Why you do dis Blizz and Happy Birthday D3!

Seriously, this is the longest two weeks I have ever had to a wait for a game. I want to get my grubby little mitts on Overwatch, and there is still another week to go.

Mostly been playing Diablo 3, working on some stuff in season.

Speaking of D3, today is its 4th birthday. It has basically been two games in the time since it was released. When it came out, while I did enjoy it, the game was way too fucking hard, and the drops were shit. You were literally better off having yellow armor than legendaries. You could of course sell stuff on the AH, which just meant that bots ended up making a lot of money. I actually made enough to buy Cataclysm, so I guess I cant complain too much.

They really turned the game around though, and it became a really fun loot based game with a competitive side should you like that sort of thing. Great job Blizzard.

On a Destiny note, while I have not been playing, I have been quite happy that the community is continuing to roast Bungie about skill based matchmaking. It looks like they may actually do something about it this time.

And for you Overwatch hankering, here is the new animated short they released today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5w2-3Dn9PGg

and here is a comic.

http://comic.playoverwatch.com/en-us/symmetra-a-better-world

And so my Watch has ended......

No, I am not in the Nights watch, but the Overwatch beta is now over and I have to wait another two weeks to play it again. And I am a sad panda.

After getting to play it for a week, I am still of the opinion that Overwatch is one of the most fun shooters I have played in a long time. Each hero is different and unique, and pretty much every character was enjoyable.

I played a lot of different characters, but I ended up mostly choosing two depending on offense and defense.

On offense, I ended up picking McCree mostly. He is very strong and has very high DPS as long as you land your flashbang. The flashbang/fan the hammer combo will one shot most players that arent tanks. He is a really nice counter to a couple of the really ebola characters, namely Tracer and Mei. His super is underwhelming, and he is pretty slow, but the combo makes him a 1v1 master.

The player I play on defense, and most people seem to be bad at is Torbjorn. The thing about most Torbjorns is that if you kill their turret, they run away like a little bitch. That is actually quite dumb honestly, as I have solo killed every character in the game with Torbjorn that has the turret dead. People really underestimate the amount of damage his shotgun like attack does. It two shots a lot of heroes, and I have killed many many people trying to flank around to take out my turret.

Another nice thing he has are the armor packs. They give you 75 additional health basically, and you can make more by picking up scrap that drops from dead players. In a 1v1 you can often engage, retreat, throw yourself and armor pack, and re engage. I had 54 elminations in one game with him as well as another game that I had a 40 kill streak. It is all about good turret placement so that it doesnt get sniped and that it gets to do its thing while your team is harassing the opposing team.

Overall, I cannot wait for the game to come out, and I suppose in the meantime I will be playing mostly Diablo as I have pretty much completely quit Destiny at this point. I would be getting mad at the game even if I was doing very well, and I just dont need to be stressed about something that dumb. If they ever fix the matchmaking, I may eventually play a bit again, but I am pretty certain that it has already been replaced by Overwatch.

New Diablo Patch, New Season Incoming

I will post the patch notes below, but they really arent that huge compared to some of the patches that have been coming out in recent months. There are a few gear changes that mostly seem to be buffs to each class, which is cool.

Strangely enough, the thing that I was most excited for was the menagerie goblin. They drop cosmetic items, and I love me some cosmetic items. Unfortunately, I have yet to see one of those sons of bitches. I WANT MAH PETS. I have also heard that there are new portraits and stuff you can get for your characters which is cool.

Diablo has done a great job turning what was basically a somewhat boring game at launch into something that is a lot of fun. You feel like you get rewarded with loot and materials for playing, which is what this kind of game is all about.

I also heard that they have not decided if they are going to release another D3 expansion, or just got straight to D4. I think I would be happy with either honestly, as I still really enjoy D3. If it is D4, I have to make the decision on if I want to do it on PC or console. I have been gravitating more towards console games these days as the player base is usually much higher for just about any game. I have also heard nothing but good things about the console version of Diablo.

As I wrote in the title, the new season is coming out this Friday, which means time to grind back to max level and do it all over again. I really like the start of a new season. Really feels like you have something to play for. I will probably start off with Barbarian like I always do and then start leveling the other classes as I feel like it. I just hope you can rebirth more characters this season so that I dont have to start deleting characters.

Patch Notes below.

GENERAL

• Several changes have been made to improve server performance
• Bug Fixes
  • Fixed an issue that prevented Massacre bonus experience from being calculated correctly

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CLASSES

• Barbarian
  • Active Skills
    • Hammer of the Ancients
      • Skill Rune - Birthright
        • Now heals for 3% of your maximum Life on Critical Hits
        • No longer has a chance to drop a Health Globe
    • Ignore Pain
      • Skill Rune - Mob Rule
        • Damage reduction granted to allies has been reduced from 50% to 25%
  • Passive Skills
    • Tough as Nails
      • Thorns damage bonus increased from 50% to 100%

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• Demon Hunter
  • Active Skills
    • Companion
      • Skill Rune - Boar Companion
        • The Life per second and resistance bonuses are also granted to your allies
      • Skill Rune - Wolf Companion
        • The damage bonus granted is now multiplicative with other sources of bonus damage
  • Passive Skills
    • Steady Aim
      • The damage bonus granted is now multiplicative with other sources of bonus damage

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• Witch Doctor
  • Active Skills
    • Grasp of the Dead
      • Skill Rune - Death is Life
        • Chance to summon a Zombie Dog increased to 70%
        • No longer has a chance to drop a Health Globe

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• Wizard
  • The Firebird's Finery (2) Set Bonus will now activate before Unstable Anomaly
  • Active Skills
    • Archon
      • Damage bonus increased from 20% to 300%
      • Armor and resistance bonuses increased from 20% to 150%
      • Damage bonus for each enemy killed is now multiplicative
      • Skill Rune - Improved Archon
        • Damage bonus increased from 22% to 50%
          • Note: This bonus is now multiplicative
      • Skill Rune - Teleport
        • Cooldown reduced from 3 to 2 seconds

