How To Play PC Games On A Potato

Have you ever wanted to play pc games on a cheap, crappy, laptop? Is that all you have and a nice gaming desktop is too expensive? Well, look no further adieu, here's my guide for how to play pc games on a potato. 

Keep in mind that your potato has to be at least somewhat decent. I would say spend at least $400 [or more if you can spare, but my laptop is $400] and make sure you have a graphics card. My laptop is an Asus with a Radeon Graphics card. The computer isn't anything special but it boots up fast with Windows 10. 

To start, you must make sure you have your laptop's energy plan set to High Performance. This is a no brainer but you would be surprised that some people only always leave their laptop's energy plan set to save energy or energy planer because they use it periodically throughout the day and can't always have it plugged in. However, for gaming you'll always want this set to High Performance. 

Now for the in game settings. I'm going to give you my options that have me running three different games [Overwatch, Heroes of the Storm, and Team Fortress 2-my favorite games] with smooth frame rate and relatively low [if any] input lag. The games won't look great, or that good, but it will be smooth. Always make sure to run the games in windowed mode, a smaller window, as fullscreen takes up more processing power on your CPU, making your potato cry more and lag incessantly.

Overwatch 

 

Display Mode: Windowed

Resolution: 1366x768 [60`] [you always want this set to whatever option your overwatch game has the ` key set to, as this is your native resolution, which will give you better fps]

Vsync: OFF

Triple Buffering: ON

Reduce Buffering: OFF

Limit FPS: Custom

Frame Rate Cap: 30

Graphics Quality: Low

Advanced then click Render Scale: Automatic 50% 

And everything else set to low and off. Make sure to run the game in windowed mode, about 70% fullscreen size.

Heroes of the Storm

 

For this one it's more tricky as this game can become super laggy sometimes. A trick I've learned is that whenever you disconnect from a game just repeatedly hit the ESC key [don't know why that works]. You're going to want to go into the game files folder and add your own custom options there. 

 

On my computer you start by clicking This PC then going to Documents then Heroes of the Storm, and there you will see a text document entitled Variables, click that and change as neccessary. Here are my settings. You can tweak these as needed but I have everything set to the lowest possible and low and behold! The game runs fine. 

 

accountCountry=USA
alternateclock=false
alternateLowTextures=true
ambientenvironmentmap=false
aolight=false
architecturePreference=2
autojoinchannel=true
camerafollow=true
camerasmartpan=false
chatpositionx=0.000000
chatpositiony=0.000000
cheapquadselection=true
creepnormalmap=false
creepQuality=0
creepselfshadow=false
creeptrans=false
creepUseGroundNormalTexture=false
cursorconfinemode=1
deff=false
deffspec=false
deffspecpow=false
depthDisp=false
displaymode=0
displayunitstatus=Damaged
dof=false
dragScrollMode=GripWorld
dragscrollspeed=28
extrapostprocessbuffer=false
fogvolume=false
foliagedensity=0.000000
foliagequality=0
frameratecap=60
frameratecapGlue=30
gamma=1.253306
globalhdr=false
glossmaps=false
GraphicsApi=Direct3D11
GraphicsOptionEffectsDetail=0
GraphicsOptionLightingQuality=0
GraphicsOptionModelQuality=0
GraphicsOptionMovies=0
GraphicsOptionOverallQualityVer7[21]=5
GraphicsOptionPhysicsQuality=0
GraphicsOptionPortraits=1
GraphicsOptionPostProcessing=0
GraphicsOptionShaderDetail=0
GraphicsOptionSSAO=0
GraphicsOptionTerrainQuality=0
GraphicsOptionTextureQuality[2]=0
halo=false
height=1080
highqualityframeblur=false
highqualityhaloblur=false
highqualityhaloblurgame=false
hotkeyprofile=0_Default
keyboardscrollspeed=31
lastDeviceId=39028
lastReplaySaveMode=0
lightingLevel=1
lightmap=true
lightmapcastshadows=false
linearDepth=false
localao=false
localeidassets=enUS
localeiddata=enUS
localeidinstall=enUS
localhdr=false
localight=false
localShadows=false
lowqualitymodels=true
lowQualityMovies=true
mastervolume=1.000000
mousescrollspeed=32
MoviesSeen[1]=1
music=true
MusicContinuous=false
MusicHeard=1
musicvolume=1.000000
normalmap=false
normalzieHalfVector=false
OptionRevision=5
OptionRevisionAccount=0
parallax=false
particlelod=0
particleobjects=0.000000
particleterrain=0.000000
physicsClothEnabled=false
physicsdensity=0
physicsMaxComplexRagdolls=0
physicsRagdollsEnabled=false
pixellight=false
portraits3d=false
preBlendedCreep=true
PreferredGameSite=
profanityfilter=true
reverb=false
ribbonlod=0
shadowmapsize=512
shadows=false
simplifiedCloaking=true
simplifiedShaders=true
soft=false
softshadows=false
sound=true
soundambience=true
soundambiencevolume=1.000000
SoundAutoDetectCPUCoreCount=4
soundchannels=32
soundeffects=true
soundeffectsvolume=1.000000
sounderrors=true
soundheadphonemode=false
soundoutput=Speakers (Conexant SmartAudio HD)
SoundQuality=0
soundready=true
soundreadyvolume=1.000000
SoundResampler=NOINTERP
soundresponses=true
SoundSampleRate=22050
soundui=true
sounduivolume=1.000000
soundvoices=true
soundvoicesvolume=1.000000
spec=false
splatlod=0
ssparticles=false
subtitles=false
targetinfopanelpositionx=0.000000
targetinfopanelpositiony=0.000000
targettexeldensity=0.150000
terrainHeightmapBlend=false
TerrainTextureLowResCacheSize=40
TerrainTextureSize=480
texQualityLevel=0
transparentshadows=false
treadlod=0
useLowqualitymodels=true
voicechatautojointeam=true
vsync=false
watercaustics=false
waterdeptheffects=false
waterflipbook=true
waterrendertargetformat=0
waterrendertargetsize=768
watershadow=false
width=1920
windowheight=697
windowstate=1
windowwidth=991
windowx=185
windowy=0
winkeydisabled=false
 

You can delete your files and copy and paste mine but I don't recommend that. I recommend looking at what your settings are and changing them to mine if you have a potato machine to game on. These settings will automatically change your in game graphics settings [it will say custom when you check it in graphics settings] so you don't need to mess around with the in game settings for HoTs except for the following. It helps to lower the sound quality, turn off headphones mode and reverb, turn off voicelines and subtitles, turn off Vsync, and run in windowed mode, about 60% to 70% fullscreen size.  

Team Fortress 2

Lastly, my favorite fps game, TF2. This one was a bit more tricky for me to get perfect but I finally nailed it. 

Resolution: 1280x720 [I've had problems with Native Resolution on this game]

Display Mode: Run in a Window

Click Advanced Graphics Settings 

Model Detail: Low

Texture Detail: Low

Shadow Detail: Low 

Shader Detail: Low

Color Correction: Disabled

Antialiasing Mod: None

Filtering Mode: Bilinear

Wait for Vertical Sync: Disabled

Motion Blur: Disabled 

Multicore Rendering: Disabbled 

High Dynamic Range: Full [if available]

Use Bloom effect: not toggled on

That should do it for these three games. What works for me might not be as great for others. Again, this is only options for people with a super low end laptop. Mines only cost $400 so its pretty much a potato. Also, keep in mind that you must run the games in windowed mode with these settings. For Hots I have to play it on a much smaller window for it to work, which caused me to learn how to play it with a smaller interface, which thankfully is easy with the grid movement button via mouse. But its also the same for Overwatch and Team Fortress 2, you must run the games in a smaller window, maybe not a totally small screen like I do for hots, but like 70%-75% of the screen you're used to if you always play games on fullscreen. 

