably came from the fact that I only played through it once. I finished normal as a demon hunter, and afterwards, I tried a demon hunter in hardcore as well a monk in normal. Neither made it to Act II. I didn’t really consider this a problem as I wasn’t expecting to continuing progressing like I did in earlier installments. I think this probably saved me from seeing problems other saw. Whatever the reason, I really enjoyed Diablo III, and Reaper of Souls looks great. I had no problems with the tone of the core game, but I’m looking forward to this darker feel as well.

Hopefully it’s not too far away!

Flex Raiding – Too Little Too Late?, wolfgangcat, WoW Misadventures, 6/7/13.

I agree with him! The gear is worse than normal, but you need to have at least 10 people. Why would I run it then?

On raid lockouts, flexible raiding, and choice, Matthew Rossi, WoW Insider, 6/8/13.

I disagree with many of Mr. Rossi’s points. I really need to make a post just on flex raids.

FlexRaids in 5.4, and LFR is apparently killing wow?, TyphoonAndrew, TyphoonAndrew’s – Eye of the Storm, 6/7/13.

TyphoonAndrew loves the addition of flex raids but defends the importance of LFR.

Maybe NORMAL Raiding Should Die, Prinnie Powah, That Was an Accident!, 6/7/13.

Here’s an interesting idea. Prinnie Powah wonders if normal mode should be removed and replaced by flex raids.

Patch 5.4 PTR: Proving Grounds, Matthew Rossi, WoW Insider, 6/12/13.

Finally! This sounds really exciting.

Patch 5.4 PTR: Challenge Mode titles for fastest clear times, Matt Low, WoW Insider, 6/12/13.

If you have the fastest clear time for a Challenge Mode, you’ll be given a title specific to that Challenge Mode. As soon as you lose the fastest time, you’ll lose the title.

Patch 5.4 PTR Patch notes, Anne Stickney, WoW Insider, 6/12/13.

Everything else about 5.4.

Know Your Lore: The legacy of the Mag’har, Anne Stickney, WoW Insider, 6/9/13.

The Red pox, the attack on Azeroth, Garrosh, and more.

Diablo 3’s new game directory outlines the future of the game, Auction House, Michael McWhertor, Polygon, 6/5/13.

Josh Mosqueira, the new game director of Diablo 3, wants items to feel meaningful and reduce “the impact of the Auction House.”

Why aren’t more healers queueing [sic] for the Raid Finder?, Allison Robert, WoW Insider, 4/3/13.

Allison wonders why healers aren’t queuing for raid finder. She thinks it might have to do with healing being harder in LFR than normal raids because people will assume the healers can compensate. This seems like a crazy idea. I can be half asleep spamming random button and still top the carts in LFR, and it’s not like I’m heroic raid geared or anything.

Patch 5.3: PTR patch notes and datamined changes, Olivia Grace, WoW Insider, 4/2/13.

Great information about 5.3!

Patch 5.3 PTR: The Kor’kron are taking over, Olivia Grace, WoW Insider, 3/28/13.

A look at how we’ll be fighting the Kor’kron.

Diablo III’s auction house ‘really hurt the game’, Elisabeth Cardy, Massively, 3/28/13.

The quote in the title comes from former D3 game director Jay Wilson.

Scarlet Blade Impressions, Rohan, Blessing of Kings, 4/1/13.

If you care to know more about this sort-of-NSFW MMO, give this article a read.

Patch 5.3 PTR: Fiery new mounts, Olivia Grace, WoW Insider, 4/3/13.

Sweet new mounts datamined in the 5.3 files!

Know Your Lore: Titan facilities of Azeroth, Matthew Rossi, WoW Insider, 4/3/13.

No amazing tidbits here, but it’s a nice recap of Titan facilities.

Five reasons patch 5.2 will pull you back into WoW, Elizabeth Harper, WoW Insider, 3/6/13.

Harper provides a nice summary of 5.2 content.

Patch 5.2 official patch notes, Adam Holisky, WoW Insider, 3/5/13.

If Harper’s article isn’t enough information for you, this might be for you.

On the Broken Battleground Scaling of 5.2, Cynwise, Cynwise’s Warcraft Manual, 3/7/13.

Cynwise looks at how battleground scaling has only made balance worse in the lower-level brackets.

