Diablo 3 Season 30 Review

 Diablo 3 Season 30 just ended and it was a pretty quick season for me.  I did pretty good for this season but I only played a little bit of it.  I was mostly focused on Season 4 of Diablo 4 but I wasn't having much fun in Diablo 4 (more on this later).  I managed to reach a greater rift 133 and that placed me in rank 21 of the hardcore Witch Doctor self found leaderboard.  I only played 60 hours this season but I still reached a paragon level of 1360.  In Season 3 of Diablo 4, I was playing a Druid on hardcore but I died when I was like at level 92.  I think overall the grinding in Diablo 4 is not very fun at all and the season theme was pretty lame.  I will probably start back playing Diablo 4 but not play hardcore at all.  There doesn't seem that much support especially for hardcore players and that frustrates me very much.  Overall, I had a much better experience playing Diablo 3 than Diablo 4.  

My overall Diablo 3 experience was real good.  I want to display all my seasons that I managed to do up till now.

Season        Greater Rift             Class                         Rank

1                    -                     Witch Doctor                          -

2                    35                    Wizard                                624

3                    45                    Demon Hunter                   410

4                    54                    Monk                                  -

5                    70                    Witch Doctor                    373

6                    79                    Witch Doctor                   104

7                    74                    Witch Doctor                   448

8                    79                    Witch Doctor                    73

9                    71                    Crusader                           295

10                   81                    Witch Doctor                    64

11                   81                    Witch Doctor                    32

12                   91                    Necromancer                    113

        13                   98                    Witch Doctor                    38

        14                   98                    Witch Doctor                    36                 

        15                   91                    Wizard                              261

        16                   101                  Witch Doctor                    133

        17                   113                  Witch Doctor                    57

        18                   102                  Witch Doctor                    75

        19                   104                  Witch Doctor                    69

        20                   119                  Witch Doctor                    94

        21                   120                  Witch Doctor                    28

        22                   122                  Witch Doctor                    47

        23                   117                  Witch Doctor                    16

        24                   123                  Witch Doctor                    26

        25                   134                  Witch Doctor                    48

26       122                Witch Doctor           28

27       133       Witch Doctor   14

28      142      Witch Doctor   22

29      126     Witch Doctor   12

30      133    Witch Doctor   21

I will probably stop writing these blogs for Diablo 3. There isn't much new content for Diablo 3 anymore but I will probably still play Diablo 3 from time to time.  I will probably focus more on Diablo 4 for now on.  Season 4 for Diablo 4 looks promising but I have some doubts still.  

Diablo 3 Season 29 Review

 Season 29 in Diablo 3 just ended and I wanted to write a quick review of this season.  I didn't play much this season because I was more focused on Diablo 4.  Even though I only played about 60 hours this season, I did very good on the leaderboards.  This season introduced the solo self found mode and I was playing that as well as the hardcore leaderboard.  I managed to do a greater rift 126 with my Witch Doctor, which put me in rank 12 on the SSF hardcore leaderboard.  I think if I wasn't playing solo self found, my ranking would have been higher.  I also reached a paragon level of 1126 but it didn't really matter because all characters were capped at paragon 800 for this season.  My overall paragon level now sits at 3346.  

Season 29 was very short.  I was playing with my Witch Doctor again this season.  I did my best with the Arachyr set but instead of playing with the Angry Chicken set, I still was playing with the Arachyr spiders set.  I think I could have done a better greater rift if I had played with the Arachyr Angry Chicken set but I was so used to with the Spiders that I really didn't want to change my play style.  Overall, I am very pleased to what I accomplished this season and I am ready to play next season as well.  I think from here on out, I will do a brief summary of my seasons in Diablo 3 but I won't go into too much detail.  

Diablo 4 is still in Season 2 so far, but I am not very happy with this game so far.  The leveling in this game is very boring and the itemization is very poor.  I did manage to reach level 100 with my Necromancer for this season but I am mostly now trying to play hardcore in this game.  The hardcore mode is ok but there is a lot instability with the servers.  I think the greatest fear with the hardcore mode is when you lose connection with server and the game freezes.  I have a level 80 sorceress in hardcore mode and I hope to reach level 100 some day.  I think this is all I have to report for now and I am looking forward to playing Diablo 3 again shortly.  I hope Diablo 4 season 3 is going to be good as well.  