ITEMS

• Legendary potions can now be salvaged and will yield a Forgotten Soul
• Legendary Gems
  • Bane of the Powerful
    • Rank 25 now also reduces damage taken from Elites by 15%
    • The damage bonus granted is now multiplicative with other sources of bonus damage
  • Enforcer
    • Pet damage reduction increased from 25% to 90%
    • The damage bonus granted to pets is now multiplicative with other sources of bonus damage
  • Gem of Efficacious Toxin
    • Poisoned enemies now also deal 10% reduced damage
  • Gogok of Swiftness
    • Has been redesigned
      • Now applies swiftness with every attack
      • Now also grants 0.50% chance to dodge per stack
      • Dodge chance increases by 0.01% per rank
  • Mirinae, Teardrop of the Starweaver
    • Smite damage increased from 2000% to 3000% weapon damage
    • Additional damage per rank increased from 40% to 60% weapon damage
    • Duration between bonus Smite casts at rank 25 reduced from 5 to 3 seconds
    • Smite now also heals you for 3% of your maximum Life each time it hits an enemy
  • Moratorium
    • Chance to clear staggered damage increased from 10% to 20% per kill
  • Pain Enhancer
    • Bleed increased from 1200% to 2500% weapon damage
    • Additional damage per rank increased from 30% to 50% weapon damage
  • Simplicity's Strength
    • The damage bonus granted is now multiplicative with other sources of primary skill bonus damage
    • Heal amount increased from 2% to 4% of maximum Life
  • Taeguk
    • Has been redesigned
      • Now only gains stacks when you spend resource on a channeled skill
      • Now stacks up to 10 times
      • Stacks now expire after 1.5 seconds
      • Grants 2.0% damage per stack
      • Damage increases by 0.04% per rank
      • Grants 2% Armor per stack at rank 25
        • Note: There is currently an issue causing this gem to only grant 1% Armor per stack
  • Wreath of Lightning
    • Lightning damage increased from 600% to 1250% weapon damage
    • Additional damage per rank increased from 10% to 25% weapon damage
  • Zei's Stone of Vengeance
    • Damage bonus per rank increased from 0.05% to 0.08% for every 10 yards between you and the enemy
• Depth Diggers
  • The damage bonus granted is now multiplicative with other sources of primary skill bonus damage
• Oculus Ring
  • Will now also be activated by your kills if equipped on your follower
• Sanguinary Vambraces
  • Now benefit from all sources of bonus damage
• Solanium
  • Can now only drop a Health Globe once every 8 seconds
• Several existing Legendary items have been updated to include a unique Legendary power
  • Note: Existing items will not be affected by the following changes. Only new versions of the items will roll with the added Legendary power.
  • Frostburn
    • Now has Cold skills deal +15-20% increased damage and have a 50% chance to Freeze enemies as a Legendary Power
  • Magefist
    • Now has Fire skills deal +15-20% increased damage as a Legendary Power
  • Class-Specific Items
    • Barbarian
      • Immortal King's Call
        • (6) Set Bonus
          • Damage bonus increased from 250% to 400%
      • The Legacy of Raekor
        • (6) Set Bonus
          • Damage bonus per stack increased from 300% to 750%
      • Might of the Earth
        • (6) Set Bonus
          • Damage bonus increased from 800% to 1200%
      • Skull Grasp
        • Has been redesigned
          • Your Whirlwind deals 250-300% additional damage
            • Note: This bonus is multiplicative with other sources of Whirlwind damage
      • Wrath of the Wastes
        • (4) Set Bonus
          • Damage reduction gained during Whirlwind increased from 40% to 50%
          • Your applied Rends deal triple damage
    • Crusader
      • Flail of the Ascended
        • New Legendary Two-Handed Flail
          • Your Shield Glare deals damage equal to up to your last 5 Shield Bash casts
      • Johanna's Argument
        • Now also increases the damage of Blessed Hammer by 100%
      • Thorns of the Invoker
        • (2) Set Bonus
          • Damage per stack increased from 25% to 35%
        • (6) Set Bonus
          • Bonus Thorns damage dealt increased from 600% to 800%
      • Roland's Legacy
        • (4) Set Bonus
          • Damage bonus increased from 600% to 750%
        • (6) Set Bonus
          • Duration increased from 5 to 8 seconds
    • Demon Hunter
      • Embodiment of the Marauder
        • (4) Set Bonus
          • Sentry damage bonus increased from 300% to 400%
        • (6) Set Bonus
          • Damage bonus for each active Sentry increased from 600% to 800%
      • Lord Greenstone's Fan
        • Damage bonus increased from 80-100% to 160-200% per stack
      • Meticulous Bolts
        • No longer drops
        • Replaced with:
          • Elemental Quiver
            • New Legendary Quiver
              • Ball Lightning travels at 30% speed
              • Frost Arrow damage and chill duration increased by 200-250%
              • Immolation Arrow damage over time increased by 200-250%
              • Nether Tentacles damage and healing increased by 200-250%
      • Natalya's Vengeance
        • (6) Set Bonus
          • Damage bonus increased from 400% to 500%
      • The Shadow's Mantle
        • (2) Set Bonus
          • Damage bonus increased from 600% to 1200%
      • Unhallowed Essence
        • (6) Set Bonus
          • Damage bonus per point of Discipline increased from 20% to 40%
      • Wojahnni Assaulter
        • Rapid Fire damage bonus increased from 30-40% to 60-75% per stack
        • Channeling time required to gain a stack decreased from 1 second to 0.5 seconds
        • Now gains the first stack immediately
    • Monk
      • The Flow of Eternity
        • Now also increases your Seven-Sided Strike damage by 100%
      • Monkey King's Garb
        • (4) Set Bonus
          • Decoy damage increased from 500% to 1000% weapon damage per stack
        • (6) Set Bonus
          • Damage bonus increased from 1500% to 3000%
      • Raiment of a Thousand Storms
        • (6) Set Bonus
          • Dashing Strike now also increases your Spirit Generators by 300% for 6 seconds
      • Shenlong's Spirit
        • (2) Set Bonus
          • Damage bonus after reaching maximum Spirit increased from 100% to 150%
      • Uliana's Stratagem
        • (4) Set Bonus
          • Your Seven-Sided Strike deals double its total damage with each hit
        • (6) Set Bonus
          • Now also increases your Exploding Palm damage by 250%
    • Witch Doctor
      • Bakuli Jungle Wraps
        • New Legendary Belt
          • Firebats deals 150-200% increased damage to enemies affected by Locust Swarm or Piranhas
      • Helltooth Harness
        • (6) Set Bonus
          • Damage bonus increased from 900% to 1400%
      • Raiment of the Jade Harvester
        • (2) Set Bonus
          • Instant Haunt damage dealt increased from 60 to 120 seconds worth
        • (6) Set Bonus
          • Instant damage dealt when consuming DoTs increased from 150 to 300 seconds worth
      • Spirit of Arachyr
        • (6) Set Bonus
          • Damage bonus increased from 1200% to 1500%
      • Zunimassa's Haunt
        • (4) Set Bonus
          • Damage reduction per Fetish increased from 2% to 3%
        • (6) Set Bonus
          • Damage bonus increased from 800% to 1500%
    • Wizard
      • Delsere's Magnum Opus
        • (4) Set Bonus
          • Has been redesigned
            • You take 50% reduced damage while you have a Slow Time active
            • Your allies gain half this benefit
      • Halo of Karini
        • New Legendary Ring
          • You take 45-60% less damage for 2 seconds after your Storm Armor electrocutes an enemy more than 30 yards away
      • Firebird's Finery
        • (6) Set Bonus
          • Damage bonus for each enemy burning increased from 25% to 40%
          • Damage bonus when an Elite is burning increased from 600% to 2000%
      • Nilfur's Boast
        • Meteor damage bonus increased from 100% to 200%
        • Damage when hitting 3 or fewer enemies increased from 150-200% to 275-350%
      • Tal Rasha's Elements
        • (6) Set Bonus
          • Damage bonus increased from 500% to 750% per stack
      • The Twisted Sword
        • Can now only benefit from a maximum of 5 Energy Twisters
      • Vyr's Amazing Arcana
        • (4) Set Bonus
          • Damage bonus increased from 1% to 1.5% per stack
    • Several existing class-specific Legendary items have been updated to include a unique Legendary power
      • Note: Existing items will not be affected by the following changes. Only new versions of the items will roll with the added Legendary power.
      • Monk
        • Crystal Fist
          • Legendary power added
            • Dashing Strike reduces your damage taken by 40-50% for 6 seconds
          • Level requirement has been reduced
        • Flesh Rake
          • Legendary power added
            • Dashing Strike increases the damage of Dashing Strike by 75-100% for 1 second, stacking up to 5 times
          • Level requirement has been reduced
      • Witch Doctor
        • Swamp Land Waders
          • Legendary power added
            • Sacrifice deals 350-400% additional damage to targets affected by Locust Swarm or Grasp of the Dead
    • Bug Fixes
      • Fixed an issue that caused the Firebird's Finery (6) Set Bonus to grant its Elite bonus damage when a Rare monsters minions were ignited