Diablo 3, the Auction House, and Efficiency, Rohan, Blessing of Kings, 3/2/13.

Rohan discusses the dangers of increasing efficiency too much. He also claims that there shouldn’t be shortcuts a game’s “central fun.” It’s a great idea. It also reminds me of some tweets I saw by Bennett (@bfod) who said “well, until they charged me money to skip over it, I wasn’t thinking of playing the game as being ‘grind’” and “since they’re charging money to skip it, I know it is grind. Even the developers think of it as grind. Playing it is a penalty.” He goes on to say “here’s how it works-if you pay to play more, you’re seeing play as being valuable. If you pay to play less, you’re thinking of it as a grind” (2/27/13).

Know Your Lore: Jaina Proudmoore and the Kirin Tor, Anne Stickney, WoW Insider, 3/3/13.

Wondering what’s up with Jaina lately? Then pay attention to the game you pay to play! Or read this.

Know Your Lore: Aethas Sunreaver and the founding of the Sunreaver Onslaught, Matthew Rossi, WoW Insider, 3/6/13.

This guy got totally sweet this expansion. Yup.

The Decline of Rogues, Rohan, Blessing of Kings, 3/3/13.

Rohan has some ideas on why rogues are on the decline.

Secret Areas of Warcraft: Where developers go to play, Sarah Pine, WoW Insider, 2/28/13.

Secrets always fascinate me.

What does legendary really mean?, Anne Stickney, WoW Insider, 2/28/13.

What legendary means has been changing.

Eberron and beyond: Seven years of Dungeon and Dragons Online, Justin Olivetti, Massively, 2/28/13.

Olivetti looks back at DDO.

Every Thursday I post a handful of links to articles written within the past week that are worth reading.

Gold Capped: Spirit of Harmony crafting limitations, Basil Berntsen, WoW Insider, 7/2/12.

Spirit of Harmony is a limiting crafting material in Pandaria similar to Chaos Orbs. They drop from random world mobs. This means that people questing will get many more than people who solely raid.

Blizzard wants your Diablo 3 Magic Find feedback, Michael Sacco, WoW Insider, 7/3/12.

Blizzard knows that many people are switching to magic find sets immediately before killing bosses. They’re looking for feedback on alterations to the system.

Mists of Pandaria Collector’s Edition rewards revealed, Alex Ziebart, WoW Insider, 7/2/12.

Title says it all.

Teacher uses SWTOR to connect with autistic student, Justin Olivetti, Massively, 7/2/12.

Another case of the title saying it all!

Mists of Pandaria Beta: The best Brann Bronzebeard appearance ever, Anne Stickney, WoW Insider, 7/2/12.

Archaeology is getting a lot better in Pandaria! You can “crate” gray archaeology finds rather than selling them. These can then act as currency for items that teleport you to an active dig site, items that randomize the dig site locations, and packages of fragments for any race!

Hardcore, Level 10

Posted by Peter (Devee) on June 5, 2012

Posted in: Achievements, Diablo III, Journal. Tagged: barbarian, butcher, d3, demon hunter, diablo, diablo 3, diablo iii, hardcore, leoric. Leave a comment

gem and I have been playing a bit of hardcore mode after finishing our first playthrough of normal. It’s a little dangerous to be doing that with four roommates who may begin to download at any time, but I try to keep an eye on my latency. We reached level 10 recently, which honestly surprised me a bit. Don’t get me wrong; I’m relieved. I just figured our Internet would have dropped or something by now.

We’ve killed Leoric twice now I think. After defeating him, we reloaded at the previous quest to allow us to farm a little before proceeding. Better safe than sorry. I think we might play up to the Butcher and then restart before actually fighting him. I’m also anxious to try out other characters and to push into nightmare on my demon hunter, so who knows what we’ll end up doing.

IAMA former Blizzard customer service representative for WoW aka Gamemaster. AMAA, Panigg, reddit, 5/27/12 via Titan Focus

The Titan Focus post pulls out anything in the Ask Me Anything related to Titan. However, the actual AMA is a treasure trove of interesting, inside-Blizzard information. I don’t really see anything that’s Earth-shattering, but Blizzard fans should find it fascinating.

