Diablo 3 Season 4 Review

Well Diablo's Season 4 is about to be done in a couple of days.  Season 4 will be over on December 30th.  I want to write what has happened during this season in this blog post.  First of all, I was going to have a monk as my main character since I hadn't played with the monk very much.  I managed to do very well with my monk, I ended up reaching greater rift 54 with it.  But after reaching paragon 650 and losing some of my monks to bad disconnects, I really didn't want to play with the monk again.

So after wondering a bit on what to do next, I ended up deciding to try and cube all the items in the game.  I knew this was going to take a long time since you need to play with all 6 classes in the game.  I first did the wizard, which went pretty good.  One item that I had trouble getting was a Moonlight Ward amulet so I made another low level wizard just so I could use it to gamble for the amulet using blood shards.  I ended up deleting the wizard after I cubed all the items for it since the wizard was using a firebird's set and I had already one wizard with the firebird set on non-season.  The next class that I played with was the witch doctor.  It felt really good to play with the witch doctor since I hadn't played with it for a long time.  The witch doctor is really fun to play with, especially the Helltooth set.  I am currently running torment 9 rifts and the witch doctor has done up to greater rift 46 this season.  One item that was pretty difficult to find on the witch doctor was the Tall Man's finger ring but I ended up finishing finding all the witch doctor items.

The third class that I tried to do was the crusader.  There were so many more items that I had to find with the crusader.  There were 37 missing crusader items (compared to just 23 wizard and witch doctor items).  I had pretty fun playing with the crusader since I really hadn't played with this class at all.  I ended up making a blessed hammer build but I haven't found all the Seeker of the Light set.  It's currently doing about torment 6 and I just need to find an Eternal Union ring to finish cubing all the crusader items.  I will probably finish finding this set when the season is over since I have lots of death breaths in my non-season stash.  My next class (and current class that I am working on) is the barbarian.  I feel as though the barbarian items won't take too long to do because there were only 17 items waiting to be found and cubed.  I found most of the items, I just need to find 2 1h mighty weapons, 1 mighty belt, 1 helm and 1 ring.  The ring is probably going to take a while to find (just like the crusader ring) because it has the same small drop rate, which is around 2.35%.  The last class, the demon hunter, will probably have to wait until the season is over.  I already have a high greater rift leveling demon hunter on non-season so I will probably use that to find the missing demon hunter items.

Season 4 was real fun to play with.  I pretty much achieved every goal that I wanted to do in this season.  I ended up getting more paragon points than season 3, I managed to reach a high greater rift level with my monk and I managed to do one conquest.  Although I would have liked to do more than one conquest, I think how I played this season was fair.  After season 3, I was really getting bored of doing rifts and greater rifts over and over again.  So when season 4 started, it was more refreshing to play a different kind of style where finding items to cube was more my focus.  For season 5, I will probably work on the crusader for a while and maybe go back to play with a witch doctor, since the witch doctor is my favorite class to play with.

Juno Reactor vs Diablo

My two favorite things in this world are Juno Reactor and Diablo.  While Juno Reactor hasn't done any music related to Diablo, I believe there are enough examples that Juno's music can be included in Diablo's game. Ben Watkins, the force behind Juno Reactor, has said that his music often takes on very dark image.  Just like Juno's music, Diablo also has very dark theme to it.  Both have lots of themes involving death, angels and demons.  Here are some examples of Juno Reactor's songs that can be tied to Diablo's game. 

The Perfect Crime (Superman) from Gods and Monsters
This song reminds me of Tyrael, especially his story in the Reaper of Souls expansion. 

"I've waited the longest time

To commit the perfect crime"
This reminds me of Tyrael having to steal the black soulstone from the angels and hide it from the angels and demons. 

"All I know is someday you will
Kill and never understand
What lies beneath in the heart of man"
This can refer to Tyrael questioning the mind and heart of the nephalim, whether he is truly good or evil. 

"I've paid the ultimate price
Living in paradise"
Tyrael had to pay the ultimate price, which was to give up his angelic immortal form to one who is just mortal.  This is also implied in the title of the song, in which Tyrael can be compared to Superman. 

Another track that might describe Tyrael is Guardian Angel from Beyond the Infinite. 

Giant and War Dogs from Labyrinth
These two tracks are often played together and reminds me of the Witch Doctor's pets.  Giant can be used to describe the Gargantuan, which is big hulking beast, while War Dogs can be used to describe the Zombie Dogs pet. 

Conquistador I from Labyrinth
"Mors stupebit et natura
Cum resurget creatura"
Which translates to "Death and nature will be stunned when mankind arises".  This can be referring to the rise of the nephalim and how they will stop death.  Death can also be referring to the Angel of Death, which is Malthael. 

Angels and Men from Labyrinth
This song might describe the relationship between the angels and the nephalim. 
"Why are you so afraid of the face of god"
This might be referring to Tyrael or maybe even of the three prime evils. 

Playing with Fire from The Golden Sun of the Great East
This song reminds me of Firebird wizard.  Just like the song, the firebird set is based around damage over time, meaning that there is slow but steady build up, just like the song. 

Invisible from The Golden Sun of the Great East
This track reminds me of the witch doctor's spirit walk skill.  While in spirit walk, the witch doctor becomes "invisible" sort of speak.  I love playing this song when I am playing with the witch doctor. 

