Diablo III

Distant Ramblings

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Lately, I’ve felt like I’ve been floating along. I know I tend to refrain from much RL here on MmoQuests and keep it to posts about gaming, but there’s a lot more to daily interactions besides gaming. My friends are playing everything from WoW to Otome steam games and everything in between. I’ve been floating along, feeling distant from it all.

There was the big kerfuffle over legacy servers that everyone seemed to be involved in and it’s all we heard about. Guess what, legacy servers don’t bring back that feeling that you long to recapture. Nothing will do that because we were all different people back then, with different worries and goals in life. Have games changed over the years? Sure, games have changed. So have people.

There was the butt incident. What an odd thing to get worked up over.

GW2 revamped a lot of their latest expansion because people spoke up about how not fun it was. I’m glad the changes seem to be working. GW2 is a game I think I love to play only to find out that I don’t actually love it at all. Every time.

A new season has started in Diablo, and while I wanted to get all involved with that, I fell short, again. I just feel like it’s the same game and re-playing it each season doesn’t excite me.

I’ve been playing Wurm Unlimited on the Sklotopolis server still and it seems to be about the only thing holding my attention gaming wise. The large deed Moumix, Maya, and I are working on is coming along wonderfully. I’m working my channeling up, weapon smithing hit 60, and I’m saving up for a merchant. I have two auctions going on at the moment which should give me enough silver to buy a merchant form (10s).

It’s summer here, and the weather is lovely. My anxiety has been bouncing off the walls and I’m not sure if it’s due to the pregnancy or just that time of year. 14 weeks as of tomorrow. I’m so very blessed, but it’s also scary being so far from my family and not really knowing anyone here (still). I feel like I’m floundering.

Season 4

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I didn’t participate at all in Season 3 of Diablo III, and I’m not even sure why. I was probably playing something else at the time and just didn’t have enough hours to go around. That’s usually the case. Anyway, when the season swapped to 4, it came at a pretty good time. Aside from WildStar and Wurm Online I haven’t really been dedicated to MMOs, and live is pretty stressful lately (maybe you can tell by the lack of blog posts) so what I needed was a game where I could just hack things to pieces and then shower in their loot. As luck would have it, that’s exactly what Diablo 3 lets me do.

I created a demon hunter this round. The only two characters I have actually played previously was the Crusader, and I had an old Witch Doctor sitting at level 55. That character was ancient by now and I think I had something like 95 hours played on it even though I was only 55. Leveling is MUCH faster now. Once I set my mind to it, things were faster than ever. I now have a level 70 monk, barbarian, and wizard alongside the demon hunter. I’ve only focused gear on the demon hunter because for now that happens to be the character I’m enjoying the most, but I am sure I’ll flip flop between everyone else. There’s something to be said for not having to do any thinking and just be able to let go and game. I tend to keep CBC radio on in the background and just listen while I complete bounties or rifts. It’s a very stress-free way of gaming, and it was exactly what I needed. Anyone else have a game or two that they tend to hunger down with when they’re feeling exceptionally stressed out in real life? Let me know in comments!

As always, happy gaming no matter where you find yourself.

Saturday: Video Game Roundup

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I’m not playing nearly as many games at once as I used to play, but I still manage to keep pretty busy. I decided to do a weekly roundup of the games I’m playing with a little bit of a blurb about each one. I don’t really know anyone who plays only one game these days – so if you do, let me know! I’ve always been envious of those who were able to commit to just one game at a time. First up!

WildStar

My alt leveling has been put on hold while a friend of mine returns to the game. Right now they’re making their way through Whitevale and I’ve been having a blast mentoring them. I’ve found soldier holdouts that I missed when I was passing through along with other collectibles. I’ve mentioned this a few times now, but I’m very happy that WildStar has a mentor system, and I think all games (I’m looking at you WoW) need this sort of system. It encourages me to play with friends and motivates me to explore zones I’ve already been through. I always found it sad when games give you zero reason to revisit an area after the developers put all that work into it. When a new expansion releases if you travel to the older zones they’re always empty. It just seems like a waste.

Diablo 3

Not exactly an MMO, but I’ve been playing this on the PS4 (my PSN is Stargrace if you’re looking to add me) and I’m having a lot of fun. Unlike on the PC, my hand never gets sore from holding the controller buttons down while I attack. I purchased the game some time ago but today was the first day I actually spent any time playing. I’m level 20 now, and I also had a mailbox full of legendary items for me to open. One really neat thing about Diablo 3 is that when you’re playing it you’ll occasionally get items to drop that get sent to your friends. They’re great ways to motivate them to log in! I had to be level 11 before I could wear the items but once I did mobs just melted away. I’m still trying to get a hang of the controls, but I’m not doing too bad. Since I haven’t actually completed the game on the PS4 before, I can’t play at a very high difficulty, but I’m hoping to ‘beat’ the base game and unlock the other modes. One thing that frustrates me is that this game is not cross platform, so even though I can play on the PC and on the PS4, my accounts don’t really interact together and my PC characters don’t show up on my PS4 or vice versa. I wish it were more like FFXIV in that regard.

