Lowered Pitchfork

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BlizzCon was this weekend, and I admit that I stayed home on Friday to watch what was about to happen. I was not sure if it would be a weekend full of protests, or a weekend where Blizzard finally quelled the rising storm. The truth is… it seemingly was a little of column A and a little of column B. They opened the show with a statement by Blizzard President J. Allen Brack or JAB as people have taken to calling him. During the comment he said a lot of words that sounded pretty close to apologizing without actually ever apologizing. It was effectively the corporate version of reflexively saying you are sorry when you don’t quite know what you just did.

A real apology includes three components. First admitting that you realize what you did and being able to explain it. Second giving a heartfelt apology that relays an understanding of the harm that was caused. Third an explanation of how you are going to make the changes necessary to make sure it doesn’t happen again. The statement did none of the above, however it is likely the closest we are ever going to get on this situation. I give them credit for making an attempt however and for now I am going to lower my pitchfork, because quite frankly I am tired of having to be upset at Blizzard. I stand by my statement that in the Video Game and Entertainment industry, no one has clean hands and the only way to do so is to simply stop doing business with China in any form.

We are addicted to Chinese products, be it the cheap phone charger that you picked up to have a spare, the clothing that we wear, or literally every inch of your mobile phone. Blizzard is attempting to walk the line between our Western sensibilities and the Great Firewall that will lock them out completely from competing in the single largest market on the planet. There is a long list that Mashable compiled of companies that have bowed to the whims of China, and Blizzard is right up there with all of them. What I did see that I found interesting however were a bunch of subtle moments during the stream. There were times that the cameras focused in on “Free Hong Kong” t-shirts or the extremely long time that one focused on a shirt that read “Fire Bobby Kotick”. What I saw was a company trying to walk a very delicate path and coming off super awkward and frustrating in the process.

So I left a big thread about my feelings in regards to BlizzCon 2019. Something felt off the entire weekend and I think I realized what it was on Sunday. Because of the events leading up to the show I found myself in a state where I wasn’t quite willing to surrender myself to what I have called the “BlizzCon” spirit. In past years I let the hype flow over me and allowed myself to fall into the loving embrace of the big blue community. This year… I saw the imperfections and the seams. I saw the people straining under the yoke of not quite knowing how any comment was going to be received. I mean there was good reason for this because of the “Don’t You Have Phones” comment from last year and the controversy surrounding Blizzard this year. It was a show filled with anxiety and folks who looked tangibly like their jobs were on the line. However I could wallow in this awkwardness all morning long but lets get into some of the things that were announced.

Diablo IV

The big one for me of course is Diablo IV, aka the announcement I had been waiting years for. Now that I have it… I am not entirely certain what I think of it. It feels like they are leaning heavily into what is traditionally the Path of Exile space in an attempt to win back some of those former fans. It is going to be a juggling act to try and entice the “Diablo II” stalwarts while not losing any of the newer “Diablo III” fans. When we were still doing the Game Club, we picked Diablo II at one point and none of us actually managed to make it through the campaign. It was a sloppy mess from a bygone era and in part thanks to that I have realized just how amazing Diablo III was and still is.

If they can however somehow thread that needle of adding the complexity and depth that was Diablo II without giving up the fast paced gameplay of Diablo III it will be a phenomenal game. I’ve been in a position of “I will wait for it to release” for awhile thanks to a lot of half baked alpha programs… but I really would love to be in this testing program. I would love to help shape this game on the forums with comments and feedback, because I have a feeling if they manage to pull it off this is going to be my main Blizzard game going forward. I would love to transplant our Friday night seasonal starts over to a fresh new game. I have hope but I also have concerns… because again you have to split down the middle of two vastly different demographics. The leaning heavily on the darkness aspect makes me deeply concerned that they are going to make too big of a play for the Path of Exile crowd and leave me out in the cold.

Diablo Immortal

Not surprisingly they shadow dropped this Friday night. To the best of my recollection there was no mention of Diablo Immortal at any point during the Diablo streams. I get why given the extremely negative reaction last year, but I do still think this is going to be an interesting game. I will likely either play it from a Mobile Emulator on my gaming PC or from my Samsung S4 tablet. This feels like the true successor to the Diablo III lineage and I still hope that maybe just maybe it gets some sort of a PC release. This would also potentially be an excellent new Switch game.