My Top 10 Favorite Video Games

Today's list is my favorite video games of all time.  This list is fairly small because I haven't played many games at all.  I have only played on the NES, PS2, PS3 and on the PC.  Let's get to the list:

10.  River City Ransom (NES)
- When I first played this game, I didn't think much of it.  It seemed like a copy of Double Dragon.  You could play co-op with 2 players and the goal is to kill the bad guys using punches and kicks.  But unlike Double Dragon, there is an extra layer that makes this games good.  When you kill an enemy, you can earn coins.  With those coins, you can buy food to increase your health or if you have enough money, you buy special power ups that make your character do special attacks.  There are also a bunch of weapons that scattered all over the map and makes this game real fun to play.  

9.  Shogun: Total War (PC)
- Shogun is a turn based territory capture game.  The goal is to raise your army and conquer the entire map.  Shogun is based on the historical feudal battle in ancient Japan.  Much like another game on this list, there is a significant amount of history you can learn from playing this game.  Although the turn based system is nothing new from its previous games of the same genre, the fighting of different armies in this game is absolutely amazing.  There are various strategies in forming the shape of army and different army types. 

8.  Skyrim (PS3 + PC)
- Skyrim is an open world role playing game that is made by Bethesda Game Studios (the same company that made the Fallout series and previous Elder Scroll games).  Having played a previous Elder Scroll game, I knew what was to be expected (huge world with many different side quests).  What made this game better than its predecessors, is that there is no character class selection which makes it easier to start playing.  The music in this game is absolutely phenomenal and killing dragons feels absolutely epic (like who doesn't like to kill dragons). 

7.  Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 (PS2)
- Hot Pursuit 2 is my favorite car racing game of all time.  Not are you only racing against other cars but you also have to avoid the police and their road blocks.  The graphics in this game is amazing, there are several different types of cars and the soundtrack is pretty good as well.  2 player mode is also a lot of fun. 

6.  Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES)
- Super Mario Bros. 3 is a game that I played a lot of.  Although it isn't too difficult (I made it to Bowser the first time I played it), there are various tips and strategies involved in this game.  Since I played this game a lot, I knew most of them by heart.  Quick story: When I was working down in the US, one of my co-workers brought his NES along with him.  Having told the guys I was working with that SMB 3 was an easy game, I played this game and beat it in about half an hour.  All the guys were like "WTF?!!??!". 

5.  NHL '94 (PC)
- The best hockey game of all time.  Not only this game had all the players, teams and stats of the real NHL but it also had things like injuries and glass breaking.  The game play was just ok (imo) but the rest of the game (like game modes, the music) made this game pretty epic. This game has an extensive cult following and is still remembered to this day.  Like this for example:

 Oh yeah this game has one of the finest video game music ever: Brass Bonanza!!

4.  Nobunaga's Ambition 2 (NES)
- Much like Shogun: Total War, this is a turn based territory capture game.  What this game had that Shogun didn't were things like the amount of generals you could control and the amount of political schemes you could do like steal peasants from rival daimyos or arrange a marriage.  Since this game came out before Shogun, its graphics isn't the greatest but the historical aspect I feel is much more accurate than Shogun.  

3.  Diablo 3 (PC)
-  It's probably a shock to many of you but Diablo 3 is one my favorite games.  Sure it has had a lot of problems but it is a game that I can play over and over again.  Having played Diablo 2, there were lots of expectations for Diablo 3.  At first, Diablo 3 was an especially difficult game.  But after a while (and after beating Inferno Diablo), there wasn't much of a goal in playing this game.  Only after the Reaper of Souls expansion came out, Diablo 3 has been heading in the right direction.  With seasons and various patches along way, I know that Diablo 3 will forever be one of my favorite games. 

2.  World of Warcraft (PC)
- WoW is my first ever massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG).  Having not played an MMORPG before, I didn't know what to expect.  At first I thought this game had a lot of issues (like how did that fireball hit me through a tree?), but after taking my first flight path to Stormwind, this game really opened my eyes.  Not only are the graphics unbelievable but the social aspect was incredible as well.  Having experienced the raids and the raiding aspect with my guild makes this game very special to me. 

1.  Tecmo Super Bowl (NES)
- The finest sports video game ever.  Not only is this game way better than its previous version (Tecmo Bowl), but with all the teams and players in it (plus the stats and cut scenes), this game truly has it all.  You can select various running and passing plays and customize it even further by selecting your offensive players.  Your players can get hurt during a season or just be in a coaches mode by selecting the plays and making the computer execute those plays for you.  Not only did I play this game a lot but I also studied the playbook, figuring out which plays works the best.  This game truly made me a better football fan. 

Diablo 3 Season 4 Update

I have been having a lot of fun on Diablo 3 lately.  Even though I have kinda stopped playing on my monk, I have been enjoying playing other classes.  When I reached paragon 650 in season 4, my focus was now to cube every item in the game.  This is really hard thing to do because in order to cube all the items, you have to play all the classes.  All the monk items were easy because I had spent a lot time gearing up the monk throughout the whole season.  So my next class that I chose to spend time on was the wizard.  It was working fairly well, I had some problems finding some of the items (like the Moonlight Ward amulet) but I finally managed to finish cubing all the items right after BlizzCon.  I am now in the process of cubing all the items for the witch doctor.  I am really having fun playing with the witch doctor because I hadn't played that class for a long time.  For a long time, the witch doctor was my main class and I had spent almost my whole time playing Diablo on the witch doctor.  It feels really good to play the witch doctor again especially working with zombie charger and hex.

