What are you playing this weekend? End of April Edition

Hey, I wanted to take the opportunity tonight to talk about video games! Its been a while since I've posted about gaming. Here's what I've been playing lately.

Overwatch: After putting in about 500 hours into this game I'm really progressing into a much better Mercy player. The higher up the ranks you go the harder the game becomes but there's a very gradual skill ceiling so that it doesn't feel overwhelming. The great thing about being a Mercy main in competitive? Everybody loves you!

Team Fortress 2: I used to be so bad at TF2 it was kind of pathetic. I've got about 200 hours put in and now I'm an Uber-God Medic (laughs). You know you're good when you're the only medic in a 12 player game and you're top of the scoreboard most of the time. My friend Griff (steam name) has about 8,000 hours and sometimes I play with his hardcore TF2 buddies, which sometimes includes famous players from back in the day, like Vexon (check him out on YouTube). When I play with this great players being a beginner medic with like .1 of the amount of hours they have, I just have to sit back and play my best. After all we're just doing pub casual games. Its super fun.

Warcraft III Frozen Throne: So I had been talking about playing Warcraft III for a super long time and I'd always attempted 1v1 matches but didn't really get anywhere. I took my friend Brian's advice and started doing teams, mostly 4v4 games. Brian used to be one of the top ten Warcraft III teams games players back in the day. He still plays to this day. And I'm finding improvement in my playing although it is still a steep learning curve. The main thing I like about this game as opposed to Starcraft is that the units and battles are smaller, with more focus on the hero play, like a moba. Heroes of the Storm anyone? Its pretty cool. I main Undead, really focusing on learning the race as best I can.

Heroes of the Storm: This has been a mainstay game for me since technical alpha. Still enjoying it. I don't enjoy ranked mode so much but unranked draft is my main hangout. I play most of the healers but I also dps with Nova, Guldan, and Illidan. My main character is Lt.Morales, of course I'm always the medic.

Starcraft Brood War: So I finally got back into Brood War ever since I bought the new and visually improved Starcraft HD. You can pick it up for as cheap as 15 smeckles. The game looks like a brand new baby, a shiny new coat that improves upon its outdated pathing and visual discolorations. Like in Warcraft III I play team games with a focus on the Zerg race. For the Swarm!

Marvel Vs Capcom 2: I've been playing this game for a long time with my buddies in real life. We play this more than Super Smash Bros now, its become a cult classic. My main team is Spiderman, Rogue, and Doctor Doom with a rotating roster of those three sometimes mixed with Magneto, Jill, and Jin. Its a true fighting game and takes a lot of skill to master the infinite combos.

World of Warcraft: So I resubbed to WoW and I've been enjoying pvp a lot. Its super fun. I'm even leveling a low level character with my friend Griff and we're doing a lot of low level pvp. Its surprisingly fun although difficult. Pvp  in WoW can be super tricky, especially at max level on my Holy Priest. I think Holy Priest might be the hardest class I've ever played in the game. I've got my work cut out for me on this one. Especially because I mostly just log on to pvp.

Honorable mention: My friend Gordon's Super Nintendo and N64 collection. We've been playing a lot of classic video games from Nintendo at my friend's house. They have nostalgic value as well as amazing replay-ability.

I play a lot of games but I also try to play in moderation with a rotation of the games so it doesn't get too stale. This is going to be a great weekend for gaming!

Kel'Thuzad is available on the ptr

This guy seems like he was worth the wait. Not only does he look cool but he's one of the coolest Warcraft characters ever. He's an important character in classic Warcraft lore. He has two raids in World of Warcraft and set Arthas on the path to become the Lich King. In addition, he was one of the original Undead units from Warcraft 3. Here I'd like to go over his abilities which mostly seem like skillshots. You can test him out on the ptr right now if you have the gold to purchase him (15k) but he will probably be released sometime soon on the live servers. He's already been on the ptr for a while at this point. I'm just going to cover the abilities for simplicity's sake.

