The title pretty much says it all. I've been leveling one of each type of character (yes, I'm an altaholic) but given the limited amount of space in the stash, I'm now only leveling two characters. The others are acting as extra storage space at the moment -- because you often find a piece of gear that would be Just Perfect for another class when you get around to that. Right now, my Barbarian's level 44 and my Wizard is level 37 and both are in the Stinging Winds area.
I think my Wizard is plotting to have me eaten by a grue.
With equipment donated by his good friend (my Barbarian, who is level 45
and stuffs all the mage-y junk in the Stash chest), my mage blasted
through the Normal levels and splatted Diablo to bits as he hit level
30. The build I chose was effective but not perhaps the best, using Frost Nova (ice snap), hydra (Arcane), ice armor (Chiling Aura), Mirror Image (simulacrum), Magic Missle (charged blast), Ray of Frost (snow blast) on my casting bar. Evocation, Astral Blast, and Blur for the passive skills. It wasn't a very high-powered build. My armor was 1088 and the official stats say my damage was 586.17 -- so not very high, actually. Since I'd killed him once (after many tries) on my Barbarian, the experience I had on how to manage the fight actually made it possible to solo Diablo at a much lower level on the Wizard.
Well, that and the gold and knowing how to use the Auction House.
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Friday, July 27, 2012
Defeating Diablo, Normal Mode (Wizard)
After playing around with the Barbarian (to Nightmare Mode level 45) I decided to toy with some of the ranged classes. Although Demon Hunter is very popular, I decided to pick the Wizard. I'm not sure why -- maybe I just liked his looks.
The Wizard leveled a lot faster than I figured he would. My basic tactics were "gear up Templar, let HIM run in, and blast things from a distance." I picked gear for overall DPS, figuring that the Wizard's job is to stay out of the way of things while someone else dies. It worked quite well and he actually made it all the way up to Diablo (last boss) without dying -- even the icy battlefield didn't give him any trouble. By the time he was level 30, I figured it was time to move onto the "let's get into Heaven and smush up the forces of evil." The Barbarian (my first character) had trouble with the icy battlefields and I didn't get to heaven until she was level 34.
So what could go wrong with a Wizard character -- right?
The Wizard leveled a lot faster than I figured he would. My basic tactics were "gear up Templar, let HIM run in, and blast things from a distance." I picked gear for overall DPS, figuring that the Wizard's job is to stay out of the way of things while someone else dies. It worked quite well and he actually made it all the way up to Diablo (last boss) without dying -- even the icy battlefield didn't give him any trouble. By the time he was level 30, I figured it was time to move onto the "let's get into Heaven and smush up the forces of evil." The Barbarian (my first character) had trouble with the icy battlefields and I didn't get to heaven until she was level 34.
So what could go wrong with a Wizard character -- right?
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Diablo 3 - Normal Barbarians (part 2)
(These notes are for NORMAL, not HARDCORE mode. Not yet. And on Normal difficulty.)
Okay -- you've gotten your character up to level 4 or so, you've picked your first skills, and you've even got some gear. You're on your way to defeating the Big Bad Boss at the end of the game -- and unlocking the increasingly harder Nightmare, Hell, and Inferno difficulties.
Now -- let me add a note up front, here -- this is YOUR game. I have some tactics that I use, but this should not be considered "set in stone." I use "whirlwind" a lot, but you might prefer to have Seismic Slam or Hammer of the Ancients (both of which cost less energy) on your right mouse button. I prefer to play with a shield but you might like the two-handed weapon best.
It's your game. Set the game up however you like it. Experiment with things -- that's what makes games fun! If you have a group that you play with, then talk to them and ask them how they'd like you geared (the strategy may be for you to run in and take lots of damage while everyone stands at the edges and picks the little guys off and someone heals you, for instance.) But if you're playing it solo, like I do, just make characters and have fun!
So... Barbarians...
