Weekly Report - 11/01/2012

It's been an outright wash this week. I haven't even turned on my gaming PC since last weekend!

That said, I did make some progress in Arma 2. I have made it roughly halfway through the final mission which requires you, apparently, to conquer every single village in Chernarus. Charnarus is 225 square kilometers of foothills, forests, dirt roads, villages, factories, and a few larger towns. Fortunately you have access to a variety of vehicles and multiple squads of AI infantry and armor to assist.

In between bouts of Arma 2 I started to rebuild my ice HCE Embermage in Torchlight 2. The previous one was one-shotted through a wall by an unseen champion monster. This time around I'll be ignoring Dexterity and putting all attribute points into Focus and Vitality; I'm skeptical of the pitiful dodge rate granted by a handful of Dexterity points. I think it might also help to wield a one-handed wand instead of a two-handed staff so I can carry a shield. It's worth thinking about.

Weekly Report - 10/26/2012

I spent most of last weekend playing Torchlight 2 on HCE with some friends. We started over with fresh characters (see my latest build) in Act 1. Everyone died along the way - some of us more than others - but a good time was had and we made progress. We were most of the way through the Frost Hills area when my Embermage succumbed and, it being Sunday evening, we called it quits for the weekend. I hope to rebuild the character with a few changes for our next multiplayer romp.

Throughout the week I focused on Arma 2, which I'm enjoying rather more than I expected. I haven't even played much DayZ due to having so much interest in the core game so far. That said, the game certainly has a number of technical issues. Hopefully Arma 2: Operation Arrowhead resolves some of these issues. I haven't played multiplayer yet, but I suspect that's where the game will really shine.

Torchlight 2 Embermage Build for Elite Hardcore - WIP

This is an ice-based Embermage for Elite Hardcore mode. This build is challenging early on, but it really begins to shine above level 10 with the Hailstorm skill - especially when you have some Engineer friends using Overload for extra damage against stunned enemies.

Here's the build: every level, assign three focus and two vitality. I chose three focus, one dexterity, and one vitality the first time I built this character, but it didn't work out. The paltry dodge chance you get from the dexterity investment just isn't worth it; the Embermage is highly susceptible to being one-shotted and you can't risk it hoping for a lucky dodge.

Embermage Eldritch - level 18

I chose ice for crowd control and damage reasons. Many of the ice skills freeze, immobilize, stun, or reduce enemies' elemental damage resists which serve to make your attacks even more powerful. Start by recovering your single Magma Spear point and spend it on Icy Blast. Spend your next three points on Charge Mastery, Staff Mastery, and Prismatic Rift. Once this is done, start leveling Charge Mastery and Icy Blast up to five. When you reach level seven, skill up Hailstorm to five and put one point in Frozen Fate. At level 14, put one point into Frost Phase - this is your bug-out skill - and begin leveling Frost Brand, and Hailstorm to 10. Once Ice Wave is available level it along with Hailstorm and Frost Brand to 15. You can then branch out and take higher Charge Mastery or whatever other skills you want now that you have the core ice Embermage build.

The major disadvantage to this build is survivability. It is in grave danger of being one-shotted, so look for gear that increases your health and decreases damage (e.g. Eye of Grell). I played this build along with a poison Outcast and a tanky Engineer with great success until a champion monster one-shotted me through a wall right before Chillhoof. However, I built with a mix of focus, dexterity, and vitality so I need to rebuild again with focus and vitality only.

Weekly Report - 10/19/2012

It's been a week since I beat Torchlight 2 and while I haven't stopped playing it altogether, I have definitely slowed down. I'd like to reserve my remaining interest in the game for playing with friends (if we could ever arrange to be available at the same time). That said, it's entirely possible my interest will spark again and I'll try out an embermage or berserker in HCE. Who knows?

I eventually caved and purchased Arma 2 late this week. I've only played the first two missions but I can already report it's a fun game. The multiplayer components look even more entertaining; Shack Tactical in particular looks like a blast.

