wanderingeye87

[wanderingeye87]

My Break-up Letter to Blizzard

Blizzard games have been a big part of my gaming life for over a decade. It all started in the winter of '04 when my best friend started playing World of Warcraft. It looked amazingly fun and was like nothing I'd seen before. Summer of '05 I got my first laptop and bought a copy of WoW. I played the game off and on for the next decade. The love of the lore and content brought me into their other games. I have played Hearthstone since it was in beta, the same goes for Heroes of the Storm and Overwatch. In their prime, these were some of the best gaming experiences I've ever had. However I feel that they're just not in a good place anymore.

Some say that WoW is in it's best state in a long time. However I was forced to stop playing it when I starting dating the woman who would become my wife. She is not a gamer, and I couldn't justify saying "we can't make plans on any of the nights that my guild raids" so I had to give it up a few years back.

HotS has always been fun for me but arguably has one of the worst quickplay matchmaking methods of any game I have ever played. How hard is it in a game with clearly defined roles to either A: make each team have a standard 1 tank, 2 dps, 1 specialist, 1 support or B: allow the people on a team to see what their teammates are playing before a match and allow us to change accordingly. Getting blindly stuck in a match of like 3 supports vs a team with 3 assassin's with nothing you can do but wait for it to end is a terrible feeling.

Hearthstone has been a love/hate relationship for me. But it's current level of hate far outweighs the love and I've decided to stop. Cubelock is just not fun to play against. Aggro paladin has already gotten old. Ranked ladder has no diversity and the recent season change did absolutely nothing to nerf cubelock. Facing the same deck for 6 months straight just gets stale. The changes to arena has made it feel just like standard and it isn't fun. Every deck in arena shouldn't have a lich King in it. The PvE content has been enjoyable but it's like ok, it took 2 weeks, I beat it, there's hardly any replay value. Lump all that together and it just feel like time to move on.

Which lastly brings me to Overwatch. Hands down one of my favorite FPS I've ever played. It's up there with MW1 for genre-defining, bar-setting gaming experiences. However I feel like after spiking so high early on, my opinion has been slowly creeping down. The reactionary nature of the constant nerfs and buffs is getting to be a bit much. It feels like every other week you log on it's a different game. The Mercy fiasco just felt like the devs had no idea what they were doing. And symetra is about to be in her third iteration. The increasing toxicity and aparhy of the player base hasn't helped either. The amount of people one-tricking either sniper or turret heroes saddens me. Or people I've encountered like the guy who threw a ranked match for my team because we needed a healer and I picked Zenyatta and he said "that's not a real healer" and proceeded to lock in torb on attack and run face first and feed until we lost. I finished season 3 at a peak of like diamond 3200, I've finished every season since then at 200 lower than the last. I think season 8 I was like mid-gold tier. I play tanks and healers and just get stuck with bad dps for like 5 games in a row and just stop playing. All of my friends I used to queue up with have moved on to stuff like fortnite and pubg. So with the people I like no longer playing and the people I don't like being more and more prevelent, the enjoyment factor just isn't there like it used to be.

These aren't all of the reasons for leaving these games but just adding them up across the board it kind of feels like a good time to take a break. Maybe someday they'll be in a better place and I'll come back. But for now Blizzard, I'm calling it quits.

#blizzard #hearthstone #overwatch #hots

[wanderingeye87]

After a lengthy haiatus from venturing into ranked because cubelock, spell Hunter, and tempo mage just got really old I decided to jump back in before the new expansion drops.

I've been giving it a shot with a hybrid priest deck that's like 1/4 early game buff and 3/4 late game dragon with a couple tech cards in it to mess with cubelock. So far it's been able to grind from rank 23 to 16 in the last week. I didn't think it would take so long but I forgot they changed the ladder to 5 stars at every rank. 40ish wins and I'm still below 15, feelsbadman. But I'll keep on chugging because it's a fun deck to play that feels different and interesting to play every match.

On another note, Magic's new set Dominaria looks awesome. The cards are flavorful, look fun to play, and have awesome art. I can honestly say I haven't been this excited about a set since like the invasion or urzas blocks. The last 6+ sets have all felt lacking in some way. The art felt generic, the new mechanics felt forced and unnecessary. This one is going to be a hit.

