necromancer

Definitely Early Access

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Good Morning Folks! Yesterday I was piddling around and running maps and saw clear evidence that we are currently in “Early Access”. I had started a Savannah map and cleared the entire thing… and noticed that the final rare was out of the bounds of the map. I moved around the entire map but there was no way to break out of the boundary and get there. Thankfully this did not brick the node, but I was afraid that there was something cursed about it particularly and worked my way around it leaving it open for the time being. It is very clear that Stampede Explode in my current form is not quite as powerful as it used to be. However, I can still clear reasonably effectively and did get some advice that I want to charge along side of a pack rather than directly at them for maximum efficiency.

There is also apparently a version of the build that still exists in its prior glory, but it involves massively investing in AOE nodes and giving up some of the defense. Since I just was able to hit the 75% block cap, I am hesitant to give that up. However this might be a future goal of the build once I can get my hands on The Surrender, for its life recoup. I need to work on my third and fourth ascendancy point, but I have just lacked the desire to bang my head against that particular wall. I still do not enjoy Sanctum and very much do not enjoy Ultimatum in its current state. I tried doing the Trial of Chaos on my Necromancer yesterday and failed brutally on the third area reminding me just how much that entire experience is a crapshoot tied to RNG.

I keep saying Necromancer instead of Infernalist, because really that is how I think of the build because I am very much a “Minions Matter” character. I spent most of yesterday evening playing it instead of the Titan because it is way more enjoyable and relaxing to play. I managed to get up to the Apex of Filth and the very last thing that I did for the night was kill the Molten boss. It took me two tries, but only because I was a bit too slow while moving out of a big leap slam. I had plenty of time left when I killed him because my Raging Spirits floated above the lava field and were constantly attacking him when he jumped back. I will probably wrap up Act III tonight, and start in on the Cruel acts.

I’ve been running the Necromantle the entire time I have been leveling my Necromancer and yesterday on a whim I decided to throw a Vaal orb against it. I managed to get 15% of Damage Taken Recouped as Life which seems really good because it seems to trigger even if that damage is taken by my Energy Shield and not from my life. Combined with Grim Feast overflowing my Energy Shield, this seems like it might actually be a pretty reasonable defensive layer going forward. I originally was just wearing this chest for leveling purposes, but it might stick around as a more permanent edition to my setup. The energy shield on minions is also pretty nice for their general survival and the 50% faster revive is pretty great in scenarios where a big attack wipes all of them out at once.

It is wild to me how I have moved in opinion from “I don’t think I actually like this game” from the 9th, to really enjoying it in its current state despite the glaring flaws. On some level, I think part of this can be chalked up to a difference in expectations. What I really wanted from Path of Exile II was a much more approachable version of Path of Exile 1, and what we got was too sluggish, too difficult, and honestly just too different for me to immediately like it. Now I have gotten used to it, and have been willing to accept that it isn’t going to be the same game experience. I should have known this was a thing, because I’ve learned not to give my opinion of my wife’s new hairstyles until I have lived with them for a few days… because my immediate reaction is always “change is bad”. There are still aspects of Path of Exile II that I don’t like, and I think maybe on Monday I will cobble together a piece that is essentially an updated version of the Good and Bad with how I feel about the game now that I have put over a hundred hours into it.

Raid Leveling Not for Me

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Good Morning Folks! I am still sort of in this pattern of MOSTLY playing World of Warcraft Pandaria Remix. I’ve come to realize that I do not have the fortitude to play this optimally… which would be to do ALL of the world bosses, a random heroic and normal dungeon, a random heroic and normal scenario, and then complete ALL of the raids. Instead, I think I am going to focus on trying to get my World Bosses done as they are fun and it is pretty easy to find groups in the LFG tool. After that, I think my goal tonight is to start chipping away at the Heroic Dungeons and Scenarios that I need to unlock rings. Then the next stretch goal would be to complete all of the raids on Normal mode, but that is probably going to take all week as I have realized my appetite for that sort of thing is not what it once was.

Related to that I got my Tauren Paladin over on Drenden up to level 25 at which point I tried my hand at one of the leveling theories. The idea is to run raids starting at 25 and level your character through doing that. I’ve personally found this to be a little lacking as I think in total I gained a single level after having done two wings of LFR. Because of this gameplan I’ve also been leveling as Retribution which is fine for playing at endgame levels… but is not my preferred method of leveling. So as a result I think I am going to shift gears with this character and just level it the old-fashioned way while switching over to Protection so I can bounce shields all over the map for fun and profit. I am also questioning my choice of Tauren as I remember now why I don’t like playing them… because they feel painfully slow.

Lastly, I created a little Vulpera Hunter on Eonar where another friend has a base of operations. In theory, my goal is to push this up to 70 before the event is up so that I can have yet another max-level character seeded throughout the cosmos in case I decide that I want to play on that server. I already have an Orc Deathknight that I played during Legion and a few babby characters of various ages. It would be awesome if they made the Stable go cross-character and cross-realm because that has been my core reason for not playing something other than the original Lodin. I did not love the concept of collecting spirit beasts again. I am kind of wondering how the Warband is going to change things up, because in theory, I should be able to have all of the characters that I am playing regardless of server on the same screen.