Since I bought Arma 2 primarily to play DayZ it should be no surprise that I downloaded it on my first day with the game. How is it? Well, it's something else. Stay tuned for further details, but for now I'll say this: it's a jungle out there.

Eye of Grell Farming in Torchlight 2

The Eye of Grell is an interesting socketable item I found during my third or fourth time through the Grell boss at the bottom of the Wellspring Temple dungeon. This is one item well worth farming. Why do you want this item? It offers a +3% critical hit chance when socketed to a weapon, but that's not particularly amazing. The proper use for Eye of Grell is in armor and trinkets, where it offers a 3% reduction to all damage taken. This is a literal life saver in HCE, especially when you use multiple eyes together. The game caps you at 75% damage reduction, but that's a lot of eyes. How do you farm them all?

1. Re-roll your world in a LAN or Internet game.
2. Warp to the Temple Steppes in Act 1.
3. Run to the Wellspring Temple. It's always located on the edge of the Temple Steppes map. I usually find it to the southeast of the entrance to the area. It's typically - but not always - located near Skull Hollow.
4. Enter the Wellspring Temple and blitz through the top two floors until you reach General Grell. Depending on your level it may not be worth killing any enemies. I usually stop only to kill Elites so I can pick up their Fame.
5. Defeat General Grell and hope he drops the Eye of Grell. Place it in your shared stash and repeat from step 1. Note: the non-hardcore shared stash is different from the hardcore shared stash. Make sure you farm as a hardcore character if you intend to use the eyes in hardcore.

General Grell

The game seems to drop the Eye of Grell roughly 20% of the time, so it's well worth farming for a few hours.  Equip some magic find gear to improve your chances (fortunately, Grell frequently drops a 9% magic find helmet). The amount of defense your character will gain by stacking 10+ eyes is phenomenal and it makes HCE much more survivable.

Weekly Report - 10/12/2012

In between long hours of Elite Hardcore sessions in Torchlight 2 this week I finally squeezed my Normal Engineer through the game, so I can at least consider it beaten.

Riff died at level 31 last night. She was smashing through an infinitely spawning horde of sand rats when a vile gnasher showed up. Suddenly the two dozen sand rat corpses became vile gnashers and Riff was literally surrounded and couldn't physically remove herself from the situation. It was an atrocious set of circumstances.

Kya still lives at level 19, but she's a terrible build and I don't think I'll play her much anymore. I may push forward recklessly just to see how far she can make it.

I started Riff II last night with a new build; more details on that soon.

There has been no progress on Dark Souls this week. I'm still standing outside New Londo, ready to battle the Four Kings boss.

I've been extremely tempted to purchase Arma 2 and download the DayZ mod this week. I'm spending so much time on other things right now, though, that I might be able to wait for the standalone DayZ game.

Torchlight 2 Builds for Elite Hardcore - Update

Riff is now level 31 and going strong. This is my first foray into Act 2 in Elite Hardcore, so I'm taking it slow and cautious. As planned, I started adding 1 Strength, 1 Vitality, and 3 Focus per level after 20. As a result Riff deals a ton of fire damage thanks to Flame Hammer, Seismic Slam, and my greathammer which happens to deal roughly 50% of its attack as fire damage (unique drop from the Manticore boss in Act 2).

One thing to note about Act 2: floor traps are much more deadly than anything else you might encounter. Avoid them at all costs.

Kya is stagnant at level 19. I don't think she's gonna make it. In fact, I cannot recommend her build at all. If I try another Outlander, it will likely be a glaive-throwing focus build with high poison damage output and high damage resist equipment.

Weekly Report - 10/05/2012

This was a light week for gaming. I spent the entire weekend outdoors followed by a week full of birthday dinners and around-the-house chores. That said, some progress was made after all.

In Dark Souls I'm about to face down the Four Kings in New Game Plus. Last time I ended up fighting five four kings, so who knows what I'll run into? After that I'll try to crash through the rest of the game more quickly; I've really lost steam on this title over the past two weeks thanks to Torchlight 2.

