Speaking of adjustments, about midway in Nightmare Act II my wizard started having massive amounts of trouble. Most champion and unique packs were just far too difficult to outlast. Her damage output wasn’t sufficient and her survivability was in the gutter even with THREE defensive skills. Although I was quite fond of her shock pulse orbs, disintegrate and lightning hydra it was about time for a change.

I had been toying with the idea of creating a melee wizard, but had planned on going that direction with a secondary wizard. I mean, lightning spells are by far my FAVORITE and I was going to shock the living hell out of the legions of er … *ahem* Hell. Yet I was beginning to become discouraged with my wizard so I figured the time was right to make the change.

So change she did.

She kept Frost Nova, Diamond Skin and Ice Armor but instead of Shock Pulse she chose Spectral Blades. Disintegrate was replaced by Ray of Frost (Sleet Storm). Her Lightning Hydra gave way for Magical Blade. The final skill transformation was switching her passives to Blur, Cold Blooded and Galvanizing Ward (level 40).

Then of course she needed a makeover with her gear. Instead of raw output it was time to focus on getting lots of vitality and as much health regen and leech as she could muster. This also meant sticking exclusively to a 1H weapon and a shield  but fortunately she was already carrying a shield in an attempt to minimize (fruitlessly) dirt naps.

When it was all said and done Malnevicent went from admiring the dirt in the back to DESTROYING things up in their grills. No longer did champion or unique packs give her trouble (with a few exceptions). Instead of ALWAYS retreating and fleeing for her life she was running HEAD FIRST into packs of enemies, freezing them in place and slicing them to shreds with her spectral blades and swirling sleet storms.

It was a breath-taking transformation which was exactly what I needed to keep motivated and encouraged to press forward. Sure there were a few bumps along the way (tons of ranged mobs still give her trouble) but for the most part finishing out Nightmare felt good even if it wasn’t by lightning up all the things.

Sure I would have preferred to have stuck with primarily using lightning skills, but going melee was still immensely satisfying. I’ve always been a fan of peculiar builds anyhow so we’ll have to see how viable a melee wizard is in Hell and Inferno … that is if she gets there; things hit really, really hard in hell.

Anyhoo, I figured I would share this story of adaptation and transformation in case anyone else is having difficulties and might also be losing their nerve. Sometimes a few changes (big or small) can make all the difference in the world. If you have a similar story why not share it? I’ll read it aloud on my Diablo podcast, the Shattered Soulstone (unless you’d rather I not).

Now back to the auction house to try to find more survival gear for Hell. Hell really is Hell. It hurts. Hella bad.

Error 37. Need I say more?

Okay. I will give that to you. Blizzard does have a good amount of egg on their face for how unreliable the servers were in the first 36 hours (or so) of unleashing hell. Blizzard knew their servers were going to get pounded and yet they were not prepared. At least they (semi)apologized for the network outages and things are now fairly stable and should only continue to stabilize over the next few days.

It shouldn’t have happened in the first place given the online-only aspect even if you want to play single-player.

Again I’ll agree with you — at least on the fact that Blizzard should have been prepared — but sometimes concessions have to be made in order to get the things we want. We’ve waited twelve years for Diablo III, what’s a few more days? I was able to get through the game (on normal) earlier today despite the early network problems. Sure I could have slain Diablo a little sooner, but I’ve decided to let go of my frustration and disappointment and ENJOY the game.

Diablo III is an amazing game that gets more challenging the further you proceed in to it. Every time my wizard started to feel like a bad ass — at least once past Act I — her arrogance would be met with a smack down. Dying became a more and more common occurance the further she got. Things start to really, really hurt in acts III and IV — even in the normal difficulty.

Glad to hear that. The beta was WAAAAAAY too easy.

Exactly. So I figured I would share some tips to those of you who might not have had the time to plow through the game yet. That isn’t to say that I rushed at the exclusion of enjoyment, just that I was so anxious to see the story that I didn’t want to run the risk of being spoiled. That and I knew that after this week I wouldn’t have as much time to play so I wanted to get as far as I could while I could.

