Diablo 3 Season 14 Review

Well Diablo 3 season 14 just ended and I ended up doing pretty good.  I decided to play with the Witch Doctor again this season and I wanted to do a bit better than season 13.  I started off pretty strong. I had one unfortunate death but overall I was pleased with my season.  My Witch Doctor ended doing a greater rift 98, which was the same greater rift that I was able to do in season 13.  My greater rift 98 put on rank 36 for the NA hardcore Witch Doctor (which was 2 ranks higher than season 13 - my rank in season 13 was 38).  I tried several times to a greater rift 99 but I didn't think it was possible (I think I needed more dps somewhere on my gear or more paragon points).  I was running in the solo self found league and I ended up being 3rd out of the Witch Doctors.  I was also able to reach paragon 1132, which is the highest I was able to do for one season.  My overall paragon level now sits at 1777.  I also managed to finish up the seasonal journey, which was pretty easy to do this season.

For the most of season, I was playing with the Helltooth set again.  I love this set because it is so easy to use and the gearing for it isn't too demanding.  It is so easy to run greater rifts over and over again because this set is so consistent.  You never really feel in danger of dying because most of the damage you take is off-loaded to your pets.  I had a silly death early on because of I didn't think some of the arcane beams would hit me when I did a boss fight against Eskandiel.

Although my second Witch Doctor didn't die, I really didn't find any great Helltooth gear.  I think my Witch Doctor in season 13 had way better gear.  I tried really hard to push greater rifts and I was hoping to reach greater rift 100 but I don't think it is possible without a lot of paragon points.  

For season 15, I am going to change my class to the Wizard because I haven't played with that class for the longest time.  My last Wizard that I did play was way back in season 2.  I think overall my least geared class is the Wizard because I am able to reach greater rift 65 with the other classes.  In Season 15, there is another theme and this time it is going to be double bounty bags.  I think this will mean that I will going to do a lot of bounties this season .  I am hoping to play a Tal Rasha or a Firebird Wizard this season.  I can't wait until BlizzCon later this year because I am hoping they will announce a new Diablo game there.  I hope everyone had a great season 14 and I look forward to season 15, which will be starting tomorrow.  

Vancouver E-sport is coming!

Just announced today (from a report by ESPN), Vancouver (as well as Toronto) will be getting an Overwatch team for season 2 of the Overwatch League.  This is a very big deal since the Vancouver franchise will be one of 20 cities that are represented in the Overwatch League.  Even though Vancouver (population wise) is one of the smaller cities, it is big enough that I think it can be very profitable and have a very large fan base.  I am really excited about getting an Overwatch team in Vancouver because I do love supporting my local sport teams.  The Vancouver Overwatch team is owned by the Aquilini ownership group, which is the same ownership group that owns the Vancouver Canucks.  Although Vancouver may not host any Overwatch games for season 2, I think there is a possibility that it might in season 3.  There are reports that a 200 seat e-sport arena will be built in Richmond by 2019 (although Rodgers Arena could also be another potential place for the Overwatch games).

Not only is getting an Overwatch team a big step for e-sports in Canada but also there was the Dota 2 championship "The International 2018" (TI8) being hosted at the Rodgers Arena in Vancouver a couple weeks back.  The TI8 is the largest championship e-sport tournament with a prize pool of 25 million dollars.  I may have wrote about the International a few years ago and the prize pool has gone significantly up.  The International is traditionally been hosted in Seattle, where the Dota 2 company is.  I think one of the reasons why this International was hosted in Vancouver was that the Key Arena in Seattle is being re-fitted for a hockey arena for the new Seattle team in the NHL.  In any case, Vancouver did a fantastic job of hosting the International.  Even though I didn't go down to Rodgers Arena to check out the games, I did manage to watch some of the games on Twitch.tv.  There was a decent crowd during the bracket stage and for the final, there was a huge crowd watching in Rodgers Arena.  I think with the amount of support for e-sports in Vancouver allowed them to own a franchise in the Overwatch League.

Although nothing official has come out yet from the Overwatch League, I am very excited about cheering on the new Vancouver team.  We still don't know what the Vancouver team will be called or what colour scheme they will use.  I am hoping that they use the same colour scheme as the Vancouver Canucks (blue and green).  Although I might be slightly biased but I hope somehow Johnny Canuck will be represented by the team.  I will be definitely buying a Vancouver team jersey when it comes out (as well as the Overwatch team skins) and I hope to watch them when they play any of their games in Vancouver.