Slug Shakes with Friends

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Good Morning, Folks! Last night was our regularly scheduled Sibling Time ™, and I spent it with my sibling Ace. One thing that you have to know about Ace is that they love ANYTHING to do with the ocean, which means that I have more or less lost them completely since the release of Subnautica 2. Last night we decided to dive into the realm of multiplayer, and I have to say… much like it is with EVERY survival game… Subnautica 2 is better with friends. That is not to say there are no problems. Subnautica 2 has way more of a specific story than the first game, but less so than the expansion. The unfolding of the story happens in a very non-sequitur manner if you are not the person clicking on all of the objects. You will be exploring the world and have a sudden voice clip play from out of nowhere.

The game more or less follows a similar flow to the first one. You are on an Ocean planet, working for an evil corporation, and the first steps in this new world are to unjam your pod and send it to the surface. From there, you are gathering resources to build a more permanent structure and upgrade your kit of equipment to do various things. Where this game differs from the first one is that it adds to the mix genetic mutations that allow you to interact with various things that you cannot from the start. For example, before you launch your pod, you have to take an adaptation that allows you to process oxygen under the high atmospheric pressure of this planet. One of the first mutations that you seek out when oceanside is something that will allow you to process water and nutrients from the planetary wildlife. This is where the slug shake comes in, because effectively, you end up picking up these adorable sea slugs and drinking the filtered water inside of them.

Last night was a heck of a lot of fun, and we plan on playing on this same save file next week during Sibling Time. Probably the highlight of the night was disturbing this giant crab monstrosity that seems to churn up resources as it moves around. The other highlight is just how fast resource gathering goes when you have multiple people working towards the same objectives. We ended the night with a pretty sweet base, after our first one did not really meet our long-term needs. We had a lot of issues with that first base and object collisions, but in the second base, we largely built it once we opened up the ability to create rooms, so we have so much more space for “activities”. Right now, we are sort of working towards our ability to get a vehicle, and with that, I know that Ace is going to push me to start exploring the deep dark ocean that terrifies me so.

Since I have largely stopped playing Diablo IV, that means I am back in Path of Exile for the moment while waiting on the launch of Path of Exile II’s new league on the 29th. One of the characters that I really enjoyed this league is my yolo build around taking a guardian and then using a few new uniques to create a giant army of minions. Mostly, I guess I am seeing how far I can push this build before I lose focus again and start playing Path of Exile II. It is shocking just how well this build works and how tanky it actually is. It is nothing like my Righteous Fire characters, but it still has a fair amount of block and over 5000 life. I have been doing Delve with this character, which seems wild because you need a very tanky character for that. I’m not sure if I have ever had a Minions character that felt this comfy. Do I think anyone should follow this build? Probably not. It was super easy to level, and I mostly just typed Minion into the search box and went for those nodes.

I think for Path of Exile II, I am once again going to go with an Infernalist for minions. There does not seem to be any really popular overpowered build guides for this class, but my plan right now is that I am going to do what I did with the above build and just type “minion” in the search box and go where the nodes are. If nothing else, that should get me through the campaign pretty easily, and then I just have to work on defenses. My hope is that going Infernalist is going to allow me to pivot pretty easily into Raven Righteous Fire whenever I can get my hands on that staff. This first character will also serve as something to acquire some easy currency and buy some of the other new build enabling uniques. I want to try and shield throw/slam build with the new Tul unique. I am contemplating trying to do that build as a strength stacker with the new water sprinkler unique. Honestly, I am looking forward to playing some POE2 way more than I expected.

This was a bit of a mixed bag of topics, but as is the case often with my muddled chemo brain.

Winding Down Diablo

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Good Morning, Folks. For the last few weeks, my default gaming activity has been playing Diablo 4. More specifically, playing a Thorns Paladin at first and then switching it over to a Hammer/Arbiter Paladin to push a little further. I felt I hit a wall with Thorns around Torment IV, and that was what prompted me to the build that Raxx had been promoting to see if I could make it further. I could a bit, and now can pretty comfortably do Torment VIII Content, but tend to run Torment VII because it goes much faster. The big problem is that this build was supposed to be something that I could cakewalk Torment XII with, and so far, it has not been that. My time to kill, especially in the pit, is abysmal. I’ve technically unlocked Torment IX, but just barely by the skin of my teeth. I think I am just getting tired of pushing the build, and in theory, need to scrutinize and probably recraft every single piece of my gear to get further, since I cannot seem to get any Mythic Uniques to actually drop.