Project Tyria, Alucardalina Claire, via Massively, 5/21/12

Project Tyria compares the worlds of Guild Wars 2 and the original Guild Wars, which take place 250 years apart, through screenshots.

[Diablo 3] Elective Mode is a Mistake, Rohan, Blessing of Kings, 5/24/12

A discussion of Blizzard’s mistake of including the elective mode in Diablo 3.

On the Tyranny of Classes, Cynwise, Cynwise’s Warcraft Manual, 5/28/12

A comparison of characters in MMORPGs and characters in traditional RPGs, especially the fact that while a character’s class can change in many other RPGs, it’s the one unchanging aspect in most MMORPGs.

The Reality of Vanilla WoW, Matticus, World of Matticus, 5/29/12

Matticus takes off the rose-tinted glasses to look at vanilla WoW.

Now approaching two years of Real ID — did it work?, Anne Stickney, WoW Insider, 5/28/12

With Blizzard’s Real ID turning two, Stickney considers whether Real ID is a success and expresses her displeasure at the feature.

Dear Blizzard: A Modest Healing UI Request, Matticus, World of Matticus, 5/21/12

Matticus examines the default healing UI in WoW and suggests ways of incorporating absorbs.

Mists of Pandaria: Head enchants… gone! Shoulder enchants…, Adam Holisky, WoW Insider, 5/30/12 via a Ghostcrawler forum post

Head enchants are gone in Mists of Pandaria and shoulder enchants come from scribes. No more long reputation grinds for enchants!

Just a moment… Almost… Yes!

Posted by Peter (Devee) on May 30, 2012

Posted in: Diablo III. Tagged: d3, diablo, diablo 3, diablo iii, kulle, reborn, resurrect, resurrection, revive, sex, sexual, Zoltun Kulle. 2 Comments

Okay, cool cutscene so far. Everything’s fine.

Hehe, well, I’m immature. I should keep my mind out of the gutter. I mean, Zoltun Kulle just wants the spell to work. Blizzard would never make a sexual joke.

Okay, maybe I’m not immature. Maybe that’s exactly what Blizzard meant. Now that he’s… finished… how does he feel?

While not as obvious as the previous screens, this could be considered a description of one’s feelings after sex.

It sure seems to me that there is a lot of sexual imagery in this scene. From a biological standpoint, sex is used to procreate, to create life. It allows a new life to be born. In this part of Diablo III, the ritual is used to resurrect, to revive life. It allows an old life to be reborn. How fitting.

Also, I wasn’t the only one laughing. Moogle was definitely giggling as well.

The Burning Axe of Sankis

Posted by Peter (Devee) on May 29, 2012

Posted in: Diablo III, Journal. Tagged: d3, diablo, diablo 3, diablo iii, legendary, the burning axe of sankis. Leave a comment

I found a legendary this weekend. I’m not sure how common they are at this point, but I thought I’d share. I found the Burning Axe of Sankis, and it does have a cool model. I’m not going to be using it on my Demon Hunter, but I equipped it so the model could be seen.

The model is important because legendaries have unique models in D3. As the name stated, it’s a fiery axe, and the axe looks pretty cool in motion.

There seems to be some concern over the quality of legendaries. There have been complaints that they’re not as good as rares; Blizzard’s response has been that people have been comparing rares of higher level than the legendaries. I’m not really sure what to think. All items have random attributes in Diablo 3, so maybe the problem is a combination of the rarity of legendaries and the chance of getting good stats on them when they’re found.

Here are the stats on the one I found:

35.1 DPS
19-35 Damage
1.30 Attacks per Second
+4-9 Fire Damage
Adds 3% to Fire Damage
+21 Intelligence
+13 Fire Resistance
Each Hit Adds +16 Life
An obsidian axe wielded by the mad Sankis as he turned on his own men inside their fortress. Even as he burned to death himself, he would not stop his attacks on those he had once ruled.

Diablo 3 Beat

Posted by Peter (Devee) on May 28, 2012

Posted in: Diablo III, Journal, Videos. Tagged: boss, d3, demon hunter, diablo, diablo 3, diablo iii, final boss, monk, video. Leave a comment

After about 28 hours of play time, gem and I completed Diablo 3 normal mode. I played a demon hunter, and she played a monk. Demon hunter was very enjoyable throughout the game even as the skills changed. For my next go, I think I’ll try the monk, although trying something else might be nice because I saw gem play the monk. A barbarian might also be fun, but I’m under the impression that it’s a very simple class. Perhaps I’m just stereotyping, but I don’t want to play something that’s not complex enough to be fun. There must be some complexity to them though, right?