ADVENTURE MODE

• Bounties
  • In the event that both Act III and Act IV bounties are complete, the bonus act will now always be turned in first
  • A Plague of Burrowers
    • Significantly reduced Burrowers' health
• Nephalem Rifts
  • Greater Rifts
    • The amount of incoming damage in Greater Rift 70 and above has been reduced
    • The amount of Experience granted in Greater Rift 70 and above has been reduced
    • The cost required to empower, and gold awarded by a Greater Rift above rank 70 has been reduced, but the ratio of gold earned to empower cost remains the same
• Set Dungeons
  • Barbarian
    • Immortal King's Call
      • Objective 2 now requires you to kill 150 enemies while Wrath of the Berserker is active
    • The Legacy of Raekor
      • Enemies hit by a Furious Charge that didn't hit 15 enemies are no longer prevented from counting toward the objective on future casts
    • Might of the Earth
      • Elites now appear in fixed locations
    • Wrath of the Wastes
      • Enemies hit by a Rend that didn't hit 10 enemies are no longer prevented from counting toward the objective on future casts
  • Crusader
    • Armor of Akkhan
      • The total number of monsters has been increased
      • Enemies hit by a Condemn that didn't hit 10 enemies are no longer prevented from counting toward the objective on future casts
  • Demon Hunter
    • Embodiment of the Marauder
      • Objective 1 now requires you to kill 140 enemies with 3 or more Sentries active
      • The total number of monsters has been increased
      • Rockworms now appear in fixed locations
      • Rockworms will now take longer to spring from the ground after appearing
    • The Shadow's Mantle
      • You no longer break the consecutive hit chain if you hit a target that has already been added to the chain
    • Unhallowed Essence
      • Enemies hit by a Multishot that didn't hit 20 enemies are no longer prevented from counting toward the objective on future casts
  • Witch Doctor
    • Raiment of the Jade Harvester
      • Deceivers will no longer use their Invisibility
      • Enemies hit by a Soul Harvest that didn't harvest 15 souls are no longer prevented from counting toward the objective on future casts
  • Wizard
    • Delsere's Magnum Opus
      • Enemies hit by a Slow Time that didn't initially hit 30 enemies are no longer prevented from counting toward the objective on future casts
    • Firebird's Finery
      • Objective 2 now requires you to Ignite or kill 20 enemies
• Bug Fixes
  • Fixed an issue that could, under certain conditions, prevent players from being able to finish a Set Dungeon

CRAFTING

• Bug Fixes
  • Fixed an issue that prevented the quantity of items to be crafted from being properly updated when a new value was entered
  • Fixed an issue that prevented the list of affixes available when an item was being enchanted from being updated dynamically

MONSTERS

• Pet attacks will now also break Primordial Scavengers' armor in the same way player attacks do
• The amount of gold dropped by Gilded Barons has been reduced
• The Merciless Witch
  • Removed her shields in both the Realm of Discord and Realm of Fright
  • Significantly increased her health in the Realm of Discord

USER INTERFACE

• Holding shift while comparing an item will now also remove the benefit of Caldesann's Despair from the comparison
• When viewing a player's profile in game, it will now indicate whether or not you are looking at the current profile
• The Inventory button no longer flashes for level 70 characters when a new item is picked up
• Your highest damage numbers will now also be displayed in orange when shortened combat numbers are disabled
• A shadow has been added to stack and charge counts on the hotbar, and buff icons
• Bug fixes
  • Fixed an issue that prevented profiles from being properly updated when inspecting a player in-game after they have enchanted an item or socketed a gem

Destiny....just makes me mad

I keep trying to give Destiny another shot. Because I absolutely loved that game and put a ton of hours into it. I dont think I can keep doing it. I play as little as one match before I am seething thanks to the broken shitty matchmaking and the bullshit fucking lag issues. Bungie really fucked themselves right in the ass.