Another important detail is that because you're going to be gaming in windowed mode for all this, you need to go into your Mouse Settings and where it says Roll the Mouse Wheel To Scroll, set it to One Screen At A Time. If you don't do that whenever you accidentally click outside of the window of any of the games, you'll run into problems.

I was really bored today because of the election so I decided to write this. I hope this helps somebody out there who like me, isn't very technical with computers but is willing to learn and test things out. And game on a potato.

Happy gaming!

How To Be A Great Healer In Competitive Games, Synergy

In my last post, I went into detail about what it takes to be a great healer in competitive games. Here, I'm going to expand upon the ideas from that, and go into more specific detail about synergy with the characters I play. To keep things short I'll go into the synergy between the healer and only one other character in each game. 

What is synergy? 

Creation of a whole that is greater than the simple sum of its parts. 

In short, this means you, as a healer, can combo with other characters [tanks/assassins/other healers] in such a way, that both you and the other character are that much more powerful [assassins], tanky [can take up more damage without dying, tanks], or durable [ other healers]. Your powers combined with others is so powerful that it is actually one of the most important deciding factors in if your team wins or loses the game. Other than actual skill. 

Now, I'm going to go into quite a bit of detail about synergy with the healers that I play in Overwatch, Heroes of the Storm, and Team Fortress 2. Yall ready for this? 

First, Overwatch. I have 340 hours as a Mercy player and she's the reason why I play the game, because I really enjoy her playstyle, which is sort of campy, sort of like a ninja, and her synergy with other characters is astounding. When Mercy follows a character, healing and damage boosting them throughout the round, this is called pocketing, essentially Mercy is a great character to pocket with because she can use her cadeous staff not only to heal and keep the character she's pocketing alive, but she can also damage boost them as well, increasing their damage by 30% while doing so. Essentially, every time someone doesn't need healing, as a Mercy player, you always want to be damage boosting, in that circumstance. 

So, in Overwatch one of the strongest combos to synergize with is the Mercy/Pharah pocket. Pharah is a girl who shoots rockets and can fly in the air. Mercy can use her L-shift to fly with her in the air as well, creating a space force style combination, that, in the right hands, can be downright unstoppable. As Mercy, I want to make sure that Pharah can survive long enough to do as much splash damage with her rockets as possible, so I want to heal her in certain key firefights, and I want to damage boost her accordingly, like when she's hitting three or more enemy players with rockets, raining hell from above, with me beside her, flying around. I've found that every time Pharah uses her ultimate ability, Rocket Barrage, I always want to make sure in that moment that I'm healing her instead of damage boosting, because it takes a second before the rockets start shooting, and in that split second the enemy team can insta-kill her easily.

This is one of the strongest combos in Overwatch but it is beatable. If the enemy team plays a hit scan [like Soldier 76, Ash, McCree, Orisa], or two, sometimes, if need be, they can easily either kill Pharah as she's being pocketed by Mercy, or kill Mercy first, and then Pharah once she doesn't have that Mercy support. However, there are some Pharah players who are so good that they simply won't die to any hit scans, as long as they have the healing/damage boost support, they will always kill enemies. Combine that with a Mercy player who is superb, and you have a combination that is simply unstoppable. The strongest combo in the game. And for me the most fun. Add to that the fact that the combo has a funny name; Pharmacy.

Second, Heroes of the Storm. Varian is the King of Stormwind, from World of Warcraft, the leader of the Alliance. When he goes full tank mode, he uses a sword/shield, can parry attacks, charge to enemies/allies, and he's also super strong, probably the best tank in the game, IMO. My main character is Morales, she's a medic from Starcraft Broodwar. She's basically Mercy/Medic [from Team Fortress 2] but in MOBA form [massive online battle arena, like Dota, like League, what Heroes of the Storm is]. She uses a ranged single target heal that can be empowered with level ups and different talent choices. She has a Safeguard that can throw some shields on allies, an ultimate ability called Stim, where she can power up an ally to give them more attack power, and a Displacement Grenade which she can throw to enemies, displacing their attacking/defensive positions. 

Varian is a high tier hero and Morales is mid-tier because she doesn't have many escape routes and she's easy to kill. However, when you combine Morales with Varian, it is almost unstoppable. She can pocket Varian, making sure he doesn't get low on health. She can grenade any enemies that try to flank Varian or herself. She can stim Varian in a pivotal fight to turn the tide of battle. She can safeguard Varian to increase his defenses in fights. If you're a good Morales and watch your positioning so well that you hardly ever die, Morales will be able to keep Varian alive most of the time. And Varian will be able to tank through most of the enemy team damage, leading to easy, flawless victory. Basically, the strategy is foolproof. I can't even count how many games I've won with this combination with my friend Ip. The classic tank/healer dynamo of Heroes of the Storm, for me.  

Third, Team Fortress 2. If you made it this far, obviously my main character is the Medic ["Ocktober Fest!"]. I have 100 hours on medic and counting. My favorite character to pocket in TF2 is actually the Soldier, which is basically the same as the Mercy/Pharah combo except no flying, no damage boosting, all healing, all ground foot moving, and positioning. 

But actually it might not be the best nor the strongest. If you have a Heavy on your team in TF2, that is the character you want to pocket. The heavy is a tall, fat, gent with a mini-chain gun. He sometimes eats sandwiches to gain health, which he can also throw out to you when you're low on health. The Medic is a German doktor. He's the OG Mercy, meaning he heals with a ranged single target heal. However, he can't damage boost. But, he has the choice of being able to have different weapons in hand 1, hand 2, and a melee weapon. This is where TF2 gets its strategic qualities because the way you customize your weapons options heavily modifies your gameplay and game experience. For simplicity's sake, we're going to say the Heavy and the Medic are both using stock equipment that comes with the game. 

Okay, so the Heavy has the mini-chain gun as his primary weapon and the medic uses the medgun as his primary weapon. Here's where TF2 gets more interesting than Overwatch. The medic's medgun, when fully charged, at 100% makes any character he uses it on invulnerable for 8 seconds. Yes, you read that right. The medic's medgun makes any player he uses it on invulnerable for 8 seconds. This is so strong that it's primarily the reason why I enjoy playing TF2, and it changes the tide of most firefights if used on the right ally player at the right time. 

So, going back to our Heavy/Medic combo, the Medic can pocket the Heavy when securing points or pushing the payload. And when the Heavy is surrounded by tons of enemy players, you can pop Uber on the Heavy [it's called uber because the Medic is German], and he can literally mow down the entire enemy team in one fell swoop because his mini-gun has a far range, rapid fast fire, and it's super strong. For me the Heavy/Medic combo is the best combo in pc gaming history. A real bromance to Overwatch's sisterhood of the traveling pants.

That's all for now. There are plenty of other combos in these games, but for me these are by far the strongest that I utilize on a regular basis. Practice finding different combos as healers and you will find that there's almost nothing that can't synergy at least a little bit. You want to find what combos well and what doesn't and be able to see it on the enemy team as well, as this is a very strategic element of playing healers and winning games. 

"Have you tried not dying?"