Okay -- you've gotten your character up to level 4 or so, you've picked your first skills, and you've even got some gear. You're on your way to defeating the Big Bad Boss at the end of the game -- and unlocking the increasingly harder Nightmare, Hell, and Inferno difficulties.
Now -- let me add a note up front, here -- this is YOUR game. I have some tactics that I use, but this should not be considered "set in stone." I use "whirlwind" a lot, but you might prefer to have Seismic Slam or Hammer of the Ancients (both of which cost less energy) on your right mouse button. I prefer to play with a shield but you might like the two-handed weapon best.
It's your game. Set the game up however you like it. Experiment with things -- that's what makes games fun! If you have a group that you play with, then talk to them and ask them how they'd like you geared (the strategy may be for you to run in and take lots of damage while everyone stands at the edges and picks the little guys off and someone heals you, for instance.) But if you're playing it solo, like I do, just make characters and have fun!
So... Barbarians...
Sunday, July 22, 2012
Diablo 3, starting a Barbarian (part 1)
This is a series of notes about Diablo3, written from the perspective of "I never played this game before but I think I'll try it out." This isn't a deep statistical analysis.
So... you're new to the game and you've picked a Barbarian because it's one of the easier classes to play. There's some specialty gear that drops for each class (Barbarians get a lot of belts -- don't ask me why) and this particular class gets extra bonuses just for standing around and wearing armor. Sounds good right?
A note on character designs -- the male Witch Doctor appears to have a bad case of Parkinson's disease and although I love the idea of having Black characters in the game, the constant twitching is a bit much. Nor do I like the prancy-girly female Demon Hunter in her high heels with twin crossbows is a real visual turn-off.
When you log in, you begin Act 1 -- to find the "fallen star" and kill a lot of monsters. You have two attacks (right and left mouse buttons -- the right mouse button costs more energy than the left mouse button attack) and two large globes at the bottom of your screen. The red one is your health. If it goes away, so do you. The right globe is your energy (rage) and you need certain amounts of it to do certain attacks that cause more damage. As you level, you will get options (the sword icon at the bottom (next to the person icon (your inventory)) will blink and you'll be able to choose from a number of confusing looking options.
Never fear, grasshopper. You'll get it sorted out after a bit. Time to go adventuring. Run down the hill and kill whatever gets in your way. At the bottom of the hill is Captain Rumsford. You'll talk with him and the fun will begin.
Once you've got all the zombies sorted out (and dead), the gate opens and you can enter New Tristam. Quest givers have glowing exclamation marks, people who want to yak at you have blue-white asterisks, and if you get lost, the icon (bottom of your screen) that looks like a wine cup has your journal with tabs about what you just read (or should have) from manuscripts you picked up and what quest you're on.
Notable NPC's:
So... you're new to the game and you've picked a Barbarian because it's one of the easier classes to play. There's some specialty gear that drops for each class (Barbarians get a lot of belts -- don't ask me why) and this particular class gets extra bonuses just for standing around and wearing armor. Sounds good right?
A note on character designs -- the male Witch Doctor appears to have a bad case of Parkinson's disease and although I love the idea of having Black characters in the game, the constant twitching is a bit much. Nor do I like the prancy-girly female Demon Hunter in her high heels with twin crossbows is a real visual turn-off.
When you log in, you begin Act 1 -- to find the "fallen star" and kill a lot of monsters. You have two attacks (right and left mouse buttons -- the right mouse button costs more energy than the left mouse button attack) and two large globes at the bottom of your screen. The red one is your health. If it goes away, so do you. The right globe is your energy (rage) and you need certain amounts of it to do certain attacks that cause more damage. As you level, you will get options (the sword icon at the bottom (next to the person icon (your inventory)) will blink and you'll be able to choose from a number of confusing looking options.
Never fear, grasshopper. You'll get it sorted out after a bit. Time to go adventuring. Run down the hill and kill whatever gets in your way. At the bottom of the hill is Captain Rumsford. You'll talk with him and the fun will begin.