Anyhoo, let me get back to the main reason I started this entry without side-tracking myself into an unrelated and boring topic. Let me preface this with that I did not find normal difficulty hard but challenging enough that there are a few tips that might make your experience a little smoother.

Also, I have only run through the game as a wizard so far, but I’ll keep my tips as generically applicable as possible. Though at some point in the future I will likely give wizard-specific tips as I progress through Nightmare, Hell and eventually Inferno.

Keep a set of survivability gear

Although it’s tempting to stack as much magic find as possible, there will be times where you’ll need to survive, especially later in the game. This is definitely true on boss encounters, especially on multi-phase end-of-act encounters. You’ll want +vitality armor and gems, pieces with health regen, and +health on hit (life leech) if you can. Having tons of magic find isn’t going to help you get gear if you can’t kill a boss.

Keep defensive skills on your hotbar

This ties in with keeping a set of survival gear in that sometimes taking damage is unavoidable but can be minimized with the use of defensive skills. I’d also suggest keeping more than one defensive skill on your hotbar, especially if you’re more of a glass cannon like the wizard. How many you’ll need will depend on how solid your survival gear is; my wizard used THREE defensive skills for the last encounter.

Keep your offensive capabilities balanced

It’s hard to fight the urge to splurge on using all AoE skills given the nature of the game, but you’ll definitely want to keep a hard-hitting single-target damage skill for bosses. Sure some bosses do occasionally have an add phase, but AoE skills mostly go wasted on bosses.

Keep experimenting with skills and abilities

Each level generally brings at least one new ability and/or rune effect which can drastically change how your class plays (or can play). It is a perfect time while progressing through the normal difficulty to find what play-style works best for you. By the time you get into Nightmare you need to have a good grasp on what you’re doing and have perfected it by the end of Hell.

Play with friends!

Okay, this is kind of a gimme but Diablo is infinitely more enjoyable with friends — especially with voice communication. Diablo was meant to be played cooperatively, so do so! If you want to play solo through normal that’s fine, but believe me you’ll have more fun with friends.

Have you stocked up on enough snacks, coffee/soda and eye drops? Have you prepared an apology note/letter to your spouse, significant other, and/or children? Are you prepared to not stop until you have defeated the Lord of Terror is no more? Are you?

I am.

Welllll, okay … I will be taking breaks — I have responsibilities that cannot be ignored — but rest assured I will not be satiated until Diablo lies at my sorceress’ wizard’s feet as a smoldering corpse. And then I will jump right into Nightmare. And then Hell. And then … well you get the idea, right?

I know I can’t be the only one quivering with anticipation, right?

Diablo II consumed me. I couldn’t stop thinking about slaying demons and dreaming of those sweet, sweet loots. Just one more pack. Just one more area. Just one more act. Just one more … dangerous soul-consuming addiction.

I need my Diablo fix. I need to satisfy my never-ending appetite for LEET LOOT. I need to ZAP demons with lightning. I need to smell their demise. I need, I need, I need …

… to not lose my soul.

Joking aside I am trying to decide upon my gameplan for Diablo III beyond focusing mainly on my wizard. I mean obviously the wizard is going to be my main focus, but what will I work on beyond her? Do I get my ME-SMASH on and go with the barbarian? Or do I go with the agile punch-things-in-the-face monk? I also need to decide on whether or not my secondary character will be used solely for Shattered Soulstone gaming nights.

Then there’s the decision of what skills to use. Do I stick to only lightning spells? Do I go with a melee wiz? Do I mix things up every now and then depending on what is most effective at the time? Or do I just try everything and experiment?

What are your plans? I’d love to hear everyone’s plans … that is if you’re not planning on rolling with a puke doctor. ^^; Better yet, why not send an email to show@shatteredsoulstone.com to let me know and we (Breja, Jen or myself) will read it on the air.