World of Warcraft Shadowlands

Several months ago there was a leak floating around the internet that seemed a little far fetched at the time… but turned out to be exactly what the set up for the new expansion has been. Sylvannas was in fact trying to lead both the Horde and Alliance down a path to destruction, in order to create more souls to be trapped and used for some army in the Shadowlands by her master. We don’t quite know who that master is at the moment, but you as the player are going to venture forth into the lands of the dead as some sort of a planeswalker that can freely move between worlds. There you will join with one of four covenents that will shape your experience based on which you choose.

I like that they are leaning into class fantasy again, like they did in Legion. I also like that they are setting up to maybe bring a story that doesn’t rely entirely on the big dumb red versus blue storyline. Unfortunately it doesn’t go far enough for me. I want them to abolish the Horde and the Alliance and create a new tapestry of personal faction choices that ultimately dictate where you can go in the world. I want the faction wall to fall. No better time to make it happen than in an expansion where we are quite literally leaving Azeroth and going to the lands of the dead. The world is fractured enough as it is without adding a painfully artificial choice into the mix.

Overwatch 2

I like the world, setting and characters of Overwatch, but I gotta admit that the game itself is not really my Jam. I never really wanted a Team Fortress 3, but that is seemingly what we got. I would have loved to have seen what they could have done with this setting as an MMORPG, and while I realize there are good reasons Project Titan never got off the ground… I can still pine for what might have been. Overwatch 2 is bringing in the PVE game to the original Overwatch PVP focused game and I am going to largely take a wait and see approach on this. It isn’t a Destiny style game and instead seems to be something more akin to what Marvel Avengers appears to be shaping up to be. If they can give me an experience that feels similar to a Destiny Strike, I might be interested.

Hearthstone

Hearthstone announced another set. If this game is your jam then I assume you are excited, but it is probably hard to garner much excitement given the rapid release cadence of this game. I admit this was my signal to go use the bathroom during the opening ceremony. It isn’t so much that I dislike Hearthstone, it is more of a case that it was a methadone to my Magic the Gathering addiction. I played it for awhile because it gave me the best digital card game fix I had available to me. Then Magic the Gathering Arena released and I have never logged into Hearthstone after that point. If I could somehow gift my cards to someone I probably would. I hate to see them going to waste on an account that doesn’t care about them anymore.

All in all there was a lot of good stuff, but like I said before. Something felt off about all of it. I am going to just assume it was thanks to my mental state going into the event and not because they didn’t actually show off a bunch of interesting things. Like the topic states… for now I am lowering my pitchfork and moving on with my life. Being angry about something exhausts me when all I really want to do is try and find some way of bringing enjoyment into my often frustrating and maddening real life. I play games as an escape to the rigors of reality and when that relief valve is jammed shut… I find myself way less reasonable. Warcraft is back on the menu it seems, but even then I found it super hard to get back into Classic or Retail and will probably still mostly be playing Destiny 2.

Altars of Sorrow

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Last night I spent some time participating in the newest Escalation Protocol event happening in the Sorrow’s Harbor area of the moon. In theory as soon as you port to the area you will be matched up with a group of players also participating in the event. Now last night we had a full group and it went pretty smoothly. This morning I tried a round with less than a full group and we still managed to complete all of the rounds to earn the final chest. In theory this should be a much easier thing to get started than Escalation Protocol. It tells me they maybe took some lessons away from how that event worked and figured out a way to juice the results a bit by allowing us to drop down directly in an area where we are going to see events happening.

At any given point there will be a platform or platforms activated so you can participate simply by hanging out in the near vicinity. The goal is to take out a number of majors that will be spawning and heading towards your platform. Similar to Escalation protocol there is a phase where you have to mix things up a bit where a number of Hive Wizards spawn with shields. In order to break these shields you will need to take out the Hive Knights that spawn in at the same time and use their swords to disrupt the shield similar to the Warsat event in the Archers Line area of the Moon. Each time you successfully defeat all of the Majors within the time limit the Altar event moves to the next Tier, and after Tier V a boss will spawn at the gate to the Shadowkeep.

