GW2: Chuka and Champawat Vol. 3: Tigris

Crafting Tigris, the Precursor weapon to Chuka and Champawat, is the next major stage towards creating your Legendary Weapon. However, we need to complete this collection first. There are 20 parts to this collection, 2 of which involve a separate collection which I will write my next Chuka post on.

If you haven’t completed the previous collections, please refer to my other guides for The Hunt and The Ambush as these need to be completed before the Tigris collection can be unlocked.

Smite: 4.20 Patch Notes

Patch 4.20, Tides of China, brings plenty of content to Smite… however, probably not the kind of content you were expecting. Discordia has been delayed another patch, but on the Patch Notes show they released some spoilers as of what’s to come in patch 4.21.

See the bottom of this post for further details on Discordia and the next adventure!

As always, if you haven’t seen the Official Patch Notes yet, follow the link!

 

Skins:

Starting with the Odyssey skins first. The Sand Viper Ao Kuang skin is well designed with a good theme. I do like the sci-fi inspired design and it looks really cool but I don’t think I’ll get this skin as I don’t play Ao that much.

The Pixel Rush He Bo definitely has some unique sound effects but I think they could get quite annoying considering how low his cooldowns are! Again, I like the skin but I don’t think I’ll be purchasing it for myself.

The Super Chill Bacchus skin is a bonus reward for reaching 42,000 Odyssey points (Odyssey level 12). He has plenty of rainbow effects and a very stereotypical voice pack – what you would really imagine to go along with the skin, but it’s a decent change and I’m sure plenty of people will like this.

The announcer pack will also be similar style to this skin (which will be available as part of the Odyssey to purchase separately).

SWC Lootpack! This pack will cost 1500 gems and will be available to purchase for a limited time. People who have bought a ticket for HRX will get one of these with their ticket so will not have to buy this at additional cost.

This pack will come with 3 limited skins (Neith, Aphrodite and Thor) and the Cernunnos Exclusive Convention skin as well as 750 fantasy points, a recall skin, global emote, ward skin and a Divine Chest roll containing a previous convention skin or E-sports skin. The skin for Thor also comes with a special emote exclusive to that skin where Thor does iRaffer’s Hammer Thrust.

I absolutely love the Mystic Defender Neith skin! Everything about it is great and I think I’ll be buying this pack just for this skin! I like the Aphrodite skin too, but it’s only like a T2 recolour without a VP which is kind of disappointing as the Amaterasu skin (last years equivalent) had it’s own voice pack. Plus I have the Aphra Cadabra skin so why would I ever use another Aphro skin anyway…

 

Item Changes:

Some items have had their artwork redone to try to fit in more with the colour scheme of the tree they are located in. Check the Official Patch notes for the full list.

Soul Eater:

• 30 Physical Power, 10% Physical Lifesteal, 10% Cooldown Reduction, 3000 Gold.
• New Passive: Gain a stack for minions that dies near you. Gods (allies and enemies), large buff camp monsters and jungle bosses provides 5 stacks. At 100 stacks, gain 20 physical power and your abilities will now heal you for 10% of the damage dealt.

Thorns Upgrade: Decreased duration from 8 seconds to 5 seconds.

Executioner: Price increase from 2250 gold to 2350 gold.

 

God Changes:

Amaterasu: 

• Heavenly Reflection: Decreased cooldown from 14 seconds to 12 seconds and decreased mana cost from 70-90 to 60-80.

Artio:

• Base Health per level decreased from 100 to 95.

Guan Yu:

• Mana per level increased from 32 to 35.
• Conviction: Decreased mana cost from 60-80 to 60 at all ranks.

Izanami:

• Fade Away: Decreased stealth duration from 4-6 seconds to 3-5 seconds.
• Dark Portal: Decreased damage from 250-650 to 220-620, decreased power scaling from 130% to 100% and decreased silence duration from 1.5/1.75/2/2.25/2.5 seconds to 1.5/1.65/1.8/1.95/2.1 seconds.

Kumbhakarna:

• Epic Undercut: Altered the cooldown from 90-70 seconds to 75 seconds at all ranks. The audio has also been adjusted to make it easier to hear over other abilities.