His trait is Master of the Cold Dark
Quest: Gain 1 Blight every time a Hero is Rooted by Frost Nova or hit by Chains of Kel'Thuzad. 
Reward: After gaining 15 Blight, the cooldown of all Basic Abilities is reduced by 2 seconds. 
Reward: After gaining 30 Blight, gain 75% Spell Power. 

This looks like a great trait mainly because of the 75% spell power. I bet once you get that you can insta-kill many heroes in the game easily. The cooldown reduction isn't all that great to me but the spell power is something that is really powerful. 

Death and Decay (Q)
After 0.5 seconds, launch an orb that explodes upon hitting an enemy, dealing 150 damage to enemies in the area. The explosion leaves behind a pool of decay that lasts 2 seconds, dealing 70 damage every 0.5 seconds to enemies.

So this appears to be a skillshot that does good damage. A good bread and butter attack for general use, wear and tear, and finishing blows.

Frost Nova (W)
Create a nova that explodes after 1 second, dealing 212 damage to enemies inside and Slowing them by 35% for 2.5 seconds. Enemies in the center are Rooted for 1 second.

This is an attack that you'll probably want to use a lot once you get close to enemies. It helps a lot with your trait so I'm guessing you're suppose to use this a lot of heroes, probably combo-ing it with q and e abilities. You could frost nova someone thus rooting them, then death and decay shot them, and possibly throwing out the chains of kel'thuzad attack too. A basic combo seems like frost nova then death and decay. 

Chains of Kel'Thuzad (E)
Launch a chain, dealing 97 damage to the first enemy Hero or Structure hit. For 4 seconds after hitting an enemy, Chains can be reactivated to launch to an additional enemy, pulling both enemies together and Stunning them for 0.5 seconds.

I'm not sure if it works the same way but this kind of reminds me of Roadhog's hook from Overwatch. Actually reading it again I know it doesn't work the same way, as this attack stuns multiple enemies if they are both chained. Interesting attack but it seems very situational, ie team fights mostly.

And his Heroic abilities aka ultimates
Frost Blast (R1)
Launch a meteor of ice at an enemy Hero. Upon impact, the meteor deals 100 damage to its target and 275 damage to enemies in the area. All enemies hit by Frozen Tomb are Rooted for 1.5 seconds.

This seems like the ultimate I would go for every time with this dude. It's got a lot of dps and it roots people too! Too good to pass up, that's for sure.

Shadow Fissure (R2)
Create a fissure anywhere on the Battleground that explodes after 1.5 seconds, dealing 440 damage to enemy Heroes in its area.

This also looks like a good choice but the fact that its probably only going to hit a certain particular area means I wouldn't go for it too often unless the enemy team was bad at positioning and I noticed in particular that it was so. But a fissure does sound awesome!

Alright so that's gonna do it for Kel'Thuzad's abilities. He seems great! I've seen gameplay and it seems like you have to hit pretty much most of the time to get the most use out of his trait and just in general to play like really well. If you can't land skillshots the majority of the time then its going to be difficult playing him. At least it seems that way. We will have to wait and see what he's really going to be like once he hits the live servers.

For the Lich King! 

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! 

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! 

How Questing Alone in World of Warcraft Made Me Appreciate the Single Player Experience

So I recently started playing World of Warcraft again mostly because my long time friends from Wisconsin play it and my best friend even said he'd give me gold to buy those game time tokens, which means I won't have to pay to play. If he doesn't help me out the game is a whooping $14.99/month which is pretty extravagant pricing. Pretty excited about that. I started off with a night elf demon hunter but I figured I should play a ranged caster dps with my friends (based on their recommendation but I also like priest class and always wanted to roll one) so I boosted a shadow priest to level 100 and haven't looked back. Mostly because the entire leveling experience that is 100 to 110 (max level is 110) has been a blast. I've actually gained a new appreciation of the single player experience by questing in wow by myself.

In the past when I played Wow I just clicked on every quest as fast as I could and just skimmed everything. Now when I play I read every quest and ponder upon every nuance, sentence, story, and lore. Every quest is an important part of the overall picture. Like a million pieces to a puzzle. There's probably more than a million quests in wow and people worked to create them. Not reading and enjoying it would be a waste of their efforts.