I honestly dont even know if I want to get Destiny 2 when it finally comes out. Bungie has proven over and over that they think that the people who play their games are stupid and dont know what they want. I know what I want. The game to not be a steaming pile of shit.

I have a ton of friends on Xbox that I met pretty much exclusively through Destiny. I would have 3-4 pages of people on and playing. Now, there may be 3 or 4 people.

The changes they made were pretty decent as far as PvE. But PvP is still a laggy fucked up garbage piece of shit.

I am probably honestly going to delete the fucking thing from my Xbox. All it does it get me angry, raise my blood pressure, and turn me into a person I dont like to be.

I have always raged at shooters to some extent. This one however takes the cake. I really just cant enjoy the game or look at it without fucking flames coming out of my eyes and steam out of my fucking ears.

Its not me Destiny....it is you. You were one awesome.....now you are fucking terrible.

Overwatch versus Battleborn

So, I have seen quite a lot of people comparing the two games to each other. I think that this is a natural direction considering both of them on the surface appear to have similar art styles, and both are hero based shooters in some way.

They look similar, but if you go into one expecting it to be like the other, then you are going to be very disappointed, and I dont think it is the fault of either game.

I was luck enough to play both this weekend since they were both in beta, and I was fortunate enough to get into the Overwatch stress test.

Let me get this out of the way right now. I am way more excited for Overwatch. I love shooters, and this is just the game I didnt know I wanted for all these years. It is honestly the most fun I have had in a shooter since the glory days of Destiny, and I only got to play two game modes on three maps. Now that I have that out of the way, lets go over them shall we.

Overwatch is a fast paced objective shooter that has different heroes with different roles. It is a bit like Team Fortress, but with a lot  more choice on characters, and without the annoying spy. The time to kill a slower than something like Call of Duty or Titanfall. This also depends on the character. Some characters have 600 hit points (tanks) while some of the others have as little as 150. The objective of the game is the objective. This makes people playing support classes like healer and tank quite valuable for the team, which is an unheard of concept in shooters. You can got zero kills and 10 deaths and still have a huge impact on the game. This adds a lot of depth as well as a bit of forgiveness to players who may not be great at shooters.

Battleborn on the other hand is a MOBA with shooter elements. It is more Smite then it is Call of Duty. The game modes have both player characters and NPCs to deal with. It has a skill system like a MOBA, it has building like a MOBA, it has creeps like a MOBA, and it has tower objectives like a MOBA. The reason for this? Because it is a MOBA. Sure it is also a shooter, but it has so much more in common with a MOBA than it does a shooter. It does still reward a player with better aim like a shooter, but the main goal is to destroy the other team's tower (Sentry). You will notice that time to kill is slow, and you often have to use all of your abilities to gank another hero. The only difference is that you can kill heroes from much further away thanks to the shooter mechanics in the game.

Game times could also not be more different. Overwatch usually had a play time of ten or so minutes. One match of Battleborn could last up to 30 depending on the stalemate at one Sentry or another. In Overwatch, you pick your hero and go, or change it on the fly as needed to counter the comp of the other team. In Battleborn, once you choose your hero, you are stuck with them. One has skill upgrade progressions (Battleborn), the other does not (Overwatch).

The timing of the release of these games is unfortunate. They are being released very close to one another, and look similar on the surface, so they will be compared to one another. I also think that this will hurt Battleborn. I love Overwatch, and I think it will be my main game once it comes out. That being said, I really enjoyed Battleborn as well and would certainly play it if it were free like every other MOBA out there.

I think that if you go into each one looking at them objectively for what they are, you can enjoy both a lot. If you go into them looking for one thing out of both, one of them is going to disappoint you greatly. Treat Overwatch as as a shooter, and Battleborn as a MOBA, and I feel like you will get the appropriate amount of fun from each.

Tomorrow I will talk about what heroes I liked in each since I played a bunch of them in Overwatch and only a couple in Battleborn

The Division, Destiny, and Battleborn!

Even with the new update, I have not really played a whole lot of Destiny as of yet. I played some PvP right after the patch and it was a giant laggy piece of shit as it has been prone to being. On the other hand, I did do a little bit of PvE, which is something I have not done a lot of recently.

The new level 41 prison of elders is pretty decent. Pretty much the same as the old one, except now there are a bunch of taken dudes running around. Such creative....much wow. I am excited that you can apparently get new high level gear through doing the trials of osiris, but that doesnt pop up until Friday.

In the meanwhile, I have been playing other games quite a lot more. 

The Division made its way back into my rotation with the new update. They kinda fucked up last week and literally had no dailies, which meant pretty much nobody was logging on. Normally people on my friends list would log on for dailies at some point, and then team up for dark zone festivities.

Well, this new patch has made me feel like a stripper next to a malfunctioning ATM. They are making it rain high end gear in the dark zone. I got more high end drops in 30 minutes than I had gotten in the 100 plus hours prior to that. Every named boss drops a guaranteed high end item, and the dark zone chests drop two. This is awesome, even if most of the crap drops is crap. It can drop at either 163 item level or 182 item level (something like that), and you see a whole lot more of the lower shit drop. It still makes for some very good crating materials. It is also a great way to find that specific gun that has been eluding you for a long time.

The weird thing is that we have mostly just had the servers to ourselves. We would go in, get loot, and run into very little resistance. When the supply drops came in, we were getting at least two of them each time. One time a lone guy tried to run up and pull one while we were fighting the adds.....he regretted that real quick as he died in about .5 seconds. I think a lot of players are currently trying to game the gear score system to slay noobs. There is a bracket for above 160 item level and one below. I am thinking people are putting on lower gear and then going HAM on the low gear players. Kinda fucked up, but whatever.

