Diablo 3 Season 6 Update

Well Diablo 3 season 6 has started and I am doing very good this season.  I didn't get to play much during the opening weekend but I managed to level up my character really fast.  I started on a new witch doctor again for the start of the season.  I played a couple of hours on the Friday and managed to hit 70 on Saturday.  By hitting level 70, I got the 2 pieced set of Zunimassa's so I was able to jump to Torment II very quickly.  The first 2 pieces of Zunimassa's is very good since none of your fetishes will ever die.  The second bonus of Zunimassa's is that you take less damage by the number of fetishes you have.  This bonus is just okay in my opinion, it could be more useful.  The last bonus once you get the 6 pieces is the increased damage an enemy takes from your pets when you deal damage with a mana spender.  I totally overlooked this bonus initially because it doesn't seem to do much damage.  But after playing with the Zunimassa set, I think this is a pretty good set overall.  I managed to hit greater rift 40 while playing with the Zunimassa set and even managed to master the set dungeon for it.

I am now playing with the Helltooth set again.  Although I haven't got all the gear that I want for the set, I quickly hit greater rift 60 with the Helltooth set.  So far, I have been real lucky with my drops.  I got a Mask of Jeram fairly easily and I also managed to get a pretty good Hellfire amulet.

I also got a pretty good Short Man's Finger ring and a Convention of Elements ring.  My Lakumba's Ornament bracers are good too.  All I want now is an Ancient Sacred Harvester, a Witching Hour belt, and some ancient set pieces.  I have completed the Champion seasonal journey and I am now working on the Destroyer and Conqueror seasonal journey.  I just managed to a greater rift 63 and I am now at paragon level 500 (which is pretty incredible to me since I only hit about paragon 250 on the same time last season).  I feel like I am more on top of things this season (not like last season which I started off very slow).  I am fairly certain that I will hit paragon 700 again this season.  Even doing an average of greater rift 60, it is very similar to when I started averaging greater rift 65's last season.  When you start averaging in the greater rift 60's, you level up so quickly.  Right now, doing a greater rift 62 would boost me 3 paragon levels.  I know that even at paragon 700, a greater rift 65 would boost me one paragon level. 

It is good to get a good start for the season since there are other games that I would like to play.  I have started to play Overwatch, which is in open beta right now.  Although I am not very good at the game, I find Overwatch to be pretty entertaining.  I don't think I will play that much of Overwatch but it is still good to try a different game time to time.  I was playing Hearthstone for bit too but ever since season 6 started, I haven't really played Hearthstone at all.  Hearthstone recently released their expansion, Whispers of the Old Gods and their new format.  I bought some Hearthstone cards but I can't seem to find any time to play it right now.  Hopefully, when the Diablo season starts becoming a bit boring, I might play a bit more of Hearthstone.  Right now, I am really enjoying season 6 and hopefully I will tell you how my season ended in a couple of months.

Juno Reactor - My next 10 favourite songs

I did my top 10 favourite Juno Reactor songs earlier in my blog.  Now, I want to share my next 10 Juno Reactor songs that I like but are songs that haven't been recognized as being great.  I think the majority of the songs on this list should be more recognized and hopefully over time, they will be.  There will probably another 10 Juno Reactor songs list that I could do in the future.  But for now lets start with the list:

1. 10, 000 Miles from the Transmission album.
- Now on the whole, the Transmission album is generally not recognized as being one of Juno Reactor's better albums (or the most listened to either).  However there are a few gems in the Transmission album one of them being 10, 000 Miles (another one is High Energy Protons but that song is more recognized).

2. Magnetic from the Beyond the Infinite album
- Again Beyond the Infinite is one of Juno Reactor's earlier albums and like Transmission, it is often forgotten about.  There are many songs from this album that I like but there is one song in particular that doesn't get mentioned as it should.  That song is Magnetic.  I think this song is one Juno Reactor's finest, it has a nice Spanish guitar section, which often gets over looked (plus another song which has the Spanish guitar, Pistolero, is more widely recognized).

3. Kaguya Hime from the Bible of Dreams album
- I have made a blog post about what Kaguya Hime is all about.  Most people don't know the whole back story behind this song is so it is understandable that many people won't know what the lyrics mean or what they are.  Overall, this is a very nice song to listen once you understand the meaning of the song is.

