Sun and video games don't mix

      It has been a week since the last blog, as I got entranced with getting my dragoon to level 60 in Final Fantasy 14. That and spending time with the girlfriend and kids over the Labor Day weekend. So without further ado, let's jump in. We took the kids to the zoo and nearby water park, where I relearned that my Irish heritage hates the sun. I came home to a bad sunburn Saturday night. Aloe Vera and cold showers have been my friend since then. I must remember to limit my sun exposure to a minimal or invest in some high quality sun block. In the meantime, as far as gaming goes, things are better than my sun burnt back.

The Road less grindy...NOT!

      So leveling has been OK so far. I managed to get Scholar & Summoner to lvl 52, and Dragoon to lvl 53. I have been taking some breaks in between to finish completing all lvl 50 dungeons (Yay! High level Roulette Queue unlocked) and completing my artifact weapon, Gae Bolg. Also been doing tanking some level 60 dungeons to keep the Tome of Law and Esoterics flowing.  I also stopped to work on the Armorsmith crafting class. I have to say, Square Enix knows how to make a crafting class that is unique and rage inducing at the same time.

      For those that don't play, you can control the quality of the gear during the crafting so as to make High Quality items. You do this by using abilities during the crafting process. As the Quality bar increases, so does the percentage of the "Chance" you create a quality item. Needless to say, I have seen several high percentage (65% and higher) quality item not become HQ.

 

     So needless to say, crafting is on a slow and limited grind to reduce grey hair production. This week I am planning to focus more on finishing Dragoon to start digging into endgame.

That Halo Legendary run

      Last week, Microsoft released the opening cinematic for Halo 5: Guardians. Just thinking about it is making my palms sweating of knowing the hours I will put into the game and of course, Legendary campaign mode. So far to date, I have completed every Halo game on legendary except for the Master Chief Collection (which is every Halo game minus Halo: Reach and Halo Wars.). With Halo 5 a little under two months away, I am getting a bit anxious. With Halo 4, it was the first time I ever completed Legendary Campaign solo. This time around the girlfriend will be joining me on this quest. I know she is skilled in FPS games with a controller so something tells me this will be a quick run.
          In the meantime, I have introduced our kids to Halo for the first time by having them play the Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary. Needless to say, Harley and I got some enjoyment watching them play the game as they worked together to complete campaign. We quickly noticed that one of the boys is rather skilled when he no scoped a few elites. I was rather impressed until he turned around and had that shit eating grin on his face like he was a total badass. I'll let him "practice" some more before I kick the ego in.

 That Destiny...2.0

           So I've been keeping an eye on Destiny from time to time as the game is fun, but way too grindy. So today they released their newest patch, 2.0, which begins the change of the original game before their newest expansion, The Taken King. Looking over the patch notes, I'm excited for some of the changes and am a bit anxious to pick the game up again, but one of my biggest problems is lack of friends on Xbox One to play Destiny. Plus with the fact that voice chat is hardly used, it make the game less social and more singular. More or less, it is just filling the void of Halo for the time being. However, when I see some of my friends, who play Destiny on PS4, have so much fun with the game it makes it that much harder to enjoy the game. Most of them tell me just get a PS4 to play with them. One major problem, cash flow is extremely tight while saving for already planned expenditures. So if I pick up The Taken King when it comes out will be a wait and see. In the mean time, it is all Halo and Final Fantasy 14 for now.

The Road So Far

     

      Sorry for the Supernatural reference, but I just got finished marathon watching 10 seasons of the show before next month. I can thank a few of the people I follow on twitter (namely William Shattner) for getting me curious about the show after the season 9 finale. So now I have an ever increasing list of TV shows that I marathon watch during the summer. This is why Netflix and Hulu are my source of TV rather than pay for cable. Next show on my list is either Agents of Shield or Arrow. I don't have enough tissues right now to go through all of Doctor Who.

Tanks.... learn 2 play!

       Anyways, back to gaming and other nonsense. I'm slowly making my way back to 60. I'm now level 47 dragoon. I hope to hit 50 in the next two nights. More and more, I find myself enjoying the game as dps rather than tanking. I would say less stressful, but then again now I have to deal with less than stellar tanks. Sunday night, Harley and I went into Stone Vigil for a dungeon run to get away from FATE Grinding. Needless to say, after a tank that dragged boss abilities on top of us and another tank that couldn't stay alive for one hit.... we vote abandoned and went back to FATE grinding. Harley actually thought she was the problem and I had to prove to her that wasn't the case. 

       As a former tank, I know how important it is to understand your class and perform to the fullest. A tank class is not something you can half ass. On the list of important jobs in a MMO, tanks are up there at the top. I had a good reminder of this when I ran an expert roulette and a few dungeons with some guildies to farm some Tome of Law and Esoterics. Even though I wasn't  as geared as the rest of the party, I was able to hold my own and run the dungeons with no problem. I knew my abilities and used them as needed, when needed. This made the run enjoyable for everyone and I was able to farm some dragoon gear. That is the only reason I tank end game dungeons, to get my gear ready for when I get my dragoon class to 60. So far I have the majority of dragoon gear drops from the end game dungeons. 

New hardware

     So, ten months ago, my Logitech G600 crapped out on me and I needed a replacement. Initially I thought to just by another one but the price caused hesitation. I searched throughout the web and by chance happened upon a cheap MMO mouse, Redragon Perdition MMO mouse. It looked nice, had plenty of side buttons,and the price was low. So I took a chance and bought it. When I got it, I immediately noticed that I would have to retrain my hand as far as holding the mouse to access the buttons. After using the mouse for the while I started liking it. Customizing the buttons was easy, weight system was nice, and software was easy to use. Over time however, I started to notice some my annoyances with the mouse. During a frantic boss fight, I could start to get hand cramps from holding it. Even with the weights, it was still too light, which caused the mouse to move every time I had to press a side button.

      So I put up with this for ten months before making the decision to purchase another Logitech G600, which came down in price. I got it in the mail yesterday, thanks to Amazon Prime. Needless to say, it was like riding a bike all over again. Button placement was good, weight of the mouse is nice, and I don't have to hammer the side buttons to get them to work. All feels right again at my gaming computer again.