At first questing alone was boring. But then I began to love questing in Azeroth. Somewhere around level 102 on my demon hunter was when I realized that although this is just basic leveling, its still an important and fun part of the game. It teaches you everything: how to do rotation for your character, the story and lore for all kinds of story lines, and all the various parts of Azeroth. It takes a long time to level up but I actually feel like just doing basic quests is the fastest and easiest way to level up. Dungeons don't really give too much experience so they're mostly only good for gearing up (which you still need to do). So questing is the default way to level up. It's going to take me a super long time to hit 110 on my priest but when I do I'll be thankful for the fun journey.

Sometimes I'll run into other players slaying enemies for a "kill all those guys" quest and its fun when I end up helping them or vice versa. Questing has given me a new appreciate for the whole single player experience. I'm down to play some other single player games that I haven't played much because for a super long time now I've been a multiplayer only kind of guy. I'm looking at you Skyrim and Fallout 4!

Now that I'm not so focused on playing Overwatch all the time I feel refreshed. I still play it but Wow has become my main focus, at least for a little while when I wake up in the morning. Nothing like waking up and questing out in Azeroth before I head to work. For an mmo (massive multiplayer online game) Wow sure has a spectacular single player feel. I'm sure things will be much different when I hit 110 and I'm pvping as shadow priest.

I can't wait to wreck some people with unholy magic!

Valeera, Rogue Assassin enters the Nexus

Blizzard updated Heroes of the Storm today and released Valeera as their newest hero.

"Valeera Sanguinar, Shadow of the Uncrowned, is a melee assassin hero from the Warcraft universe. For a time, the gladiator Valeera Sanguinar served dutifully as one of Varian Wrynn's personal bodyguards. Now, her shadowy skills find her a natural fit within the secretive rogue order, the Uncrowned, in their fight against the Legion. She is a tricky assassin who can gain access to different abilities while stealthed, and builds combo points to eviscerate her opponents." (heroesofthestorm.gamepedia.com)

"Valeera Sanguinar, along with Broll Bearmantle, was a companion of Varian Wrynn. She eventually became an enforcer for the New Council of Tirisfal, and accepted the position of an advisor and bodyguard to Varian in Stormwind, with the caveat that she retain her independence. She culturally identifies as a blood elf, taking pride in her people's traditions and defending their tribulations and loyalties. However, she herself acts independently of the Thalassian government, and has formally joined neither the Horde nor the Alliance since her introduction but is fiercely loyal to Varian and his son. Valeera herself maintains that her loyalties are personal, to her friends and her ideals." (heroesofthestorm.gamepedia.com)

Ok, so now you know a lot about her. Now let's get to the nitty gritty-the skills and abilities. To keep this post short and sweet I'm only going to talk about the main skills rather than the additional talents you get as you level up.

Vanish

Cooldown: 8 seconds

Valeera vanishes from sight, becoming Stealthed and increasing her Movement Speed by 10%. For the first second, she is Unrevealable and can pass through other units.
Using Vanish grants Valeera an alternate set of Abilities that she can use while Stealthed.

This is her passive that allows her to be very powerful. Once she goes stealth she stays invisible unless she's hit or revealed. Not only that but using vanish gives you an alternate set of abilities that you can only use while invisible. It's awesome that they added another stealth character like Nova, Zeratul, and Samuro but Valeera has a much cooler stealth than all of those characters because it gives her great abilities. 

Q

Sinister Strike

30 Mana Cooldown: 5 seconds

Dash forward, dealing damage to all enemies in a line. If Sinister Strike hits an enemy Hero, she stops dashing immediately and the cooldown is reduced to 1 second.
Awards 1 Combo Point.
Stealth: Ambush
Heavily damage an enemy.

This is her bread and butter attack that you're going to be using a lot. The dash can go a pretty decent distance and you can also use it to run away. It is also good for general attacking, killing, and gaining combo points.