As we learned from BlizzCon, season 4 in Diablo is going to end some time in December.  There is going to be a couple weeks break in between the seasons, so hopefully season 5 will start in the beginning of January.  This means I probably won't have time to finish cubing all the items during season 4.  Right after I finish the witch doctor, I might try to cube items for the barbarian or the crusader.  Either the barbarian or the crusader will be next class when season 5 starts.  Right now, patch 2.4 is in the public test realm (ptr) but I haven't touched the ptr at all.  I might just spend more time playing non-season since all the items will be available even in non-season once the next season starts. 

In the next patch, there is also going to be set dungeons for each particular class set.  Each class has four distinct sets that you can collect.  Once you have that set, you can enter a set dungeon.  In this dungeon, you can achieve different goals.  If you manage to complete each set dungeon with the particular goals, you can be awarded with some cosmetics for you character.  All this means is that you have to play all the classes and collect all the sets for each class.  I think this is very difficult to do unless you play lots of Diablo.  Even when I am playing a season, I usually just stick to one class because it is very difficult to focus on many classes during the season.  Completing this achievement (also with cubing all the items) is going to take lots of playing time and I don't think many people will do this.  I think it would be much easier if Blizzard awarded something once each class set achievement was done.  That way many people won't be stressed to play all the classes at once.  In any case, I look forward to playing more Diablo in the future.  I don't know exactly what my goals will be in the next season but hopefully once I set my goals, I will have a good time playing Diablo again. 

BlizzCon 2015 Review Part 2

This review is a bunch of lists that I want to share with you.

5 Things I Missed During BlizzCon

1) Overwatch - Overwatch was one game that I didn't get to play.  The lines for Overwatch was super long so I decided not to lineup for it.
2) Starcraft and Hearthstone Finals -  These two final matches I wanted to see but I just didn't have the time to watch them.  I was busy eating my lunch during the Hearthstone finals and I was busy attending the Diablo raffle during the Starcraft finals.
3) Hearthstone Tavern - I knew where it was but I didn't go to it because I didn't have any means of playing Hearthstone (no tablet/phone). 
4) Voice Actor Stage - There were many voice actors but I didn't get the chance to watch any of it. 
5) Diablo Lightning Talks - There were bunch of small lightning talks at the Slaughtered Calf Inn, I saw some of them but not all. 


5 Disappointing Things At BlizzCon

1) No Jinx Store - Usually the Jinx booth sells t-shirts but unfortunately none this year. 
2) Poor seating in Hall D/theater - If you were seated near the back of Hall D or the theater, you had a very difficult time seeing the screen
3) Lineup for the Blizzard store - The lineup for the Blizzard store was insane, especially on the Thursday morning.  Better time could have been spent doing something else. 
4) E-sport viewing times were way off - There wasn't any good rhythm watching the Hearthstone matches.  Plus, the Warcraft arena matches were still going on during the closing ceremony.
5) Very small area for Diablo - The area for the Diablo play area was the smallest of all the games.  Plus, there was only 1 panel for Diablo (although the lightning talks kinda made up for that). 

5 Things to Improve BlizzCon

1) Make BlizzCon a 3 day event - It is sort of happening already with the badge pickup and the Blizzard store open all day on Thursday.  Maybe the convention could be open so that people could play games all day Thursday. 
2) Larger area for Diablo - Even though the Slaughtered Calf Inn was a huge success, Diablo could have used a larger area for their play testing area. 
3) Better seating for Hall D/Theater - I think it would be nice if the seats in Hall D/theater were raised so that the people in the back would have a better sight line to see the stage (sort of like a hockey arena - the further back you are, the higher seating you have).
4) Continued presence of Blizzard staff/dev team - Much like the Diablo area, I wish all other games would have the same concept where you could talk and ask questions to any Blizzard staff/dev team people.
5) Better stream times for e-sport events - It was a bit of a mess watching e-sport events.  With Overwatch being included in the next BlizzCon, things could get even more messier.  Definitely needs more planning.

5 Things That Made BlizzCon Special to Me

1) Diablo Dev Team - One of the first things I did was to visit the Slaughtered Calf Inn.  I was able to meet and talk to many members of the Diablo dev team and it was such a joy to do so. 
2) Blizzard Community Members - There were many people at BlizzCon and almost all of them were nice to each other, whether it was talking to total strangers or just having a great attitude towards the game that they love to play. 
3) Wil Wheaton/The Cos-Players - Wil Wheaton did an excellent job of hosting the costume contest (he talked a lot about Diablo).  The Cos-players were so amazing. 
4) Artists of Blizzard - There were many pictures on the walls plus the 3d models of various Blizzard characters were amazing as well.
5) Other small events at BlizzCon - There were so many different booths you could visit to do various activities such as getting your picture taken or getting your face painted or buying various items. 