And now Battleborn is in Beta. It is basically a first person shooter MOBA. I am not the biggest fan of MOBAs (although I do love me some Heroes of the Storm), but I am a huge fan of shooters.

So far this game is pretty fun, but it seems to get a little bit stale for me pretty fast. In moba fashion, you level as you play and can choose abilities to complement your playstyle. A lot of times, it seems to snowball for whatever team is getting their shit first. I also seem to get stuck with some terrible players.

I have played 5 characters I believe, including one which was not my choice. I have played the healer with the Mushroom head.......which I did not enjoy at at. Not fun really. I have played Oscar Mike a couple of times, and found him pretty enjoyable because he is kind of like the standard shooter character. I played Thorn twice, and cannot figure out how the hell players can actually kill other players with her. She poisons the ground, which is great for minions, but has a bow and arrow, which is incredibly difficult to do enough damage on a player to kill. The last one I have played is my favorite, and that is Marquis. He is a tuxedo wearing robot sniper. So far he is the only character I have won a game with and the one whose playstyle I like the best. Actually I played Rath for one game too. His is a sword wielding samurai type class who actually was pretty decent. He has a hell of a super too which will almost always net you a player kill.

Looking forward to playing more new stuff, but I am mostly just waiting for fucking Overwatch to hurry up and get its ass into open beta already. Jeeze!

Destiny: April Update Patch Notes and Commentary

Well here it is, the first big content since The Taken King. I will post the whole thing and break it down in parenthesis and underlined. No match making changes makes me sad....but maybe returning players will help a bit.

Destiny Update - 04/12/20160h - Destiny Dev Team

2.2.0 - The One about the April Update.

Oryx may have been defeated but many Taken remain and the denizens of the Reef are seeking revenge for their loss. Travel to Vestian Outpost in the Reef to speak with Variks about rumors of a new Taken threat. Test yourself against new challenges within the Prison of Elders.

Light 

• Legendary and Exotic drops from many sources now attempt to drop with Attack or Defense greater than your current character light level (This is a great change. Having low level shit dropped that needed to be infused to even be useful was awful honestly)
• The following activities and items have been adjusted to include 335 Light items:
• Prison of Elders Passage Challenge Ticket
• Crucible Weekly (Good we needed some decent drops from crucible)
• Court of Oryx Tier 3 Artifacts
• Trials of Osiris 
• Iron Banner
• Unique Items from the Vanguard Heroic Strike Playlist 
• Exotic Engrams
• King's Fall Heroic
• The following activities and items have been adjusted to include 330 Light items:
• Weekly Nightfall Strike (Meh. May give incentive to actually do these)
• Faction Packages (Thank god. Such shit was found in these.)
• Trials Bounties (Excellent. Trials gear was still dropping at shit levels too)
• The following activities and items have these changes:
• King's Fall Normal will drop up to 320 Light items
• Prison of Elders Level 41 drops up to 320 Light items
• Legendary Engrams max Light increased to 310 
• Rare Engrams max Light increased to 310
• Rare Items (dropped from remaining activities) max Light increased to 310
• Infusion will now grant 100% of the Light from the infused item (This is a huge change. Before you could only get a certain amount of the item level difference and had to infuse multiple things. Good QoL change.)

Activities

Prison of Elders

• New! Prison of Elders Challenge Activity: Challenge of the Elders (Recommended Light 320) (Yay?)
• Elder's Sigil Passage Tickets can be picked up directly from Variks
• Prison of Elders Weekly Bounties have been added and can be picked up from Variks
• New! Added Level 41 Prison of Elders playlist (Recommended Light 260)
• Prison of Elders now has a Level 41 difficulty available, this version has a chance at having Taken enemies
• Combatants within the Prison of Elders will now provide credit towards applicable Vanguard bounty requirements 
• Keys are no longer required to open the Prison of Elders chest (This is good. Wonder what good the keys will be now?)
• Keys can now be used directly from inventory to provide House of Judgement faction reputation (Lol, I just had to read one more sentence)
• Variks' inventory has been updated 
• Tokens of Flight, Identity, and Judgement are no longer needed to purchase items 
• Tokens can still be used directly from player's inventory to provide House of Judgement faction reputation (Guess that will free up a litte extra vault space)
• Armor & Weapon Cores are no longer needed to purchase items and can now be used directly from player's inventory to provide House of Judgement faction (More vault space!)

PvE Activities

• Increased Special Ammo drop rate in all PVE activities to offset the reduced Inventory for Shotguns and Sniper Rifles (This was going to be needed for PvE. Well thought out Bungo.)

Strikes

• Added the following Strikes: 
• New! "Blighted Chalice" strike is now available in the normal & heroic strike playlists (Sounds like a play it once thing)
• The "Winter's Run" strike now has a Taken variant available in the normal & heroic strike playlists (Probably another play it once thing)
• Reputation gains have been increased for completing Strikes (Would be awesome if I was planning on doing many strikes)

Weekly Nightfall

• Increased Activity Level of Weekly Nightfall Strike  (Recommended 320)
• Eververse drops will no longer replace the normal Nightfall rewards but will be an additional reward when received

King's Fall

• Increased the drop rate of armor and weapons inside the King's Fall raid for both Normal and Heroic difficulties

Patrols

• Reputation gains have been increased for completing Patrol objectives

Classes

For a detailed review of class changes in 2.2.0, watch our live preview.

General

• The player's Resurrection mechanic has been adjusted:(FUCK YEAH)
• Reduced the radius of Resurrection interaction prompt to 1.5 meters (was 2 meters) (GOOD)
• Increased the base time to Resurrect by 0.25 seconds (FUCK YOU REVIVE SPAMMERS)
• Overshield has been adjusted so that it takes precision damage modifiers (previously it did not) (This will make more different snipers viable in Trials of Osiris since you will be able to rez snipe with less than the high impact class of sniper. Will help shotgunners too)
• Reduced Resurrection time bonuses from exotic armor (Crest of Alpha Lupi, Light Beyond Nemesis) to 30% (was 40%) (TAKE THAT AGAIN YOU REVIVE SPAMMERS)
• Added additional frames of invincibility at the end of the Resurrection animation to make the handoff from locked state to movement more consistent (This may be a bit annoying.)
• Players can now highlight (R-Stick Click) player ghosts, allowing a user to inspect & target emotes at a downed player's ghost (LOL. WTF did they do this so you can BM better??? Ha, I will take it.)

