The Destroyer of Worlds

I should probably make a blog post about this. Mostly because it is actually quite a significant achievement for me across multiple vectors. Also because I have severely neglected this 'blog' in recent years, so giving it some attention is a nice way to kill time.

I started playing Classic WoW last year like a lot of people, riding the nostalgia train and experiencing the best version of Blizzard's Azeroth once more. Of course I played a warrior, and of course I played Horde ... how could I not? What was different this time though is that instead of my goto Undead choice, I chose Orc, which had its ups and downs. Not having Cannibalize while leveling was significantly limiting. I probably regret this choice overall.

I leveled with a small group of friends and had a grand time on the journey to max level. We mostly ran a 'melee cleave' team through dungeons, though to be honest most of the cleaving was probably done by me. This was significant because I have NEVER had the opportunity to play WoW, in any of its expansions, with a group of people I know. It was a jolly time and fun was had by all, for the most part.

 

Eventually a few patches later, Blizzard historically released the Honor and Battleground system. I was excited for this because I was interested in doing the honor grind again in some manner. Unfortunately, queues for Horde were in excess of 30 mins, which not only killed that idea, but my interest in playing the game further. My group stopped playing it too.

I took a break from it for over 10 months, randomly coming back a couple of months ago. My objective this time was specifically two things:

• Achieve Rank 10, despite BG queue times
• Acquire [Zin'rokh, Destroyer of Worlds] (my favourite weapon)
  

I achieved both of these in due time, but it was one hell of a time and energy commitment. Firstly I needed to not just raid, but I often needed to tank. Being a tank in WoW comes with the most responsibility and pressure of any role, and requires you to have ideal gear and knowledge for the job, lest you die and wipe the raid. Spamming Zulgurub, Molten Core and AQ20 runs for a month straight eventually led to Zin'rokh finally dropping. I was incredibly fortunate enough to win the roll against 2 other warriors and 2 hunters (wtf??). It was probably the most ecstatic I have been playing WoW, ever, and will probably be my most memorable moment playing the game, even after 15 years.

 Armed with the Destroyer of Worlds, I decided that now was the best time to push towards Rank 10 in PvP. Back in the day I achieved Rank 11, Lieutenant General, on my Undead Warlock, probably my most memorable achievement in the game. I knew it was going to be an enormous grind, but that it would also be a fantastic opportunity to but Zin'rokh to great use and collect some ridiculous footage. I ran solo, lone-wolf, without a team, healer or any support, which I cannot recommend as a warrior.

After a solid month of PvP I hit Rank 10, being at a consistent ~50-100th standing on my server every week, while still doing full-time work. This is actually quite surprising, considering I did not have a premade team to PUG stomp with and was in competition against the horde premades for honor on my server. The old vanilla ranking system was more about competing against your own faction than the enemy.

The footage I collected was absolutely absurd. Even in my ok-ish blues and epics I would frequently 3 shot or even 2 shot opponents. I made a video and it has many of these moments in relatively quick succession. A month of recording results in a LOT of footage, after all.

The video also contains a couple of sections where I square off against other Warriors in much better gear than I using either [Dark Edge of Insanity] or [Ashkandi, Greatsword of the Brotherhood], two of the best weapons in the game (at this time). These were special moments as even though Zin'rokh and my gear do not compare to these powerhouses, you can still take opponents down with enough skill and luck. It's times like these where vanilla WoW's PvP mechanics shine through, something modern day WoW severely lacks with its constant normalization.

The last 2 months have been probably some of the most fun and rewarding WoW experiences I have had. It's strange that I have basically done it solo, once again, like I have always done. Perhaps that says something about my character more than anything. I will finish this post by leaving my equipped gear listed. It's by far not in any way the best in the game, but for me it has definitely been the most memorable.