Now that I have capped my Barbarian, I think I am going to spend some more quality time with my Necromancer. There is a pattern that can be used from levels 20-50 that will allow you to craft legendary caches so that you can get aspects pretty quickly. So my plan is to push this character up to 20 and see how well that process works. Barbarian was a lot of fun, and I might still rework that character to go for the overpowered Dual Swing Twisters build, but I also want to see how the Necromancer world is doing. I also really need to find a bow build that I like because traditionally… tanky brawler, minion, and bow characters are what I tend to play over and over in ARPGs.

Anyways! Today is my first day back this week so I am not looking forward to getting back into the swing of things. I also have to go into the office tomorrow so I am somewhat dreading that as well. Hopefully, you all had a wonderful weekend and an extended weekend if you are in the states.

Decaying Friends

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I did not make it terribly far last night as we had a family dinner thing to go to, which put me getting home extremely late. Additionally, the whole not really sleeping the night before because we lost power at 2:30 in the morning also meant I turned in pretty early. I did get to level 62 on my Barbarian and I did make an attempt at the World Tier 4 dungeon at 57 only to get wrecked by Elias. I think that fight favors folks who don’t have to stand all up in his grill. His attacks were just dealing too much damage for me to burn him all the way down. I am probably going to wait until around 65 before giving it another shot hoping that the levels and additional gear will make the difference.

I did create a baby Necromancer this morning just to play around with that class and see how the minion gameplay feels. It feels exceptionally strong, and to be honest… it feels like the easier option. Within 10 minutes or so I was level 16 because leveling in this game is just nonsense especially since I have the experience from monster kills buff in action. I will probably keep at the Barbarian because I feel like the visceral gameplay is more enjoyable for me personally, but I will keep poking around at the Necromancer as well. I would not be shocked if I managed to get both of them to 100 during this season.

The most important part of any character though is setting up the cosmetics and I feel like Necro has the best stuff. This is not a matched set of gear but it has the feel that I want it to have. I am such a sucker for “plate skirts” for characters and still consider Judgment the best gear set in World of Warcraft. I am hoping to get some time to play this weekend with my friend Ace and I am not sure if I will be bringing my Barbarian or dragging along this Necro when I do it. There are problems namely around the acquisition of gold and how awkward leveling glyphs feels, but all in all the changes that came with “loot reborn” have breathed much-needed life into the game.

Absolution and Mistborn

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Good Morning Folks! On Tuesday night I started a brand new character and last night I got it into maps. This has been one of the faster leveling characters I have played, but that was in part because for most of it I was using a bunch of uniques to speed up the process. As I talked about yesterday, I created a Necromancer and started working towards a Vaal Absolution build. Last night I did my normal build testing routine of running a T1 map, a T5 map, a T6 map, a T10 map… and then ultimately trying a T16 map. Shockingly I survived very well in a T16 “alch and go” Crimson Temple with red altars turned on. Did it feel amazing? Absolutely not, but it does feel pretty solid when I drop back down to T10 “barely red” maps. I think more than anything I just need more levels to make this build feel a bit more comfortable as I just dinged 76 this morning.

I am sure I will do a full write-up at some point, and I recorded a brief video this morning of how it looks currently. Essentially you can see my POB from level 73 and just starting maps, and I am making a few “choices” that differ from the standard spiel. Most of it is stuff I had lying around like using a +2 Minion Geofri’s Crest just because it had a boost to minions and really good resistances on it rather than its actual purpose of scaling up Holy Relics. I am still not entirely certain what I think of this build but in the grand scheme of things it seems to be pretty solid. I think it falls in the category of so many of my alternate builds where if I put more time into it, it could feel amazing. More than anything this was a test case to feel how absolution plays, and I think I have gotten a decent idea at this point.

I also wrapped up the second book in the first Mistborn trilogy by Brandon Sanderson and plan on starting the third book tonight. This novel was a wild ride, and I realize I have said that before… but no really… this was a wild ride. It went in a bunch of directions and wound up with a very “Empire Strikes Back” type ending where everything is bad for our protagonists. However, that makes a lot of sense given this is the middle book in a trilogy. I just did not expect the direction things went, many of the actions that were taken, or the resolution that came out of them. I am still very deeply invested in most of the main characters so of course I will hungrily begin consuming the next bit as soon as things have settled down tonight.

Lastly, my order for the Gamecube Purple Nitro Deck came in yesterday and I had a bit to play with it. Essentially it is a controller dock of a sort for the Switch where you take the central tablet portion and click it securely into a wrap-around controller base. The end result is something that feels significantly more solid and balanced in your hands than the default configuration of a Switch. It features rumble and gyro with the only lost functionality being NFC but given I rarely if ever use Amiibos… this was not a big deal to me. The buttons and dpad are maybe not as high quality as I would have liked, but the thumb sticks are Hall Effect which should stop drift. There is an added benefit of having four buttons on the back in a similar arrangement to the Steam Deck. The entire package is a bit lighter than the Switch with native Joycons attached. All in all I think I am going to like it quite a bit.

While I was writing this post, the video of Vaal Absolution gameplay finished uploading, so check that out if you are interested. Today is my Friday, so quite honestly I have no clue if I will be making a blog post tomorrow. If I do not… I hope you all have a wonderful day. We are going to get our Flu Shot and latest Covid booster so I have no clue how I will be feeling in the morning.