Here’s our fight against Diablo. It’s low quality; I wasn’t really showing anything in particular and wasn’t planning on posting it when I recorded it.

Make This a Meme: Show Us Your D3 Rainbow

Posted by Peter (Devee) on May 25, 2012

Posted in: Diablo III. Tagged: clearcasting, d3, diablo, diablo 3, diablo iii, meme, rainbow. 1 Comment

Great Minds « clearcasting.

Well, because you asked so nicely, Arioch.

Act I Complete

Posted by Peter (Devee) on May 24, 2012

Posted in: Diablo III, Journal. Tagged: act 1, act 2, act i, act ii, butcher, d3, diablo, diablo 3, diablo iii, tyrael. Leave a comment

Note that this post may contain some spoilers for Act I.

I died for the first time tonight. Damn you, Butcher. Blizzard brought the Butcher back as a boss in Act I. The fight itself was good I think, but I still don’t think he really needed revisiting. If they had simply named him something different such as The Furnace Master or something, it would have been much better. He could have been a boss created in homage to the Butcher. Yes, they talked about butchers are actually a type of demon, and this is much better than saying the Butcher was revived. Regardless, I’m making it sound like I had a large problem with it. It was fine; I just think it could have been better.

Soon after I died, gem died as well. We went for a second go at it, and this time gem died first. Luckily, I managed to get her back up, and we killed him.

Tyrael is freakin’ great. I won’t say why for now. Seriously, I’ve been a huge Diablo fan, so I’ve liked Tyrael, but now I love him so much more. What a cool cutscene!

And now it’s time to explore the dessert in Act II.

Good Achievements, Bad Achievements

Posted by Peter (Devee) on May 23, 2012

Posted in: Achievements, Achievements, Blizzard and Battle.net, Diablo III, World of Warcraft. Tagged: achievements, battle.net, blizzard, d3, diablo 3, diablo iii, profile, warcraft, world of warcraft, wow. Leave a comment

Achievements offer the chance to look at content in different ways and track progress. Sometimes they’re boring, but often they’re quite fun. Boring achievements might track progress or simply track something that you were going to do anyways. However, fun achievements task you with going about something in a different way than you might have previously or acknowledge that you did something difficult.

World of Warcraft has some boring achievements – Level 10, Explore Durotar, Northern Barrens Quests, An Honorable Kill, etc. These are achievements that really don’t warrant a “grats” in guild chat. There are also some good achievements. Explore Kalimdor, Disgracin’ The Basin, and More Skills to Pay the Bills are a couple examples. There are also achievements that mean you did something very difficult like The Loremaster, 100000 Honorable Kills, Battlemaster, and The Light of Dawn. These are achievements that pretty much require a quick “grats.” Unexpected ones like Going Down? can be fun as can the Glory of the Hero and Glory of the Raider achievements that task you with doing special things during boss fights. Then, of course, there are Feats of Strength, which are not available to all players.

There needs to be a balance between these types of achievements. There should be far less of the boring achievements because they just clutter up the system. It’s nice to be able to check how progressed in the game someone is, and for people who aren’t at endgame, checking their level via achievements could work. However, many of these boring achievements are hardly achievements. They shouldn’t be taken out of the game, but they should be the minority. Achievements should track the cool things you did. They’re things to show off. Feats of Strength are a great aspect to the achievement system in Blizzard’s games. They’re something special even if they’re not particularly hard.

Right now, I see a lot of the boring achievements in Diablo III. This is likely because I’m just beginning. However, it just seems strange to see achievements pop up when I’ve yet to even complete Act I. Let’s be honest here; I haven’t really achieved much. Also, I don’t care when a friend gets an achievement that’s hardly an achievement. Maybe a single progression achievement for each difficulty would be better? That might be going too far. However, boss-by-boss seems a bit much.

I think a better system is to push the profile we see in Diablo III and on the Web for World of Warcraft. There only needs to be an achievement for everything if the achievements are the only way you show off your accomplishments. If they were just one part, along a raid progression graphic like the one above, some of the boring achievements don’t need to exist.