First Final Fantasy

Final Fantasy VII Remake is the first Final Fantasy game I have really sat down and played. Sure, I have dabbled with the demos and small segments of the older VI, VII, VIII and IX before, but only to become familiar with the tried and true Active Time Battle (ATB) combat system. I never played them for the story, nor did I care much for the lore or background of these games, despite their cultural significance. I guess I always thought the FF games were not dark and gritty enough for my liking.

I'm not sure what got me interested in the remake of VII, but I downloaded the demo and quite enjoyed the combat system. However, what struck me was the amount of effort the creators have gone into crafting an actually decent narrative, something I am generally quite critical of in games. Story has never been something I found overly compelling in the games I play, preferring to watch movies or read a good book for my fix of that. However, even in the demo you could tell the creators both love and respect this game quite dearly and have gone to great lengths to make in a legitimate expositional experience.

Finishing the game left me in an awkward, alien state - I've never been depressed about completing a game before. The desire to continue the journey (even though I know vaguely what happens) was strong with this game and having to put it down from a narrative standpoint was sad and disheartening. If this is what FF fans or story game players feel and look for in games then I can safely say that I get it now. I wouldn't say its the healthiest state to be in constantly, but the fact that a video game has the capacity to do that is remarkable to me. It truly is the best entertainment medium.

Visually the game is impressive too, pushing PS4 technology to the limits with the latest Unreal Engine tech. Although its capped at 30fps on the console (hopefully this improves) the level of detail in the environments in certain places is beyond ridiculous. I would say the term 'overkill' is both appropriate and accurate to describe the detail the creators have put into sections of this game, particularly from a visual standpoint. My PS4 is audibly struggling (i.e. fans cooling) to the point where I have put my old laptop cooler underneath it to not stress it too much. On PC this game is going to look gorgeous, and play even better!

Gameplay wise it is also a blast and would have had to be for me to stick around playing it at all. It is a good mix of real-time and ATB modes that requires you to employ both to have any degree of success. You can control any member of your party, but while doing so, other party members wont do much more than attack (occasionally) and guard (thankfully). Sometimes the AI here is a little frustrating, having characters run off and even face the wrong way at times. Tifa I found was especially bad at this for some reason. I would have personally tweaked this to not have to babysit non-active members so much - doing nothing is fine, but doing less than nothing is cancer. However, when things work, the combat is chunky and visually impressive with the damage numbers during staggers (enemy incapacitation) feeling rewarding almost every time.

After completing the campaign, playing the game in Hard mode and attempting the endgame VR Arenas has been a solid challenge. Some of the VR battles contain monsters that are not seen anywhere else in the campaign, and the rewards for defeating them are basically best in slot. Not being able to use items means you need to consider how much Mana Points (MP) you are using as you can't just spam spells and brute force your way through. Even simple monsters hit like a truck, so making a build with some solid defences and sustain efficiency is also critical. You don't do any damage when you are dead, as they say.





I do hope they continue releasing content for remake and not just work solely on the second chapter. A few more difficult arenas to conquer would cater towards crazies like myself for awhile yet, and be minimal work at best. Here's hoping Square Enix realises this and finds the time. Otherwise, solid game, easy recommendation, 10/10.

Rip and Tear

I should probably make this post, mostly so I have a reference for it later when I upgrade my PC again 8 years from now.

Conveniently before the Caronavirus nuked the PC component economy (not to mention the rest of the economy), I decided to buy a new PC. This is different from the minor upgrades and part replacements over the last 9 years (i.e. the last time I did this), as this is, of course, a completely new build in a completely new case. I still have my old computer which actually works fine for the most part.

So why did I upgrade? Well, there is a host of reasons, one of them being I liked the old model of having a back-up PC and a reliable machine for folks to use at LANs. But more realistically, it was honestly just time to. There were parts in my old PC that were going on 9 years old (e.g. the power supply) that could give out at any moment. Plus, PC performance was becoming a slight issue.