This is how I would set the schedule at BlizzCon:

Hall D Friday  (Panels on Friday is a brief view of what each game is going to do in the future)
10:00 - 10:45 Opening Ceremony
11:00 - 11:45 WoW Panel
12:00 - 12:45 Heroes of the Storm Panel
13:00 - 13:45 Diablo Panel
14:00 - 14:45 Hearthstone Panel
15:00 - 15:45 Starcraft Panel
16:00 - 16:45 Overwatch Panel
18:00 - 20:30 Contests

Hall D Saturday (Panels on Saturday could be more specific)
10:00 - 11:00 WoW Panel
11:30 - 12:30 Heroes of the Storm Panel
13:00 - 14:00 Diablo Panel
14:30 - 15:30 Hearthstone Panel
16:00 - 17:00 Starcraft Panel
17:30 - 18:30 Overwatch Panel
19:00 - 21:30 Closing Ceremony

I would make Heroes of the Storm and Overwatch share a stage for their tournaments and Hearthstone and WoW share a stage for theirs.  Starcraft tournament can stay where they are. 

I would move the Hearthstone play area over to the Hearthstone Tavern.  Maybe move the Diablo play area over to the Hearthstone play area.  Since the panel stage for Hall A would be unused, use it for the voice actors/artists. 

My 2015 BlizzCon Review

Whew, just got back from Anaheim, California and I had a very wonderful time there.  My main reason for going to Anaheim was to go to BlizzCon.  I want to make another blog post in future on what BlizzCon could do to improve their convention show and write about what was good and what was bad.  This blog post is basically to cover all that I experienced in Anaheim from Wednesday to Saturday.  I flew to Anaheim on Wednesday and once I arrived there, I took a little nap.  I kinda wanted to go to a hockey game this time around so I decided to walk down towards the Honda Center at about 4:30pm.  It took me about 30 minutes to walk to the Honda Center from my hotel.  I had dinner at Hooters, which was near the Honda Center.  After eating dinner, I went to the Honda Center and bought a ticket there.  It cost me $50, which is fairly good for a hockey game and got pretty good seats (it was behind the net, on the 1st row of the 3rd level of the arena).  I also went to a hockey store, where they were selling all kinds of hockey related stuff.  I bought an Anaheim Ducks toque (or beanie in the US) which I am planning to give my brother for his birthday. 

The Anaheim Ducks were playing the Florida Panthers on Wednesday and it was a pretty good game.  It was kind of weird seeing so many former ex-Canucks on both teams.  The Anaheim Ducks had Ryan Kesler, Kevin Bieksa, and Mike Santorelli, while the Panthers had Roberto Luongo in net.  Both teams played fairly well, the first Panther goal came off a real bad giveaway from a Ducks defender.  The Ducks tied it up when Chris Stewart shot an amazing shot from an impossible angle (he was below the red faceoff circle near the boards, absolutely sniped it).  The Panthers retook the lead when Gudbranson scored from the point (Fredrik Andersen, the Ducks goalie, should have stopped it).  The Ducks appeared to be heading towards another loss when there was a late penalty given to the Panthers in the 3rd period.  With the goalie pulled, Corey Perry scored with 5 seconds left to tie the game up (his first goal of the season? lol really?).  In overtime, Andersen made some quality saves to bring the game into shootout where the Ducks eventually won in the fourth round.  Final score: Ducks 3, Panthers 2.  Some Anaheim Ducks who played well were Andersen and Kesler.  Perry wasn't very noticeable for most of the game (I guess he was missing Ryan Getzlaf, who wasn't playing that game).  Florida Panthers star player was definitely Roberto Luongo, who was solid all game but not in the shootout. 

On Thursday, it was time to pick up my BlizzCon badge.  I headed towards the convention center at about 8:45am since the doors were going to open at 9.  I didn't think the lineup was going to be very long because last year when I went to BlizzCon, there wasn't really a big lineup at all.  This year's lineup was much longer.  The badge pickup wasn't too bad but because the Blizzard store was open, I lined up for that and that lineup was super long.  I ended up buying a BlizzCon magnet (which I always get at BlizzCon), a Hearthstone wallet and a Demonic Tyrael figure, which is probably my favorite swag item from BlizzCon.  When I was finally finished with the BlizzCon store, it was already noon time.  I was planning to go to Disneyland after my badge pickup but since it took super long to get my BlizzCon gear, I decided not to go to Disneyland and just walk around Anaheim for most of the afternoon. 

On Friday, I think I left to go to BlizzCon at around 7:30am and by the time I got to the convention center, there was already a big lineup.  I managed to about the base of the fountain, which is not too bad (I normally get to about around the fountain in previous BlizzCons).  I knew everyone was going to Hall D for the opening ceremony so I decided to take a different approach this time (which I am real thankful for).  I headed towards Hall A when BlizzCon opened and did so stuff around the Darkmoon Faire area.  One of my favorite areas is always the Jinx clothing store but when I got there, the Jinx store wasn't selling any t-shirts this year :(.  Instead they had a photo booth setup and if you got your picture taken, you got a free t-shirt (limited qualities).  Since I got there before anyone else, I managed to get my photo taken and got a free t-shirt too. 