Poseidon:

• Trident: Increased movement speed from 5%-25% to 10%-30%
• Kraken: Increased the damage of the outer ring of the Kraken (170/195/220/245/270 +30% magical power to 175/210/245/280/315 +45% magical power) and slightly reduced the damage of the centre (180/220/260/300/340 +60% magical power to 175/210/245/280/315 +45% magical power). Can now also be placed on player made walls (e.g. Thor’s Tectonic Rift).

Raijin:

• Percussive Storm: Reduced projectile radius from 6 to 4.5 units.
• Raiju: Visuals will now travel faster.

Zeus:

• Aegis Assualt: The AOE will now be triggered when hit by Chain Lightning.
• Chain Lightning: Power scaling increased from 40% to 50%.

 

The Reaping:

From Monday 23rd to Sunday 29th October, celebrate Halloween with a whole week of rewards! There will also be a different chest on sale each day for 50% off!

Part 1: From Monday 23rd to Thursday 26th Oct, earn an Enigma Chest Roll for each FWOTD, and either a Cutesy Avatar Chest roll (Monday, Wednesday) or an Odyssey Chest roll (Tuesday, Thursday) for 3 FWOTD!

Part 2: From Friday 27th to Sunday 29th Oct, earn 50 gems per day for 3 FWOTD as well as gaining double worshipers, XP and favour all weekend!

 

Other:

Godlike Chest: Scarlet Dangerfield Neith, Jurassic Camazotz and High Noon Sylvanus will be added to the Godlike Chest this month with a chance of being rolled.

Hi-Rez are asking the community for ideas for the T5 Ullr skin’s voicepack. You can contribute to creating voice lines by posting in the Smite T5 VP Forum.

Ullr is a heroic and aspiring Elementalist in his mid 20s. He should sound more serious as he is an Elementalist trying to control his newfound elemental powers of ice and fire! More serious voice lines have a better chance of making the cut. Also, make sure your lines are original! Well known quotes/movie lines will not be considered.

 

Spoilers!

Discordia: Discordia will be a Roman Mage and will be released next patch (4.21). Hi-Rez have only shown her character model design and confirmed her class and Pantheon, but have not stated or shown anything about her abilities yet. I guess they can’t reveal her completely at this stage, but we’ll find out in a couple of weeks! She looks amazing!

The next and final adventure of the Season has also been announced for release in patch 4.21. It will be another dungeon type event, similar to the likes of Fafnir’s Wonderland and Trials of King Hercules. Hi-Rez have stated that it will be much, much bigger than the last adventures and filled with plenty of traps and puzzles for us to experience. There will be a normal and a hard mode with a nightmare mode said to be released later on in patch 4.22. I’m really looking forward to this as I loved the Trials of King Hercules so I’m excited to see what new content will be coming next patch! Looks like the 4.21 patch blog will be a long one!

Season 5 conquest map ideas have been announced. The map will roughly be 20% wider than it is now and chaos and order sides will be perfectly mirrored so both teams have completely the same sides. The theme will still be Greek, but it will be getting a huge visual makeover.

Guild Wars 2: Halloween [2017]!

Shadow of the Mad King is now live! Halloween has arrived once again in Lion’s Arch.

The Mad King’s Labyrinth has returned and I’m hoping it will be just as good for farming this year as it was last year as I desperately need gold for the Griffon Mount. If so, I’m sure I’ll be holding some farming runs – so if you see me (Alessa Demon) don’t be afraid to say hi! Obviously I’m going to complete the Halloween content as my Necromancer as she fits the part, but I think I’ll be changing her back to the Reaper rather than the Scourge for now.

I stumbled upon a few new additions to the Labyrinth… isn’t that such a great costume!

This year there are a few new achievements to complete, located in three different sub sections. Talk to Magister Tassi in Lion’s Arch to complete the “Mad Memories” Achievement. She will then mail you a Candy-Powered Matter Meter Mk2 which is then used for another achievement, “Mad Mysteries”. Use it to scan around for 6 ghosts and when this achievement is complete you will unlock the Mad Memories Backpack skin and the next tier to the achievement.

All the achievements in the Lunatic Wardrobe section award you with a specific piece of Lunatic armour (chest box, etc.) but only allows you to pick one weight. The medium head and chest piece also comes with a bloodstained version (disappointed you can’t get the bloodstained skin for other classes as this would’ve been great for my Necro).

