fantasy | Superior Realities

Time for another recap of what I’ve been playing lately.

New World

I played a bit more of New World, though I am starting to wind down. With most of my goals completed and no content on the horizon, I imagine it will become like The Secret World: a game I’ll always love but only revisit every now and then.

I did start that latest alt. Haven’t entirely locked down a build yet, but right now I’m using a musket coupled either a rapier or greatsword depending on my mood. Since I’ve been on a kick of learning about indigenous cultures lately, I decided his backstory is that he’s an Andean native who mugged a conquistador and hitched a ride to Aeternum.

I was a little sad he wound up in Windsward. Nothing against it; it’s a lovely zone. But my nostalgia for Monarch’s Bluffs is so much stronger. Might have to make another character to revisit Monarch’s Bluffs…

Overwatch

Played a lot of Stadium — maybe a bit too much — to get my free loot boxes from the winter event. I’m still holding strong on Brigitte, Juno, and Pharah as my top played characters, but I have tried (and re-tried) a few others on the side.

I copied a build off reddit that uses De Kuiper’s Thesis to make Sigma (nearly) unkillable, and I’ve been having a lot of success with that. Bit worried this build is likely to be nerfed at some point, though. It’s a bit nutty.

After giving up on Mei early in my Stadium career, I’ve given her another shot and managed to claw my way above a 50% win rate, however tenuously. I do quite like the Coulder playstyle, though. Be the ball.

Also gave Freja another chance, with even more tepid results. She’s very hit and miss, quite literally. I’ve gotten some huge multi-kills with her bolas, but most of the time I just kind of flail around without accomplishing much. Not sure I actually enjoy playing her that much, either. She kind of feels like the answer to the question, “What if Pharah was super clunky?”

She does have a very satisfying ultimate line, though. NU VANKER DER.

I’ve also been playing a lot of Moira lately. I had trouble wrapping my head around her at first, but now that I’ve got the hang of it she’s very low stress. Hard to believe I ever struggled with her. A surprisingly high number of players don’t seem to bother getting out of the way of her damage orbs.

Part of the reason I’ve been revisiting older characters is I was pretty disappointed with the new offerings for Stadium this season. Only two characters is underwhelming to begin with, and I didn’t enjoy Doomfist or Wuyang at all. I’d heard there was evidence Illari and Symmetra were in production for Stadium, and I was really hoping to get one or both of them this season. They’re definitely my most wanted new characters for Stadium right now, Illari especially. Love her personality.

Road 96

Hot off the heels of my recent post waxing nostalgic about it, I decided it was time for my third (and final?) playthrough of Road 96.

Having already done the pro-democracy and apolitical routes, this time I went for the “burn it all down” approach. While my first two playthroughs yielded radically different endings, this one felt a bit like an awkward mash-up of the other two.

A little disappointing, but if there was ever a game that embodied the principle of the journey mattering more than the destination, it’s this one, and it was still lovely to revisit. Again, worth it for the music alone. Steam shows me with 23 hours logged in Road 96, and I’m pretty sure an hour or two of that is just sitting around vibing to the music.

Also, can we appreciate what a good dude John is? It really hit me on this playthrough how he really is the best person in the cast. Just a truly decent (fictional) human being.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

When I played Expedition 33, I skipped most of the act 3 side content because I didn’t want to interrupt the flow of the story too much. However, since then I’ve popped back in here and there to slowly clean up the rest. I think I’ve now done pretty much everything, including the Verso’s Drafts zone recently added in their free “thank you” update.

When they announced a free DLC, I was hoping for something to further flesh out the lore of the wider setting. This was… very much not that, but still a mostly fun romp all the same. Can’t complain about the price, either.

The one notable thing I still haven’t done is kill Simon. I made one attempt and decided that life is too short to deal with that level of difficulty. Simon can keep on doing his thing; I’m not gonna hassle him any further.

WoW

I’ve just recently reactivated my World of Warcraft subscription, though I did play a bit of the free version in December to get a head start on Legion Remix (or Region Lemix, as I keep accidentally calling it).