Since the opening ceremony wasn't until 11:00am, I had a bunch of time to see other areas.  Diablo had a setup at the Slaughter Calf Inn and I went there.  There were many Diablo dev team people to talk to and I managed to talk to many members of that team (which was sooo cool).  I got my Diablo poster and got some signatures.  I headed back to panel stage in Hall A to watch the opening ceremony from 11:00 to 12:00.  The opening ceremony was pretty cool, they showed the Warcraft movie trailer (more on that later),  new Heartstone adventure, new Overwatch news and characters, new heroes and new game mode for Heroes of the Storm, more Legion info for Warcraft, and Legacy of the Void for Starcraft (Diablo noticeably absent wtf Blizzard).  After the opening ceremony, I went back to the Slaughter Calf Inn, played the demo for Diablo (which was pretty cool), talked to more Diablo dev team people, and watched a mini-panel (it was about treasure goblins).  I met Neinball from the Westmarch Workshop after the mini-panel and talked to him for a bit.  After that, I went around the BlizzCon getting posters from various other games.  I went over to the Hearthstone area first, played the adventure mode with the shaman.  After that, I got a signature from Ben Brode (woooo!) on my Hearthstone poster.  I also got posters from Overwatch and Starcraft (the Starcraft poster is super huge).  The Heroes of the Storm had a small poster as well.  I lined up for the Warcraft signing area but the lineup was too long, so I kind of skipped it.  At 3:30pm, there was the one and only Diablo 3 panel, which I didn't want to miss.  The Diablo 3 panel was very good, lots of info on the new patch 2.4 and it looks like there are going to be more patches after that.  After the Diablo 3 panel, I went to dinner and ate at the California Pizza Kitchen.  I went back to the convention center after eating dinner and I wanted to see the contest and cosplay show.  I wanted to see it in Hall D but when I got there, it was already pretty full so I went back to Hall A and watched the contest and cosplay show from there.  After the show, I walked over to the Hearthstone arena but they were already finishing up so that was it for Day 1. 

On Day 2, I really didn't know what to do.  I wanted to go back to the Slaughter Calf Inn but I decided to go see the Hearthstone semi-finals instead.  It took a while before the semi-final games began but the semi-final games were pretty good.  First, it was Ostkaka vs Thijs.  Both were playing very control oriented decks and it was a very good matchup.  Ostkaka ended up winning but Thijs could have won it too.  Their freezing mage vs freezing mage matchup was very boring to watch but still it was pretty entertaining.  The next semi-final matchup was between Hotform and Kno.  I was cheering for Hotform because he was from Canada, although it was pretty cool seeing a Japanese player in Kno.  Hotform won the matchup and it was pretty obvious to me who was going to win the Hearthstone finals.  Whenever you see a control oriented deck vs a mid range deck, the control oriented deck usually ends up winning.  So either Ostkaka or Thijs was going to have a major advantage in the final over Hotform or Kno.  After watching the semis, I went for lunch at about 3:00pm.  I wanted to eat from the food trucks outside the convention and I had very nice burger and curly fries (yum!).  After lunch, I wanted to go see the Blizzard trailers so I went to the ballroom level 3 and watched the Warcraft trailer again (hopefully I will make another blog post about this later).  After watching the trailers, I went back to the Slaughter Calf Inn, watched a mini-panel hosted by John Wang.  They were having a Diablo raffle at 5:15pm and they were giving lots of Diablo items away.  Unfortunately I didn't win anything but I was happy for the other people who did manage to win something.  After the raffle, I saw Leviathan and Neinball from the Westmarch Workshop and went to talk with them (I also met Lala, Monstrous and Dreadsythe).  It was cool talking with the Westmarch Workshop guys since I am huge fan of their podcast.  After that, the closing ceremony was about to begin, but since I am not a huge Linkin Park fan, I decided go play Heroes of the Storm instead.  I ended playing the new arena mode for Heroes, which was pretty cool.  I am not a very good Heroes of the Storm player but I managed to win with my team 2-0.  After that, I went over to the Warcraft play area and played with the Demon Hunter.  It was a pretty cool demo, though it dragged on a bit too long.  After Warcraft, I went back to Hearthstone and played one final game with the rogue.  And that finished my BlizzCon experience. 

For Cheeva

As BlizzCon approaches, I am reminded of a story not too long ago.  This happened a couple of years ago and I will never forget it.  The following is a true story:


For Cheeva

When I first started playing WoW, I didn't have a clue about guilds and such.  Fortunately for me, I got invited to one called "Knights of Rememberance" on the Antonidas realm.  It was a good guild run by a crappy GM (later KoR became Sanctity, which I was in until I moved to Premonition).  People in this guild were very friendly and helpful.  2 people who were really helpful for me were Neuroticon (yes the master fluffer) and Cheeva.  Without these 2, I probably wouldn't have played WoW as long as I have. 

Cheeva was an older female player.  I didn't know her age but I do remember saying that she was pretty old.  I'm sure she was older than Quinnie or Alphaseven - lol.  Well anyways, Cheeva played a female warlock.  Like me, WoW was probably her first online game (alot of noobness questions were asked by me and her).  When I first started playing, I didn't realize that Antonidas was newly created realm so most of the realm hadn't reached 70 yet and most players on that server were busy levelling their characters.  I quickly realized that I was playing often and was one of the more higher level character in our guild.  There were a few that were ahead of me (like Neuroticon) but most were lower level.  But one who was mostly at the same level from me was Cheeva.  So therefore we often did quests together. 

Now when you do quests and levelling together, you often create a bond with the people that help you.  I know I really appreciate all the help people have given me to better my character.  It's something that I won't ever forget.  With Cheeva, I know she helped me get my pally mount and I also helped her get her warlock mount.  We did many instances together also.  I didn't mind helping her at all because I knew she would help me whenever I asked. 