Similar to Escalation protocol you are chasing a number of weapon drops that apparently change on a daily basis. Yesterday the Rocket Launcher was dropping, and today there will in theory be a completely different drop. Unlike Escalation Protocol these weapons seem to drop each time you get through the final boss. I got a couple of different rolls and managed to pull what I think is the curated Masterwork roll as well. All in all this looks to be a pretty solid rocket launcher thanks to the Cluster Bombs. It doesn’t beat my Bad Omens with both Cluster Bomb and Tracking Module… but it still is a pretty solid option for the Crucible.

I also ran a few rounds of Nightmare Hunts which got me the shotgun essence and it seemingly turned into a pretty solid roll. As much as I like punching things… the One-Two Punch perk seems to be pretty useful. The Magazine holds 8 rounds which is also super nice, placing it as probably my new favorite kinetic slot shotgun. Having threat detector on a shotgun also is super nice for the added reload speed, making this the sort of shotgun that you can bounce around a mob and fire after loading a single round over and over until it is dead. I am still pleasantly surprised at just how damned good the game feels right now, and how much there is to keep doing even though I have been capped in light for weeks.

Braytech Werewolf

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Halloween Events in general are my favorite in games, in spite of never actually getting the Headless Horseman mount in World of Warcraft. In Destiny we have always had the Festival of the Lost which arrives and decorates the tower in a spoopy theme. The festival has become a bunch of things over the years but traditionally it has focused on two objectives… wearing paper masks of various critters from Destiny lore and swapping candy. Starting last year Bungie introduced the Haunted Forest and with it a weapon to chase that would spawn in with maximum power level and fully masterworked.

This year that chase weapon is the Braytech Werewolf and I managed to finish mine last night. This is a reskinned version of the Braytech Winterwolf and comes with a curated roll of Armor-Piercing Rounds, Zen Moment, Multi-Kill Clip and a mastery stat of Range. All in all it is a pretty solid Auto Rifle and I spent a little bit last night running around with it. The only negative is that it has a goofy recoil direction of 74 making it impossible to easily correct for its deviation unless you push it well past 100. There is an excellent video that explains the recoil direction stat that I would check out. The short of it is that recoil direction is a wave that decreases in amplitude as you approach 100. Even intervals of 10 are going to skew up and to the right, Odd intervals of 10 are going to skew up and to the left and intervals of 5 or pushing the number all the way to 100 will produce recoil that is more or less straight up. So having 74 makes it CLOSE to vertical but just slightly to the left.

Getting this mask is locked behind the Master of Disguise triumph that asks you to get all 5 of the masks from Eva Levante during the 2019 Festival of the Lost. These masks are all gained through spending Chocolate Strange Coins. The most expensive and the creepiest of these masks has to be The Drifter pictured above. The humanoid masks always end up feeling the weirdest, but then again Michael Myers in the Halloween series is supposedly wearing a low budget William Shatner mask so I guess that is part of it as well. In order to get all of the masks you are going to get a total of 150 Chocolate Strange Coins. The prices are as follows:

  • Hive Hidden Swarm Mask – 10 Chocolate Strange Coins
  • Vex Goblin Mask – 20 Chocolate Strange Coins
  • Fallen Mithrax Mask – 30 Chocolate Strange Coins
  • Cabal Opulent Calus Mask – 40 Chocolate Strange Coins
  • The Drifter Mask – 50 Chocolate Strange Coins

Once you have earned this Triumph you have to actually go into your triumphs screen and click on it in order for the game to register it successfully. Eva Levante will then allow you to purchase your own Braytech Werewolf for 1000 candy. After getting your first Werewolf you can pick up random rolls from that point forward for 250 Candy, 5000 Glimmer and 5 Legendary Shards.

There is a sixth free mask available but it is tied behind the Days of the Dead triumph that asks you to complete seven other triumphs during the season. Doing so will get you the paper mache visage of Eris Morn. These achievements range from collecting candy and chocolate strange coins to completing the candy trading quest that I talked about yesterday. There is a secret triumph that I am betting is requiring you to hit at least the 9th branch of the Haunted Forest. Last year there was a similar Triumph associated with the 7th branch.

With a number of the achievements and bounties each day associated with the Haunted Forest, you are going to be spending a lot of time in there. I ran around over the last two nights with my friends Thalen and x1101 and without really pushing it we were pretty easily capable of getting seven branches each time. Were we to focus a little more and get x1101 a little more light, we could probably start doing nine clears. The thing about the Haunted Forest is that thanks to your masks that you have equipped… Heavy Ammo drops like candy. I plan on infusing up a Thunderlord and trying to see how far I can make it without using any other weapons. I have a feeling that will greatly speed up our clear times.