What I had been grinding so damned hard for was an Ancestral copy of Judgment of Auriel. I finally got that to drop off Lord Zir, and the difference that it made in the build was negligible. Maybe Torment VIII got a bit more comfortable, but nothing really to write home about. I thought maybe there was some hidden multiplier that I was not getting for not having a full set of Ancestral gear equipped, but that does not appear to be the case. The problem is that Ancestral drops still feel extremely rare events, especially from uniques at Torment VIII. It took me probably 60 kills before Lord Zir finally dropped the item I was after, and it took me farming the mercenary favors to get those boss summoning keys. It feels like I have a much harder time getting the keys for the low-level bosses than I do the grand keys for the bigger bosses. Something is not right here, and I hope they sort it out in the coming seasons.

I’ve also had zero luck with Echo of Lilith. I can get her down to around 20% life and then something oneshots me, so I guess I need to spend some time studying videos on this fight. I honestly hate shit like that, when bosses have oneshot mechanics. ARPGs for me are about gaining enough stats to steamroll over the top of content. This is why I hate Maven so much in Path of Exile, because there is no way I can cheese that fight. Bossing in general is not my jam, because I do not want to barely win. I want to crush the monsters and take away tasty loot as a result. At least in Path of Exile, I have done almost all of the fights; I just dislike them. I know Ace, and I have taken down Lilith as a team before, so I just need to figure out where I need to stand during that oneshot phase because it wasn’t really clearly telegraphed. It is also weird that I have to specifically do it on Torment VIII since many of the previous ranks required things way lower than that, and it feels like this one jumped several torment levels at once.

I had mostly been focused on grinding out tokens for the armor sets, because I have completed all of the other reliquaries, but not this one. I’ve gotten the shield and three of the armor sets, but I just do not know if I have it in me to keep grinding. These tokens come pretty slowly through doing content, and I am just not sure I have it in me to grind it out. The last one I picked up was for Spiritborn, which I did mostly because I lack a lot of armor sets that I really like for that class. I have plenty of armor sets for Barbarian, so that will probably be my last if I manage to grind these out. I did manage to grind out the limited-time World of Warcraft reliquary, but now there is nothing left to do with the tokens that I am generating through gameplay. I spent a bit of time playing Path of Exile, and doing maps… and I have to be honest, the moment-to-moment gameplay in that game just feels better. In truth, Diablo IV is at the bottom of the ARPG pecking list for me. If there is a Path of Exile, Last Epoch, or Path of Exile II league in that pecking order… I will choose those before playing Diablo IV. I might even choose fresh Titan Quest II content over Diablo IV, and that is not to say that D4 is a bad game… just that the others are giving me more of what I want.

There is also the problem that we are now roughly eleven days out from a new Path of Exile II league. Return of the Ancients looks wild, and I am here for everything that it is doing. I just have to figure out a class that will be both fun to level and powerful in the endgame. Since I am very much interested in Raven Righteous Fire, I am contemplating going Lich or Infernalist and a traditional Summon Raging Spirits start. I like spamming temporary minions because it feels like I am doing something other than just dragging around an army. I also know the leveling for this sort of build is pretty chill, and I like chill leveling. I am really curious how fast I can get through the campaign with the most recent round of updates to make signposting of content a bit easier to find. More than anything, though, I am somewhat excited to see the updated versions of various leagues and am wondering how much of that will trickle down into Path of Exile, the game I care about the most.

Anyways. I think I am out of things to talk about for this Monday morning. I hope you all have a wonderful week, and as always, feel free to drop me a line if you want to contest anything that I have said.

AggroChat #568 – Anti-Fun Features

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Featuring: Ace, Ammosart, Ashgar, Belghast, Kodra, and Thalen

Good Morning, Folks! Last night we recorded what I think might be one of our better shows ever, because there were a lot of interesting discussions.  We start off talking about Eurovision and how it felt like it almost ended in a riot.  It’s a bit dated, but we talk about some of the details that came out of the Dan Frazier plagiarism situation in Magic: The Gathering. Ace talks a bit about Subnautica 2 and how some of the features caused them to bounce early.  Path of Exile II 0.5.0 reveal happened, and there are tons of things to talk about as they completely redo the endgame.  We talk a bit about the game Everything is Crab, and then follow up with an unrelated topic about how Everything is Roguelike now.  Bel goes down this rabbit hole that starts with Item Repair but follows up with pretty much all of the Anti-Fun Features that are in games and why they need to go. We talk a little bit about some of the Steam Controller reviews that are showing up, and Kodra discusses his further descent into Pokémon ZA.