Speaking of Torchlight 2, I became so frustrated with Kya, my Elite Hardcore Outlander, that I quit playing her and created a new Elite Hardcore Engineer, Riff. It's going so much easier this time around; I've spent less than half the amount of time as I did on Kya and I've already passed her in the game. I'm eager to reach Act II in Elite Hardcore for the first time.

I haven't played much multiplayer Torchlight 2, but I'd really like to. A Hardcore group run could be fun, though time-consuming and dangerous (I'm loathe to leave a friend behind).

Torchlight 2 Engineer Build for Elite Hardcore - WIP

In my ongoing experimentation with Torchlight 2, here is another work-in-progress Elite Hardcore build - this time for the Engineer. The first thing I'll say is that this probably isn't the safest Engineer build. He uses a two-handed weapon and attempts to balance tank and gank. If you want to play it safe then go for a one-handed weapon and shield with high vitality and tank skills.

Engineer Riff, Level 17 on Elite Hardcore

So here we are; up to level 20 or so I have kept Strength and Vitality as even as possible. Use enchanted gear if you need in order to buff these stats as high as possible. Once I hit level 20 I'll start putting points in Focus to improve skills like Flame Hammer.

Skill-wise I'm focusing on Flame Hammer, Seismic Slam, Heavy Lifting, Healing Bot, Bulwark, Forcefield, Aegis Shield, and Charge Reconstitution.

How's it going so far? Incredibly well. This build is so much easier to play than my Outlander it's ridiculous. I'm 3 hours and 45 minutes in and I've caught up with my Outlander (8 hours and 21 minutes) in the Frosted Hills. I begin to wonder if my Outlander is a poor build or if the class itself is just more challenging. Where the Engineer can simply run into a crowd and mow them down, the Outlander must skirt the crowd and kite every single enemy out while slowly dwindling their health away.

Weekly Report - 09/28/2012

This week was a short one for Dark Souls. I'm roughly halfway through a New Game Plus run, but I've been distracted by other things IRL and game-wise.

Torchlight 2 is obviously taking up a lot of my free time. I have a Normal Engineer smashing his way two-handed through Act 2 (level 26) and an Elite Hardcore Outlander carefully picking her battles through Act 1 (level 19). Most of my time - by far - has been spent on the Outlander. I'm finding Elite Hardcore much more fun than Normal, even though you need to take your time and progress more slowly. I haven't died yet but I know it's coming.

So there have been a lot of Torchlight 2 posts this week. The game is popular right now and it's liable to be my focus for a while, but I won't forget to include other topics here and there (e.g. Dead Island: Riptide). I also have a few words to say about some interesting gaming news I read recently regarding EVE Online, DayZ, and  Starcraft 2.

That said, I'm still looking forward to spending more time in Torchlight 2. I'd like to build up a few more Elite Hardcore builds and share them depending on how they pan out.

Torchlight 2 Sub-20 Farming

As I've mentioned before, farming is extremely important in Elite Hardcore. Take your time, level up, and loot some new gear. I try to stay roughly 4-5 levels higher than the enemies in the area, especially if I'm exploring a new region or proceeding farther than I've been before.

In light of this, I've become intimately familiar with some Act I farming areas for the sub-20 character. First, carefully proceed forward until you reach the Temple Steppes. Clear this area - completely - until you reach level 10 or so. Remember you can re-roll your world. It's a wide open area so you should be relatively safe even though the enemies will quickly reach level 8 and may really test your character.

Your next stop is located somewhere in the Temple Steps. Look for the graveyard area and find the Shady Character. He's a weird dude standing in the graveyard and offers a quest. What you want to do is open the locked gate and enter the Bone Hall. This area has a high concentration of enemies and is a great area to quickly build XP. The Mordrax boss is in here, too, at the bottom of the second floor. He's pretty easy if you kite him around the well in the center of his room. I handled him easily by using Bane Breath to convert the weak skeletons he summons into shadowlings. Be aware Mordrax respawns when you re-roll, even if you've beaten him before. Farm this place until level 15-16.