4. Song for Ancestors from the Shango album
-  Many people feel that this song is too slow, but actually I think this is why this song is so good.  It's very moody and very pleasant to listen to the vocals of this song.  Add in the nice percussion from Amampondo and this track is pure golden.

5. Angels and Men from the Labyrinth album
- This song is absolutely amazing.  Taz Alexander's singing in this song is spectacular.  This song is even better when played live.  I saw the live version of it when I went to San Francisco and it was absolutely amazing.

6. Las Vegas Future Past from the Gods and Monsters album
-  What if you combined elements of Jazz and Electronic?  Well you would probably come up with this song.  How Ben Watkins managed to come up with song is just pure genius.

7. Playing With Fire from the Golden Sun of the Great East album
-  I think this song was originally supposed to be in the Gods and Monster album but then it was scrapped.  I'm glad Ben brought this back for his latest album because it is very good.  My only wish is that this song could have been longer.

8. Bond Between Mother and Child from the Brave Story soundtrack
- The Brave Story soundtrack is one of the least recognized music in the world.  The Brave Story soundtrack has many songs that just great.  One of them is Bond Between Mother and Child.  The piano in this is just incredible.  This song reminds me of my own mother.

9. Song to the Siren
- This song is a cover of Tim Buckley's Song to Siren.  It often gets over looked since other artists have done the same cover (Mortal Coil).  Taz Alexander provides the epic vocals once again.  Also, this is not in any of Juno Reactor's album as well.

10. Hotaka from the Odyssey EP
-  Since this song doesn't appear in any of Juno Reactor's albums, it is often over looked.  This song features the Taiko playing group from Japan called Gocoo.  Gocoo was featured prominently in the Matrix movies but this song was the start of it all.  There is a cool music video of this song.

Well that is it for now.  Like I said, I could make another Top Ten list in the future just on Juno Reactor songs because there is so much to choose from.  Season 6 for Diablo 3 is coming soon so stay tuned for some updates about it.  Also, I managed to get a BlizzCon ticket again so I will be traveling to Anaheim again in November. 

Diablo 3 Season 5 Review

Well Diablo 3 Season 5 just ended yesterday (April 15th).  I ended up doing pretty good for the season.  My original goal was to play a crusader but that didn't end up like I wanted to.  I also wanted to get the extra stash space from getting the Conqueror seasonal journey.   Like I mentioned before, my original goal of playing the crusader was brief.  When I ended up dying the second time on the crusader, I switched over to the witch doctor.  I was pretty amazed at how fast I could level up on my witch doctor so I just stuck to it.  Overall, I ended getting up to paragon 763 and my final greater rift level that I reached was to greater rift 70 (which ranked me at 373 for all seasonal hardcore witch doctors).  I ended up getting the Conqueror seasonal journey at the end of February and just missed the Destroyer seasonal journey (I needed to get another conquest done and also a 3min rift done).  Although I didn't get the Destroyer seasonal journey, I was pretty happy to achieve what I did.  

So for the most of the season, I was playing on my witch doctor.  The witch doctor set I was using was the Helltooth set.  It is a very good set and pretty easy to gear for.  I was using a Scrimshaw for most of the time because I couldn't find a good ancient Sacred Harvester.   When I finally did find a good ancient Sacred Harvester, I managed to break greater rift 60 and pretty much completed the Conqueror seasonal journey.  It took many tries re-rolling a Sacred Harvester (I think it took over 10 tries to get an ancient one) so I ended up doing lots of bounties.  Now most of my gear have the Caldesann's Despair leveled up to 300 int.   I am also using an Unity ring instead of a Convention of Element ring.  This makes my character super tanky and I feel as though I can't die ever even in a high greater rift.  I wanted to build a Legacy of Nightmare set but I couldn't find a decent ancient Litany of the Undaunted or an ancient Wailing Host ring.  I will probably try building a Legacy of Nightmare in the off-season.  Another goal that I want to finish during the off-season is to cube all the items again.  So far, I have managed to cube items for all the classes except the demon hunter.  I think I am missing 10 items for it so it shouldn't be too long to finish it.  I ended up using lots of death breaths to complete the other cube items for the other classes. 