There are also Halloween Dailies which will count towards the “Eve of the Mad King” achievement which gives you a “Mad King’s Gift” for every 5 you complete (infinite). Unfortunately these dailies don’t count to the standard daily rewards like they did last year, so if you want your daily does of 10AP and 2 gold then you’re going to have to carry on as normal. The Mad King’s Gift contains Haunted Weapons and you will be able to get at least 5 of these if you complete your Halloween Dailies every day.

Obviously there are new and returning Halloween style outfits and items in the Gem Store with the addition of skeleton costumes for you mounts. Dress up your mount whilst competing in the Mad King’s Labyrinth mount race!

Pick up the spooky outfits for you mount (comes as a 5 pack) from the Gem Store for a discounted price of 1600 gems (normally 2000 gems). I’m not sure if I’ll get these as they are pretty expensive. I do think they look cool, but I can’t imagine I’ll use them any time other than for Halloween. You can recolour them too.

Ascent to Madness, The Mad King’s Clock Tower (jumping puzzle) and the Mystic Forge Cauldron are all back, and I’m assuming Mad King Says will also be running every 2 hours as usual.

Happy Hallowe’en everyone!

Smite: Halloween Chest Item List [2017]

The Halloween Chest was added to Smite earlier today with patch 4.19, now including the new items. Hallowe’en is my favourite time of the year, and after not having many gems this time last year (as I wanted them for the Odyssey) I decided today was the time to roll the whole chest.

In my opinion, this is probably the best chest in Smite as it contains 8 exclusive skins out of it’s 14 items. The list on Smite wiki hasn’t been updated yet, so I’ll write a list here for you all:

Exclusive Skins:

• Grim Reaper Thanatos [NEW]
• Trick or Treat Cupid [NEW]
• Wolf Man Fenrir
• Feline Fashion Awilix
• Jack the Reaper Thanatos
• Frankenhotep Osiris
• The Re-Animated Osiris
• Grim Mariachi Loki

Direct Purchase Skins:

• Dark Summoner Nu Wa (400 gems) [NEW]
• Slaughterhouse Chaac (600 gems)

Other:

• Spooky Music Theme and Jack O’ Lantern Jump Stamp (bundle) [NEW]
• Brain in the Jar Ward
• Jack O Lantern Avatar
• Cemetery Awaits Avatar

If you roll the chest once, you will be given a coupon for 25% off your next chest roll!

For those of you that are interested, here’s the order I got them in (I already owned Slaughterhouse Chaac):

1. Wolf Man Fenrir
2. Feline Fashion Awilix
3. Jack the Reaper Thanatos
4. Frankenhotep Osiris
5. Trick or Treat Cupid
6. Jack O Lanter Avatar
7. Dark Summoner Nu Wa
8. Grim Mariachi Loki
9. Brain in the Jar Ward
10. Grim Reaper Thanatos
11. Cemetery Awaits Avatar
12. The Re-Animated Osiris
13. Spooky Music Theme Bundle

Overall, the whole 13 rolls cost me 5100 gems with the coupon (5600 for all 14 rolls at full price). If it wasn’t for the music theme then I would’ve stopped at Grim Reaper Thanatos. The theme was definitely worth it though, it’s so different to any other music pack in the game, perfect for this time of year and for the spooky themed arena!

If you want these skins then it’s best to get them during the next 28 days. I’ve been looking for it all year and it’s never come on sale, so if you don’t get them now it’s unlikely you’ll have the chance to get them again until next year. Let me know what you get if you take the chance to roll!

Smite: 4.19 Patch Notes

It’s almost Hallowe’en! I love this time of year and it’s probably the best time for games in my opinion. This week we will see the release of more skins for the Halloween Chest and some spooky themed Odyssey Skins. The Skins are definitely the highlight of this patch, so I’ll start with those!

As always, if you haven’t seen the Official Patch Notes yet, follow the link.

Skins:

Hallowe’en Skins first! Say hello to Grim Reaper Thanatos…

Honestly, when I heard that Thanatos was getting another Hallowe’en skin I was a little disappointed since he already has the awesome Jack the Reaper skin, but this one is probably the best looking skin I’ve seen for a while. The card art looks great, but the skin actually looks better and the effects are great too with grave stones appearing on the ult execute. The colour scheme is fantastic and the sound effects are really great too.