The Bone Hall

The next place you want to farm is in the area immediately preceding the Frosted Hills. Look for an NPC offering a quest slightly off the beaten path. She's next to a cave called the Widows Veil. This cave contains a lot of spiders, so equip against ice and poison damage. The end of the cave features a wimpy spider boss which is little more than a run of the mill champion monster.

The Widows Veil

Farm the Veil until you reach level 20. By then it should be safe to move into the Frosted Hills and progress the story.

Torchlight 2 Outlander Build for Elite Hardcore - WIP

Update: I can't recommend this build above Normal difficulty. It requires so much kiting on Elite Hardcore that it completely bored me out of the character. This build could be viable, however, if you put attribute points into focus instead of strength, then put a few more skill points into poison-based attack skills. The shadowling allies are still pretty useful in this modified build, so don't sacrifice them too much.

Let me begin by emphasizing this build is a work in progress. I have no idea if I'll be able to recommend this build 10 levels from now, let alone at the end of the game. I also don't know if this character will survive long enough to make a reasonable judgement call evaluating the build.

This is my first shot at an Outlander in Elite Hardcore mode. It's based on akimbo ranged weapons with an emphasis on battlefield control, minion summoning, and lots of running away (i.e. poor man's battlefield control).

Level 17 Outlander on Elite Hardcore

Meet Kya. For levels 1 - 13 she put three points in Strength, one point in Dexterity, and one point in Vitality. By then I became so fed up with the character's poor DPS that I started pumping all five points into Strength. I intend to settle back into a Strength/Vitality distribution again by level 20 or so.

On the Warfare skill tree I have six skill points in Long Range Mastery and one in Akimbo (soon to be more).

On the Lore skill tree I put one point in Dodge Mastery (soon to be more) and Poison Burst in addition to the point you're given in Glaive Throw. A word on Glaive Throw: I use it a lot. It's one of my primary attacks but I don't see much point in leveling it up because its damage only scales with your character, not the amount of skill points you assign to it.

On the Sigil skill tree I put one point in Shadow Shot, three in Bane Breath, one in Master of the Elements, five in Shadowling Ammo, and one in Death Ritual. This is the most important tree for this particular build. Shadow Shot isn't what I expected, so I don't think I'll level it anymore (I would respec that point if I could, but it was too long ago). Bane Breath is great against crowds of weaker enemies; it basically won the General Grell battle for me. Shadowling Ammo is really powerful when it works. Adding skill points increases your chances of getting a shadowling bat ally, but they don't become stronger unless you level Death Ritual too. Both are a must for this build.

Overall I'm still on the low side DPS-wise but steadily improving. I think I'll find a proper balance within the next few levels. The first 10 levels or so were really challenging and I came uncomfortably close to death multiple times. Since then, however, the character has improved dramatically.

One final tip: make sure you take time to farm and build up your character. It's a life saver.

Torchlight 2 Elite Hardcore Tip

Astute Torchlight players understand the importance of leveling up your character and collecting better equipment throughout the game. Unfortunately, Torchlight 2 has removed the concept of map scrolls so there is no way to play bonus dungeons or fresh maps full of enemies to farm.

Fortunately, it is possible to re-play content in Torchlight 2. Load up your character and choose a LAN (or Internet) game and check the Reroll World checkbox.

Reroll your world to respawn maps and enemies

Your character's world will be reset and randomized (with respawned enemies of course) so you can farm any area over and over to your heart's content. This permits you to increase your character's abilities and while finding new equipment without having to constantly push forward into increasingly dangerous higher-level areas. Of course, you don't want to farm in Act 1 forever... eventually you need to move on, but you will do so in a much stronger position, particularly if you chose a class which doesn't really kick into full throttle until level 20 or so (e.g. Outlander).

Weekly Report - 09/21/2012

This is a busy one.

Last weekend three of my friends and I got together for our first in-person Battlefield 3 LAN. It's incredibly fun with a full, four-player squad of sane, communicating, non-troll humans. I think it was one of the best BF3 sessions I've had in my 61+ hour multiplayer career. What's amazing is that I quit playing the game about six months ago because I had earned a service star in every class and had no interesting weapons left to unlock. I really look forward to playing this with friends again - it was awesome (our group has a boss helicopter pilot by the way).