My BlizzCon 2023 Review

 I just got back from BlizzCon and I had a very wonderful time there.  This was my 8th BlizzCon and it was probably the most disappointing one I ever went to.  Even though I was disappointed, I still managed to have a decent amount of fun there.  I want to go over what I did during the week and what things I was disappointed with in this blog.  I left Vancouver on a Wednesday and arrived in Anaheim on Wednesday afternoon.  I stayed at the Portofino Inn again, which was pretty decent.  On Wednesday night, I had steak at Ruth Chris' Steakhouse restaurant.  Although the steak was expensive, it was probably one of the best steaks I have ever eaten.  I couldn't believe how tender the steak was even though it was a pretty thick cut.  On Thursday, I woke up pretty early and got in line for my badge pickup.  The line was pretty smooth, I got a backpack and looked at some of the items in the store.  For the rest of Thursday, I decided to go to Disneyland.  I've been wanting to go there again since they opened the new Star Wars area.  Some of the rides that I went on had very long lineups but most of the rides were pretty good.  I really liked the new Star Wars area, it felt like you were actually in a Star Wars world.  My most favourite ride that I went on was probably the Davy Crockett's canoe.  Even though you had to paddle, it was still really enjoyable to be near the water.  The It's a Small World was still closed.  At about 5:00pm, I went over to Downtown Disney and I had my dinner there.  I went to Naples Restaurant and had some good pasta there.  At 7:00pm, I went back to the BlizzCon store to pick my items that I bought.  I bought the BlizzCon magnet, a Diablo shirt, some Diablo dice and a Diablo keychain.  

On Friday, I went over to the convention center at about 8:50am because I knew the lineup was going to be crazy.  Apparently the people who came after me had to wait a very long time to get into the convention center.  The line was super long that it stretched over to people's homes.  The first thing I wanted to do was get in line for the Hell's Ink tattoo because I didn't have a seat for the main stage for the opening ceremony.  The thing that was stupid is that most people had already signed up prior to Friday and there were no slots for the people lining up on Friday.  The next thing that I did was that over to the Glass Cannon, which had figurines for the new rpg Diablo board playing game.  It was pretty cool how they were building a DnD campaign for Diablo.  After that, instead of getting a permanent tattoo, I got a small washable ink tattoo.  It wasn't too good, like from the past BlizzCon, it was super small and not very memorable.  After getting a tattoo, I watched the opening ceremony from the Fat Goose Inn.  There weren't many seats there so I had to stand up for most of the opening ceremony.  Once the opening ceremony was over, I got a Diablo poster signed by the devs.  Then I went over to the Overwatch area in Hall C.  I did the Overwatch demo and won.  I got an Overwatch poster and got it signed by the devs.  Then the I went over to Hearthstone area in Hall D.  The Hearthstone demo was the new play mode called duo battlegrounds.  I did a demo and got second with my partner.  I then tried the new mobile game, Warcraft Rumble.  It was pretty cool to try it out, I am not very good at it though.  I have it downloaded on my phone now.  I also visited the Darkmoon Faire, it was super crowded and I didn't buy anything there.  At about 3:00pm, I grabbed some food from the food trucks outside.  I had the beef and lamb over fries.  It was pretty good, but it needed some more sauce.  Went back into the convention center and I happened to lineup to meet some Diablo content creators.  I met Wudijo and Annacake.  While I was standing in line, I saw Neinball and Dredsycthe standing off to side and met those guys after meeting with the content creators.  I also met Nite, Leviathan and MacroiBoiBoi.  It was good seeing those guys again because I haven't seen them for a long while.  Afterwards, I took a lot of photos from BlizzCon.  I took pictures from the Sacrificial Altar, the Diablo Relics and Museum, the Wings of Inarius (pictured), and the Tree of Whispers.  

I then went back to the Overwatch area, I did the demo again but lost this time.  Then I took more pictures at the Comm Tower.  I tried the Warcraft Rumble demo again, I did a little better this time around.  Since the convention center was closing at 7:00pm, there weren't many things you could do after 6:00pm.  Once the convention was closed, I went over to Denny's to have my dinner and that was it for Friday.  