Well that is all for season 5.  For season 6, I will probably stick with the witch doctor.  I will probably end up playing with the Helltooth set again and maybe a Legacy of Nightmare set.  The buffs for the witch doctor next season will be really good (I think witch doctor pets are getting a big time buff).  I hope to accomplish what I did in season 5, that is to get the Conqueror seasonal journey done and get as high paragon level as I did before. 

Diablo Updates

There has been a lot of talk lately that the Diablo series might be getting a new game or expansion.  Recently, Blizzard is looking to hire a bunch of artists for an unannounced Diablo project.  Whether this project refers to an expansion or a new game is uncertain.  In my opinion, I think the Diablo series is working towards a brand new game.  My theory is that part of the Titan project (Blizzard's cancelled MMO project game) will be introduced in the new Diablo game.  We all know that the characters and gameplay that was created under the Titan project became to be Overwatch, which is about to be released soon.  Since Overwatch is not an MMO, I think that the MMO portion of the Titan project will be used in the new Diablo game.  If you think about it, it kind of makes sense because after spending 50 million dollars developing Titan (reportedly), Blizzard wouldn't just waste money like that (they would want to show people what they have done with that development money).  Sure, part of that development is now used in Overwatch, but the other part (the MMO portion) is still unused.  This is quote for what the Titan project could have been - "The main concept was this: you, the player, would maintain a mundane job—butchering, engineering, entrepreneurship—during the day, while waging clandestine warfare against opposing factions at night (or between work hours)." (source titanfocus.info).  Another quote that falls into the MMO portion is this - "Not only would players have been able to run their own businesses and shops, according to one source, they could maintain relationships with non-player customers and retail staff, even starting families thanks to a complicated AI system that Blizzard hoped to implement. (One source told me that Blizzard had hired a number of former Maxis staff who worked on The Sims in order to help put all this together).  The goal, according to one person who worked on the game, was to construct cities that felt like living worlds, full of businesses, shops, and NPCs with schedules and behaviors based on what was happening at any given time."  All of this is just pure speculation on my part but it is really interesting to note that Blizzard is only hiring artists for this Diablo project right now (perhaps that is all that is needed since the MMO system is sort of in place already).  This is very exciting news for us Diablo fans but I wonder if Blizzard was thinking of using the Starcraft universe instead of using the Diablo series since the Starcraft saga ended with the recent last expansion. 

Another topic in Diablo 3 that has come up lately is why so many people have stopped playing the game.  I know that this happens every season, where there is a bunch of people at the start of the season but after a month into the new season, most of the players have stopped playing the game.  Why is this? It is probably due to fact after a certain point, players come to a wall.  While finding upgrades and getting those paragon points is really exciting at the beginning of the season, after a while, there's a point where you aren't finding any upgrades and grinding for the paragon levels is all that is left to do.  So to combat this problem, I suggest having a Weekly Challenge Mode.  Just like the Tavern Brawl system in Hearthstone and the new Challenge Mode in Overwatch, the Weekly Challenge Mode can be changed weekly so that players can expect to play differently every week.  Although the Weekly Challenge Mode wouldn't be the main way of playing the game, it would be a nice change up to the game.  The Weekly Challenge Mode in my vision would be something that is quick and fairly easy to accomplish.  Here are some examples of the goals in a Weekly Challenge Mode (you could probably come up with much more of these):

1. Find "x" amount of legendaries in "x" amount of time.
2. Find "x" amount of death breaths in "x" amount of time.
3. Complete "x" amount of bounties in "x" amount of time.
4. Open "x" amount of chests in "x" amount of time. 
5. Find and click "x" amount of shrines/pylons in "x" amount of time.   
6. Destroy "x" amount of barrels in "x" amount of time.
7.  Kill "x" amount of Bosses in "x" amount of time.  

There could be more complicated ones as well:

1. Kill "x" amount of enemies with the Fallen Lunatic (Nagelring) at your side. 
2. Kill "x" amount of enemies just by using pets only.  
3. Kill "x" amount of enemies using the Death Watch Mantle.   