I’m not as enthusiastic about Legion’s Remix as I was for Pandaria’s. Legion was a lot more recent, and I played a truly disgusting amount of it at the time, so my burnout never really fully wore off. I’m also not really on the “Legion was the best expansion” train that most people seem to be these days. It was a good one, to be sure, but I wouldn’t put it at the top.

I also don’t love that we’re back to gear drops instead of upgrading gear. Theoretically I can understand the logic that it might feel bad to choose between spending bronze on gear upgrades versus cosmetics, but in practice it was trivially easy to get enough bronze for both, so it doesn’t really feel like a problem that needed solving, and it was so nice not to have to constantly replace and re-transmog my gear in Pandaria Remix. Lemix’s QoL feels much lower, and in general the Remix specific progression systems don’t feel nearly as exciting this time around.

However, the flood of rewards is still nice, and I was eager to try the heroic world tier. So far I haven’t found it particularly game changing, but a little more challenge for a little more reward is a nice option to have.

I’m playing a death knight because I remember them having the best class hall campaign, and because I figured a DK’s survivability would help in heroic world tier. I made a Blood Elf; since I’m still not really enjoying playing my hunter, I decided to just cosplay a dark ranger on this death knight and get my Warcraft III nostalgia fix that way.

It’s certainly an odd relationship I have with the death knight class. Historically it’s been one of my less preferred options, but I definitely have more DKs than anything else on my account at this point. When the Lemix one is finished leveling, she’ll be the third DK on my account to ever reach a current level cap and the second just in War Within. To say nothing of the many other low level DKs sitting around near the bottom of my character list.

Despite my alt addiction, I almost never make multiple characters of the same class in the same game, and even more rarely fully level them. The only other examples I can think of are my two paladins and two shamans in WoW (though I’ve never played both of either in the same expansion), and that second Jedi consular that I leveled in SWTOR for reasons.

I have always loved the flavour of death knights, and I’m gravitating toward them more simply because Frost DK is perhaps the only spec left in the game with a nice, simple builder/spender rotation. It scratches the itch rogues used to before Blizzard mangled them into their current cooldown-juggling mess.

I just wish I liked the aesthetics of Frost better. I’m admittedly not sure what exactly this would look like, but I’d prefer a “chill of the grave” vibe to “Frost mage but melee.” I prefer the more necromantic stylings of the other DK specs, but their gameplay isn’t nearly as smooth, so Frost it is. “Cold death” was one of the attack lines for dark rangers in WC3, I suppose.

My gaming time in November was almost entirely taken up by New World and Overwatch.

Contrary to how many have reacted, the knowledge that it might all go away soon lit a fire under me to dive deep into New World in a way I haven’t in at least a year. I’ve now got all my gear sets for both max level characters more or less “finished.” Not full best in slot per se, but at least full “good enough in slot.” I could — and very well may — still do more upgrading with umbrals. My most used sets are at around 790, but others are hovering in the 740-770 range.

I’ve also been ticking things off my New World bucket list. I’ve spent a lot of the last couple days filling out my lore collection. It’s sent me back to a bunch of lower level zones I haven’t been to in a while and just been a lovely experience all around.

It’s a shame a bigger fandom never formed around New World’s lore. I realize the main story tends to be merely adequate, but when you step off the beaten path and start reading all the lore notes, you find some truly excellent writing. I feel like almost no one even bothered with these things, but they’re truly one of the best parts of the game.

Also, if you’ve never read the flavour text when you hover over locations on the map, start. Especially where Nighthaven is concerned. It takes real talent to make such tiny blocks of text so evocative. Again, I bet most people never notice these at all, and that’s a crying shame.

I also went through the process of getting all 100 Memory Fragments, a new collection system introduced in Nighthaven. Completing the quest for getting them all awards you with two full outfits, skins for every weapon (except daggers), thousands of gold, tens of thousands of territory standing, and multiple chromatic seals.

I used a guide. I was never going to have the patience to do it the hard way, especially when some are so far out of the way I genuinely have no idea how anyone ever found them. Even so, it wasn’t an easy process, as there’s no way in the game to track which ones you already have. The first 90 or so were easy enough, but trying to find the last few I was missing almost broke me.