So after KoR became Sanctity and about couple months later, our guild decided to run Kara casually at first since many weren't geared for it.  It was going good until after a while we usually had quite a few who wanted to do Kara.  I guess there some people in our guild who weren't happy that they weren't able to go do Kara so there was big fight about it.  I don't know the complete details of it because I wasn't there at that time.  I know Livi (Gene's sister-in-law) who was our GM at that time was pretty upset about it.  A bunch of people then left our guild, including Cheeva (who was standing up for one of her friends).  Cheeva, being the leader that she was, created a guild called "Unbroken". 

Well our guild Sanctity managed to survive and further progress into Kara, but unfortuanetly for Cheeva, her guild didn't become as good as ours.  I don't know what happened but most of Cheeva's guild then decides to transfer to another server (the ones who started this whole mess).  I thought Cheeva might transfer too but she didn't. 

So one day in Strattrah, I asked her how she was doing and why she hadn't transferred with the other members of her guild.  Her response was that this guild (Unbroken) was hers and that she wouldn't abandon it (I think she was peeved that I even mentioned the thought of transferring).  The one thing you have to realize about Cheeva was that she was very strong minded individual.  Anything she put her mind into, she knew she could achieve it.  I guess some people in our realm doubted that she could run a guild in the first place so it must have been real satisfying for her to prove them wrong.  She often would tell me "Juno, I am going to do this" and I would nod and say "Of course, you're Cheeva".  I have never met another person as strong minded as Cheeva. 

So after Sanctity broke up, I made the painful decision to transfer servers over to Windrunner.  It was a very difficult decision for me because I knew I would be leaving many friends back on Antonidas.  What made transferring worth it though was being in Premonition and meeting another batch of good people.  After raiding for several weeks and feeling very comfortable in Premonition, I often checked the Antonidas realm forum to see how my old server was doing. 

One day while checking the forum, I saw the thread that I dreaded the most.  Cheeva had passed away.  Cheeva's death was the definately the worst feeling I ever had while playing WoW.  Even more so, that same night we were doing a raid (I think it was Tempest Keep).  I decided to dedicate that raid to her so I macro'ed a shout everytime I hit my avenging wrath.  I would shout out "For Cheeva!!!" everytime I did my macro.  Most of the raid didn't have a clue what I was doing and I didn't bother to tell anyone.  I didn't have a mic either at that point so I didn't talk about.  Even if I did have a mic, I would have been crying too much to say anything.  The only other person who knew was Neuro so he kinda told everyone about it. 

Whenever things get tough now, I often think about Cheeva and how she would handle things.  She is one of the reasons why I won't leave Premonition.  I know that if Cheeva could do it, so could I.  Cheeva, I will always remember you and what you have taught me.  R.I.P.

"For Cheeva!!!"

Love, Juno

Getting Into a Rhythm

Just an update to my season 4 of Diablo 3.  My monk has been doing pretty well lately.  It doesn't have all the pieces yet for the u6 build but it is getting very close.  I just need an ancient Fist of Az'Turrasq and I am pretty much done.  I have been running many torment 9 rifts and also been running about a greater rift 46.  Even though it is not anywhere near the top of the leaderboards, I feel like my monk is at a good place.  I am up to paragon level 530 or so and I am hoping to reach paragon 600 by the end of October. 

The reason why I feel like I am in a good place is because of the contiunous running of torment 9 rifts and greater rifts in the mid-40's.  I am currently doing one torment 9 rift and then switching over to a greater rift after that.  Once you do this over and over again, it is very easy to gain experience and crafting mats.  It is very important to be in that rhythm so that it seems like it is no work at all.  I feel as though once your in that rhythm, it is very easy to play since you know what you are going to do next.  I always have the same attitude when it comes to my work as well.  I work at a grocery store and once you start repeating the same task over and over again, it is easy to know what you are going to do next.  There is less thinking of what to do next and then you can focus more at the task at hand. 

Blizzcon is just one month away and I am really excited about attending that event.  I might switch up about what I am going to be doing in Anaheim from the past Blizzcon events.  I think I might go to a hockey game or maybe do something other than going to Disneyland again.  After all, if you keep doing the same thing over and over again, it might get a little bit boring.  Then again, I might continue doing the same thing year after year since I already know what to do and I know how much fun it can be. 

Kaguya Hime

I've recently watched the anime film, "The Tale of the Princess Kaguya" and I wanted to write a review about it.  This film is called "Kaguya-hime no Monogatari" in Japan and was produced in 2013 by Studio Ghibi, which is the same studio that also created films like "Spirited Away" and "The Wind Rises".  This anime was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature at the 87th Academy Awards.  "The Tale of the Princess Kaguya" is based on the old folktale called the "The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter".  The following is the story behind this folktale:
  

Long, long ago in Japan, there lived a poor woodsman. One day, he was cutting bamboo in a grove when he came upon one stalk of bamboo glowing a bright, golden color. Finding this mysterious, he approached it for a closer look.

 

To his amazement, inside the bamboo was an adorable, tiny little girl. Since the old man and his wife had no children of their own, he decided to bring the child home with him, where he and his wife raised her with love and care. They decided to name her Kaguya Hime. From that time forward, whenever the woodsman went back to work in the grove, gold coins would come pouring out from the bamboo he cut. As a result, the old couple became wealthy.

Amazingly, within just three months Kaguya Hime grew into a beautiful maiden. Her beauty soon became known throughout the country, and one young man after another came forth to ask her hand in marriage. Kaguya Hime refused all of her suitors, but there were five insistent young noblemen who refused to give up. In order to dissuade them, Kaguya Hime asked for a gift from each, and promised to marry the first one to bring her the gift she had requested. But these items were not things that could be found anywhere on this earth, and so the five young noblemen soon lost heart and gave up.