EQ2

I heard that crafting writs won’t be fixed until Tuesday and that has slowed my progression down a bit. My coercer is still sitting at level 28, and I’m not sure if I’ll be able to get 29 today or not. I think I’ll attempt it, but I’m taking a much more casual approach now, so we’ll see how it goes. I did manage to level up a few of my other alts to 10 since there’s no writs to do, but I’ll hold off before getting them above 15. I may take them to Halas to do the crafting quest chain that’s available there (it gives a nice selection of rares, and the ability to purchase the 10-19 advanced books). I’m still having fun playing, and that’s what really matters.

Wurm Online

I’ve been logging my priests in to get their max allotment of prayers each day, but I haven’t done a lot else besides that lately. My Najho priests are just over 42 skill, and it’s not until 70 skill that they’ll really open up as a priest. Then I’ll be able to cast strongwall along with genesis, two skills I’m really eager for. Once I’m able to strongwall I can fix the mine that I broke over at my main deed. I ended up mining straight and creating a drop shaft instead of mining up. An easy fix, once I get the proper faith to be able to cast the spell. I’ve also been working on my animal husbandry and breeding horses / sheep / cows / bison. I’m trying to get a few 5 speeds, but since my skill is only 50 at this time (on both Stargrace and Maivis, my Vynora priest) I typically end up with 4 speeds + one extra useless trait. I know it takes time, and I have the patience to see it through.

Other

Besides the big names at the top, I’ve also spent some time playing Tropico 5 on steam (I’m Stargrace there, too, if you want to add me). The humor just fits with my mood perfectly, and it’s very relaxed and casual. I’ve also spent some time playing Terraria, working on my home and building up a supply of components for future projects. I think I would still rather play Minecraft but since I reformatted my machine not too long ago I also forgot to save my Minecraft world, along with the castle I had built, and that really deterred me from starting all over again. I’ll probably create another world before too long just because the game is so dang fun.

 

That’s it! Those are the games I’m currently playing and what I’ve been up to. I hope everyone is having an amazing weekend so far, and that you find yourself with at least a little time to play a game or two that you adore. As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

 

Ding – 70 and Beyond

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Like I mentioned in my previous post, I’ve never actually reached level 70 in Diablo 3 before – until today, that is. Yes after finally sticking with it, I managed to inch and crawl my way through ‘master’ level rifts and bounties until I dinged 70 on my crusader. I even did a few public runs, and joined up with some others who were leveling. 65+ went much slower than the previous levels, and I realize that now that I’m 70 the game has just begun. I tried spending my bloodshards in the hopes of getting something good, but alas I was only rewarded with.. well, garbage that I ended up salvaging for crafting supplies.

Still I’m glad to have my first ever 70 character, and I’m tickled that they’ll roll over to a regular character at the end of the season. That gives me time to work on paragon points, which I also have never had before (obviously). I also want to create my first hardcore character, of course they probably won’t be my last, considering I die enough on non-hardcore things. I’m thinking of going with a demon hunter, but I know a lot of people prefer the wizard. Undecided, in any case.

I spent a good part of my weekend leveling up, so I took a break last night and played some Sims 4. Of course I also caught a cold, because why not, so I’ll keep this post nice and short so I can get back to resting up. As always, happy gaming no matter where you find yourself!

Diablo 3: Season 2

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I never really got into Diablo 3 when it first came out, even though I purchased the expansion, it was more out of habit than any other reason. I enjoy the game, but playing alone typically bores me and I gave up before too long.

Now that season 2 has begun I decided it would be the perfect time to start over, since your character is temporary. I created a crusader this time around, having never played one before. My main character  before this season was a witch doctor, who I enjoyed playing but only got to level 43 or so.

At level 8 I got to explore whimsydale for the first time. You used to have to collect items to spawn a way into the zone, but now you can get a treasure goblin that opens a portal for you. I didn’t know about this until it happened, and I was surprised to get beaten to death by unicorns and teddy bears. It was fun, bright, and painful.

I managed to do a few campaigns with friends which made all the difference in the world, and after only a few hours of playing over this weekend I’m sitting at a comfortable level 43. I’m hoping to finally make it to level 70 for once, since I’ve never reached it before. It helps that this game is basically a loot pinata, there’s treasures falling from the sky no matter what you do. I tend to play on ‘Master’ mode, which means the game is a challenge, but not too challenging. I can’t access the higher difficulties since I’ve never had a character of the required level.

I see a lot of people are already 70 and working on gear sets. I don’t have a clue what this even entails, but I’m sure I’ll get there eventually. I typically stream my game on my forge account, which I’m also having a lot of fun with. I’ll go into more details about forge in tomorrow’s post. I hope everyone had a lovely weekend, and as always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Nomadic Gamer