How To Be A Great Healer in Competitive Video Games, An Essential Guide

 
Hello, ladies and gents. I've been doing a lot of writing exercises, mostly of a somewhat serious nature. Here I thought I'd lighten the mood up and write about how to be a great healer in competitive video games. 

This guide adheres to any kind of healing in any competitive video game but in this specific context I'm referring to healing in Heroes of the Storm [a Blizzard moba], Team Fortress 2 [class based shooter from 2007], and Overwatch [Blizzard's first-person shooter]. 

First, why would you want to play healers? Well, the reason I play healers is that I just prefer to be the backline of the team, not doing damage, not tanking damage [absorbing damage, and mitigating it], and healing the team, ensuring our victory by making sure that every player gets to survive fights more easily, making the entire team more durable, stronger. 

The other reason is that healers are naturally the playmakers of the team. If you're playing the healer you have the most important job, ensuring everybody's survival, mostly the tanks [the big brutes of games, that can take damage but can't dish it out as much as the DPS], but also the DPS [damage per second, the assassins of the team, getting the kills]. So if you're naturally a leader you'll gravitate towards being a tank or a healer, or if you're not naturally a leader but want to play a leadership role, then you'll gravitate towards being a healer. This is mostly of a personal nature for me, but it applies to other people as well. 

Or, you could want to be a healer because it just fits your personality. I don't have fun playing tanks and assassins, it's not my cup of joe. Girls gravitate more towards tanks and healers in online games, I've noticed, but other times they're on the frontlines getting the kills, so you can never judge a book by its cover. 

Second, it's all about positioning. As a healer, you're supposed to be in the backline of the team, making sure you don't get hit too much, or die very often, if at all. For example, the best thing you can do as a Mercy player in Overwatch is simply to not die very often and keep on healing as much as you can, and damage boosting if need be [don't worry about that for now]. The longer Mercy is alive and keeps healing, the better job she is doing. 

As a Mercy main myself, I've found that the best way for me to maximize my healing with the cadeuous staff is to simply not die. This is harder than hell, as most enemy players will be looking for you, Mercy, throughout the entire round to kill you, so that you can't keep healing. 

The trick is to be ninja-like. The less time the enemy team sees you, the easier it will be for you to survive. In fact, I know that the enemy Mercy is a really good player if I hardly ever see her throughout the entire round. The best way to do this is by using all obstacles in the map to your advantage; walls, monuments, buildings, ally players, and your abilities like your flight L-shift button. It should also be mentioned that you must know how to super jump to be an effective Mercy. To super jump, simply press L-shift and crouch at the same time while flying to an ally, and right before you reach the ally hit the space bar. This will give you a super jump, making it harder for enemies to hit you and making it easier for you to get to places where you can be ninja-like; hide, heal behind walls or around corners, or get to the high ground on maps so you can avoid fire on the ground level. 

Positioning by itself is a very simple concept. But, like playing healers or maining [I only play healers, maining is a term referred to when you only play healing characters as oppsed to tanks or DPS] it's easy to learn but hard to master. Steep learning curve. As a healer this is something you'll work on all the time, always improving upon. You'll never be a grandmaster of positioning as even grandmasters die out of position. 

Third, know your character. This is a given but you'll be surprised to see how many players out there will play their character the wrong way [their own way or just being clueless, which can be misguided and cause more losses in pug {pick up group} games].

There are so many players that think they've got their character down. They have hundreds of hours in the game, they keep perpetually playing the same healer characters, and then they wonder why they keep losing games all the time. Obviously, it's inevitable that sometimes you're going to lose games, but you can mitigate some of the percentages of losses if you simply know your character, so well, that you understand the mechanics of the character better than most of the other healers in your rank. 

How well do you know your character? Well, you simply play a lot of that one character. But that's only the beginning. The flip side is that you have to study up on your character; look up videos on how to play the character better, read forums where lots of different people give insight on how to play the character better, and lastly, learn from your deaths. If you know what keeps killing you and you utilize that knowledge to your benefit, you can lessen the number of deaths that keep happening the same way, and then start to learn more from the more random elements that kill you. Again, a very simple concept. But the meta for knowing your character is steep. 

Lastly, have fun. The whole point of competitive video games is to have fun. Yes, there will always be toxic players [people who can't restrain themselves, take their anger out on the team, cuss people out, are childish and stupid], and throwers [people who purposefully lose games because they're either not good players, or they want to make a point to the team that they're especially toxic] but for the most part, most players play for fun, and they play to win. Keep that in mind. Fun AND winning. Not just winning, not just having fun. The correlation between the two is strong as heck, but it should be noted yet again that if you aren't having fun you should simply log off the game and do something else. Fun is the one thing money can't buy and if you aren't having fun playing healer then you should definitely play a different class [tank/assassins] or take a break from gaming; perhaps go for a nice walk, or enjoy a nice novel. As a healer, your job is the most important to you and the team. With great power comes great responsibility. Use it wisely. 

Medic [from Team Fortress 2 w/ German accent]: Get on the cart dummkopfs!

Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse Virus pt. 6

Greetings noble readers of my blog. How's the quarantine life treating you all? I figured I would continue my series about life during the coronavirus. If you haven't seen any of the previous posts about this up to this point, I recommend you click on the 'plague journal' at the top of my blog page and review some of the earlier posts. Or you can find it here. I explain the working conditions at my job and stuff, it's quite an overview. 

Anyways, we're somewhere in the middle of this virus. Not contained by any means but it has not taken over California like it did in New York, Italy, China, or Spain. 23,000 people have died in the US. But that's considered low numbers. For the time being. But it's still a crippling reminder that this virus has ravaged our country. It's very sad. 

We're all very lucky to have good leadership in California under Gavin Newsom and under the Los Angeles mayor Garcetti. They called for stay at home orders long before other states followed suit. Smart guys who listen to their advisers. 

I didn't catch the virus from work but the threat of continuing to work in the front end at a grocery store greatly expanded my chance of catching the virus, exponentially. Naturally, I took a leave of absence from my job, as other coworkers did as well. The number one reason was fear that I could catch the virus, bring it home, and give it to my elderly father, whom I love very much. The other being unsafe working conditions.

Now I'm on somewhat of a respite. The threat of the virus is still there if I go out in public like another grocery store but as long as I stay in lockdown I am now much safer. Thankfully! Eventually, I'll have to return to work but hopefully, by then the stay at home order will be lifted and perhaps businesses will open up again. I doubt it but anything's possible, right?

What is life like now? Well, it's calm. I have a regular routine per usual. 

I started running in the mornings to try to lose weight. Been working on zen breathing and the art of running. I do afternoon jazz guitar concert sets on my balcony for all the passersby walking down my busy street. I love to play solo guitar jazz standards. I stream video games on twitch, which you can find here. I read a lot, mostly science fiction at the moment. I've also got a new Kant book to read as well; Moral on Metaphysics, my cup of tea. I plan on writing a zombie virus series which you can find the beginning of here. 

I have no social life because some of my friends have existing conditions and some of their parents are against us meeting up during this time of crisis. A fair assessment of the situation I would say. As a result, we've banded together online, text chat on phone, direct messaging on Facebook, voice coms on Discord, hanging out in each other's twitch streams, gaming together online, and such. In such dire straights, you would think the infrastructure of the internet would collapse, lol. But it's fun to talk to and chill with my friends online. I miss them very much and perhaps that's the greatest loss during this pandemic. The fact that we can't gather round in person, chill together, find solace in human solidarity together. 

If there's one thing I'll remember with all this shit going on [a popular California way of talking about the virus], other than 'social distancing,' it's the fact that "we're all in this together."