Hunter

Nightstalker

• Fixed an issue where summoning the Ghost while evading would interrupt Shadestep (Thank god. This glitch was so fucking broken in PvP.)

Warlock

Voidwalker

• Melee: Energy Drain
• Increased grenade recharge bonus scalar (by +100%)
• Reduced grenade recharge duration to 2 seconds (was 5 seconds)
• Reduced bonus recharge provided by mastery (i.e. The Hunger) to 2 seconds (was 6 seconds)
• Life Steal: Now triggers when damaging an enemy with Energy Drain
• Soul Rip: Now triggers when damaging an enemy with Energy Drain
• Passives
• Embrace the Void: Now triggers the energy drain effect and restores a significant portion of health when killing an enemy (Basically all of these changes should help the Voidwalker become at least somewhat viable. They are currently terrible) 

Sunsinger

• Melee: Scorch
• Flame Shield: Now increases the cooldown of Scorch (by +33%) 
• Flame Shield: No longer maximizes player armor for its duration
• Flame Shield: Removed + 1 Armor stat (Nice nerfs. Flame shield was annoying as shit when you slide in and shotgun, but they somehow survive because they melee you then finish you before you can get a second shot off).
• Solar Wind: Now reduces the cooldown of Scorch (by +66%)
• Solar Wind: Added +1 Recovery stat
• Brimstone: Now reduces the cooldown of Scorch (by +66%)
• Brimstone: Explosion damage increased (by +86%)
• Super: Radiance
• Increased grenade energy regen by 1-3 grenades (depending on discipline)
• Song of Flame: Increased allies' grenade regen (by +60%)
• Fireborn: Reduced Radiance duration when Fireborn is active (-28%) (Well self revive will be pretty bad now. Only usuable in Trials probably)
• Passives
• Sunburst: Now guarantees an Orb of Light on kill

Stormcaller

• Melee: Thunderstrike
• Rising Storm: Now immediately awards a flat amount of super, grenade and melee energy (instead of boosting regen based on intellect, discipline and strength over time)
• Super: Stormtrance
• Landfall: Damage reduced (by -17%)
• Landfall: No longer blinds nearby players (Ahhhh man. This was such a cool perk)
• Passives
• Pulsewave: Added +1 Recovery stat
• Feedback: Removed +1 Armor stat
• Transcendence: Reduced bonus time in Stormtrance (by -17%)
• Transcendence: No longer removes the cost of actively throwing Arc lightning (Both changes were probably needed. I could pop my super and kill 8 people.....in a 6v6 playlist)
• Electrostatic Mind: Increased the damage nearby enemies take when Stormtrance is active (by +100%)
• Electrostatic Mind: Reduced the super recharge bonus when near allies (by -25%)

Weapons

For a detailed review of weapon changes in 2.2.0, read the full Update Preview.

Auto Rifles

• Increased damage per bullet of low Rate-of-Fire Auto Rifles, like Suros Regime, An Answering Chord, Anguish of Drystan (by +2.3%) (Good, these ARs have been shit for a long time)
• Reduced damage per bullet of high Rate-of-Fire Auto Rifles, like Doctrine of Passing, Arminius-D (by -2.5%) (And these bullet hoses have been annoying as shit. Pretty solid change)
• Improvement to hip fire accuracy

Pulse Rifles

• Increased damage per bullet of low Rate-of-Fire Pulse Rifles, like The Messenger, Spare Change, Lyudmila-D (by +3%) (Well, it may make them viable again, but they are too slow for my liking)

Hand Cannons

• Increased Hand Cannon inventory ammo
• Adjusted Hand Cannon ammo stats so that initial spawn and respawn ammo are consistent 

Shotguns

• Reduced the total Ammo Inventory for all Shotguns by roughly 5-7 rounds (exact amount depends on a given weapon’s Magazine and Inventory stats) (NOOOOOOO. Meh oh well)
• See Crucible Section

Snipers

• Reduced the total Ammo Inventory for all Sniper Rifles by roughly 5-7 rounds (exact amount depends on a given weapon’s Magazine and Inventory stats)
• See Crucible Section
• Increased base zoom distance on the lowest Zoom scopes
• Medium to long range scopes remain untouched
• Added 2 frames of zoom time to sniper zoom
• Reduced Snapshot perk's zoom time benefit to 20% benefit (was 30%)
• Reduced Stability across all Sniper Rifle stats so that re-acquiring a target after firing requires more care
• Zen Moment: Removed perk from all Rare and Uncommon Sniper Rifles (Now these are a lot of changes to snipers. What they should have done is just bring shotguns back up. They are always in the nerf mentality instead of the buff mentality. That said, I have happy with changes. Camping in the back of the map has become a huge problem in PvP.) 

Fusion Rifles

• Increased Stability base stat (40% recoil reduction); this means that lower stability Fusion Rifles will get affected more than higher stability rifles (Fusions have been bad for a while because their effective range did not make up for the charge time. This should change that a bit.)
• Fixed bug where some outlying fusion rifle scopes had unintended increased zoom that was removed in Year Two.

Sidearms

• Fixed an issue where ammo persisted through deaths when switching Secondary weapons (Good. Now this wont be needed to guarantee having special).

Machine Guns

• Fixed an issue where players were able to get a free magazine of Machine Gun ammo from ammo crates
• Reduced the total Ammo Inventory for all Machine Guns (exact amount depends on a given weapon’s magazine, rate of fire, and inventory stats) (Im fine with this. If you got all the heavy when it spawned, you could pretty much kill people with it for the rest of the match.)

