lunar new year Archives - Tales of the Aggronaut

Demonology for Fun and Profit

February 13, 2026 by Belghast

Good Morning Folks. I have to be blazingly honest here… I did not have it on my punch card that we would be getting an expansion for Diablo II this year. However, we got exactly that as part of the Diablo anniversary celebration, and it was a shadow drop, meaning I have already played a bit of the brand new class in Diablo II, the Warlock. I have to say it is pretty freaking awesome, at least in the early levels, it feels wildly overpowered. Granted, you can only really have one minion so far, but I am sure that changes over time. You summon up your demon goat buddy, and he proceeds to lay waste to everything around you, while you bop things over the head with your floating weapon. I think the floating weapon thing is honestly a really nice touch because it differentiates this class from other classes that start out feeling like they are shittier versions of the Barbarian… looking at you, Druid.

What is wild about this is that the Warlock class is coming to three games in the Diablo franchise. It’s a bit of a bummer that Diablo III is left out of the love here… but I feel like probably it and Diablo 1 both got dropped for the same reason, they do not have a shiny new client built with modern development technology. We already have the Warlock in Diablo II, but it is coming to Diablo IV at the end of April and to Diablo Immortal in June. Not that I give much of a shit about Diablo Immortal, but I will probably be playing whatever season coincides with the April 28th start date of the Warlock drop in Diablo IV. I will always be down for more Minion gameplay coming to games. So far, at least it feels pretty solid, and it has actually made me want to play some more Diablo II Resurrected. Generally speaking, D2R gameplay is way too slow for my tastes these days, but it might be fun to do at least a full playthrough on the Warlock.

In other news, we got a new Lunar New Year event in Destiny Rising, so maybe it is not entirely out to pasture fully. I lack the cultural significance of all of the stuff that coincides with Lunar New Year events, but they often are big deals in Japanese and Chinese games, and so far, that seems to be the case here as well. Essentailly the normal Frontline events are being replaced with new encounters with the red and gold fireworks themes. Doing these earns points towards the larger event that is going on, and will ultimately also earn you pulls for the reworked version of Ikora. I played three rounds or so of Frontlines yesterday and had a reasonably good time doing it. This is mostly a pretty chill activity and is exclusive to Jiangshit Metro, aka Space China. Is it massive and new and exciting? Not really. However it is something and I have to give them credit for it.

Yesterday evening, we got a new State of Play event from Sony, and probably the biggest news for me personally was the upcoming release of Death Stranding 2 for the PC. Sure, I have a PS5 and could have played this game at any point I wanted to, but I greatly prefer playing open-world games with a mouse and keyboard whenever possible. The PC release of the first game dropped during the height of covid lockdown, and it was extremely poignant as we were all adjusting to a new way of life, much in the same way as the characters in the game were. I’ve never been a massive Kojima fan, but I did really enjoy the quirky lore of the world in this series and look forward to seeing more of it. I may have also developed a crush on Fragile, and am interested in seeing more of how things progress in this world. Troy Baker’s character in this series is also completely batshit crazy, and I am interested in seeing just how over the top he is in this version.

Next up, we have a really freaking cool-looking Castlevania game from some of the folks behind Dead Cells. Not that I necessarily have much to say about this, other than the fact that I will be playing it when it drops. At least based on the trailer, I would guess this is more in line with Castlevania 1 and 3, and not a more role-playing game experience like 2 and Symphony of the Night. I tend to prefer the Castlevania RPG games where you level up and collect gear and such, but it does not mean that I don’t appreciate the more standard platformer style games. It might be a bit more modern platformer than I would like, but we will have to see how it plays. Games like Silksong tend to require a level of manual dexterity that I no longer have with a controller.

We also got more gameplay of Control Resonant, and while I still mourn the fact that we are not playing as Jesse… I love this weird shared universe and will be here on day one regardless. I am really looking forward to just how kooky the world is going to be, given that we are apparently playing with gravity and surfaces. It seems like the corruption of the Oldest House has spilled out into the real world, and I guess New York is suffering as a result. I love the visuals, so this should be a heck of a lot of fun.

Lastly, we got another video update on Tokon Fighting Souls, and while I am not as big a fighting game player as I once was, this game looks like a lot of fun. I am all on board with playing Magik in a fighting game. I am super pumped that Steve Blum is doing the voice for Wolverine as well. I hope that means he will be doing the voice of Wolverine in the game that Insomniac has been working on as well. Anyways, it should be a lot of fun, and will likely look beautiful in blazing 4k on the 65-inch television that I picked up not too long ago. At some point, I really need to hang up a curtain rod so I can put up some blackout curtains over the awkward round window in the livingroom.

There was honestly a bunch of other interesting stuff announced yesterday, so if you have the time it might be worth watching it in the background while doing other things. Either that or, at a minimum, hitting the PlayStation YouTube channel to see if there are any trailers that stand out to you. After showings like this, it really hits home just how far Microsoft is falling behind in this race. They conceded the PlayStation 4 generation, and as a result, lost the generation when everyone shifted to digital purchases. It is going to be nigh impossible to claw their way back from this, especially when Sony keeps dropping banger exclusives left and right. I will probably never be a console-first player, but I doubt I buy another Microsoft console because I have barely used my Xbox. Going forward, I will probably have a Sony console, a Nintendo console, and then my PC for everything else.