The final ones were inside the elite area, and I grabbed the very last one literally seconds before being killed by the surrounding mobs. Ironically a chest run came through there very shortly after, so I guess I could have just waited, but at least I got a dramatic moment out of it.

I also did get that house in Edengrove to use up my main’s last housing slot. I struggled to figure out how I wanted to decorate it, though. I started out doing it up as the site of some sinister arcane ritual, but that felt too similar to her other houses, and it didn’t really fit the settlement’s cozy vibes. But then inspiration struck: She’s a Finn! She needs a sauna!

So as best as I could with the existing decorations, I turned the house’s single room interior into a sauna, while living areas are scattered around the porch.

I’ve warmed to Edengrove’s housing a little bit. I still think the exterior areas should be bigger and have more greenery, but there’s more space to them than it seems at first glance, and you can get some nice views from them.

Finally, I’ve been debating making another alt. Lore collecting had me feeling nostalgic for the starting zones, and I’ve only done the current version of the base game main story once. But we’ll see. I’m certainly not interested in playing another character at endgame.

When I could tear myself away from New World, I continued my journey with Overwatch Stadium. I’ve settled into a steady roster with Brigitte, Juno, and Pharah as my most played characters, roughly in that order.

I also periodically play Kiriko, Torbjorn, Reinhardt, and Hazard. I’ve dabbled with Tracer, and to my infinite shock, I’ve actually done okay-ish with her, but I’m not sure I actually enjoy playing her. My brain is not built to move that fast.

Frustratingly, I still can’t play D.Va to save my life. I’ve tried every possible build, and all I do is die. I don’t get it. Haven’t really been getting my D.Va fix from Heroes of the Storm, either, as I haven’t enjoyed it much since the big macro patch (although the recent adjustment to comeback mechanics seems to have helped a little). This is one of those moments where I really wish Overwatch hadn’t abandoned PvE, because I really enjoy this character, but I’m just not good enough to play her against other players.

Meanwhile I’m still at around a 70% win rate on Brigitte. Actually, I think it’s about 69% right now. Obligatory “nice.”

I did have an odd thought as to why Brigitte has clicked so well for me (beyond my natural predilection toward paladins): She’s a New World character.

Think about it. Right click to block with your shield, left click to attack, and three active abilities on short cooldowns. That’s a New World character. Brigitte is using much the same skills and muscle memory I’ve spent the last four years honing in New World. Reinhardt’s similar, and I’ve got a pretty absurd win rate with him, too.

I did also check out the trial for the new melee damage hero, Vendetta. With her wild aerialist mobility, she’s a bit less New World-esque, but she does still have something of a similar feel. I had an absolute blast playing her in bot games (at least until it got stale as bot games always do), probably doing better than I ever have in those before. Pretty sure that’s the first time I’ve gotten a five kill without using an ultimate (or possibly at all) in any game mode.

Mind you, a brief foray into actual PvP games put to rest any delusions of grandeur I might have been having. Perhaps I might be a competent Vendetta in Stadium with the third person camera, but she probably won’t make it to Stadium any time soon.

I do really like her playstyle, though. I appreciate that they did incorporate an element of aim into her kit with the much narrower but more powerful overhead slash that caps off her melee combo. Needing to actually aim even for melee hits is also one of the things I love most about New World’s combat.

There’s clearly a small but significant disconnect between what I enjoy in games and what I’m good at. I really enjoy the need for precise aiming; I mainly played snipers in single-player and co-op shooters, after all, and it’s one of my favourite things about New World. I’m just not good enough to manage it in a fast-paced environment like Overwatch, hence when I have to lean on characters that are melee or can rely on abilities rather than guns.

I also want to say I love how dramatic Vendetta’s voice actress is. Up there with Illari and Ramattra for the best voice acting in the game.

It will of course never happen, but between the fact her ultimate is massive overhead bash and how the Overwatch community tends to be, I really want there to be an April Fools event where they change her ultimate line to, “GO TO HORNY JAIL!”

Superior Realities

Tag Archives: fantasy

Gaming Round-Up: What I Played Over the Holidays

New World and Overwatch: Right Click to Block

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