Another thing I’d love to see are custom achievements. The logistics are difficult, but what if they weren’t worth any points and were in their own section? Basically, a little notepad area that’s part of your profile. These could be used to track personal memories you’ve made in the game.

No Longer Languishing in Ulduar

Convinced Lang to go back to Ulduar since I never saw it!

Where’s the Flag?

Played in a Warsong Gulch match over 12 hours after the flag disappeared and never respawned!

Those would be two of mine!

My first week with Diablo III | Blog | Game Boyz

Posted by Peter (Devee) on May 22, 2012

Posted in: Diablo III. Tagged: blog, d3, diablo, diablo 3, diablo iii, game boyz. Leave a comment

My first week with Diablo III | Blog | Game Boyz.

I posted a blog entry over on Game Boyz about Diablo III in general. While I usually only post at most once per day here, I’m not going to count this announcement. In fact, there’s a nice post about achievements in WoW and D3 scheduled to be posted at 8:00 tomorrow morning! Feel free to check out the blog at Game Boyz!

BattleTags Do NOT Solve Real ID Issues

Posted by Peter (Devee) on May 22, 2012

Posted in: Blizzard and Battle.net, Diablo III, World of Warcraft. Tagged: battle.net, battletag, blizzard, diablo 3, diablo iii, real id, world of warcraft, wow. Leave a comment

BattleTags are a great idea. Basically, using the BattleTag system is just like the Real ID system except it doesn’t use your account login. In other words, I can give someone my BattleTag, and we’ll have all the benefits of Real ID friends without me having to give out compromising information. Again, BattleTag friends will have all the benefits of Real ID friends. That includes being able to see each other’s online status across all Battle.net games. And that’s the part I still dislike.

I don’t always want to be connected. I know that’s strange in a world dominated by social media. (My profession is heavily dependent on social media even.) I like being connected, but I want a choice. I’d like to be able to sometimes go offline from the social system. I’m not asking to be invisible necessarily; I’m okay with temporarily losing the ability to see others as well.

Blizzard had a solution for this in World of Warcraft, and it’s been there since the beginning of WoW – character-level friends. I can be friends with someone on my character without being friends with them everywhere. While this wouldn’t solve when I want to be offline on a known character, it solves it partially. Unfortunately, Blizzard has decided not to include this functionality in Diablo III. If you want to play with someone easily or keep in touch with them in Diablo III, you have to give them the ability to see what you’re doing across all Battle.net games at all times.

I’ll repeat that: by adding a friend in Diablo III, you are inherently giving them the ability to see your online presence across all Battle.net games at all times without ever having the option to temporarily go offline.

What’s a World of Warcraft friend or StarCraft II friend?

A World of Warcraft or StarCraft II friend is any player you add to your friends list by their character name rather than through Real ID (or their BattleTag, in the future). If you add a character name to your friends list and are not Real ID or BattleTag friends with the player, you will not see the player’s real name in the game, nor will they see yours. Character-level friends such as these are specific to each game (i.e. World of Warcraft character friends cannot see each other in StarCraft II or Diablo III, nor can they communicate cross-game) and can see online and offline status information only, not rich presence details or Broadcast messages. Other characters that the player creates will not automatically be added to your friends list. Diablo III does not support character-level friendship, only BattleTag- or Real ID-based friendship.

via Real ID – Battle.net Support.

Yet another reason to continue to keep my distance from this system.

Initial Weekend with Diablo III

Posted by Peter (Devee) on May 21, 2012

Posted in: Achievements, Blizzard and Battle.net, Diablo III. Tagged: achievements, d3, demon hunter, diablo, diablo 3, diablo iii, king leoric, Mists of Pandaria, monk, runes, skills, sonic, warcraft, world of warcraft, wow. Leave a comment

On Saturday, gem and I started playing Diablo III. She was going to create a witch doctor but ended up rolling a monk. I played a demon hunter in the beta, planned on playing a demon hunter, and, well, did play a demon hunter. So far we’re really enjoying the game. The story is much more intricate, and the skill system is different than both Diablo 2 and World of Warcraft. Currently we’re maybe halfway (or so?) through Act I. For those of you playing, we’ve fought the spider queen boss. The screenshot above was taken right after killing King Leoric.