The initmitable competitive gaming spirit: 3 years later

Greetings! This is a post about competitive gaming. I used to write a lot of posts about PC games, even going to the excruciating details of Blizzard Tuesdays patch updates. It's been a while since I've written anything like that so I figured I'd do an update from when I wrote about this stuff back in 2016. 

I've been a competitive PC gamer since 2010 when Starcraft 2 Wings of Liberty came out. I was so addicted I used to play team matches with my college classmate in the middle of class. We were a great Terran/Zerg combo. However, I also played a lot of Smash Bros Melee against all my friends in middle school, Halo 3 multiplayer in high school, and a lot of Starcraft Brood War [also middle school]. 

I was also really into single player jrpgs since grade school. To this day some of my favorite gaming moments have been from playing Xenogears, Final Fantasy 7, and Final Fantasy Tactics. 

Anyways, I'm still a big gamer today. Last Thursday I was at my first Smash Ultimate tournament at Fire and Dice [local hobby shop] and I did pretty well for my first tournament. I beat a really good Lucina player in bracket and did pretty well [but still lost] against two other players. It was a good exhibition for me and my friend Neal, a Yoshi player. I played Samus and Dark Samus most of the time but I did two matches [where I almost won both] as Fox. 

I still play some of the old games I used to play three years ago. I've found that I'm not only much better at them, but that I'm getting better and better each day, exponentially. It was a very slow, gradual change that took me three years.

Part of it was that in the past I didn't have as much confidence. Also, I didn't have the right mindset. I would go into a competitive game with the mindset that I just want to have fun and losing didn't matter. Now I go in with the mindset that I will have fun AND win. That's a huge difference. 

When I play certain games like Ovewatch and Team Fortress 2 [my personal favorite fps games of all time] there's actually a lot going on in my head, especially as I play the healer role most of the time. 250 of my 600 hours on Overwatch are on Mercy, the best healer in the game. And 65 out of my 200 hours on Team Fortress are on medic, the only healer in the game. 

Anyways, there's a lot going on in my head when I play. In every given scenario I'm running subroutines in my head: If I follow this person will that lead to a successful frag? If we're outnumbered and my allies die fast and I fall back and let my teammates die will I be able to live and regroup with them out of spawn before the enemies kill me? If I take out the syringe gun and shoot down an enemy soldier/scout/demo/pyro/spy will I be able to live/run away back to safety? Its endless really.

Its like a puzzle. There are endless variations of what could really happen. You could play the perfect game and your team can still lose because of your allies' inefficiencies. The main reason why I lose certain Team Fortress games [I always play Control Point] is because my allies will run in fast, get killed, and get backcapped [killed as they run to the point out of spawn] before I can get to them. That's a very common way to lose a game in Team Fortress. Probably the most common. 

These same 'subroutines' apply to fighting games. I recently became friends with a guy I met through work that plays a lot of fighting games. And he's very good at all of them. He was surprised as heck and applauded me when I was able to figure out how to play all these technical fighting games and after 2 matches where he'd win, I had figured it out and starting defeating him in loops. The reason I was able to figure it out is because I'm playing with this same logical thought processes. 

It takes a lot of practice to get to the point where you don't have to run through the endless variations/variables. Anything can happen really. But then again if you can make what you want happen and it comes to pass, that is where the power of the smart, thoughtful gamer comes in place. 

It took me a while to understand games. For the longest time I just played games to relive stress. But at some point I realized I wanted to be great and 'git gud' [Kranky's advice] at every game I would ever pick up. Although I'm no e-sports champion I would say that I'm a damn good gamer at the games I play: Heroes of the Storm, Starcraft, Overwatch, Team Fortress, Smash Bros, and Marvel Vs Capcom 2. I've even gotten to the point where I see single player games as extremely relaxing and enjoyable. Its good to find out that you don't need to always have that competitive mindset to have a great time. 

Gamers take their gaming very seriously. You're always going to run into those toxic people that will talk shit about your gameplay and hurl insults/slurs, harassing people, etc. You might even become one of those people during some of your matches. The thing you gotta realize is that even when you're so good you're at the point where most people you play against/with are scrubs, in the end its all just a game. If you can't understand that then you should stick to the single player arena. Rage will only hurt your gameplay and your mindset. To be a winner you have to think like a winner. 

"Experience transcendence." 

Original post from 2016 here: https://ofigueroamusic.blogspot.com/2016/07/the-inimitable-competitive-gaming-spirit.html

Merry Christmas

Christmas is three days away and the holiday cheer is at an all time high, especially at my work. There's been a lot of 48 hour weeks for me, which is good. I've been playing a ton of Smash Ultimate at my friends' house and I've really upped my skills, especially with Ridley and Starfox. I've already got most of the gifts I wanted to send to my family as well. The only thing that really gets to me is the holiday playlist at work. Its the same playlist every day for the entire month! Its been crazy, to say the least...

I was thinking about treating myself this Christmas and buying some new games. I was interested in Starwars Battlefront 2 (for the graphics and Starwars skin), Battlefield One (WW1 is a great theme with cool archaic weaponry), Dragon Ball Fighter Z on Steam (maybe, my friend has it on the Switch), and possibly Fallout 76 (it sucks but it will get better). I also wanted to get the new World of Warcraft expansion Battle for Azeroth but I know if I do that I'll spend too much time gaming, as well as paying a pesky 14.99 monthly fee. Damn you Blizzard! (Side note: I've been playing a ton of Overwatch lately, and I've become a better player, mostly playing Mercy, Ana, and Moira. I'm still just slightly below Gold Tier level in Competitive but I'll get there eventually)

Other things I was thinking about was computer books through the video game publisher HumbleBundle. They're offering all these computer programming and hardware books for cheap, they're all ebooks. Other than that I was just going to save my money and just get my folks whatever last minute gifts I needed to get them. I have a lot of cool stuff as it is, I don't need anything too expensive.  

There's a lot of bad energy out there going on in the world, especially in terms of politics. I just had a Trump supporter wearing a MAGA shirt say some racist stuff to me at work. I had to let it go because I don't want to lose my job. These Right-wingers are really acting out in the public sphere, its like Charlotteville all over again. There's the government shutdown happening soon because Trump can't get his 5.7 billion dollars for his Wall, despite the fact that most Americans don't want to spend extra cash on a wall. Trump's supporters like Ann Coulter are saying that if Trump backs down and doesn't get the funding for the wall, Trump will be utterly humiliated and will definitely not get re-elected. However, I happen to think that it doesn't matter what Trump does, he won't get re-elected. I think the American people have smartened up, they're no longer willing to be political peons, they're going to fight back against everything that Trump stands for; tax cuts for the wealthy, increasing division against our allies, bad foreign policy, bad deals, ideas, and retaliation in trade, and evil treatment of refugees and those seeking asylum, especially regarding small children. There's a lot to upset about this holiday season! 

Its a political shitstorm alright. Its hard not to get angry at the direction the country is going. These Trump supporters are really coming out of the woodwork and they're not afraid to show off their racist and misogynistic views. Its hard not to talk and think about this stuff as a young progressive American citizen. Sure I live in a nice neighborhood and I'm safely sheltered unlike most Black Americans, but I believe in the progressive model. Old white men have always told me that the older I get the more I'll realize that being Republican is the smart thing to do. However, I think that's just their wishful thinking. I think the Democratic agenda is much more realistic, more humane, and will reduce the drastic gap between rich and poor regarding income inequality. In short, I believe the Democrats will help me more than the Republicans in life. I believe, if the Republicans had their way, that nobody would receive government benefits without working a certain minimum amount of hours, passing drug tests, and applying for jobs within a certain time period. Its already like that in certain states. This place has really gone to the dogs. However, its the only land I know, and love. 