In the meantime the Emperor, who had heard of Kaguya Hime's beauty, also began courting the girl to become his wife and Empress. He too was refused. When the Emperor tried to force Kaguya Hime to come to the palace, she disappeared right before his eyes. The Emperor then realized that there was something unusual about Kaguya Hime, and so he too gave up.

Three years passed and Kaguya Hime became even more beautiful. Then, one spring, Kaguya Hime began to grow melancholy on moonlit nights. She would stare at the moon with tears streaming down her face. The old woodsman, worried, asked what was wrong. Gazing up at the sky, Kaguya Hime replied, "Actually, I come from the moon. I was sent to live on the earth by my King, but now I have been told that I must go home. I will miss everyone here on earth, and that is why I am sad."

The old man was shocked, and not wanting to let his beloved daughter go, consulted with the Emperor to devise a plan. On the night of the full moon, the Emperor's guards hid Kaguya Hime deep inside the woodsman's house and surrounded it. Suddenly, the night sky became bright. Messengers from the moon dressed in brilliant clothes came down from the sky and descended to the earth on a cloud. At this sight, the guards become petrified and lost their courage. The messengers placed Kaguya Hime onto a palanquin and dressed her in a feathered robe. Leaving the heartbroken old couple behind, Kaguya Hime took off to the moon.  The emperor then dispatches an army of soldiers to the tallest mountain in Japan.  The emperor ordered the army to climb to the summit of the great mountain and to burn a letter from the emperor to Kaguya-hime there, with the hope that his message would reach the now distant princess.

The End

This famous folk story is believed to be from the tenth century.  The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter is nearly identical in form to a Tibetan tale of a similar name, and some researchers believe that the Japanese legend may have been drawn from the Tibetan one, perhaps through ancient contacts with China.  The beginning of the story, in which a child is given to an old, childless couple, is common among many Japanese folk tales and can also be seen in Issun boshi (the One-Inch Boy) and Momotaro (the Peach Boy).  The theme of a poor old man who suddenly becomes rich is another common among Japanese folk tales.  

  

The film itself was very wonderfully drawn.  The old-style hand drawn anime suits this film because the story itself is very old.  I don't think a new style 3d animation with clean lines would suit this film.  Even though this anime is hand-drawn, the characters in this film show lots of emotion, especially Princess Kaguya, who shows many sides of happiness and sadness.  I think the film not only did a great job in telling the story, but also telling us about the many themes in this film. 

  

I also loved the music in this film.  There is one lullaby that is sung over and over again and it is very catchy.  The reason why I was so interested in this film because one of my favourite Juno Reactor songs is "Kaguya Hime".  Although Juno Reactor's Kaguya Hime would not fit with this anime (it's a bit too dark for this film), the song Kaguya Hime is very interesting because you could almost hear the bamboo playing in it.  There are two spoken verses in Kaguya Hime, one is "Takekara umareta", which means Kaguya Hime was born from the bamboo.  The other verse is "Tsukini kaeranakereba", which means Kaguya Hime must return to the moon.  I really recommend everyone to watch this anime and also check out Juno Reactor's Kaguya Hime.  

My Past BlizzCon Experience

With less than 2 months to go before BlizzCon happens, I wanted to share my past BlizzCon experience with you.  My first BlizzCon was in 2013 and this upcoming BlizzCon will be my third.  I didn't know what to expect when I first attended BlizzCon but boy was I amazed.  When first got to Anaheim, I checked out the venue where BlizzCon was (the Anaheim Convention Center).  I had arrived in Anaheim on Wednesday and on Thursday, I went to Disneyland, which is about 10 minutes away from the convention center.  I was at Disneyland for most of the day until I had to get my BlizzCon badge.  The time to pickup the badge was between 4pm and 9pm so I went there about 5pm but there was already a huge (and I mean HUGE) lineup.  I think it took me about an hour and a half just to get my badge and the goody bag. 

On Friday, I managed to get a pretty good seat for the opening ceremony.  The opening ceremony was very cool, the trailer for the new game Heroes of the Storm was incredible.  After the opening ceremony, I didn't know what really to do.  I looked around for bit and went to the JINX clothing store.  I went to some Diablo panels and got some autographs.

On Saturday, I had a lot more fun.  I decided to bring my Book of Cain and get some more autographs.  I caught some of the Hearthstone matches between Trump, Artosis and Kripparian.  Also, BlizzPro was having their meetup on Saturday and got to meet Reb and Twizz of TwizzCast.  I wanted to meet Archon but he didn't show up :(.  Finally, I went to the Blink 182 concert but it wasn't too good. 

The next BlizzCon (2014) went more smoothly.  First of all, the lineup to get the badge was a lot easier since the convention center was now open between 9am to 9pm.  Instead of going to Disneyland again, I went to the California Adventure park, which is directly across from Disneyland.  On the first day of the 2014 BlizzCon, I did pretty much the same thing as the year before.  The opening ceremony was good, they introduced the new game Overwatch.  I managed to get another shirt from the JINX store, I got more autographs (this time I got a signature from Wyatt Cheng).  I watched the entire quaterfinals of the Hearthstone tournament.  The next day,  I decided to bring my Book of Tyrael and got that signed.  In the Diablo play area, they were giving out prizes for playing Diablo and I managed to get a poster of the Crusader.  I didn't bother attending the Metallica concert because I knew it wouldn't be interesting to me. 

