The Queue: Climbing higher

Literally!

However, the spider has still proven to be too much for my rag-tag band of misfits to be able to overcome. Maybe if more people have the new rings next week we’ll be able to apply a little more brute force to overcome our mechanical difficulties.

While I wonder once again why the Ice-Climbers Cleats don’t prevent the icy patches in the fight from working on me, it’s time for — The Queue!

I did play the beta! Both weekends, although I had much better luck playing on Sunday in the pre-purchase beta than I had trying to get on during the open beta.

I played Sorceror up to level 25, and Necromancer up to 19. Necro would’ve been higher, but for the difficulties mentioned above getting online. I found both pretty good at killing demons, though the Necro had the edge in survival due to the small army of skeleton friends between me and danger.

Chain Lightning and Hydra were both pretty overpowered, and I was glad that I got play with the “summons a GIANT LAVA SNAKE” skill from the Sorc tree. Sadly my Necro didn’t get to have his golem buddy out, but I saw some pictures and they look suitably chonky.

I found that only a couple bosses really were tough on my Sorceror, and got easier once I put points into teleport and played super defensively. For my Necro I only died to the frozen orbs that one Khazra dude had in the stronghold where you have to thaw out the town.

I’m saving Druid for live servers since I don’t want to fall in love and then not be able to play again for a few months. I’ve heard that even though melee characters feel a little rough on the beta servers now, I’m betting that by endgame they’ll be woodchippers of death and destruction right alongside the rest.

Cult of the Lamb walks such a fine line between the Eldritch Horror and the absolutely cutest cult leader ever. I’m really looking forward to its DLC and can’t wait to see how they build up the combat sections.

Who knew that the secret to success was just putting cute critters into situations of unfathomable darkness! Now all of those responses to the “replace the cast of a movie with the Muppets” make more sense — so very many people wanted to see them in horror and very violent action movies.

Hahahahahahahaha

Oh wait, you were serious, let me laugh even harder!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

So many times I’ve seen Death Knights completely ignore major raid mechanics with that spell and I’m just happy that it’s finally met its match in an extra windy herb.

Sure you can ignore being knocked off by waves of death-powered destruction from the tortured remains of a dead Orc Shaman, but that flower can ruin your whole day. At least it’s not something even sillier like a cute baby squirrel!

Seriously though, I completely understand your frustration in an ability not working consistently across things. I know I always get a little frustrated by portals not working when I’m in a shapeshift form, or mounted, or mounted in a shapeshift form. Why do some of them work and others don’t?!

My Sorceror wrote greed and my Necromancer just wrote some scribbles.

I would’ve liked to have seen this little moment expanded a bit. It could’ve been some really interesting world-building to show you how the church of Inarius works in little ways away from all of the demon-slaying. Especially since we all know that the Prime Evils exist and there are demons that tie into each of those concepts.

Maybe there’ll be a nod back to it later in the game where you’ll fight a manifestation of what you wrote. That’d be a good call back to a choice that felt meaningless from the beginning of the game.

It’d be even better if you could go back and re-do your cleansing to get to fight the whole batch.

It feels really really good! I can easily see it eating up many many hours of my time when it comes out for real.

The tone and storytelling are both excellent so far, and I’m really looking forward to getting into the other acts and getting my bear hands on more enemies.

I just found the Hellraiser reference in the beta and I giggled a bit when I realized what was going on. The sidequests have been offering some really great glimpses into the day-to-day life of residents of Sanctuary. Although when you look at how grim life can be for them it’s a wonder there’s even enough of them making it to adulthood to have children. It’s a small wonder that they all don’t get carried off by giant spiders and skeletons by the time they’re 12.

I still find it weird seeing other random players when I’m out in the world though. I’m not upset about it, as anytime I’ve seen others they’ve either helped me do better in a world event, or just been passing by — but it’s still weird!

Thanks to a lucky pull from my vault last week I’ve finally managed to complete a full set of Vault gear. Now all I have to do is finally get to 2500 Keystone rating and I’ll be my best lightning-y self! Luckily Bacardi is here to offer some good luck for that, and for whatever else you might need it for.

May you all get the last pieces you need to complete your sets!

Today’s Anna Earworm™: In Hell I’ll Be In Good Company

I have a busy week so I hope you’ll all take extra time to relax for me! That’s definitely how it works… right?