Swords

• Fixed an issue with the sword guard ability that prevented it from blocking incoming damage correctly
• Fixed an issue where the damage element would disappear from the HUD for swords after summoning the Ghost
• Sword Heavy attacks now have improved damage networking

Exotic/Legendary Weapons

All King's Fall Primary Weapons

• Increased reload speed on all King's Fall Raid primary weapons

Anguish of Drystan

• Increased Stability base stat (by +12%)

Black Spindle

• Fixed a bug with barrel upgrades where Field Choke and CQB Ballistics did not upgrade correctly
• Increased Optics base stat to reflect global Optics changes

Dreg's Promise

• Projectiles now track based on Aim Down Sights target lock. This plays similar in functionality to the "Tracking" Rocket Launcher perk with faster lock time but no audio "beeps"
• Increased projectile Tracking strength 
• Reduced Rate-of-Fire base stat to compensate for increased Tracking
• Reduced Damage (by -40%) to compensate for increased Tracking
• Reduced Damage falloff to match Sidearm range (This thing could be amazing.....or it could suck fat dick. I will test it out later) 

Hakke Sniper Rifle

• Replaced Zen Moment perk on Legendary Hakke Sniper Rifle for Performance Bonus perk

Hawkmoon

• Fixed an issue where the tooltip incorrectly displayed Holding Aces twice
• Increased Range base stat (by +10) (Hey, it may be viable lol)

Hereafter

• Increased Optics base stat to reflect global Optics changes

Icebreaker

• Increased Optics scope zoom (to +6x)
• Reduced Handling base stat to the lowest value for Sniper Rifles
• Reduced Target Acquisition base (by -25%)
• Fixed an issue where ammo persisted through deaths when switching Secondary weapons (Same thing as sidearm change. Great change)

Last Word

• Removed bonus damage applied from The Last Word perk (This should make it a little harder for snipers to melt you when you are trying to rush them. Nice change)

Lord of Wolves

• Reduced ammo inventory to reflect base Shotgun ammo changes

MIDA Multi-Tool

• Removed high caliber rounds from intrinsic behavior (Meh)

Omolon Sniper Rifle

• Replaced Zen Moment perk on Legendary Omolon Sniper Rifle for Battle Runner perk

Patience & Time

• Increased Optics base stat to reflect global Optics changes

Queenbreaker's Bow

• Reduced ammo inventory to reflect base Sniper ammo changes

Quillim's Terminus

• Reduced Ammo inventory base stat (by -15)
• Reduced Stability base stat (by -9)

Stillpiercer

• Increased Optics base stat to reflect global Optics changes

Suros Regime

• Increased Range bonus granted by Focus Fire perk to 45 Range (This will turn Focus Fire from terrible to at least playable)
• Spinning Up now activates (4 shots) later in the magazine

Telesto

• Fixed an issue where projectiles did not correctly attach and detonate against Ward of Dawn
• Projectiles will now correctly attach to friendly bipeds and detonate, but will not cause damage to friendly targets

The Chaperone

• Fixed an issue in which precision damage was clamped and not scaling up to the intended amount
• Precision damage now correctly scales when The Roadborn perk is active

Thorn

• Reduced Thorn DoT to 4 ticks (was 6)
• Reduced the amount of damage players receive per tick in Crucible (by -50%)
• Reduced severity of poison screen effects for the victim to preserve combat effectiveness while poisoned (Thorn has been neutered! In all seriousness, this will probably still be the best Handcannon because it is the only medium impact HC that fires like a low impact HC. Poison nerfs just make it so less people get salty about dying around a corner)

Vex Mythoclast

• Reduced Damage base stat to compensate for improved Stability (by -13%)

1000 Yard Stare

• Reduced Ammo inventory base stat

Perks

• Eye of the Storm: Improved feedback on reticle to better see perk activation/de-activation
• Icarus: Increased the inaccuracy reduction provided by the perk to 75% reduction (was 66%)
• Aggressive Ballistics: Reduced Stability stat to -20 (was -10)
• The First Curse: Fixed an exploit where the perk could be kept active indefinitely by refilling the magazine using Sealed Ahamkara Grasps
• Rescue Mag: Fixed an issue where the perk triggered on stowed weapons.  Perk now only activates when the weapon is in hand
• Fixed an issue with some weapon perks that use kill count that prevented them from being extended or deactivated correctly in the Crucible

Armor

General

• The following Year 1 Armor Exotics have been converted for Year 2:
• ACD/0 Feedback Fence
• The Glasshouse
• Eternal Warrior
• Khepri's Sting
• Lucky Raspberry (SWEET.)
• ATS/8 ARACHNID
• Sunbreakers
• Purifier Robes

Exotic/Legendary Armor

• Increased the tracking amount of the Scatter Grenade when wearing the Nothing Manacles 
• Reduced the Golden Gun upkeep penalty for Achlyophage Symbiote
• Reduced bonus Ammo Inventory granted by Machine Gun Ammo Armor Perk (by -33%)

Crucible

General

• The following changes have been made to address the abundance of special and heavy weapon kills in the Crucible.  We will be continuing to monitor usage in both PVE and PVP.
• Players begin games with Special ammo.
• Swapping between Special weapons during Crucible matches now no longer retains ammo between weapons.
• Ammo spawn conditions have been changed for all modes except Elimination and Mayhem: 
• Special ammo spawns after 3 minutes, then respawns every 2 minutes (each crate has its own timer)
• Heavy ammo spawns after 5 minutes, only once per match
• Reduced the total Ammo Inventory for all Sniper Rifles by roughly 5-7 rounds (exact amount depends on a given weapon’s Magazine and Inventory stats)
• Reduced the total Ammo Inventory for all Shotguns by roughly 5-7 rounds (exact amount depends on a given weapon’s Magazine and Inventory stats)
• Reduced the amount of ammo granted by Crucible-specific Heavy Ammo bricks to grant 0.375 of inventory (was 0.5)
• This change affects all Machine Guns and only a handful of Rocket Launchers (Truth is one of the affected Rocket Launchers).
• Reduced bonus Ammo Inventory granted by Machine Gun Ammo Armor Perk (by -33%)
• Increase Special Ammo drop rate in all PVE activities to offset the reduced Inventory for Shotguns and Sniper Rifles
• Sparrow, Pike, and Interceptor kills will now report unique score values instead of the generic "Vehicle Kill"
• The "Ace" Elimination medal now requires wiping the enemy team in 20 seconds or less
• Year 1 Shaders have been added back into the list of possible rewards for completing Crucible matches 
• Increased Legendary item drop rate for completing Crucible matches
• Increased Reputation gains completing Crucible matches (These are all pretty good changes overall. Especially the drops)