Topics Discussed:

  • Eurovision
  • Dan Frazier Situation
  • Subnautica 2
  • Path of Exile II Spoilers
  • Everything is Crab
  • Everything is Roguelike
  • Item Repair is Bad
  • Anti-Fun Features
  • Steam Controller Review Units
  • Pokemon ZA

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Random Bag of Nonsense

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Good Morning, Folks. I don’t really have a purpose for today’s blog post other than not to have gone an entire damned week without making any other than Monday. This round of chemo has been a bear, and has mostly knocked me on my ass. The worst part right now is the peeling of my fingers, and no lotion seems to be making much of a difference. So even when I am not getting the “hand in lava” reaction to cold from the oxaliplatin, touching anything still hurts a lot. Like my overall pain index is relatively low, but it is entirely situational. Pick up my phone? The ridges on my case feel like they are cutting into my skin. My fingers are basically newborn skin, and just like when skin grows back from an accident… everything hurts when I touch anything. Weirdly enough, typing does not seem to cause much pain. I guess keys are smooth, and I am relatively light-handed with the keyboard. Since I don’t have a proper picture to post with this, you are getting the deckboxes that I created for Sorcery. I’ve still not gotten to play, but I want to hopefully next week when the world does not feel quite so shit.

Honestly, the winner for this week goes to some friends with whom I have had some good conversations. This has made the frustrations and pain of the cycle far more bearable. Y’all know who you are, and I am thankful. Part of this was watching Eurovision with my sibling Ace, and the random commentary that went along with it. Last night was round two of the semi-finals, and I just have to say that Armenia was robbed. For me, what I want out of Eurovision is the weirdest shit you can find and put on a stage. A guy with a jacket covered in Post-it notes? Check! The song was also a bit of a banger, so it absolutely should have gone on to the next round. Whereas they kept choosing some boring-ass songs like whatever the hell was going on with Czechia. As an outsider… Eurovision is about over-the-top pomp and circumstance, and a lot of these songs failed to get that memo. That said, I think Armenia was the only one of my favorites from the second round that did not make it. Romania was by far my favorite from yesterday’s round.

Something that I have played almost every single day for four or five years now… but never talk about… is AFK Journey. I always end up playing some sort of gacha game on my phone, because it fills the time between when I lie down and when I am actually sleepy enough to sleep. Usually, I end up hitting some sort of wall where I cannot progress without giving them lots of money. When I hit this point, I swap games, but for whatever reason, AFK Journey seems to have a reasonable enough gacha system that I can keep playing it happily without spending a dime. Talking with Ace who had tried the game before me, it apparently was not the case at launch, but over time has loosened up. Sure if I were playing this game super seriously, I would probably hit all of the walls, but playing for 30 mins or so every night seems to be fine. Right now there is a Frieren event, and I love Frieren so much that, like when they were running a Dungeon Meshi event, I am trying to pull for the characters that I care about. I only make one pull per day, and only use the free currency, and the other night I lucked out and got a pull with two Frieren’s. In theory, I might actually be able to get her up high enough to do useful things. I need to figure out how to get more copies of Himmel.

Path of Exile II Teaser season has been really interesting, because they are effectively breaking the tried and true mold that they have used for years with Path of Exile. Especially after a big reveal, they usually just chop up the elements from that reveal and release them as little teasers. They have done some of this, but more recently, they have been showing off some new uniques. These are connected in a way that would allow you to build a purely support character, which I always find interesting. I don’t play often enough with other players to make this viable, but I could see someone trying to dual-box a character like this to provide tons of utility. I honestly have no clue how Grinding Gear Games feels about dual boxing. I’ve not done it in years, and mostly did for the games where playing solo was not close to viable… like EverQuest and Dark Age of Camelot, and did a small amount with World of Warcraft and EverQuest II. I’ve always loved controlling an entire party in games, and the Mercenaries that we had in Path of Exile really scratched that itch for me. I am hoping at some point, they bring those back because there were a lot of really interesting gearing options.

I missed out on the original round of Steam Controller orders, but I am on the wait list. I was on and trying to buy it at the time it was launched, but kept running into credit card authorization issues and by the time that was resolved… they were sold out. We are starting to see the first review videos floating around the interwebs, and it has done nothing to dampen my desire to have this controller. Mostly, I have my old gaming desktop hooked up to the television downstairs, and I love the fact that, apparently, you can just use the Steam controller as a mouse and keyboard. Like, I am never going to do a lot of data entry through this means, but being able to use it to launch things is going to be a massive boon. Essentially, I want to set up my gaming desktop downstairs for controller gaming, and then I can remote into my new gaming desktop for anything that I want mouse and keyboard for. I am really hoping that the restock is not terribly long for the Steam Controller. I think in my circles, I was probably the most excited about having the prospect of effectively getting a Steam Deck without the screen in controller form.

Anyways. I think I am done typing for a bit. I still feel like ass warmed over, but I love you all and appreciate every single one of you who checks on me. Y’all are legitimately the best. This cycle will pass, and starting Sunday, I will begin to feel more human again.