On Saturday, one of the things that I wanted to do was watch some Overwatch World Cup.  Canada was knocked out by South Korea on Friday so I didn't have country that I was cheering for.  The first semi-final was between S. Korea and China and this was one the closest matches that I have ever seen.  Both teams played great and both teams were playing a dive comp that had either a Doomfist or a Winston.  Lip played great for S. Korea but Leave and Shy were a bit better.  China ended up winning 3 - 2.  The second semi-final was between Finland and Saudi Arabia.  Both teams looked good.  I was cheering for Masaa for Finland and KSAA for Saudi Arabia because they both played for the Vancouver Titans in the past.  This match was super close also.  Saudi Arabia had a very bad C9 on the last map but managed to win the series 3 - 2.  I think these semi-finals might be one of the Overwatch matches that I have ever seen.  After the semi-final matches, I lined up for the Diablo panel over in the main arena.  The panel was ok, there wasn't much detail about what was coming up.  To me, it seemed like there could have been more news or details that could have been shared to keep everyone happy.  After the panel, I went to grab some food and ate some chicken tenders and fries.  I then went back to the Hearthstone area and did the demo again.  This time I did a lot better and managed to build a very big demon build, which helped get first with my partner.  After that,  I tried to get in line for the Tarot Card reading but they were closed.  So instead I watched the finals of the WC between China and Saudi Arabia.  The finals was really good, Saudi Arabia won 3 - 2 on a reverse sweep.  I knew Saudi Arabia had a good team because they defeated the US in the quarterfinals on Friday.  KSAA was very impressive on the Sigma and SirMajed is the best Illari player out there right now.  I had to stand again to watch the WC so my legs are pretty hurting by now.  Then I went to get some card pack from the Horadric Library and went over the Hearthstone area and watched a bit of the Le Sserafim concert.  The performance was pretty good, very good dancers but I am skeptical about their singing.  Once the convention was over, I got some food by the food trucks outside for my dinner.  This time I got the teriyaki chicken bowl, which was super yummy.  And that was BlizzCon 2023.  

The things that disappointed me:

1) Poor use of the convention center

I think I would have put the Overwatch World Cup stage in the main arena and moved the main stage back in Hall D.  The Darkmoon Faire seemed very crowded and I would have left it in the opposite building were the registration was being done.  I would have left the registration outside like in 2019, which would have freed up lots of space.  Also, there is an area below Hall D that seemed it was not being used at this con.  

2) Lack of demos from other Blizzard games especially Diablo

I think the lack of demos especially for Diablo killed this con for me.  Usually there is enough space for playing games so I think there was a lack of effort of getting computers and peripherals to play Diablo, StarCraft, Heroes of the Storm, and the Blizzard arcade.  

3) Lack of panels and overall areas to watch events

In other BlizzCons, there are many areas for different e-sports events to happen.  This BlizzCon seemed to have very little.  I also like it when there are smaller areas for the devs to give us some inner details to how their games are created.  Whether it is sound design, game lore or voice acting, these little pieces of how the games are created makes it super interesting to me.  It is not always about what is coming to the Blizzard games but also a step back to inform the players of how and why the game was created in the first place.  

4) Convention hours too short

This BlizzCon seemed super short because the convention closed at 7:00pm.  Normally the convention is open until 9 or 10pm so there were less time for you to experience everything.  

Overall, I had a good time at BlizzCon but I don't think I will go again.  

Diablo 3 Season 28 and Diablo 4 Review

 Season 28 of Diablo 3 just ended and I wanted to write about my time this season.  I had a fairly good season but most of the time was spent playing Diablo 4.  I will first discuss what I did in Diablo 3 before I write about Diablo 4.  Season 28 was very fun to play and it introduced a new concept for Diablo 3.  The Altar of Rites was a new thing that gave everyone extra power for the season.  I managed to do greater rift 142 on my Witch Doctor and that put at rank 22 in the hardcore NA leaderboard.  I had my best season ever of reaching my highest paragon level for the season at paragon 1851.  My overall paragon level is now at 3308.  I managed to play about 110 hours for the season.  While this was about the same for the other seasons, the season was much longer than others but most of the time spent this season was playing Diablo 4.  

I decided to play the Witch Doctor again this season and focused on my Arachyr set. I did fairly good at the beginning but by the middle of the season, I was doing really good.  I had a real nice gear set, alot of my gear was primal.  I picked up a primal Spider Queen's Grasp early on and I also managed to find a primal Shukrani's Triumph, a primal Compass Rose, a primal Brood of Aranae, and a primal Traveller's Pledge.  I also crafted a primal Ring of Emptiness.  I also did augments of +625 int to most of my gear but if I had more time I would have done more.  I think for season 29 I will be doing the same but I think the power level of my character will be much weaker since season 29 will have a paragon cap of 800.  