Quests & Bounties

• Fixed an issue where players were incorrectly receiving credit for the quest "Draw From the Void" outside of the Crucible 
• Fixed an issue where some score-based quests and bounties were not progressing properly at the end of a match
• The Crucible bounty "Trial Run" will no longer appear for players who are below level 40, as they cannot compete in Trials of Osiris

Playlists

Control

• Maps added: Asylum, Firebase Delphi, The Anomaly, The Burning Shrine, and The Cauldron
• Maps removed: Bastion, First Light, and Skyshock (Great changes! Loved the first set of maps, and hated the second set.)

Elimination

• Revive timers now start at 7 seconds and increase by 7 seconds each time players are revived (GOOD. FUCK YOU REVIVE SPAMMERS)

Inferno Rumble

• Reduced score to win from 2000 to 1500

Mayhem Rumble

• Reduced score to win from 35000 to 25000
• Fixed an issue where the Playlist tooltip indicated an incorrect Fireteam size requirement

Iron Banner

• Lord Saladin's inventory has been updated with items at Ranks 3-5, some with re-rolled perks
• Rank package rewards have been adjusted:
• Increased Rank 3 package Artifact to 320 Light
• Increased Rank 5 package Ghost to 320 Light
• Rank 5 packages can now reward items from the current event 
• Iron Banner Armor and Weapons can now be earned at Rank 0 at the end-of-activity
• Removed Legendary Engrams from the possible end-of-activity rewards list, creating a greater chance to receive Iron Banner specific items
• "Iron Domination" daily bounty now requires completing a match with a personal score of 1500 instead of winning a match with 2500
• "Iron Versatility" bounty now only requires 7 Heavy Weapon kills to complete
• Fixed an issue where players below Rank 5 could roll a reward they were ineligible for, resulting in no reward being given
• Fixed an issue where the Iron Banner ship was missing a part of its frame

Trials of Osiris

• Fixed an issue in which weapons in the Lighthouse chest did not have the appropriate equip requirement of being Level 40
• "His Eye Upon You" bounty may now be repeated daily with easier requirements:
• Reduced the match completion requirements to 7 matches (was 10 matches)
• Reduced the Fireteam kills requirements to 50 kills (was 75 kills) (These are all really nice changes)

Maps

Cathedral of Dusk

• Adjusted Rift spawn settings to push players closer to the front line and reduce the frequency of spawning at the far back of the map

Crossroads

• Fixed an issue where players could get stuck out of environment if they fell off behind capture point "B"
• Fixed an exploit where players could hide in a spot outside of the normal play area

Frontier

• Fixed an issue where players could get stuck on concrete sacks near capture point "B"
• Fixed an exploit where players could reach an unintended advantageous position

Memento

• Adjusted Rift spark location for better balance

Pantheon

• Adjusted Rift spawn settings to push players closer to the front line and reduce the frequency of spawning at the far back of the map

Items

General

• An additional page of Vault Space has been added to all accounts, bringing the capacity counts up to 108 weapon, 108 armor, and 72 miscellaneous slots
• Mystery Bags can now be previewed before opening to look at the list of potential contents
• Year 1 ships have been added to the Crucible & Vanguard Reputation rank up packages
• Reputation Buffs have been added to Vanguard, Crucible, and House of Judgement Reputation rank up packages
• Abandoned Quest Kiosk has been added to the Reef
• 12 new Eververse Emotes have been updated to new Spring 2016 Season (northern hemisphere)
• Winter Season Emotes have been moved into a Winter 2015 Emote Mystery Bag
• Fixed an issue in which Crimson Days ghosts could not be previewed
• Fixed an issue in which Raid ghosts could not be previewed

Sterling Treasures

• Players are guaranteed to receive up to three Sterling Treasures per account by doing these actions after the weekly reset:
• Logging a character into the game
• Completing the Level 41 Prison of Elders
• Completing a match in the weekly featured Crucible playlist
• Items found Inside:
• Taken Gear (Vanity)
• Chroma
• Reputation Buffs

Chroma

• Chroma allows players to customize illumination (White, Yellow, Blue, and Red) on special items
• Chroma can be applied to many armor sets:
• "Spektar" Armor Set can be found within the Sterling Treasure boxes
• These specialized sets can be found in the Crucible/Vanguard reputation packages:
• "Spektar Pandion" Titan Superior Gear
• "Spektar Aspriet" Hunter Superior Gear
• "Spektar Haliaetus" Warlock Superior Gear
• These specialized sets can be found in their respective reputation packages:
• "Spektar Heliopause" Dead Orbit Gear
• "Spektar Infinite" Future War Cult Gear
• "Spektar Kallipolis" New Monarchy Gear
• Chroma can applied to many weapons:
• These Fallen weapons can be found in House of Judgement reputation packages:
• "Hand of Judgement" Scout Rifle 
• "Stolen Pride" Hand Cannon
• "Crow's Eye" Sidearm 
• "Soulstealer's Claw" Auto Rifle 
• "Aegis of the Reef" Pulse Rifle
• These Queens Faction weapons can be found in Prison of Elders:
• "Final Duty" Pulse Rifle
• "Her Revenge" Hand Cannon
• "Her Memory" Auto Rifle"
• "Lethe Noblesse" Scout Rifle
• "Queens Choice" Sidearm
• "Techeun Rage" Fusion Rifle
• "Her Champion" Shotgun
• "Her Fury" Sniper Rifle
• "The Nightmare" Rocket Launcher
• "Bane of the Taken" Machine Gun

UI

• Players can now adjust their HUD transparency level from the Settings menu
• Roster UI now sorts friends who are signed into a character above players who have not selected a character yet

Technical

• Fixed a potential crash when using the Graviton Forfeit exotic helmet
• Fixed a possible out of memory crash during King's Fall raid for PlayStation 3