Argonath Diver

Unlikely you found it. It's super rare. I definitely want to get to that build though I doubt I'll find it before Season 1 anyway. Been watching DatModz and a few others on Twitch blasting with it. Looks more fun than my current Pulverize or the nado/pets build we leveled with.

Like most people seemed to, I had a couple random prefixes before Trash, then I unlocked "The" and changed to a more standard "The Elder" for my main. Saw at least 5 Titan jokes already running around; Soylent is not alone!

Man I gotta say I'm a bit sad to have gotten off work well past midnight with no clue how things played out- and... nothing? Where were all the big trades and wild reach picks?! What a snore of a draft. Ps the Warriors ain't gonna make the WCF. And relegate the Wizards to the Gatorare League.

I enjoy my new job at a cocktail lounge sans TV, but nights like this I wish I could stash my laptop back there somewhere to see all the trade tweets. I do wish the actual broadcast was still relevant vs the flurry of tweet bombs that are always several minutes ahead. Still it's one of my favorite nights in sports despite my shit team not having a 1st rounder this year.

Most cut scenes are skippable with an ESC click, but some take place while your character waits (some you can at least look at your skill tree or inventory for, but some are change-of-camera conversations not skippable for some reason). I absolutely don't want D3 sets, but I do wish there were more build-enabling uniques. I generally think the legendary affix system is a super janky way to shoehorn in build diversity that should be in a more complex skill system, not baked on items. Then more interesting uniques! I mean come on, D2 twenty years ago has all sorts of fun uniques to use til you find a superior item! The legendary affixes do that as well, while completely removing any sort of personal connection to my gear. Remember your great-rolled Skins of the Vipermagi you named with the quest, upgraded and lent to your alts? My character has some well rolled legendaries, sure, but they're all just Rare items with the BiS affix tacked on. Snore. That druid helm that allows storm spells casting in werewolf form is really rare and makes a whole new build possible! That's awesome! Have more of those, not just these AI generated D3 Primal Rares. Zzz. (Okay sorry it's my day off I'll stop ranting about itemization, I'm just a RPing a fat flightless dragon wanting a shinier hoard.)

Yeah, I should have been more positive. I am actually really impressed how much I enjoy it. I am pretty much retired from POE's graduate-student-level complexity but still want something far more interesting than D3's atrocious itemization, progression, and skill systems. D4's paragon boards are a great compromise at something daunting for newbies, but not as nuts as POE's multiple colossal passive trees. I think by the first paid expansion, D4 is going to be a game I can log a lot of hours with. For now, I am pretty content spending my time elsewhere til season 1, but I should have emphasized that I don't consider that a bad thing. This part, season zero or what have you, is essentially a paid 2 month open, 1.0 beta until the true game drops. I'll probably dive hard into it then. It's a great game to throw Twitch on my second monitor while I surf, etc.

Gems probably will eventually have value - higher tiers have been datamined and they'll likely be in some sort of D2-level cube crafting. By then I expect we'll all be in our seasonal characters and our current guys will be in the scrapyard. That's my assumption of course but ARPGs are heavily swinging in a seasonal-reset format companies can monetize. I'm very old-hat ARPG gamer and prefer an almost exclusively solo grind experience, so I'd like my current characters to eventually be truly endgame kitted. I've lost most interest leveling my druid further in T4 due to this. It's been the same game play since I re-specced at 55ish and won't change with upgrades. So there's no carrot-on-a-stick, except the very rare Druid helm that enables a super OP endgame build. That can wait til Season 1. I've tinkered low level with a few alts, but the campaign is really tiresome to me with all the travel and unskippable cut scenes. Again this is a severe flaw of the area leveling. Another campaign experience, despite a compelling plot, is not immersive due to the open-world core of the game. I want to get my fledgling chars into the excellent moments in later acts, but it's a real drag getting there again. Still generally think a compelling game will arise out of what we see now. Lots more endgame content to make the 70-100 grind have some sort of meaning. God willing some more QOL changes (a barebones loot filter for fuck sake). Maybe they can make PVP remotely balanced or compelling, but the PVE experience needs more work from both a casual gaming viewpoint, and a guy that wants 1k+ hours of mindless gambling reskinned as demon-exploding.