I also made tons of Dark Souls progress. In fact, I beat the game on Monday and moved on to New Game Plus (it's going much faster this time around - I'm already in Anor Londo). I need a handful more items and a second copy of every boss soul to clean up some achievements, but I'm also really interested in starting from scratch with a completely different type of character. The game definitely has some frustrating technical problems, but it presents a fun user experience unlike anything I've ever played before.

And, of course, Torchlight 2 came out yesterday. I pre-loaded it that morning before going in to work so I could play as soon as I got home. About two hours in, I have a lot of positive thoughts and several topics to post about. Torchlight 2 doesn't totally revolutionize the hack-n-slash RPG genre, but it's definitely worth playing (I plan to skip Diablo III altogether for a variety of reasons).

Torchlight 2 Vindication

A PC gamer at heart, my first order of business with any new game is to check out the settings menu. I must begin by playing with all of the options and choosing the highest graphics settings possible with my hardware. As it turns out Torchlight 2 runs great on a lot of hardware; I have it maxed out on my laptop (HP dv6-6135dx) with no framerate issues so far, but I'm not here to talk about that.

This game has settings for most of the crap I tend to complain about.

Oh, so many wonderful settings...

You can also adjust the UI size, render behind walls, render player character helmets, and render player names. Or not - it's up to you! But what really brought a smile to my face is the vindicating Floating Damage & Text setting. Apparently I'm not the only gamer with a (un)healthy disdain for poor in-game feedback.

Torchlight 2 Release

Torchlight 2 will be released Thursday, September 20

Torchlight 2 comes out tomorrow on Steam. I already have it pre-ordered (since this spring, actually) and I'm clearing my weekend in order to spend some time exploring the game. T2 differs from T1 in a few fundamentals. This time around there are four character classes, the Outlander, Embermage, Berserker, and Engineer. The engineer looks particularly unique; his abilities come from ember-powered mechanical armor and equipment. I'm liable to try the engineer first.

Like the original Torchlight I plan to play through the game once on normal difficulty - perhaps with friends this time, since the new game is multiplayer - in order to get a feel for the mechanics, enemies, and game world.

Then it will be time to take on hardcore mode. I'm looking forward to posting more about Torchlight 2 in the coming weeks, including more character builds and tips for VHHC.

Weekly Report - 08/03/2012

Last Saturday I finished Call of Duty 3 on veteran difficulty. I can’t say I didn’t enjoy the experience, but in my opinion this title is the weakest entry in the series. The voice acting is poor and the script is distant and boring. The overall sub-story of World War II being told could be interesting, but the game fails to make lasting, interesting personal connections between characters (or, more importantly, between the player and the characters). Then there’s the cheapness and buggy behavior of the gameplay on veteran, but let’s not go there.

Sunday I completed Prey from beginning to end. The game is shorter than I expected, but I had a lot of fun with it. The characters and storyline were pretty interesting; I’m surprised there isn’t a sequel yet. The gameplay itself was unexpected. The game is a shooter, yes, but moreover the levels (though very linear in nature) are filled with disorienting, gravity-twisting puzzles that rather remind me of the Portal series. I didn’t expect to really like this game, but it’s a short and sweet title that I can now recommend to friends.

So that’s it for my Xbox 360 backlog. I have beaten or completed every game I own for the system. Even though I have other systems with backlogs, I still want to pick up some new 360 games to play: Call of Duty: Black Ops, Dead Space, Dark Souls, and Ghost Recon: Future Soldier to name a few.

On the PC front I still haven’t opened Skyrim. I purchased and started playing Wanderlust: Rebirth, however, and I’m considering myself done with Torchlight. Alas, my VHHC character died to a glitchy hidden monster right at the end. But Torchlight 2 is right around the corner so I feel little need to try again.

Weekly Report - 07/27/2012

This is the first of a (hopefully) ongoing, down-to-earth series of posts which will describe my Backloggery progress each week. I normally try to post more thoughtful and philosophical content, but these reports are intended to be more concrete (and, perhaps, less interesting).