Anyways. Was there anything you were super pumped for in the State of Play? Have you been playing the Warlock in Diablo II Resurrected? Drop me a line below.

Pohx League Shenanigans

February 3, 2025 by Belghast

Good Morning Folks. This weekend I allowed myself to get sucked back into Path of Exile. Given the disappointment for Path of Exile 1 players last night, our hero Pohx decided to take matters into his own hands and throw together a league event. When I wrote about this on Friday, it full at 9500 players… before the end of the day it had been expanded to 20,000 players and also full. Then GGG stepped in and added 10,000 additional player slots, expanding the private league past the normal limit to 30,000. Suffice to say there has been more than a little bit of interest in some sort of a league reset happening in Path of Exile. I think there have been way more players than any of us thought, for which Path of Exile II did not really land well.

As of this morning there are just shy of 28,000 players in the Pohx private league, and I figure that is probably as big as it is going to get for the time being. If you are so inclined, you can go sign up for the league here which officially lasts until April 1st. A few caveats if you have never played in a private league like this. The big thing is expect trade to be much more challenging than during a normal league reset. There are simply going to be fewer items available and this impacts pretty much everything from the currency exchange to the player to player trade site. Folks tend to be way more chill about pricing however since this is a limited time event. However fully expect to be playing at least 80% solo self found. I picked up a few upgrades over the weekend but there was not a lot available on the market, and mostly all I really did was pick up a couple of items with good resists on them.

I am playing well out of my comfort zone and running my very first Trickster ever. I opted to go for Ice Trap, with the idea of eventually shifting into Ice Trap of Hollowness once I got all of my gear in place… which admittedly might not actually happen during the course of a private league. I still feel pretty squishy but am working on a series of upgrades with the next few points that should help that out. Essentially I am going to be stacking Mind of Matter, Ghost Shroud, and Wicked Ward with my existing Eldritch Battery to hopefully resolve my survival problems by making my Energy Shield double as both Mana and a proper damage barrier. I tried running Mind of Matter too early, and really all I did was cause myself to get into situations where I could not cast anything. Wicked Ward and Ghost Shroud should in theory help to solve the energy shield regen problems while I am taking damage.

Once I get another level I am probably going to respec the start of my tree a bit to free up two points, so that I can pick up all three of those notables at once. I am leaning heavily on Polymath which gives me 3% more damage for each unique mastery I am taking which at the moment is a 24% more multiplier. I’ve not run across any of the uber lab shrines in maps, so I might go ahead and try and purchase one from the currency exchange so that I can get my fourth ascendancy point. I feel like I am dealing plenty of damage right now, it is mostly the survival and comfort of mapping that I need to resolve. This is a way squishier character than I am used to playing, and since I don’t have access to really good cheap rares due to the limited trade environment… my evasion is way lower than I would like it to be. I am honestly not really a massive fan of evasion builds to start with, but I am trying to push myself out of my comfort zone.

I am still chipping away at white maps and making pretty decent progress. For the most part once I get something frozen I can kill it extremely quickly. Normal mapping is largely just walking through the map while dropping traps behind me which ends up being a fairly safe gameplay style. Things only really get risky when I have to stop and grind through something a bit tankier. The nice thing about the traps gameplay style is that I can run reflect maps without too much issue. The only change that I need to do is to remember not to drop Frost Bombs. I should also really drop back down to a level 1 Frost Blink so that I don’t have to worry too much about that either. I would really like to pick up some additional regen, but it feels like it is hard to juggle that with everything else that I want in the build.

For the most part right now I am running syndicate, as I try and get the enchants that I need. I am going to mix in some perm Delirium in the hopes of farming up some cluster jewels. Again being in a limited trade environment means that I am going to need to craft most of my own gear if I want some very specific things. I am still hoping at some point a Replica Dragonfang amulet shows up with Ice Trap on it, but I am not holding my breath. Thusfar there are plenty of those, but none for the specific ability that I want. I am very much playing an off meta build at the moment, based on one that was designed for 3.25 that does not 100% equate to the current passive tree. Essentially I tend to follow a guide until I hit maps and then I am off the radar with making the choices needed to hopefully make the build feel good after that.

I am not entirely certain how long Pohx League is going to stay active though, because this morning GGG released a statement that they are working on an event for Path of Exile 1. Essentially they are going to break out 19 Ascendancies that have never seen the light of day before, and will be running a league where every class has totally new options. This will run for a month, and I full expect an influx of players will rush over to this league to test things out. I am hoping we get a full release of what all of the ascendancy nodes are before this drops so that folks can begin to brew a bit ahead of time. This is going to have similar energy to a Krangled league, and I full expect by the end of the first day everyone to have spreadsheets floating around to help with buildcraft.