For this upcoming BlizzCon, I am hoping to have another great time.  I am sure they will be showing the trailer for the new Warcraft movie.  I hope Blizzard will announce a new expansion for Diablo 3.  I will probably watch a lot of Hearthstone again.  I don't know if I should go to Disneyland again, I might do something else this year.  It is still kind of hard to decide what to do since Blizzard hasn't announced the schedule of BlizzCon yet.  The main thing with BlizzCon, is that you can't see everything so you have to decide what you want to see and do. 

Working Hard: Season 4 Update

I have been playing Diablo 3 a lot lately.  I had a couple of deaths recently and I am trying to recover from that.  The first monk that I made was lost at level 20 or so.  This wasn't so bad.  My second monk died at paragon level 235.  This wasn't so bad either because I didn't lose any gear that was part of my seven-side-strike gear setup.  My third, though, I lost at paragon 271 and this monk gave me the biggest headache.  Since my third monk died with the gear for the seven-sided-strike, my next monk (my fourth) had to gear up a lot just to get back to the level of my third. 

Even though I had these deaths, my season in Diablo 3 is going good.  I can't really compare with other people's paragon levels since all my paragon levels were done by myself.  I know several people have been grinding their paragon levels through groups and this makes the paragon leveling easier.  I prefer doing my grinding by myself because I like taking the harder road to achieve my goals.  The paragon leveling is much like the auction house debate in the original Diablo 3 game.  Sure you could get all your epic gear through the auction house by sniping items and re-selling items and this made sure you would be geared up pretty quickly.  But there was another option to play the game without the auction house (called self-found) where you would only use items you found yourself and not use the auction house at all.  I played much of the original Diablo 3 game with the auction house but when I switched over to hardcore (the hardcore server didn't have any real money auction house), it was easier to play self-found. 

Other than my paragon levels (which I am currently at 320), I got most of my items cubed (still reaching the goal of 100 items cubed).  I finally found a Flow of Eternity, which is needed for the seven-sided-strike build.  I am looking for another Unity ring (I have one already just need another for my follower) and I am also looking for a Fist of Az'Turrasq.  Right now, I am playing with a Tempest Rush monk so that I won't lose any of seven-sided-strike gear if I die.  The tempest rush monk is pretty fun to play with and it's much easier to farm for items with it.  Anyways, I hope I can continue to improve my monk and get back to doing high greater rifts.  

Juno Reactor - Samurai

Well it's back to school time and I wanted to teach you all about my favourite song, Juno Reactor - Samurai.  When I first heard this song, I knew it was in Japanese (but I didn't understand the lyrics at the time).  Now most songs that I do listen to are not in Japanese so this caught me off guard a little bit.  And since I knew Juno Reactor was a band from England, this didn't make much sense to me, as in how did a band from England write a song in Japanese?  Well as I found out later, Ben Watkins (who is the leader of Juno Reactor) loves Japan and Japanese culture.  I was real fascinated in this since my parents are from Japan and I can kind of speak a little bit myself.  Not only did I like that it was in Japanese but also it has that rhythmic beat that makes you want to dance.  But as I learned to understand the lyrics and the meaning behind this song, this made me more in love with it.

The Lyrics of Samurai
There are many lines of Japanese that are spoken in this song but I'm going to focus mostly on the first line.  The first line in this song is "Anata wa taiyo" which translates to "You are (the) sun".  What this is a metaphor for yourself.  It is not saying that you yourself is the sun but that you are strong like the sun.  So when the lines are spoken, this is telling you that you are strong.  The focus of the sun is often used in other Juno Reactor songs and I will illustrate this in the next section.  The line "You are (the) sun" (also the other lines as well) was also used in a previous Ben Watkins' song (in Sunsonic's Kind of Loving but in English of course).  The other lines of Samurai are similar to the first line.  Each other line starts out as "Anata wa" which means "You are".  So for example the second line "Anata wa hikari" translates to "You are the light".  So in essence, this whole song is used as motivation for someone, telling the listener that he or she is strong.  I often use this song to motivate myself to be strong. 

Focus on the Sun
Juno Reactor has many songs about the sun and Samurai is definitely one of those.  Another song that has "sun" theme to it is Juno Reactor's Solaris.  But Samurai's sun is way different to Solaris' sun.  If you listen to the two songs, Solaris has much slower beat or rhythm (I think Ben described it as if you are sunbathing).  Samurai's beat is more up-tempo, so the sun here is less demanding, more like the sun here in Canada during springtime as opposed to the more heat-intensive sun during the summer.  Not only is the sun a focus in Juno Reactor's songs but also the opposite, the moon.  I saw an interview  Ben did where he talked about how the sun and the moon coming together to form Juno Reactor.  This is interesting because another Juno Reactor song that had Japanese lyrics (Juno Reactor's Kaguya Hime) has a "moon" theme to it.  Kaguya Hime has a very "dark" feel to it's song, much like the darkness of the moon, while again Samurai, which focuses on the sun, is more up-lifting.

The above picture is taken from Samurai's CD (done by Ben's brother I believe).  My dream one day is to go to a Juno Reactor live show and be able to hear Samurai playing.  I was hoping Ben would play this at the Vancouver show but he didn't play it.  If anyone wants to know anything about me, they should listen to this song.