Springtime may revitalize my gaming life with the roatation in hearthstone and the amazing new cards in MTG.

#hearthstone #mtg

[wanderingeye87]

That new "equal power level selection" at work in the new arena draft. One of the hardest decisions I've seen in a long time.

#hearthstone #blizzard #arena

[wanderingeye87]

Overwatch heroes as dogs (x)

[wanderingeye87]

Fuck DK mage

I'm playing good stuff paladin against a DK mage deck. We had some good back and forths for like 10 turns. I finally wear them down, they have an empty hand and an empty board. I drop a Lynessa that buffs into a 15/17 divine shield deathrattle. This bitch top decks a poly, pings it and gets their free 3/6 lifesteal.

Go fuck yourself and your broken fucking dk. I can't remember the last time I beat any DK mage deck once they draw their DK with any deck.

#hearthstone

[wanderingeye87]

Triple golden pack off the free arena run this week. I'll take it.

#hearthstone

[wanderingeye87]

Step 1: warlock plays Renounce Darkness and turns into warrior Step 2: they play Explore Un'Goro Step 3: I play Skulking Geist Step 4: Profit

#hearthstone #blizzard

[wanderingeye87]

Pretty much the perfect starting hand for beating any Hunter deck. He didn't have a minion stick to the board until turn 7. But by then the doomguard I had gotten off Bane of Doom had already sealed his fate.

#hearthstone #blizzard #warlock

[wanderingeye87]

Warlock is certainly a new arena all star this season. Cards like Defile and Despicable Dreadlord offer excellent board clear options, Unwilling Sacrifice offers superb trade value, and Dreadmare is just bonkers in any class. There's this feeling you get when you math it out and manage to wipe the board with a 4, 5 or 6 cast defile.

#hearthstone #blizzard #warlock #arena

[wanderingeye87]

It wouldn't be a day at work

Without the constant existential dread of "what the fuck am I doing here wasting my life on all this shit?"

#existential #dread #fuck work #9to5

[wanderingeye87]

So that just happened. JaraX-X-Xus to the maxus.

#blizzard #hearthstone #warlock #jaraxxus

[wanderingeye87]

Hearthstone God's: today your quests will be "win druid games" and "play minions that cost 2 or less" Me: cool, I'll play aggro druid Also Hearthstone God's: you'll also face 8 mage decks in a row. Go fuck yourself.

#hearthstone #druid #mage

[wanderingeye87]

Batman Animated

[wanderingeye87]

I cannot believe this whole scene.

[wanderingeye87]

Haven’t touched overwatch in weeks. Decided fuck it, I’ll give it a shot. Load into a ranked match. Figure I’ll heal so I can ease back into the game.

Match loads and this random fucker on my team just bugs out. Omg why are you playing zen? Zen is so squishy. Zen is garbage! And he locks into torb on attack and throws the match.

Welp, glad I’ve been avoiding these people.

#overwatch

[wanderingeye87]

This morning's playlist

I'm on an early 90s / late 80s alt rock with female vocals kick today. Eddie Brickell & the new Bohemians - What I Am Alannah Myles - Black Velvet Melissa Etheridge - What I Am KT Tunstall - Black Horse and a Cherry Tree Sophie B Hawkins - Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover Paula Cole - Where Have All The Cowboys Gone Tracy Chapman - Fast Car Tracy Bonham - Mother Mother If anyone thinks they have some good ideas for additions to the list, let me know. I plan on keeping this groove going all morning.

#female vocal #alternative #alt rock #90s #playlist #rock #music #90srock

[wanderingeye87]

I've been enjoying my break from realm of Blizzard games. Snagged CoD:MW3 on the steam sale for $20 for the PC, got Lego Star wars episodes 1-6 on the xb1 (360 games but backwards compatible) for free last month from the gold membership rewards, and scooped up a copy of Castlevania: Lament of Innocence for the PS2 for $12 at a local indie games shop. Rocking the semi-retro for a bit has been very calming.

#ps2 #xbox+360+games #pc gaming #castlevania #lego star wars #cod mw3 #gaming