There might be certain rules that each Challenge Mode might offer such as:

1. No paragon points allowed.
2. Only weapon slots equipped.
3. No set items allowed.  
4. A pre-set character already made by Blizzard.
5. Only weapons and jewelry allowed.   
6. Randomized skill set.
7. Randomized passive skill set.  

Of course the main purpose of the Weekly Challenge Mode is to reward the players that try this mode so offering a reward after the first completion would be ideal.  Some rewards that Blizzard could give out are: Forgotten Souls, Death Breaths, certain legendaries, potions, Ramalandi's Gift, Horadric Cache materials, gems, and of course cosmetic items (pets, wings, banners, portraits).  Another idea for the Weekly Challenge Mode is to have either a co-op mode or a PvP mode.  Maybe a certain week, players need to work together to achieve one of the goals or in another week, players have to challenge each other (thus the much talked about PvPvE mode we've all been asking for).  I think this Challenge Mode would work well in both season and non-season and would probably force people to play different classes. 

Anyways that is it for now.  Diablo season 5 should be wrapping up in a couple of more weeks so I should have an update as to what my season 5 ended up with. 

Star Blazers/Space Battleship Yamato

On this blog, I want to cover one of my favourite tv cartoon shows of all time.  It is called Star Blazers (or Space Battleship Yamato in Japan).  I first saw this show when I was very little (maybe at age 5 or 6).  It would come on in the early morning and I would wake up real early to watch this show.  The reason why this show was so good was because it had a linear story line meaning that the more of the show you watched, the further you progressed in the story.  Most cartoons of its time didn't have any story from show to show so Star Blazers was one of the first to do so.  Also, this cartoon was one of the first to entertain the idea that cartoons weren't just to be funny, in Star Blazers there were many themes that were more serious in nature.

The story of Star Blazers is that the current Earth was being bombarded by the planet Gamilon, which forced to the citizens of the Earth to live underground.  The Earth then receives unexpected help from Queen Starsha of the planet Iscandar, who offers a device called "Cosmo DNA" which will remove the radiation. However, since Iscandar is 148,000 light years away, Starsha also sends plans for the experimental Wave Motion Engine that, when constructed, will aid whoever can travel to Iscandar. On Earth, a crew is recruited, headed by Captain Avatar, and an old sunken battleship (the Yamato) is transformed into a spaceship (the Argo), outfitted with the Wave Motion Engine, and sent to Iscandar.  It is important to note that the Yamato was an actual battleship used in World War II and was one of the heaviest and most powerful armed battleship of all time. The wave motion physic was also used for the wave motion gun, which was a huge gun at the front of the ship.  Another aspect of the Yamato was the use of smaller airships called the Black Tigers.  There were 3 seasons of the Star Blazers story and they are available on DVD (which I have). One of the reasons why I love Star Blazers so much is the music.  If you ever get the chance to listen to the music, it is one of the greatest music ever for a television show.  The music is full orchestral and has nice vocals as well.  I would recommend everyone to listen to the music. 

Star Blazers is often compared to Star Wars because the story takes place in the future and has a lot of science fiction in it.  I had first watched Star Blazers before I watched Star Wars, so when I first watched Star Wars, I didn't feel too impressed by it.  I thought Star Blazers was a way better version of the science fiction genre.  There many things that I liked in Star Blazers over than Star Wars.  The main spaceship, the Yamato, was way better than the Millennium Falcon.  I also thought that the Black Tigers were better than the X-wing.  I liked the character Derek Wildstar over Luke Skywalker (although Derek Wildstar is more like Han Solo).  Also, Nova was more attractive than Princess Leia. 

The "live" version of Star Blazers is now out on DVD and I had a chance to view it recently.  There are a few subtle differences from the cartoon series.  First, Nova is a much better in the "live" version.  She is more opinionated and a much stronger character (she even knocks out a couple of guys).  The doctor is a female in the "live" version but still carries a bottle of sake and has a pet cat.  The weirdest change between the cartoon and the "live" version is the Gamilons.  In the cartoon version, the Gamilons are humanoid form but in the "live" version they seem to be more of a non-physical form.  This is a bit confusing since it could have been easier just casting more people to play the role of the villain.  Overall, I thought the "live" version had pretty good acting in it, although at times, the story seemed a little too drawn out.  There were times that it was pretty obvious as to what was going to happen next.