Anyhoo, I figured I owed an explanation as to why it’s been nearly a month since my last blog update. I haven’t been completely removed from the meta, but I think you might understand why this blog has suffered yet another lapse in attention. My attention has, understandably, been elsewhere but as I’ve stated many, many, many times before I will always come back.

My blog has always flourished when I’ve had things to say and recently I just haven’t had a whole lot worthwhile to say. If this update is any indication my recovery is coming along and with my pursuit of normalcy thoughts have returned to my blog. I feel like I have things to say again, the only challenge is finding the time and sanity to sit down and write.

Fortunately sanity has returned long enough for me to get this out. It feels great to be on the mend and feeling more normal. And to still be alive, of course.

So there you have it. Love it or hate it, I’m back and hoping to get in to the swing of blogging more regularly again … hopefully ^^;

No, I really mean it. Really.

*smirk*

Okay, well maybe not like that … but what I am referring to is the knowledge of the “big bad” of Mists of Pandaria. Those of you that listen to The Overlores and/or possibly follow me on Twitter know that I’m a pretty big fan of Garrosh Hellscream. Sure he has his rough edges, but he’s an amazing character despite the fact that he’s pretty much a one-track mind kind-of-orc.

How would you feel and act if you grew up thinking your Dad was the worst thing ever only to be oversold on his redemption and handed over the reigns of the Horde after successfully championing the Horde’s campaign in Northrend? Garrosh came back from Northrend a HERO in the eyes of his fellow orcs. Of course he was the favorite to take the lead of the Horde upon Thrall’s departure.

Garrosh is an orc of ACTION that yields RESULTS.

So what if he’s a tad of a warmonger? So what if he’s almost a tad too arrogant? He DID things in Northrend. He proved himself to be a tactful and resourceful overlord (even if a tad reckless) during the Northrend campaign. Sure he may have ruffled the feathers of the more politically-inclined leaders of the Horde, but lest we forget that he didn’t willingly take the mantle of warchief.

He would have preferred to be out on the battlefield. He is an orc of honor, seeking it always on the battlefield. He wants nothing more than to restore the glory of the Horde; to spread its dominance. His horde is one of action, one of results. Have you seen Orgrimmar since he took the mantle? Or how about the Horde outposts and settlements on Kalimdor?

Garrosh is BAD ASS.

And yet his brash nature has caused problems by seeking resolution through combat rather than diplomacy. Let us not forget that the confrontations between Thrall and Cairne weren’t blindly instigated by Garrosh. Thrall provoked Garrosh into challenging him and Cairne out-right challenged Garrosh to a Mok’gora. You might argue that in both cases Garrosh acted hastily and his actions — at least in the case of the Mok’gora with Cairne — have had long lasting ramifications, but diplomacy is not Garrosh’s strong suit.

Garrosh is FLAWED.

As flawed as Garrosh might be, he has held true to his ideal of honor. Whether you quest through Kalimdor or the Eastern Kingdoms you’ll experience this. When Krom’gar committed an atrocity in Stonetalon Garrosh dismissed the general by dropping him off a lift. There is no honor in the slaughtering of those that cannot defend themselves; that is not how the Horde displays its glory.

Garrosh forbade the Banshee Queen from using the plague to take Gilneas. Should Sylvanas have used the plague she too would have been dismissed. There is no honor in avoiding the glory of battle and proving yourself superior.

Winning by DIRTY means is not WINNING.

This is why I find it really difficult to believe that over the course of Mists that Garrosh is going to commit a war-crime so HEINOUS that even his Horde turns on him. This is why I really think Blizzard screwed up by spoiling the end-game of Mists. Are we supposed to make that jump to believe that Garrosh will turn his back on honor and glory? Or are we to believe that he has been corrupted by and outside influence?

Either way I just don’t buy it. That’s not MY Garrosh.

My Garrosh is HONORABLE.

I want to believe that he has been corrupted. No, strike that. I NEED him to be externally corrupted, otherwise everything that he was, was all for naught.

Even if that is the truth behind this sad turn-of-events I’m still severely disappointed that Blizzard has already told us what is going to happen. How much more profound would it have been to keep this twist secret until we organically discover it?