Any officers keeping the peace during Pride celebrations should all wear short shorts Lt Dangle style. Honestly it'd be a huge hit and also piss off right wingers.

The Butcher gave me some great content last night. My druid is rather mediocre due to repeated awful luck with drops, but he's got flashes of good dps and good survivability if I play smartly. So I was cruising through a T3 dungeon as I finish out my rep grind and went chasing after a Treasure Goblin. The weakness of the build is no movement skill, so I was doing my best to Dodge past stuff as the goblin was faster than I. Anyway about 2 screens in I run face first into the Butcher. Gleefully burned down the goblin as the big guy chased me, then kited him through big packs that easily return my spirit. He eventually wore out all my other targets and I went bonkers and face-tanked him the last quarter burn. Honestly I'm pretty un-thrilled by the game in general and it was the best moment of my playthrough. I'm probably going to retire the Druid and do the campaign once more with another char. Then I'll put D4 on the shelf until Season 1 (which'll hopefully be more compelling than the current product).

Beat the campaign. Pretty action-packed finale, while also having an interminable amount of wasted travel time in general. Pretty silly to have a Diablo game where you go several minutes between killing demons. But now that I'm free to roam around and work toward level 50, I'm enjoying the freedom. I'm not seeing the endgame carrot-on-a-stick that'll keep me at this game for many hundreds of hours, but perhaps once I'm deep staring at a Paragon board I'll be more locked in.

Surely one of the many dozens of sci-fi authors will have nailed our inevitable course, right? Perhaps in a Star Trek adjacent future, our magnificent future in the stars will remember a bizarre decade in planetary history where an American President lost a re-election, tried to re-run, only to be beset by a myriad of federal and state crimes, destined to end his miserable life in prison, kick-starting a sea change of progressive, uniting policies that brought humanity back to optimism! Great story, Diver! Folks, after this break let's check in with our cultural reporter Chuck Fandango who has insider news on tonight's Kardashian catastrophe you can't miss!

Well, I worked through the weekend and finally have tonight (and tomorrow) off before it's back into the breach. So I caved and bought it. Going Druid specifically Pulverize for now, will follow the Maxroll build guide as I trust that site and I've seen it looking fun on some twitch streams. I don't mind a slower progression at first (that's literally my account name) and I enjoy the lore and tinkering a lot with my first playthrough. I probably won't hit 50 for weeks.

Wild game. Didn't get to really pay attention from behind the stick but I am just delighted to seeing my two favorite players head to head in the Finals. Both old school, hard headed assholes who are there to win. I honestly don't care who wins, I just want it to go 7. Butler's run is truly remarkable. And props to Spoelstra as well - I just can't believe how mediocre this Heat roster looks up and down and yet here they are. What a story.

I know many people that find the 3D effect nauseating or at the very least disconcerting. Others raise a very fair point that the image is literally half resolution due to the trickery involved with the overlapping images for each eye. Almost any non-animated "3D" film is dreadful unless it's specifically filmed with a 3D camera like the stuff you go to the Science center IMax to see. I really only enjoy the tech if it's animated movies, and specifically a small portion of them whose directors really wanted to use it to enrich the action, and not as an afterthought. The Spideyverse films look absolutely terrific as a flat image; I simply think that the low-frames comic book effect worked particularly well to make the pop-up book vibe come to screen. I'll also be seeing it eventually both ways, and likely will prefer the 2D version on re-watches simply due to eye strain from the glasses.

Sisu was a hell of a lot of fun. Unapologetically over the top.