Q

Ambush

20 Mana Cooldown: 1 seconds

Ambush a target, instantly dealing damage to them.
Awards 1 Combo Point.

This is her stealth Q ability. It's a great general attacking skill used for killing and gaining combo points. It does more damage than sinister strike but it doesn't do a dash attack, instead its just a close range assault. 

W

Blade Flurry

40 Mana Cooldown: 4 seconds

Deal damage in an area around Valeera.
Awards 1 Combo Point per enemy Hero hit.
Stealth: Cheap Shot
Stun and damage an enemy.

This is her small aoe attack. It will hit enemies around you but it doesn't have much range so they will have to be close to you to be effective. Its great for clearing lanes but if you're playing Valeera most likely you don't want to be clearing lanes that much. I find the stealth version of her W ability to be much more useful. 

W

Cheap Shot

30 Mana Cooldown: 1 seconds

Deal a small amount of damage to an enemy and stun them for 1.5 seconds.
Awards 1 Combo Point.

This is my favorite ability for Valeera because it stuns an enemy and does damage. With the stun you can follow up with more rogue attacks and if your team is with you you'll instantly kill them. If you use this at the right time you'll always be able to secure kills. Very useful ability. 

E

Eviscerate

25 Mana Cooldown: 1 seconds

Consume all stored Combo Points to Eviscerate an enemy, dealing increased damage per Combo Point spent. Valeera can store a maximum of 3 Combo Points.
Stealth: Garrote
Silence and damage an enemy over time.

This is a great all around attack when you have a lot of combo points stored up. Like cheap shot it will help you secure a lot of kills. I have to use it more and learn its uses better.

E

Garrote

30 Mana Cooldown: 1 seconds

Garrote an enemy, instantly dealing a small amount of damage to the target, as well as a larger amount of bonus damage over 7 seconds, and Silencing them for 2 seconds.
Awards 1 Combo Point.

This one I have to mess around with more because usually when I'm in stealth mode I go for cheap shot and ambush more so than garrote. But I do see that it is very powerful, mostly because of the silence for 2 seconds. I have to use this ability more.

Ultimates

R

Smoke Bomb

Cooldown: 60 seconds

Create a cloud of smoke. While in the smoke, Valeera is Unrevealable, can pass through other units, and gains 25 Armor, reducing damage taken by 25%. Valeera can continue to attack and use Abilities without being revealed. Lasts 5 seconds.
Using this Ability does not break Vanish.

This is my favorite ulti for Valeera, at least for now. I like the fact that it has a short cooldown and that damage is reduced, armor is gained, and you can keep attacking and using abilities without being revealed. It's also great when you're super low on health. You can pop smoke bomb, run out, and use your passive stealth to run away. So good.

R

Cloak of Shadows

Cooldown: 25 seconds

Valeera is enveloped in a Cloak of Shadows, which immediately removes all damage over time effects from her. For 1 second, she becomes Unstoppable and gains 75 Spell Armor, reducing Ability damage taken by 75%.
Using this Ability does not break Vanish.

This ulti seems great too. I've used it during my first couple games and I love the short cool down. But so far I prefer smoke bomb for most games. However, if I'm getting targeted hard and don't have a healer this does seem like a much better option. The fact that it only lasts 1 second makes me not like it as much but the fact that its on a 25 second cool down is just insanely good. 

All in all Valeera has turned out to be one of the coolest and most fun characters to play in heroes of the storm. I probably won't get bored of her until I reach level 10 on her. Then I'll go back to my usual roster of heroes. Playing her reminds me of playing my Undead Rogue in World of Warcraft (oh, those were the days), albeit a much simpler and easier play style. She's super fun! 

Now you're thinking like a rogue.

Ex-World of Warcraft Lead Designer Announces Bonfire Studios

After 17 years of service working on World of Warcraft Rob Pardo parted ways with Blizzard in 2014. He unveiled recently a new indie gaming studio called Bonfire Studios that's comprised of ex-Blizzard colleagues and ex-Nexon CEO Min Kim. The startup has received a $25 million joint investment from venture capital company Andreessen Horowitz and Riot Games. Holy dollars Batman!