Tomorrow I am still planning on dipping back into Diablo IV for a bit with the new Lunar New Year event. I am not sure how hard I am going to grind but I would still really like to finish out the seasons journey while the buffs are active. I am hoping that the fixes to the Ring of Mendeln land at the same time so that I potentially see a massive boost in power. Other than that… I mostly want to be able to get some rest. I’ve not been sleeping well because Gracie has taken to screaming for no apparent reason in the middle of the night. Additionally I am still fighting a bit of a respiratory thing, which I hope passes rapidly. I have to go in a few times this week for meetings, so I am mostly hoping to get through the week without too much frustration.

Lord of the Storms

February 19, 2015 by Belghast

Region Limited Items

One of the things that game companies continue to do that drives be absolutely insane is to treat game regions differently. I realize there are functional reasons why certain areas of the world have to be a walled garden, but stop placing exclusive items in those walled gardens. World of Warcraft did this with a number of limited edition pets and mounts only available in the China region and it seems as though Square Enix seems to have done the same. For I assume political reasons the Heavensturn new years event did not appear on the Chinese servers. Instead it was replaced with a lunar new year event featuring awesome red lantern decorations throughout the world. If you want to see a full folio of pictures you can check out this link over on the lodestone.

The culmination of this event is a battle with Xi the New Years beast… which appears to be an insanely remodeled Behemoth. At first I thought this was a new mount but apparently that is not the case. Through completing this event you get the extremely adorable remodeled Nana Bear minion that looks like a panda with a little sprig of bamboo. I really hope that Yoshi P and crew decide to bring this same event to the global servers. I realize that for extremely idiotic reasons the Chinese servers are going to miss content that is politically unpalatable to their government, but it sucks when they get nifty exclusive content to replace it. I really hope they choose to do the right thing and make it available, even if only through the Mog Station store. I would absolutely pony up the traditional $5 price for a panda nana bear.

Ifriting with Jae

Last night and this morning too for that matter… I have been feeling absolutely horrible. As such I made last night some what of an early one going to bed around 9pm. Before that however I offered my services to the free company to help a bunch of players catch up on content that had been gating them. The above picture is of me and Jaedia doing some Ifrit, though admittedly she is stuck in a cut scene I believe when I took this picture. Yesterday there was an excellent post by Liore talking about how good the community is. There are times however when the community is not amazing, but even then it is rarely as bad as it can be in World of Warcraft. When we ran Ifrit, we had to random in a single dps to make it happen. Upon zoning in we did our normal greetings and the ninja named Justin’s only the comment was “kik me”. We ignored the first one, but he kept repeating it.

To which I responded the above… and he started doing the /angry emote. Not sure what he thought that would do, but he eventually piped up again saying to “kik me”, this time Ash chimed in with “We Said No”. Ultimately he huffed and puffed a bit more with his angry emote, and then resigned himself to do the fight. Now there are probably ways he could have trolled us, but I give him credit in that he eventually straightened up and did the content as intended. I mean I feel sorry for the guy to some extent, it sucks to be sitting through the 40 minute queue as a ninja… only to find out that you got randomed into a primal encounter… something that notoriously yields little to no experience for completing it. So in the end, even though he was a bit of a jerk about it… I still gave him a player commendation as a consolation for him having to sit in another 40 minute long queue. That right there is the WORST encounter I have had with another player in Final Fantasy XIV in months. All in all not too bad at least based on the encounters I have on a near nightly basis with someone in garrison chat.

Lord of the Storms

Continuing with the theme of helping free company members catch up, we had a player working on his relic quest. For some reason the queue time for the Dhorme Chimera is exceptionally long, so we have been trying to pull together a quick group when someone needs this. Through begging and cajoling I was able to get seven players on at once which meant we were either going to random a player or ask for help. The preference is to ask for help because the fight only really needs a single tank, especially if the tank is as geared as I am. However if you queue into it randomly you have to start the fight with two tanks and two healers in a standard eight man configuration. So while we have an example this morning of the worst of the community, I can give you an example of the best of the community as well. Several of us are members of a linkshell called “We Stand as One” and at this point I am not 100% sure how we ended up in it. I asked in LS chat if anyone was up for helping, and I had no less than eight responses saying to invite them. We killed the Chimera fast enough that we didn’t even get a level one limit break.

After that we did Ramuh Hard mode…. which in essence is the “normal” mode since that is the lowest version of the fight. Solaria needed the fight for her story quest, but unfortunately Nyahn had not quite unlocked it. As such we dropped him, and picked up a few more willing volunteers from the linkshell and proceeded to wreck the Ramuh encounter. I remember being so massively stressed the first time I did this in a random group. There are two phases where you have to burn down some adds or everyone in the raid dies. We did not even get close to the timer easily sailing past both obstacles. The best part about Final Fantasy XIV is the fact that these primal fights are really enjoyable encounters. Generally speaking folks will line up to volunteer to experience them, because it is the sort of thing you only do once in awhile when a player needs it. The raid encounters in general seem to be the same way. They are enjoyable experiences and no one much minds when a group is learning and wipes quite a bit. All in all it was a pretty great night in game, and while I didn’t really accomplish any of my goals… it was great to see others accomplish theirs.