I'm excited to see it Tuesday. I'm one of the last remaining 3D fanboys and the first one was one of the best 3D experiences I had. It felt like I was watching a moving, incredibly complex comic pop-up book. Along with Tin-Tin and Battle Angel: Alita it's one of the animated movies that I think is simply a better experience in front of a giant screen (real or VR). I know most people prefer the superior crispness of a flat presentation, but in my opinion, animated movies like this shine when the directors purposefully craft big action setpieces meant to be viewed in 3D.

Are you asking why Blizzard opted to make this a fully online game? It's quite obvious, of course - money from MTX purchases. Why do another D3 one-time purchase when they can charge 70 for a game, 20 for a first weekend, 10 every few months for a battle pass, and 30 for some fancy armor packs to show off to random nerds who are only looking at their own inventory, anyway. Over the last decade I've spent nearly 500 bucks on POE, and although I bought early supporter packs to 'reward' a small company, that really was just money blown to look cool in towns.

I loathe the pay-for-a-head-start nonsense so much. I'm glad that I'm at two new jobs, trying to learn systems, products, coworkers and customers and simply have no time the next two weeks to game. I didn't get into the betas enough to develop that dopamine itch that keeps me logging back into a game. Haven't bought D4 yet and likely will hold off until the first proper season begins. My graphics card has a very hard time running it, regardless. Very happy to see that early reviews are so glowing, though we'll see at launch if Blizzard servers can handle many millions of players from the get-go. That said I expect nearly every Twitch streamer I follow to be playing it this next couple weeks, so I'm not going to hold out on spoiling lore, etc. Even if I'm not playing it, D4 will be in my headspace plenty soon.

Happy Memorial weekend to my fellow Americans honoring those who sacrificed their lives so we can eat brats and drink cheap beer. I had a 6'er of Leinie's summer shandy and am moving on to what's left at my parents' house, which is a decidedly un-Memorial weekend suited Cab sauv. Pairs perfectly with all the junk food. Anyone else having libations outside today?

I'm not the target audience as a middle aged bachelor, but there's a strong chance I see this movie in theaters under the influence of psychadelics or a very strong indica, and I will probably love it.

I do remember Marathon, or at least the hype in my mom's Macworld magazines. I convinced her to get it for me for Christmas the same year she'd purchased a PowerMac something or other that was pretty bad-ass back then. I don't remember anything about the game except being underwhelmed by the weird graphics even back then, and selling it almost immediately to a GameStop or whatever for a paltry credit. Seems like a really strange thing to reboot.

My father fondly tells a story of dancing with her back in the 60s at a small nightclub in St Louis, while Ike was at a nearby table with friends after their set. A sad day today, but her music has been making people dance, sing, and laugh for more than half a century. What a queen.

I was 13 when Party of Five came out. Of course you couldn't be a cool boy and admit to watching such a 'girly' show. Which I did every week, because Neve Campbell and JLH were foundational figures of my hormone-fueled choices in entertainment (alas a quarter century later I've hardly matured a bit. Sigh). Of course I liked Wild Things for the female/female makeout I'd ever seen in a theater, but I agree that it likely still holds up as a very entertaining, schlocky twisty crime potboiler. I was actually trying to track it down recently, after I enjoyed a re-watch of Starship Troopers. Totally random, but Scott Wolf of Party of Five 90s fame has family near my town and whenever he visits, has dinner at a restaurant I worked for a long time. Very nice dude.

Ratings and narratives be damned. Sorry about LeBron and Steph, and ESPN's propped up Embiid. My guy Butler is gonna play my other guy Jokic in the finals. Denver is the far superior team, but Jimmy is dragging this squad of willing role players past MVP after MVP. It's amazing.

I really respect Disney's recent line of new animated films. Soul I felt was more relatable for me, a 40ish guy whose career diverted and have struggled with happiness and inspiration than some 6 year old hoping for bubbly critters and catchy songs. That Elemental looks like Coco, Inside Out, and Soul, all with very mature or complex themes with enough rainbow color and song to keep kids happy. It's too bad they aren't making Mickey enough because I find them far more compelling than the animated stuff that they were pumping out in my childhood (all of which are now those atrocious live action versions).