"Pardo’s ex-Blizzard colleagues include Matthew Versluys, Nick Carpenter and Josh Mosqueira—the latter of which was once creative director of Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls. Versluys is also the ex-director of Battle.net, thus it seems Pardo has formed quite the all-star team. “To ensure our developers have a big impact we are organizing them into small but powerful and diverse superhero teams, like the Avengers,” says Pardo in a Medium blog post." (Pc Gamer) 

They haven't released any information about a project but you can bet everybody will be looking at this company and expect great things to come.

"Game developers live the dream scenario where passion meets work," the Medium post adds. "We don't view our week as something to get through so we can really live on the weekend. But often, developers must compromise and decide - do I work on a blockbuster game where I have less personal impact or the gutsy indie studio that struggles to get noticed? Our vision is to create a studio that doesn't require them to choose.

"To give us the ability to operate with independence and create the games we want, we had to find amazing investors. If we are going to create a superhero team, we needed our version of Shield. After all, superhero bases are not free. But we needed more than financial backing, we wanted true partners that could give us sage advice about the road ahead, connect us to future partners and most importantly who share our vision for Bonfire Studios."

This is a dream team line-up and they have some crazy amount of millions of dollars to work with. Perhaps they could even rival Blizzard one day if they create meaningful, creative, and fun content. Keep your eyes open for Bonfire Studios games in the future. 

Blizzard Legend Chris Metzen Retires

Chris Metzen, Senior VP of Story and Franchise Development at Blizzard, has announced his retirement from the company after 23 years. He's one of the most well-known faces from Blizzard and had a strong influence on Diablo, Warcraft, and Starcraft series as well as serving as creative director on Overwatch. What a resume! This guy is a freakin' legend, like the Gabe Newell of Blizzard.

Metzen announced the move in a blogpost on the battle.net forums. "For nearly twenty-three years I’ve had the very distinct privilege of shaping worlds and building games with the brightest creative minds in entertainment," Metzen wrote. "I’ve walked with giants (and stood on some giants’ shoulders, too). In short, I’ve had the time of my life." (Pc Gamer)

This isn't a career move or change. He's retiring to spend more time with his family. He has a new baby and all that jazz. Things like that make you focus your priorities and what's really important in life.

"The reason I use the word 'retire' is because I’m not going to some other company or starting up new projects or anything remotely like that," he wrote. "It’s been a long, amazing stretch of years. Now it’s time to slow it down. Rest. Lay around on the couch and get fat. Well, fatter…"Seriously though, I’ll be focusing on the one thing that matters most to me in all the world—my family. They’re the core of my life and the source of my deepest joy and inspiration." (Pc Gamer)

He left a remarkable mark in the gaming industry and for Blizzard. Overwatch has been a hit game since launch and Warcraft Legion has brought World of Warcraft to the forefront of Mmorpg gaming again. Things are looking great for Blizzard. I wonder who will become the next Chris Metzen in the company. This guy did so much and was such a cool public figure for the company it would be hard to replace him. I've seen him in pretty much every Blizzard documentary talking about all the games. I especially like the Starcraft documentaries with him. Those were epic. Thanks Chris and have a happy, enjoyable retirement.

Lok'tar ogar

So I saw the new Warcraft movie w/ my brother yesterday. And what a great movie it was. The reviews online are saying that its okay or that its bad but I think its pretty good. I would go so far as to say this is the best video game movie ever made. Better than any of those cult fan made films and definitely better than any other gaming stuff Hollywood has produced. Blizzard has outdone themselves with a true masterpiece. That might be going too far calling it a masterpiece but I do think the movie was above average. On a scale of 1-10 I would give it an 8.5, pretty high by my standards. Let's talk about what could've been better, and what was good.