But that's enough about politics. I read the news everyday and the everyday events of the Trump Whitehouse is infuriating but not shocking in the slightest. We have a long way to go in electing intelligent and thoughtful politicians (Obama anyone?), that despite their political ideology, can unify our blessed nation into a cohesive whole, especially after devastating shootings, natural disasters, and at the very least pay respects to our fallen soldiers. The Republicans are putting up with Trump because he's their guy; this is their last hour of power in Washington, if the government is going to be shut down because Trump didn't get his wall, then government be damned. As said in a popular Washingtonpost op-ed: The rats (Republicans) eventually tend to jump off the sinking ship (Trump agenda).

But all that aside the holidays this year hasn't been too bad. It hasn't been too crazy at work or in general. Life is good. I'm getting a lot of reading done and still playing guitar. Lately, I've been reading this book on computers; How Computers Work by Ron White, this book from 2008, that covers a lot of material, mostly hardware and software, how it all works. I'm getting a lot out of it and plan on reading more about computers. 

Its interesting because at first when I started reading it I thought it was boring and that I wouldn't be able to get into it. I returned it and then re-checked it out again, but this time the information stuck. It reads like a manual with a lot of diagram pictures but it makes sense and isn't too difficult to comprehend. One thing I've learned is that if you want to be good with computers you have to learn a lot of advanced mathematics as well as have a lot of patience. It would be super difficult for me to learn computer programming because I'm terrible at math and don't have a lot of patience. However, I think I can understand how hardware works and perhaps learn to be able to fix most problems on my computer with more knowledge and experience under my belt. My plan is to eventually build my own PC. I think that would be a great conclusion to my computer knowledge and experience. 

Happy Holidays to you and your family. Thanks for reading my blog and supporting my writing, whoever you are and wherever you are. And despite your politics, God bless you, and God Bless America.

Merry Christmas!

Super Smash Bros Ultimate

So the new Smash Bros came has been out for a little over a week. Its one of the greatest games I've ever played. A few months ago I was reading more than gaming but now I'm back gaming a lot, due in part to this game. Things have changed. This game is amazing. I'm going to copy a quote that I saw on the back of the Final Fantasy 7 Greatest Hits edition for Playstation back when I was in middle school: Quite possibly the greatest game ever made. The same could be said for Smash Ultimate. 

The freaking roster in this game is insane. There are 74 playable characters in this game. Which says to me that there's no way they can balance this game. Balancing is the process the developers do to make sure no characters are better or worse than others. I don't think there's any real cohesive way to do that in a game with almost 80 characters. But I ain't complaining! 

All the main heroes and villains are here: Mario, Bowser, Link, Samus, Ness, Kirby, Yoshi. And then there are tons of new characters too: Inkling, Ridley, Simon Belmont, Dark Samus, Chrom, Ken. Simply because of the 74 characters you can never get bored. If you lose with your best character you still have 73 other ones to try against your opponent, with endless possibilities with your combos. I play a lot of Ridley right now but I've also been playing a lot of Fox. 

The gameplay is your bread and butter smash. However, the physics in Ultimate actually seems a bit faster than its predecessor, Smash 4.  Perfect pivots seem easier to do. Characters run faster. Slow characters don't seem as slow as Smash 4. In Smash 4 Gannondorf seemed like an elephant. In Ultimate he's more like a rhino. The combos from the old games still work in this game and the strategy remains the same; knock your opponent off the stage and 1) KO them with an attack or 2) edge guard them so they can't make it back to the stage, resulting in them falling to their death. 

My friend's best character is Yoshi and he wins against me using the same tactics from Smash 4, usually a spike off the ledge. Some characters get new moves too. For example, Kirby got his fireball dash attack from Melee (Smash's Gamecube version). Using combinations of old strategies from the classic games and new moves from here you can create interesting new strategies and ways to play. Nintendo has made an art form out of kicking tail. 

The soundtrack to this game is pure bliss. It contains mostly every song from mostly every famous Nintendo game. You can change the music on every stage. The music grows on you. Once you play the game for about a week you start to memorize the music and it gets stuck inside your head (my experience). However, the music is so good here that I can hardly be upset, this music is great! 

There's only one bad thing I can say about Smash Ultimate. Its just the fact that you can clearly tell that Nintendo doesn't put much effort into their online systems. Sure, the online experience is 'free', but Nintendo's free means laggy servers. You can't play Smash Ultimate four players online because the game will lag and 'break' (lag so hard you can't do anything). 

Not only that but I've also heard bad lag stories with people even using the wired connection over wireless. This is 2018, wireless gaming is a norm. The fact that Nintendo can't get this right is a little pathetic. Yes, I'm being harsh. But you see, I'm a connoisseur who's been playing Smash since 64 days in grammar school. 

But that's not all. "The matchmaking process was further criticized for making it difficult for friends to join matches over random players, and not allowing multiple local players to join in online matches. Fans of the series had complained so much on Ultimate's Reddit page that the administrators forwarded all complaints to a separate thread." (wiki) 

But despite those negatives the positives overflow here. This game is so great that I've been playing it nonstop since December 9, when my friend got it. Because he has a Switch and I don't, I can only play it at his house. Even after playing it many hours almost two weeks straight, I don't feel bored. This game has a very good new car smell, so to speak. Its captured the zeitgeist, a moment forever trapped in time, in 2018, a golden age of video gaming. As a hardcore Smash 4 player who went to tournaments, I look forward to continuing my Smash tournament runs in this game. And although I'm too broke too afford a Switch this holiday season, I'll eventually get a Switch when the price goes down, and I'll own this fantastic work of art. 

You done did good Nintendo.

How do I play video games with no time?

 

Ah, the age old question. How do I play video games with no time? This is a hard question to answer. I recently got promoted at my job which gives me more daytime hours but leaves me with only a little bit of night and only a little bit of daytime before work. It's been very difficult to fit in gaming, if I get to even game at all. In fact, I've been doing more social media, listening to music, and hanging out with my friends more so than gaming. I haven't even played World of Warcraft for over a week now and just a week ago I was playing everyday. I'm quite saddened by this of course...lol.

Now to answer the question. If you don't have time but you want to play video games you must use your time wisely and focus on the games that you like the most. For me that means booting up Heroes of the Storm at least once a day and grinding out the daily quests for gold. Right now I really need the gold (15k gold) to unlock the next new hero (Kel'Thuzad from Warcraft 3, and yes I'll write a post about him soon). So that means everyday logging on and playing one or two matches. Simple enough. It's fast, easy, fun. I get to play a game and work on grinding gold for a new hero without spending real money. Another game I've been playing that's super satisfying without playing for hours is Team Fortress 2 and Terraria. I've been playing with a real life friend of mine so its even more fun. These kind of games give you a lot of reward for little playtime. Naisu!

That's the answer really. Using your time to just focus on a game(s) you really like and playing just a bit. Real life takes up more and more time the older we get and the more responsibilities we have. I'm still using a lot of my time arranging jam sessions with musicians, actually going out and jamming with people, and of course practicing guitar. I do a lot of activities in addition to my job so it really takes a lot out of me. After work I'm usually pretty tired but that doesn't stop me from playing games, guitar, or hanging out with friends. Work hard, play hard! Time management is the probably the most difficult thing in life, especially as we get older. Remember games are made to have fun. They will still be there tomorrow.