Last weekend a few friends visited from mid-afternoon until after midnight. We downloaded the Free to Play (F2P) shooter Tribes: Ascend. The vast majority of our time together was spent huddled around our laptops, reminiscing about Tribes 2 while playing round after round of this new F2P title. None of us earned much more than 20,000 XP which is barely enough to unlock a new character class, let alone some of the more valuable items. Naturally we weren’t inclined to spend any real money (Pay to Win). It seems a decent game and all three of us were productive members of our respective teams, but I probably won’t play it much more.

Late that night we discovered the Magicka collection sale for $7.49 was about to end, so we hurriedly purchased it with plans to play Magicka: Vietnam during our next gathering. I look forward to that.

Monday and Tuesday evenings I spent polishing off the last two achievements for Mass Effect 3 (5,000 kills for Veteran and weapon level 10 for Gunsmith). I’m 100% complete on the entire ME trilogy (minus a few DLC, which I rarely bother with).

No forward progress was made on GTA: Chinatown Wars or Torchlight, where I’ve been working on a very hard hardcore (VHHC) playthrough.

However, I did fire up the long-unfinished Call of Duty 3 on my 360. I plan a single frustrating playthrough on veteran to earn the worthwhile achievements and complete the game (multiplayer will be ignored given the age of this game).

Torchlight Vanquisher Build for Very Hard Hardcore

After burning through the campaign on normal difficulty as the Alchemist in order to get a feel for the game and experience its storyline, I turned my attention to very hard hardcore (VHHC) mode where a character death is permanent and irreversible.

I typically have much more fun playing these games in hardcore mode. Because you actually stand to lose something, you start to care more about your character’s build and equipment not only because you have to (due to the increased challenge level) but because you want to. Hardcore mode forces you to invest part of yourself in your character. VHHC in Torchlight takes thought, strategy, and a healthy dose of caution.

This time around I chose to build a Vanquisher. I employ the following strategies:

• Every level, increase Defense by 3 and Dexterity by 2. You need the survivability offered by Defense and extra damage from the increased Dexterity. The other attributes are next to useless for the Vanquisher.
• Level up the following skills roughly in this order: Ranged Weapons Expertise, Critical Strikes, Explosive Shot, Armor Expertise, Adventurer, and Bock and Parry. I stopped Adventurer at 5, but the others are worth maxing out. Your primary attack throughout the game should be Explosive Shot as soon as you get it. I put one point into Ricochet so I could use it until I got Explosive Shot.
• Approach every pack of enemies carefully. Keep a finger on the health potions and prepare to backtrack immediately if necessary.
• Buy up all the map scrolls you can. Keep playing them until they become obscenely easy, then move to higher level map scrolls.
• Try to keep your character roughly 5 levels higher than the enemies you’re currently facing, whether that’s in map scrolls or the main dungeon.
• Phase portals are particularly dangerous because they take you to a two-floor dungeon with enemies that match your level. The entrances to both floors are often swamped with numerous powerful enemies, so be ready to backtrack upstairs if things get too hot.
• The hardest part of VHHC seems to be making it until level 5 or so. By then you should have bootstrapped your character with decent equipment and abilities to face the lower-level map scrolls and begin leveling up more comfortably from there.
• Use your ember! There’s little reason to continually save it. Since you find much better equipment every hour or two of gameplay, simply break the old equipment to recover your ember. This is a good time to upgrade the recovered ember and use it again on your newest gear.
• Enchant your gear repeatedly until you no longer feel comfortable with the disenchant risk. I usually go until 10% or so.
• Always give your pet the strongest Heal All spell you have.
• Pick up all loot and sell it when you and your pet’s inventories are full. You can easily afford the town portals and you’ll need the gold.
• Spend your gold on equipment, ember, map scrolls, and enchantments. As long as you don’t go crazy with enchantments you should have plenty of gold.
• Keep it simple and have fun. Expect the likelihood of death, but enjoy the thrill of every success.