Once you've got all the zombies sorted out (and dead), the gate opens and you can enter New Tristam. Quest givers have glowing exclamation marks, people who want to yak at you have blue-white asterisks, and if you get lost, the icon (bottom of your screen) that looks like a wine cup has your journal with tabs about what you just read (or should have) from manuscripts you picked up and what quest you're on.
Notable NPC's:
Friday, July 20, 2012
Getting started in Diablo 3 (no, not an Android game this time)
I admit I was sort of "meh" about getting a copy of Diablo 3 with my year's subscription to Warcraft. Warcraft does suit all my needs, and I'm not looking for other games. But friends were playing it and so I decided to eventually try it out because it's a solo game and sometimes I want to fiddle with something while I'm writing something else.
But once I got into the game a little bit, I discovered that a) most of the info out there was the result of rewrites of the pre-release game (and two years old) and b) contained in threads in a discussion forum. So you have to slog through page after page after page (after page) of comments just to find out what stats you should put on the Rogue who's following you around.
So -- I haven't played it up to the highest level, but here's the basics (this is just MY opinion. Your mileage may vary):
But once I got into the game a little bit, I discovered that a) most of the info out there was the result of rewrites of the pre-release game (and two years old) and b) contained in threads in a discussion forum. So you have to slog through page after page after page (after page) of comments just to find out what stats you should put on the Rogue who's following you around.
So -- I haven't played it up to the highest level, but here's the basics (this is just MY opinion. Your mileage may vary):
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Glorious time wasters: Fruit Roll
If you're into old video games, you'll find yourself right at home in this side scrolling platform game for Android devices. This free game offers a very simple scenario -- you start out the game as a yellow fruit (which changes as you encounter other things) and the goal is to bounce and squish and roll as you grab stars (points) and weapons (fruit) through different levels. The weapons (fruit choices) appear on the left hand side of the screen as you collect them; tapping on them allows you to change your character to get that fruit's powers. But choose your fruit weapons wisely, because if you hit the enemy with the wrong fruit, you're going to lose the encounter. Tapping (single, double, triple) give you different jump heights. Time them carefully, because like any physics based game it's easy to misjudge distance. I prefer the "feel" of this on my 7 inch Android tablet, though it's quite playable on my Android phone as well.
Certain fruits change the size of your character or the game speed and affects the gameplay in a drastic fashion as you hit the higher levels.
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Glorious Time Wasters: Magma Mobile's "Galaxy"
Glorious Time Wasters: Galaxy
Initial review: Five stars -- deceptively easy for the first rounds.
Game category: Puzzle games
Game type: Puzzle and timed puzzle
Recommended device size: any device
Who'd enjoy it? For everyone, really.
My tablet chimed softly as the game screen loaded. My husband eyed the first screen: run your finger over three lines to connect 3 stars in a triangle. "Tough, huh?" he joked. I gritted my teeth. "I'm reviewing Android games for kids. Parents always like to have recommendations for little free Android games suitable for children so that they can keep the young ones amused while they're waiting somewhere," I said as the screen flashed "good job."
A four sided figure appeared. "It's a Mom thing," I said.
He looked at me, amused.
"It's supposed to be easy," I swooshed through the figure in two seconds. "Good job!" the screen read.
More stars appeared, connected by lines. The next diagram was no problem for an adult but might be challenging for a four year old learning to play connect the dots games. However, by the time the game had gotten up to level 8, the difficulty level had crept up. There were some "one way" connections and if you tried to go over a line a second time, it would erase the line. By the time I hit level 13, it was taking longer than 3 seconds to get through and I was having to think about which moves would work best.
That's typical of a lot of the Magma Mobile games.
Initial review: Five stars -- deceptively easy for the first rounds.
Game category: Puzzle games
Game type: Puzzle and timed puzzle
Recommended device size: any device
Who'd enjoy it? For everyone, really.