As for Diablo 4, I think it is a pretty good game but overall it is much slower and a lot less interesting than Diablo 3.  I first wanted to try hardcore mode in Diablo 4 but my Sorcerer was killed at like level 68 due to a game crash.  I managed to make a Druid this time in the eternal mode.  I hit about level 70 for my Druid but the levelling took so long.  We are currently in Season 1 of Diablo 4 and I am currently levelling my Rogue, which is at level 77.  I have spent a decent amount of time playing Diablo 4 but I certainly don't enjoy it as much as Diablo 3.  I think the main problems of Diablo 4 is that the gameplay is much slower, the levelling grind is super boring, and there aren't enough things to do in Diablo 4 that feels exciting.  I think that the campaign and the renown system is fairly cool to do in the beginning but it doesn't mean anything at all later on.  The cinematics in Diablo 4 is super cool to watch but I don't think many people are willing to run the campaign many times over.  The gearing system is kind of neat but after a while it doesn't make the playing the game fun a whole lot.  After hitting about level 50, you are basically running the same dungeons and maybe doing the odd helltide event.  I wish Diablo 4 had more systems that encourage you to do different tasks.  Also, with the monster scaling to your own player level, you don't often feel stronger when you level up.  I would recommend playing Diablo 4 for the campaign and the cinematics but unless you enjoy endlessly grinding levels, I don't recommend this game for anyone else.  

Season 29 for Diablo 3 is going to start soon and I very excited for it.  This season, as I mentioned before, will have a paragon cap of 800 and there will also be a solo self found mode.  This season will also have Visions of Enmity, which are portals that you can take to get extra gear.  I will be playing my favourite class, the Witch Doctor, again.  I hope everyone enjoyed playing Season 28 and Diablo 4.  I want to write more on this blog but I am having trouble finding time to write about other things.  

Diablo 3 Season 27 Review

Woah it has been a long time since I updated this blog.  Today I will be covering my Diablo 3 Season 27.  This season was very long and I had a very good season overall.  I managed to do a greater rift 133, which put me in rank 14 of the hardcore Witch Doctor NA leaderboard.  This is my highest ranking ever in a Diablo 3 season.  I was able to play 118 hours or so for the season.  I managed to hit paragon level 1558 for the season and my overall paragon level is at 3103.  Although I played off and on this season, I was able to reach all of my goals.  During the season, I was able to participate in the Diablo IV end game beta which was really, really cool.  I hope I can do a review of Diablo IV sometime in the future because the game is coming out later this year.  For now, I will just write about what I did for Diablo 3.  

This season of Diablo 3 was really fun to play with.  I mainly focused on the Witch Doctor and I was able to get most of my gear to where I wanted it be.  My end game build was the Arachyr set, which I managed to hit the greater rift 133.  This season introduced the sanctified items which made one of your items add a new legendary power while also making that item into a primal one.  Although the sanctified power for the Arachyr was just ok, I still enjoyed using that power.  I was mostly running quick and easy greater rifts with the Arachyr set and farming regular rifts and bounties with the Mundunugu set.  I used the sanctified power on my Ring of Emptiness and I also managed to find a primal Depth Diggers.  I was really pushing hard at the end of season and I barely managed to finish the greater rift 133 on the very last day of the season.  I was content to do a greater rift 130 but I ended up doing more than I could imagine.  A few other items that I was lucky to find were a primal The Barber (good for the Mundunugu set) and a very good Physical Traveller's Pledge amulet.  I managed to augment most of my gear to level 125.  I think I could have done even better if I had played Diablo 3 continuously for the entire season but I am very happy that I did so well even still.  

Season 28 is starting pretty soon for Diablo 3 and it will probably be the last season before Diablo IV starts.  I will be playing with the Witch Doctor again for this season although it will probably one of the weaker and less played class in season 28.  I am hoping to finish strong in Diablo 3 and be ready for Diablo IV when that game comes out.  There are things in Diablo IV that have me worried a bit from what I have played during the beta.  I hope that Diablo IV is just as fun and simulating as Diablo 3 and I really look forward to playing a lot Diablo in the future.  I really want to write a review of Juno Reactor and what has been happening since I last wrote about them but that will be a little later I think.  I hope everyone had a good season 27 and I hope everyone has fun playing Diablo 3 season 28 soon.