We should have WITNESSED his corruption.

Blizzard has proven that they can turn a beloved character into a hated one; Sylvanas is proof enough of that. I would have rather thought “what the fuck Garrosh?” as he started down this dark path. Knowing where this path will take Garrosh isn’t very compelling and I’m upset that I’ve been robbed of all that could have been.

Imagine how much more emotional it could have been when faced with the necessity of taking Garrosh down? Imagine that prior to playing Warcraft 3 that you knew that Arthas would turn on his father and ultimately become the Lich King?

Yah, I just went there.

Instead of wondering what will be going on, we will know. When the time comes to dethrone Garrosh, it will feel empty. Just a means to an end to tie in the next expansion where we’ll likely be facing the Burning Legion again … or whatever actually corrupted Garrosh.

I’m sorry Blizzard, but you’ve done fucked up this time.

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It’s amazing just how quickly the gear portion of the problem can be changed. So much so that my mage is now virtually broke after gemming, enchanting and reforging the deluge of upgrades received in just a few hours of running the HoT 5 mans and one lucky LFR run. As of right now my mage only has 2 pieces of PVP gear to replace and is sporting two pieces of ilvl 384 raid finder tier pieces. Each upgrade has been met with excitement and animosity with the amount of juggling I’ve had to do with reforging to stay as close to 17% hit as possible.

Reforging is a boon and a bane.

Anyhoo, needless to say gear is no longer drastically holding my mage back. Nope. Now it’s just my inexperience which is doing that. Sure my DEEPS is substantially better now and there’s still some pieces holding me back (trinkets come to mind) but there’s still something that I’m doing wrong.

I’ve fully embraced fire as my main DPS spec and have done some scouring of the forums to have a better grasp of how to play as a fire mage. Knowing how to is still not the same as doing and as I learn the fights from a ranged perspective I’m sure my DEEPS will get higher.

Movement is the main thing that I’m struggling with since, as a rogue, I’m not used to the necessity of being stationary to cast. One thing that I do love about fire is that I can cast scorch on the run, but the mere act of movement usually causes me to let living bomb fall off and forget to reapply it.

As I get more comfortable with movement as a mage things will get better, especially if I can work blink into the equation more. I just need to subdue my perfectionist’s tendacies so that I don’t get down on myself for not being where I feel like a should be in terms of performance. I’ll get there … eventually. I just need to keep telling myself that.

Sadly, however, there’s been a side-effect of gearing as a fire mage that I can’t do much about: my frost DPS is now really, really lacking. Fire favors haste and crit, not mastery. Whereas frost loves mastery so unless I want to spend tons of gold juggling secondary stats I’ll just have to cope.

Anyhoo, I think I’ve droned on long enough, and my car is ready, so I will leave it at that. Ciao!

Again, my mage isn’t quite as geared for PvE as my rogue is but the difference in performance is downright embarrassing. I have had an arcane build, but I’m not a fan even though it was barely edging out my frost dps build. Considering my distaste of arcane I decided to give fire another go for PvE but that hasn’t been met with the results that I was hoping for.

It can’t just be my gear alone that is causing me to stink. It isn’t terrible despite being under the hit-cap (something which is probably hurting me greatly) yet there’s something about mage DPS that I’m not getting. Perhaps I haven’t set up my UI to communicate everything I need to know to maximize my performance, but it can’t be that. Sure I”ve jerry-rigged an add-on designed for rogues while I probably should be using something more like MageNuggets for timers and cool-downs but my stink goes beyond that.

Maybe there’s just something about ranged-dps that I just haven’t figured out. Or maybe it’s the priority system. Or maybe that most of my damaging abilities all have cast times, something that is somewhat foreign to a rogue. Needless to say I’m going to have to spend some time thumbing through the Elitist Jerks and MMO Champion mage forums. Hopefully I can glean something that will clue me into what I’m doing backwards.

Oh well, back to the HoT 5mans and to hope that I always get groups willing to put up with my low DEEPS ;_;

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