What's going on? August 2017 Edition

So it occurred to me that its been a super long time since I've written anything for the blog. This is mostly due to the fact that I had a super bad cold that kept me pretty down in the dumps for the last two weeks. It was pure hell. Nothing worse than a summer cold/flu after not being sick for over a year. It hit my immune system hard but I'm starting to feel better now. About 80%-85%, just in time for my promotion at work!

That's right, I got promoted at my grocery store job. Instead of being a combo clerk (cashier/bagger) I will now instead be working as a cheese department personnel working under the cheese department manager. I'm looking forward to the change of work pace and my next chapter of employment. I really hope everything works out great and that my new manager likes me. So there's that. I'm really looking forward to increased pay and raises. Which means more money for games, guitar/music equipment, and saving money for my future. I start training for the cheese department Tuesday at 7 am. No more closing shifts. No more bagging groceries. This is all so exciting!

I also have to talk about the new Starcraft Remastered. This game is everything I could have hoped for in a remaster. The fact that the new version of Brood War runs at 300 frames per second is freaking astounding. Blizzard has really outdone themselves. I've been playing the game a lot, mostly practicing my Zerg tactics in 3v3 big game hunters, which is my favorite team practice map. I've gotten to the point where I can survive most rushes and make it to mid to late game but I still have to work on my late game when it comes to Zerg tactics. I'm about twenty years behind on Korean Brood War tactics. I'll probably start studying some builds on Team Liquid once I start to get more serious. As of now I'm just enjoying the sick graphics and the amazing hardcore rts gameplay. This is a golden game with a great remaster. Now if only Blizzard could get a Warcraft III Frozen Throne remaster that would be great. 

More stuff about my personal life incoming. I recently lost a bit of weight. Nothing too big but I lost about ten pounds. During the weeks I was sick I lost my appetite and dropped some weight. I've since gained two or three pounds since but I'm going to work hard to keep the weight off and lose even more. I'm really watching my diet, making sure to drink plenty of water, and never overeating at dinner or restaurants. Easier said than done but I'm on my way.

I've also been practicing a lot of guitar. Even if I'm just chilling at my friends' house I always pick up their guitar and practice my legato, scales, jazz standard heads, whatever. I haven't been able to make it to an open jam for a few weeks but I will get there when I can. I've been trying to setup jam sessions with my friend/bass player Dennis for a while but I was sick last week and had to cancel. There's another guy at work that wants to start a band with me but I don't think he's serious because every time we're suppose to meet up he bails with some sort of excuse. It's all good. I just wish I could find band members more easily and have my own group. Until then I'll just keep practicing, going to open jams, and recording and releasing tracks on Soundcloud.

I had a really good day today. It was my last day of cashiering on the front end then tomorrow I'm off, and then Tuesday I start my training for cheese department. Not only was my last day fun and stress free but earlier in the day before work I was hanging out with my good buddy Eric at Fire and Dice (local hobby shop, board games, smash 4 tournies, etc) and I won a free board game! It's a great fun board game called Smashup! So not only did I have a great day hanging out with my buddy playing Magic the Gathering and board games but I also got a free prize! It was a great way to commemorate my last day of cashiering. I even got some cool weeb anime girl sleeves for my Magic decks.

The next couple weeks will test my working skills hardcore because I'm going from a primarily labor intensive cashiering to a more food orientated environment that involves using your peoples skills in a different way from just being a cashier. I'm excited!  

"The future is ours to decide" -Shulk, Xenoblade Chronicles

Orcs in spaaaace

Tonight I'd like to talk about about a game that is pretty dear to my heart, Starcraft. I probably played Starcraft Brood War more than any other pc game around 2002-2004. By the time I was in 7th grade I was already a master 6 pool player that won many games just off that one cheap tactic. I really loved the game. Fast forward to 2010 and Starcraft II arrives to the gaming scene. I had a cheap laptop and I decided to buy the game while I was away at college. That was when I knew I had to be a pc gamer!

Starcraft is many things. It's an rts (real time strategy game) where you have to build an army and use it to fight an opposing player in real time going as fast you can with the mouse and keyboard, referred to as apm (action per minute). The single player campaigns have always been great and satisfying but the true heart of Starcraft is its multiplayer modes. There's nothing like crushing an opponent through wits and cunning plays. South Korea took the game and ran with it. Brood War and Starcraft II are still super popular games that are huge in esports mainly because of South Korean players and fans. Blizzard never would have guessed that their orcs in space (original Starcraft was created using Warcraft I engine, but they soon scrapped it and completely redid everything) game would blow up and become one of the most famous gaming franchises in history.

I've spent years playing Starcraft II and around 2013 I was even in a guild called Team Peace. We used to run tournaments and stream them online. I only participated in a few matches (usually won because I was usually placed against low level players) but the entire experience made me aware of the social aspect of PC gaming (ie voice chat, text chat, guild, party systems, team-speak, Skype, all before discord). It was one of the most fun gaming experiences I've ever had. However, over the years everyone from Team Peace stopped playing and the guild eventually disbanded. Rip.

But that doesn't stop me from reliving the hardcore rts experiences of 1998 and 2010. In an old post (that can be viewed here) I talked about games I wish I could play if I had the time to do so. Well I've found the time and I've been playing a lot of Starcraft Brood War and Warcraft 3 Frozen Throne. Its made my gaming time much more fun and strategic. These games are so incredibly hard to play that even after playing the games for two days straight now there are still things I'm trying to figure out, relearn, practice, and master. I really dig the challenge! Nothing like getting your ass handed to you, figuring out what you did wrong and winning the next match because you fixed up your mistakes from the loss game.

There's just something about Starcraft and Warcraft 3 that is incredible to me. Part of it is the fact that after nearly twenty years both games hold up extremely well. The colours are vibrant, the graphics are unique albeit a bit cartoony, and the gameplay is so rewarding, competitive, and complex. Put all of this together and you have in my opinion the two best rts games ever.

I'd like the end this rant here but if anyone from Blizzard is reading my blog I have one proposition for you. Warcraft 4: Orcs in Space. Orcs go through a portal that takes them through space and time and they end up in a future world where they find the Alliance is still around but with advanced technological weapons! They then have to mobilize their troops, setup camp in the new world, and learn everything they can about this new secret hidden tech. Good idea?

Picture is Starcraft made in the original engine, which was the same engine as the original Warcraft Orcs and Humans, it looks so trippy man! 

Hearthstone is the most fun card game I've played since MTG

So I finally got around to playing Hearthstone. I really dig it a lot. Hearthstone is the most fun card game I've played since Magic the Gathering and Yugioh. It takes the best of both of those games and puts things into a simplistic game-style while still being complex with strategies and deck building. Its a very well made free to play game with only slight pay to win aspects. Sure the cards I have right now aren't that great and it makes playing against other players super difficult but at the same time its made me stronger and forced me to learn all the different strategies the game has to offer faster on the fly. It's great!

I think the thing I like the most about Hearthstone is that its a chill card game based on Warcraft. I can play the game while drinking a soda, talking with my friends, hanging out with multiple people while sitting on the couch, the variety is unlimited. You don't even need a mouse or keyboard you could just use a laptop touch-pad. In addition, I believe the game can also be played on a tablet and smartphone. I haven't played a game this chill in a long time.