I think the most important thing to consider is whether or not the game is fun, and it has been. I enjoy the visual style, which has a hand-painted look to it. Although different, it reminds me of the background of Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood. Giving Town Portal as a spell that can be cast as often as needed is very cool change. Being able to identify items at will without using a scroll of identification (or something similar) is a cool change, but it makes me wonder why some items need to be identified at all. Is it because unidentified items can be sold (providing a sort of gamble)? I have no idea.

The skill system is odd. As you level, you unlock new skills and runes, which modify skills. Basically, talents and glyphs from World of Warcraft. However, you don’t really make permanent choices. You can make changes at any time with a short cooldown to prevent, I’m guessing, changing choices during combat. You have a maximum of six skills in use at a time once all slots are unlocked. I have some mixed feelings on the skill system, which I’ll talk about in another post.

There were some big improvements to the general social system. Achievements are a cool addition to the Diablo series. While a lot of them are boring, there are some fun ones. I haven’t actually counted or anything, but I hope there are a decent number of ones that are actually achievements. I like achievements that task you with performing a task a certain way as opposed to ones like “Reach Level 10.” Having achievements be account-based rather than character-based seems to work well. I’m sure it’ll be similar in Mists of Pandaria, so I’m glad to find that I’m happy with them. I do kind of wish that we’ll eventually be able to see achievements across games though. I’ve been meaning to post about achievements in general, which, who knows, maybe I’ll get around to doing. Battle Tags are an improvement over the Real ID system but are still fundamentally flawed. I actually have a post on this already written, and it’ll get posted soon. I like that in addition to large toasts acknowledging earned achievements for a player, there are now smaller toasts above the chat window for achievements earned by party members. Achievements are also broadcast to your friends now I believe, which is a cool addition.

While we’ve only played a rather small chunk of the game, I’ve enjoyed it so far. It’s interesting to see Blizzard’s knowledge from World of Warcraft added to the mix and bits and pieces of things to expect in Mists of Pandaria. I’m anxious to try hardcore mode, and I can’t wait to try PVP when they release it!

Diablo III Collector’s Edition

Posted by Peter (Devee) on May 16, 2012

Posted in: Diablo III, Videos. Tagged: aesthetic artifacts, art book, blizzard, collector's edition, diablo, diablo 3, diablo iii, dvd, fetish shaman, pet, portraits, skull, soulstone, soundtrack, starcraft ii, unboxing, usb stick. Leave a comment

Despite getting the standard edition of Diablo III for free with the WoW annual pass, Moogle and I picked up the Collector’s Editions. How could we not with all the cool things offered? You can see everything you get in the unboxing video above. In addition to the game itself, you get the following bonuses:

Diablo III aesthetic artifacts (in-game)
World of Warcraft Fetish Shaman pet (in-game)
StarCraft II portraits (in-game)
Diablo III soundtrack
Diablo III behind-the-scenes DVD
Diablo III art book (gorgeous)
Diablo skull USB stick case with soulstone 4 GB USB stick (that comes with D2 and D2: LoD)

Once again, Blizzard provides a fantastic collector’s edition (except I want a mousepad!).

At first, Moogle wanted to play Diablo 2 before we jumped into D3, but she gave up on that idea. She plans on playing a Witch Doctor, and I’m going to play a Demon Hunter. Hopefully we can get going this weekend!

Diablo

Posted by Peter (Devee) on May 11, 2012

Posted in: Diablo III. Tagged: diablo, diablo 2, diablo 3, diablo iii, release. Leave a comment

Do you know what I’m going to be doing Monday night?!

Sleeping, of course.

And Tuesday?!

Working. And then probably having dinner, doing various errands and chores, and sleeping. Maybe a small amount of video game playing.

In all seriousness, I’m excited that Diablo III is finally releasing. I wish it was closer to the beta so more of the hype would have carried over, but I guess I’m just complaining that I got into the beta so early. Also, I doubt Blizzard intended to delay D3 so long.

Regardless, gem never beat D1 or D2. We’ve decided that D1 doesn’t hold up well enough any longer, but I think we’re going to play through Diablo 2 before its sequel. Because the D3 collector’s edition includes a copy of D2, we’ll wait until D3 releases to start playing D2. Should be fun!

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