2019 Candy Trading Quest

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One of the hold outs from the original Festival of the Lost is the Candy Trading quest. This involves starting at one NPC and eventually working your way back to that same NPC, swapping candy each time with another that might be interested in the item you just got. In the original Destiny this quest chain more or less died at Eris Morn who gave you a Box of Raisins… and nobody wanted a box of Raisins. This year it begins with Eris on the moon who still has her raisins. However it turns out that maybe the Spider in the Tangled Shore is interested. This kicks off a chain of events and mini quests that require some candy and some of the ever so important Chocolate Strange Coins. Since I had not really seen a run down of the sequence I thought I would create one this morning.

Spider – The Tangled Shore

Spider gives you the quest called Even Handed, which requires the following kills with any weapon or ability.

  • 12 Scorn
  • 12 Fallen
  • 12 Cabal
  • 12 Hive

Handing in the quest will give you an item that you then need to take to Ana Bray.

Ana Bray – Mars

Ana will give you the quest Armed to the Teeth which requires you to get kills with different types of weapons while on Mars.

  • 10 Power Weapon
  • 10 Energy Weapon
  • 10 Kinetic

Turning in will give you an item that a certain gensym scholar might like.

Asher Mir – Io

Asher will give you the Precisely quest that asks you to make precision kills on two different types of mobs that appear on Io.

  • 10 Precision Vex Kills
  • 10 Precision Taken Kills

Asher will give you an item that he thinks the Followers of Osiris might like.

Brother Vance – Mercury

Brother Vance asks you to make kills with specific elements with the In Your Element quest. These can be done with abilities or with elemental weapons.

  • 10 Void Kills
  • 10 Arc Kills
  • 10 Solar Kills

When you turn in he gives you some Splice Drops that look pretty and taste horrible, aka the perfect candy for an AI.

Failsafe – Nessus

Failsafe is going to give you the Touched by the Light quest which asks you to defeat enemies with your abilities. Since my hammer throws are easily repeatable by reclaiming the hammer each time I used this to get through the quest quickly.

  • 5 Cabal Ability Kills
  • 5 Vex Ability Kills
  • 5 Fallen Ability Kills

Failsafe gives you a treat that maybe your friend in the EDZ might like.

Devrim Kay – EDZ

Devrim tarts the Foregone Conclusions quest which asks you to perform finishers on mobs of various types. To get Fallen I went into the Hallowed Grave lost sector in The Sludge.

  • 5 Taken Finishers
  • 5 Cabal Finishers
  • 5 Fallen Finishers

Upon turning in you get a piece of candy fit for someone in the dreaming city, and off we go to there.

Petra Venj – The Dreaming City

Petra gives us the quest The Best of My Abilities and asks us to do a number of specific ability kills.

  • 5 Melee Kills
  • 5 Grenade Kills
  • 10 Super Kills

After turning in we get a piece of candy that sees us travelling over to Titan.

Sloane – Titan

Sloan wants us to help clean up the rig and gives us the Not In Our House quest asking for kills in specific regions of the rig.

  • 30 Kills in Solarium Region
  • 15 Kills in Festering Halls Region
  • 15 Kills in Arboretum Region

This sends us back to Eris with some candy we think she might like.

Eris Morn – Moon

This quest asks us to equip a specific dance and dance in front of Eris with The Dance of My People quest. This is the dance that we got as kinderguardians and likely no longer have equipped. For each race use the following dances:

  • Human: City Dance
  • Awoken: Graceful Dance
  • Exo: Popping Dance

Satisfied with our performance she hands us a bag of goodies… that includes a toothbrush because she is that kind of killjoy.

I am not sure if this is a fixed number of items in the pouch or if this varies. In my particular satchel I got the following items.

  • 5 Fright Night Shaders
  • 5 Chocolate Strange Coins
  • 3 Enhancement Cores
  • 1 Toothbrush

I also got an achievement unlock as part of it, so for me at least it was worth the extreme time sink. Additionally each step of the quest rewarded a couple of the chocolate strange coins and you need a silly number of those to get all of the masks required to get the new auto rifle.