There's a lot of interesting mechanics. There's these things called secrets that don't activate until your opponent does something to you or your minions. There's taunt which forces the enemy player to attack your taunt creature before he can attack your life points directly (Yugioh anyone). There's things like charge where creatures can attack the turn they come out (basically haste from Magic the Gathering). I'm still learning everything that can be done in the game but I think I'm doing a great job with the cards that I have now.

My favorite hangout is the Arena where I can quickly forge a deck from random cards. However, I'm also still playing all the classes in Quick Play against other players to unlock all the cards for all the classes. It's pretty difficult but I've been able to get a surprising amount of wins just using the stock premade decks. I've also made my own custom rogue deck too. Its not that great but it will become better as I get more packs.

You can actually unlock packs just by doing daily quests in game. Most of them will be like Win 3 games, Play this many of this certain classes cards, etc. You can get gold and dust too. Gold can be used to play in the Arena and dust is used for crafting. I haven't quite figured out how crafting works in the game but I'll definitely figure it out soon.

The sound effects and visuals for the game are pretty top tier. It looks so clean and sounds so good. The music is nonchalant which is perfect. The class system with the cards is pretty fun and unique as well. I don't think I've ever been this happy with a free to play game like ever. It's seriously an amazing game with so much technical aspects and competitive aspects too. I'm glad I started playing just before the next expansion.

Apparently in the next expansion every class will be able to turn into death knights. I'm definitely going to buy the expansion upon release and try the death knight stuff out. I've become involved in the game, even looking at articles on pcgamer about the game and the new cards that are coming out.

Pretty excited to be playing it. I'm about to play right now. Another great thing about the game is that it doesn't make my laptop cry. If you want to play a great game that helps you relax while is still competitive then play this game. You won't regret it.

Naisu! 

Grimoire: Manastorm is a fun spellcasting Unreal Tournament

So I was looking around on the free to play game section on Steam and I found this game called Grimoire: Manastorm. This is an fps (first person shooter) game made by Omniconnection where you play as wizards and cast spells to kill your enemies. Pretty great idea already. Replace guns with a bunch of spellcasters and you have a super fun experience. The game is in early access on Steam.

From my initial experience and only having played the game for maybe twenty minutes I can say this is one of the most fun free to plays I've tried out on Steam. I haven't had this much fun on a free to play on Steam since Nosgoth was out.

The game's free version only comes with the fire and earth spellcasters. The fire mage is freakin' amazing. They give you one of the coolest mages ever for free which is pretty awesome. When you burn people as a fire mage it is so satisfying watching their hp drop. It makes me feel like the pyro from Team Fortress. I love it.

The other class you get free is the earth mage. His regular attack speed is super fast but weaker than the fire mage but he can heal himself I noticed. You can cast a spell that creates a tree and when you stand near it your hp recovers at a moderate speed. He's definitely a support mage. This game has supports like in Team Fortress or Overwatch.

The game features abilities like a moba (like Heroes of the Storm) and all the different mages' abilities can be countered so its possible to survive any situation theoretically and given the proper skill and effort. One thing to note is that you can teleport too. This makes the game crazy fast a la Unreal Tournament and Quake, great games to be inspired by. It brings the Skyrim (the first person view of the mage with the fireball or manacrystals in their hands look exactly like Skyrim) style mage into the twitch shooter environment. Its the best idea I've seen in a game in a super long time. The fact that this game puts together ideas and is inspired by so many other games is probably what makes it so fun. Add to that the unique idea of shooting spells instead of guns. How clever and unique.

The one thing that could be better is the graphics. However, you don't need high end graphics in a twitch shooter. As long as the environments are creative enough and fun to play on everything's cool. I'm going to keep playing this game. I'm interested in seeing how big the community becomes for it and how long the player base will keep on it. I think the game has a lot of potential especially if they create more interesting spellcasters.

Heroes of the Storm's Stukov is the coolest support in the game

Tonight I'd like to talk about Heroes of the Storm's latest new hero, Stukov.

Here's his backstory: 

"In the 25th century of Earth's history, the United Earth Directorate Expeditionary Fleet was dispatched to reign in the Terran Colonies of the Koprulu Sector. Over time, these expatriate colonists that were once loyal had wavered in their allegiance, threatening the fabric of government which had been sewn across the galaxy. Of the formidable commanders tasked with this imperative endeavor, Vice Admiral Alexei Stukov was second in command.

During the violent campaign in that system, developments ensued that would eventually cast Stukov in a traitorous light to his superiors. Having been found to be in violation of a direct order to destroy the powerful Psi Disrupter, Stukov was subsequently executed for his disobedience. Unbeknownst to the UED at the time, their ranks had been infiltrated by a powerful shape-shifting alien entity that sought to sow confusion about the importance of Stukov's mission. After his death, Stukov's corpse was later recovered by the Zerg, who sought to infest human leaders and mutate them into leaders of their own colonies. As the first of their attempts to blend their genetics with that of humanity's, the once lifeless husk of Stukov was reanimated into something at once both more and less than human.
The infested Admiral known as Stukov has now entered the Nexus as a formidable melee support, ready to spread his healing pathogens and deadly disease across the battleground." (heroesofthestormgamepedia.com)

And also you should also know his abilities.

Bio-Kill Switch

Cooldown: 16 seconds

Activate to detonate all of Stukov's Viruses. Each Healing Pathogen heals its target for 500 health, and each Weighted Pustule does 100 damage and Slows its target by 70% for 2 seconds.
Can be cast while channeling Lurking Arm.

Q

Healing Pathogen

30 Mana Cooldown: 10 seconds

Infest an allied Hero with a Healing Pathogen that heals the target for 240 Health over 4.5 seconds. Healing Pathogens can spread to a nearby allied Hero every 0.75 seconds, and a single Healing Pathogen can spread to each allied Hero 1 time.
Can cast it on self, and spread to self.
Cannot spread to targets to whom it has already spread.

W

Weighted Pustule

50 Mana Cooldown: 10 seconds

Hurl a pustule that impacts all enemy Heroes in its path, dealing 20 damage and Slowing by 5%, increasing to 50% over 3 seconds. Deals an additional 80 damage upon expiring or being removed.

E

Lurking Arm

60 Mana Cooldown: 8 seconds

Channel at a target location, creating an area that Silences enemies inside and deals 144 damage per second to them. Deals 50% reduced damage to non-Heroes. Does not cost Mana while Channeling, and lasts until canceled or interrupted.

R

Massive Shove

50 Mana Cooldown: 20 seconds

Extend Stukov's arm. If it hits an enemy Hero, they are rapidly shoved until they collide with terrain, taking 200 damage. Stukov gains 50 Armor while shoving an enemy.

R

Flailing Swipe

100 Mana Cooldown: 80 seconds

Swipe 3 times in front of Stukov over 1.75 seconds, dealing 50 damage to enemies hit and knocking them away. Each swipe is larger than the previous.

Alright now lets talk about his kit. He's technically a healer but his melee damage is pretty strong and attacks moderately fast so you can defend yourself for a while before retreating to fellow teammates. His q key (Healing Pathogen) is a super strong heal once activated with d (Bio-Kill Switch) which will increase the healing by a ton. Its a super strong heal. The kill switch has a long cooldown but if your teammates are smart and don't get hit all the time your heals will always be enough.

One of the strongest tools for Stukov is his e key (Lurking Arm). It silences enemies. This is probably his greatest asset as a support in the game. The fact that he can silence enemies and do it often and its not an ultimate ability is astounding. You have to channel the spell so once you move the silence is automatically turned off. However, if you can cast lurking arm when your enemies are out of position or trying to run away you easily pick them off. Its become one of the coolest and strongest abilities in the game right now. It's super effective!