My tablet chimed softly as the game screen loaded. My husband eyed the first screen: run your finger over three lines to connect 3 stars in a triangle. "Tough, huh?" he joked. I gritted my teeth. "I'm reviewing Android games for kids. Parents always like to have recommendations for little free Android games suitable for children so that they can keep the young ones amused while they're waiting somewhere," I said as the screen flashed "good job."
A four sided figure appeared. "It's a Mom thing," I said.
He looked at me, amused.
"It's supposed to be easy," I swooshed through the figure in two seconds. "Good job!" the screen read.
More stars appeared, connected by lines. The next diagram was no problem for an adult but might be challenging for a four year old learning to play connect the dots games. However, by the time the game had gotten up to level 8, the difficulty level had crept up. There were some "one way" connections and if you tried to go over a line a second time, it would erase the line. By the time I hit level 13, it was taking longer than 3 seconds to get through and I was having to think about which moves would work best.
That's typical of a lot of the Magma Mobile games.
Monday, February 27, 2012
Glorious Time Wasters: Godville
Who it's for: Anyone
Rating: Five REEEEALY weird stars
GODVILLE
I'm.. not sure whose time this android game is actually wasting, because technically it's not wasting your time. This is an RPG game for android devices that you DON'T play. It's sort of a social media thing with sort of guilds as well. And actually, it's a little stranger than that, even. It's a parody life, the universe, and MMO games -- and best of all, you don't play it.
That's right. You DON'T play this one. It plays itself.
This is a text ...err... game -- or, rather, the diary of a luckless wannabe that YOU are godling over. You create yourself a deity and a hero suddenly decides to find you. Your godlike powers aren't terribly awesome -- but that's okay, because your hero isn't that awesome. You can send your hero messages and encourage them (sometimes this means raining flower petals on them.) You can also punish them and attempt to turn them to the Dark Side or become an outstanding do-gooder.
Your hero does all sorts of things while you're not watching (which gives you a new perspective on how deities might see YOU.) For instance, they will join a guild without your intervention. This is a nice thing for those of you who deal with guilds on MMOs. Less guild drama, more fun.
"Thought about writing in my diary, but then I changed my mind."
"Upon close inspection, this road seems to be paved with good intentions. Huh. I wonder where it leads.
"You know, Exalted One, I would have won that fight with the Wounder Man if that tree hadn't jumped out in front of me."
"Bunnies in burrows suddenly got suspiciously fussy." (Yes you read that right.)
"Avoiding mudholes, monsters, and mimes"
If you get the game, DO make an account on the GodVille site.
http://godvillegame.com/
It's free. Check it out at the link below:
Rating: Five REEEEALY weird stars
GODVILLE
I'm.. not sure whose time this android game is actually wasting, because technically it's not wasting your time. This is an RPG game for android devices that you DON'T play. It's sort of a social media thing with sort of guilds as well. And actually, it's a little stranger than that, even. It's a parody life, the universe, and MMO games -- and best of all, you don't play it.
That's right. You DON'T play this one. It plays itself.
This is a text ...err... game -- or, rather, the diary of a luckless wannabe that YOU are godling over. You create yourself a deity and a hero suddenly decides to find you. Your godlike powers aren't terribly awesome -- but that's okay, because your hero isn't that awesome. You can send your hero messages and encourage them (sometimes this means raining flower petals on them.) You can also punish them and attempt to turn them to the Dark Side or become an outstanding do-gooder.
Your hero does all sorts of things while you're not watching (which gives you a new perspective on how deities might see YOU.) For instance, they will join a guild without your intervention. This is a nice thing for those of you who deal with guilds on MMOs. Less guild drama, more fun.
"Thought about writing in my diary, but then I changed my mind."
"Upon close inspection, this road seems to be paved with good intentions. Huh. I wonder where it leads.
"You know, Exalted One, I would have won that fight with the Wounder Man if that tree hadn't jumped out in front of me."
"Bunnies in burrows suddenly got suspiciously fussy." (Yes you read that right.)