So, the new PC. It's not bad, probably the most powerful machine I have constructed to date, even using the price:performance ratio I opt for (i.e. slightly above medium range). Coming in at just under $2000, I have built a machine that runs everything I currently play at ultra high settings - not a statement I have been able to say for awhile now. The build consists of the following parts (again, more for my own reference/keepsake):

GPU - Asus Geforce RTX 2060 6GB
Case - Cooler Master MasterBox MB520
PSU - Cooler Master MWE Gold 550w PSU
CPU - Intel Core i7 9700KF 3.6Ghz
CPU Cooler - Cooler Master Hyper 212 LED Turbo CPU Cooler
Thermal Grease - Artic Silver 5
Memory - G.Skill 32GB 2666Mhz RAM
Mobo - Asus ROG Strix B365-G LGA1151 ATX Motherboard
Storage - Western Digital Black 500GB m.2 NVMe SSD
OS - Windows 10 Professional OEM

Somewhat satisfyingly, the build was an incredibly smooth construction process, with no mistakes and everything working without unnecessary configuration. I did do extensive research in advance, so I was expecting this, however. I am quite happy with the build and case, being an anti-dust setup with lots of space and cable management, for once. The 'new' component, that being the use of an m.2 SSD was also a joy to figure out, and the speed of booting the system is definitely noticeable. I am very happy with the results.

Performance in Monster Hunter World: Iceborne is phenomenal, running at 120+ frames the majority of the time with maxed settings. I feel like I am playing a completely different game when I do. More importantly, Doom Eternal has been a visual treat and definitely a good stress test for the build overall. No complaints, basically.

Speaking of Doom Eternal - great game. While initially I was not sold on the adjusted game play mechanics (a departure from Doom 2016), requiring you to play a very specific way, you eventually get used to it and the flow of the experience comes to the fore. Having mastered the play style to some extent, playing on Ultra-Violence or Nightmare difficulty is really the only time the game can be challenging for me now, which is good. One addition to the standard campaign of particular mention is the introduction of Slayer Gates, which are considered some of the hardest content in the game presently. I will let you decide how difficult they are...



Overall though, its nice knowing that even this old, bitter man can still find some joy in upgrading his PC and playing the latest games at high performance settings, just like I did in the past. While I will say the excitement is certainly diminished, overall it is pleasantly nostalgic to feel like I am in my early 20s again. Something to look forward to, once in a blue moon.

Speaking of once in a blue moon, this dropped in Diablo III:

I can probably stop playing the game now, I think.

Weebmaster 9000

I haven't posted in a long, long time. Strangely I have been playing and making games, just haven't felt the need to discuss it. I feel I am becoming more humble and stoic with age, and happy to keep to myself. Times continue to change.

I guess something I could add is the fact that I have (had?) been playing the new Iceborne expansion for Monster Hunter World on PC. For the duration of the campaign and for some of endgame I took up the Longsword, a surprisingly difficult weapon to master that requires extreme precision and timing in order for it to be most effective. It also makes you feel like some kind of samurai, drawing and sheathing your sword over and over during combat, which is novel and fun.

The Longsword has 4 unique moves that offer the player a short window of invincibility frames, allowing someone with foresight to punch through dangerous monster abilities with confidence. However, these moves are all very different, and are used at varying times during combat. Learning to most effectively employ them against various monster moves has been both a frustrating but educational journey, teaching me to be patient but also supremely aware of what is occurring. You can't just roll your face and expect to win.



I would post information regarding my build but it's not really important for progression in the game. The way MHW works is that you can basically make anything work if you try hard enough, and the endgame doesn't lock you into farming specific things forever. It's nice to play a game that is more about execution and awareness than it is about balancing a spreadsheet (e.g. Diablo III). Although, to be fair, I enjoy doing that too 😏

Anyways, I look forward to both Doom Eternal and a much needed full PC upgrade on the horizon. I guess I can post something about that too. Soon(tm). Maybe.