Weighted Pustule (w key) is a great way to slow enemies to give your dps allies the chance to finish them when they have low health. Its not very strong and the slow is better overtime. Still not bad though.

My favorite ultimate for Stukov is Massive Shove. It has a super short cooldown of just 20 seconds and it pushed an enemy as far as an enemy will go until they hit something like a wall, tower, or other part of the map. He extends his zerg arm super far, sometimes going almost across the map. Not only does it look super cool but it helps get your team in a better position for team fights. If this ultimate is used effectively the enemy team will be one less player during team fights, giving your team the advantage until that enemy hero runs back.

I would say that Stukov is a good healer that can also dish out good dps while also dishing out great utility and crowd control (the silence, slow). Because of this he's become one of my favorite heroes. His play-style can be a bit tricky at first but once you play a few games with him you start to learn that he's most effective when you're always in good positions. Positioning is key with this hero so you can't just run out in the middle of a random fight and hope to come out killing everybody. He's kind of like a healer specialist in a way. He's very unique, and super fun!

Not to mention he's from one of my favorite Blizzard games, Starcraft II. When I found out he was coming to hots (heroes of the storm) I knew he would be some kind of interesting character but I didn't think he was going to be a healer with such a cool kit. Its about time they added a new support hero and I'm glad they did a great job with it. Not to mention his squid skin is just awesome!

For the Queen!

Garrosh Hellscream is coming to Heroes of the Storm

Everybody's favorite villain from World of Warcraft's Mists of Pandaria is coming to Heroes of the Storm. He's expected to hit the ptr on July 31st.

Heh, greetings. Blizzard has revealed that Garrosh Hellscream, son of Grommash Hellscream and former chieftain of the Warsong Clan, will be the next hero added to Heroes of the Storm. The studio said on Twitter that he'll be playable at the ChinaJoy conference next week, and it aims to have him on the HotS PTR for the week of July 31. (pc gamer )

A lot of players on the forums online are actually pretty disappointed with Garrosh being the next new hero in hots. The main problem is that the game is getting another orc. We already have a lot of orcs. It would've been a lot cooler to get some other Warcraft race character, particularly a Dranei hero of some sort. But even like a night elf would be amazing. I think hots definitely needs a dranei in the game. Maybe like a dranei warlock or something? That would be something.

I'm already stacking up my gold from doing quests daily. When Garrosh comes out I'm going to hopefully be able to purchase him with in game gold right away. I won't have to wait a super long time like how I did with Stukov. Stukov is a freakin' great character by the way, I've been really enjoying him.

Anyways, despite the haters on the forum I'm super excited for Garrosh Hellscream. I was still playing WoW (World of Warcraft) back when he was leader of the Horde so its cool to see a familiar face. We will have to wait and see how his play style fits into a moba. Should be good.

For the Horde! 

Making limited time work as a passionate gamer (that loves Blizzard)

I was thinking about ideas for things I could write about and this idea popped up in my head. How do you create time to play video games and how do you manage your gaming time in order to get the full gaming experience? Pretty interesting question that would vary for every passionate gamer. Here, I'd like to go into details of my gaming time management and what games I focus on playing.

First, when do I play games? Life goes fast and you only have so much time within a given day. That's why I like to wake up early (10am, I know that's late for most people lol) and that's pretty much my prime time gaming spot for the entire day. I do sometimes play late at night (12am-3am) as well but not all the time due to my roommate needing sleep for work. So when I wake up at ten I get ready for the day, maybe eat something small, grab some water or iced tea, and then hop on the computer. I'll usually game from then on until I need to go to work. Lately I've been going in around 330pm so that gives me about a good five hours. Those five hours are spent wisely (on the right games), at least I like to think so.

Okay, so first things first I like to start off by playing some Heroes of the Storm matches. I always do the quests for gold because I always want to be ahead of the curve when a new hero comes out. I always want to have enough gold to buy them right away upon release. It's a super fun game and I'm really great at it as well so it doesn't feel like a chore just to do quests, akin to doing quests in World of Warcraft. After I finish the quests I hop off quickly and move on.

Then, there's Overwatch. I still play Overwatch frequently but not as often as last year. Now I play for just a little bit and then I like to move onto other games. Lately, I've been playing dps heroes (mainly Reaper with mariachi outfit) in Quick Play so I've just been practicing my aim and not really focusing too heavily on competitive at all. I'm waiting around for Doomfist to be released before I play more competitive. I think the game will be more interesting then. So yeah I play a few rounds and then stop playing.

Here's a curve ball for ya. I recently started playing World of Warcraft again and I've already leveled to 110 (max level currently) but the game's really only just beginning at that point. Finding the time to play has been super difficult as I'm already on a time budget as it is. I think I've found the solution. I should focus on pvp for the time being. I pretty much only played wow back in 2013 just for pvp so I can do it again. It doesn't require hours and you can farm pvp gear which will still increase my item level. Problem solved. But still fitting this game into my schedule is really pushing my time to its limits.

So World of Warcraft is just a game that I might maybe play within those five hours but a game that's more likely to be launched is Diablo 3 Reaper of Souls. Ever since I bought the necromancer dlc the game has become much more fun to me. I already played the game a lot before and I have every character to max level and I can do some pretty high torment levels on my barbarian but the necro has just reignited the fun switch for me. I typically don't play this game often either. I just log on, do a few rift runs, farm a bit, test out all the skills and abilities all the time, and that's everything I do for now. I've been trying to farm more set gear and increase my toon damage but as you know it's all just a grind. A fun grind, like doing a five-o down a handrail on a skateboard!

Playing just Heroes, Overwatch, and Diablo 3 can take up the entire five hours but sometimes I'll play other stuff other than those games. These are some more curve balls.

Honorable mention to Team Fortress 2. I love TF2. Honestly, its probably the best first person shooter game I've ever played. Everything about it is amazing and once I start playing its hard for me to stop, even though there's no real incentive to keep playing (like lootboxes) other than just for the love of the game. I've been meaning to play it more but sometimes Overwatch takes that fps game slot. I can't play both in the same day (or if I do I have to play tf2 a lot more) because too much fps gaming gets repetitive to me.

The next two are games that I don't really play competitively or anything, just for funzies. I started playing Starcraft 2 again but I'm so out of practice that I can barely remember the units (especially the new legacy of the void ones) or even the buildings that require other buildings to make units. Its all coming back to me now and I've even been playing zerg and protoss. The last time I played competitively (on the ladder) I only played terran.

And then there's Warcraft 3 Frozen Throne. This game is just so cool. It reminds me of Heroes of the Storm but much more difficult to play. I'm enjoying the steep learning curve this game has. I think I can learn to play pretty well if I just keep messing around with it here and there but it would take me a super long time before I could start wrecking people in 1v1's. For now I've just been practicing 4v4's. Its fun, casual, and I'm learning how the game mechanics work. I'm only about 12 years late on this one guys!

That would pretty much cover any given day with a five hour time slot. Sometimes I'll get an extra three hours late at night if my roommate is up  so in total I could possibly have eight hours in total. That's a lot of gaming time for any person but when you're passionate about games and you love the multiplayer experience its not like a job, its a chore of love.

I should also mention that when I'm playing most of the time I'm chatting with my friend Sean from Wisconsin on discord, my Warcraft guild, my friend Eric, and gaming friends that I met through my brother. They're all super chill people and talking to them makes the entire experience more meaningful.

Sometimes after these long sessions I feel like I was time hopping with Chromie!