"Avoiding mudholes, monsters, and mimes"
If you get the game, DO make an account on the GodVille site.
http://godvillegame.com/
It's free. Check it out at the link below:
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Glorious Little Apps: Relax And Sleep
There's an app for just about anything these days -- but this "Relax and Sleep" (a favorite free Android app of mine) is one I've recommended to friends who travel and find it hard to get to sleep when they're away from home. Think of it as your own personal, free, environmental ambiance generator -- and so much more.
Need a free white noise generator to help you doze off? Yes, "Relax and Sleep" has an assortment of white noise type generators, inclluding "fan" and "washing machine." I prefer to combine several sounds together (my favorite is rain and a cat purring, along with cricket frogs) to create a lovely soundscape as I drift off to sleep. However, you can also use it to create a work-friendly soundscape to help you focus your attention and minimize distractions from the rest of your workspace.
Here's the link to the free version for the Android operating system -- BUT -- it's such a lovely little app that
I recommend paying the $3.00 and getting the paid version.
And happy napping!
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.mizusoft.relaxandsleep&hl=en
Need a free white noise generator to help you doze off? Yes, "Relax and Sleep" has an assortment of white noise type generators, inclluding "fan" and "washing machine." I prefer to combine several sounds together (my favorite is rain and a cat purring, along with cricket frogs) to create a lovely soundscape as I drift off to sleep. However, you can also use it to create a work-friendly soundscape to help you focus your attention and minimize distractions from the rest of your workspace.
Here's the link to the free version for the Android operating system -- BUT -- it's such a lovely little app that
I recommend paying the $3.00 and getting the paid version.
And happy napping!
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.mizusoft.relaxandsleep&hl=en
Monday, February 13, 2012
Glorious Time Wasters: Glu's Bonsai Blast Android Game
Initial review: Five stars -- Nice little twist on a target shooting game
Game category: Physics games
Game type: Arcade
Recommended device size: any device
Who'd enjoy it? For everyone, really.
http://www.glu.com/game/bonsai-blast
It's hard to come up with new concepts in a "shoot the target" game, but Glu has managed to create a very pleasant, simple, and playable game for all Android devices. You're presented a screen with a path and a little "snake" of marbles that start moving along the path to another hole. The object is to add colored marbles to a section until you match three of the same color, and that section of the line explodes and the marble "snake" shrinks. Once you've mastered the basics of this game, you can start to get fancy by ricocheting your marbles off walls, using chutes to guide marbles, and swapping from one shooting spot to the next with a touch of your finger. Each level brings some extra bonuses and treasures.
The game graphics are beautiful, and the play is smooth. Although this doesn't involve chess-like strategy, it does require some quick thinking to place the marbles properly. Best of all, for those with poorer eyesight, you touch the part of the marble snake where you want your next marble to land and it goes there -- no wild blasting all over the screen trying to get the game under control.
Great fun, great quick time waster, great stress buster.
Game category: Physics games
Game type: Arcade
Recommended device size: any device
Who'd enjoy it? For everyone, really.
http://www.glu.com/game/bonsai-blast
It's hard to come up with new concepts in a "shoot the target" game, but Glu has managed to create a very pleasant, simple, and playable game for all Android devices. You're presented a screen with a path and a little "snake" of marbles that start moving along the path to another hole. The object is to add colored marbles to a section until you match three of the same color, and that section of the line explodes and the marble "snake" shrinks. Once you've mastered the basics of this game, you can start to get fancy by ricocheting your marbles off walls, using chutes to guide marbles, and swapping from one shooting spot to the next with a touch of your finger. Each level brings some extra bonuses and treasures.
The game graphics are beautiful, and the play is smooth. Although this doesn't involve chess-like strategy, it does require some quick thinking to place the marbles properly. Best of all, for those with poorer eyesight, you touch the part of the marble snake where you want your next marble to land and it goes there -- no wild blasting all over the screen trying to get the game under control.
Great fun, great quick time waster, great stress buster.
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