Okay, first of all, the movie had several problems. The biggest one of all is that there's a ton of characters and we don't get to know them, their names (too many nerdy names to remember), and they just get thrown at us without any backstory or much introduction. There's the main orc chieftain named Durotan, head of the Frostwolf clan, Khadgar the young human mage, and there's the human general that I forget his name. Those are the only characters that we really get to know well and care about. There's all these other characters but in the scheme of things they all are minor characters. Everyone else is pretty much a minor role. There's so many characters that none of them really get the airtime that they deserve. Instead they shove as many characters down our throats as possible and for the most part we can't remember their names. So the characters were kind of not thought about or planned out very well.

In addition, the fighting scenes in this movie are very short and anticlimactic. There's a fight at the end after the big battle where the human general takes on the orc warchief. Its the most anticlimactic fight ever. The human guy wins the battle in one sweeping motion. However, the orcs are proud of the human for defeating the warchief in one of their grand rituals so that was super cool how noble the orcs were. Brownie points!

There was this minor love interest thing in the film that just led nowhere. It could've done without it. Basically an orc woman and the human general kind of have a thing but not really a thing, ya know? Like they were close but they never got too close or even kissed. So what was the point? I have no clue.

Anyways, I also thought the movie was too long. Its 2 hours and 3 minutes long-way too long for me. I guess that's standard Hollywood time lengths but they could've cut out so much of the dumb stuff to make the movie shorter and more cohesive. For example, they could've completely skipped the dumb fight w/ Medev's golum that turned out to be super weak anyways. They could've also skipped out most of the lame talking parts. A lot of this movie was just the Alliance peoples talking and the Orc peoples talking about what they were gonna do. I know that's plot and setting up suspense and drama but it got old fast. By the second act I'm tired about hearing what they're going to do. When there's little action the movie gets boring. When the action gets going and peaks that's when things get good. Which leads me to my next point.

The fighting scenes in this movie are phenomenal. The orcs are huge as they should be and they absolutely just annihilate the Alliance soldiers when they first meet them. I was rooting for the orcs the whole way until I realized I was an Alliance guy in World of Warcraft XD. The humans aren't afraid of the orcs even though they are weaker and can get slayed easily. There's some brutal scenes in this movie where Alliance soldiers get their heads crushed, orcs get stabbed through their backs, and Guldan just straight up mass murders tons of people using fel magic. Fel magic is basically demonic magic that Guldan, an orc warlock was using throughout the movie to open the portal to Azeroth. Which brings up my next point.

The story is great. It basically follows everything that happens before World of Warcraft and Warcraft III. So basically if you know the first two games-Orcs and Humans and Beyond the Dark Portal you pretty much know everything that's going to happen in this movie. Basically the orcs are from a different world called Outlands and the humans live in Azeroth. Guldan is able to open up a portal that takes the orcs to Azeroth, where they're supposed to conquer the entire world through war. So Guldan brought all the orc clans together to do this and the Alliance has to find some way to stop the orcs from killing everybody. They rely on Medev, this all powerful mage guardian but it turns out he's been corrupted by the fel magic too. That's where things get interesting because he turns into a demon that looks like Illidan from Warcraft III-way cool! It's pretty entertaining once the ball gets rolling. The whole plot builds up slowly and works its way up to many climaxes. It was quite thrilling.

Another thing I'd like to say is that the weapons and armor looked terrific. It looks straight out of the games that I've played-World of Warcraft in particular. Seeing it all on the big screen took me back to my WoW playing days. The orcs had these massive cool hammers that just crushed the humans. And the humans had the same armor in the games as well as these cool swords. The orcs had wolves that they used for transportation as well as to fight. The humans had gryphons to fly on as well as horses. The orcs threw their horses at them and stuff. It was funny.

Lastly, one of the best parts of the movie was the credits when I heard the World of Warcraft game music playing. Nerd chills man! Go see this movie. Blizzard has really outdone themselves by creating a great movie for their beloved gaming series. This movie makes me want to resubscribe to WoW and start playing everyday even though I don't have the time for it. That's how good it was. I might sound like I'm being paid to talk about how great this movie was but that's just how cool it was. I don't think there will be any video game movies that are going to be better than this unless there's more Warcraft movies. Go check it out at a local theater near you. For the Horde!