The sound design has been top notch for these Hallowe’en skins, including this Trick or Treat Cupid skin. A short music clip plays on his dash and all the other effects are really great. He shoots candycorn as his basic attacks and his ult looks great with the classic trick or treat bags. Would probably be better without his wings though…

There’s also a music pack and a Jack O Lantern jump stamp released with this patch which will also be included in the Halloween Chest.

Odyssey Skins now then. For all the Odyssey content so far, please refer to my Odyssey 2018 Content post.

So with this patch comes Mummified Izanami, Yurei Susano and Warchief Raijin.

I actually really like this skin as it suits her well. The voice pack is great and the ability effects are sand themed which ties to the Egyptian reference. Not sure if I’ll be buying this one as I own the Dreadful Doll skin (and that cost me a lot to own).

Love the card art for this one, but sadly it wasn’t really what I expected. I thought this skin was going to be more ghost related, but Susano looks more like a zombie here with ghosts tied into his ability effects. I would’ve liked to have seen him as the spirit himself like the name suggests with a spooky voice pack.

This skin for Raijin is a good variation to what we’ve seen for him before. I like the changes they have done with this skin, and it reminds of the recent Hou Yi one. The voice pack is fitting and the ability effects are pretty good too.

 

Item Changes:

Hide of the Urchin – Increased cost from 2350 gold to 2450 gold. Both physical and magical protection has been decreased from 35 to 30.

Crusher – Increased attack speed from 15% to 20%.

Soul Reaver – Decreased cost from 2950 gold to 2750 gold.

 

God Changes:

Ao Kuang 

• Dragon Call – Increased damage of Ranged Dragon from 15/20/25/30/35 to 20/25/30/25/40.
• Wild Storm – No longer triggers basic attack items or effects (e.g. Polynomicon) but will still trigger charges of Dragon Call. Base damage increased from 80-260 to 90-270.

Awilix

• Feather Step – Decreased damage in the early game from 60/90/120/150/180 to 40/75/110/145/180.
• Moonlit Charge – Increased scaling of physical power from 60% to 70%.

Cu Chulainn

• Berserk – Decreased base shield health from 40 to 20. Shield health per level increased from 23 to 24.
• Barbed Spear – Reduced Rage gained when hitting a non-God target from 6 to 5, and increased the Rage gained when hitting a God from 6 to 8.
• Salmon’s Leap – Reduced Rage gained when hitting a non-God target from 6 to 5, and increased the Rage gained when hitting a God from 6 to 8.
• Spear of Mortal Pain – Reduced Rage gained when hitting a non-God target from 6 to 5, and increased the Rage gained when hitting a God from 6 to 8.

Erlang Shen

• 72 Transformations – Decreased base damage of mink form from 90-330 to 70-310 and decreased duration of mink attack speed and movement speed buff from 5 seconds to 4 seconds.

Hachiman

• Base movement speed increased from 360 to 365.
• Eagle Eye – Ammo increased from 3/3/3/4/4 to 3/3/4/4/4. Damage reduced from 10/15/20/20/25 to 10/15/15/20/25 (short range) and 0/5/10/10/15 to 0/5/5/10/15 (long range).
• Iajutsu – Cooldown reduced from 16-18 to 16 at all ranks.
• Mounted Archery – Damage adjustment to make the damage scale 55 power per level. Adjusted from 225/285/335/390/445 to 225/280/335/390/445.

Izanami

• Fade Away – Reduced casting time before the leap from 0.65 seconds to 0.35 seconds.
• Dark Portal – Faster cast time (for both warm up and post fire)from 0.85 seconds to 0.6 seconds.

Raijin

• Percussive Storm – Now has a radius of 6 at all times. Base damage decreased from 35-90 to 30-90.
• Raiju – Increased projectile speed by 20%.
• Thunder Crash – Raijin can now move during the cast time of the ability and will no longer be rooted to one spot before travelling.
• Taiko Drums – Players could sometimes become stuck and unable to cast during the ultimate, so additional support has been added to limit this happening.

GW2: Aurora: Awakening – Ember Bay Master

Aurora: Awakening is the first official step of the Legendary Trinket’s collections. After you’ve forged your Gleam of Sentience and purchased your Sentient Seed, you will have unlocked these collections. See my Aurora Introductory Post for more information about this.