Nearly 2 weeks over since Diablo 3 1.05 Patch

Next Tuesday will make 2 weeks that the most recent big patch for Diablo 3 been released. As most know, this patch delivered people the Infernal machine which allow to fight uber strong version of game bosses (Skeleton King, Magda and other 4) and the Monster Power which increases the difficulty of the game but at the same time rewards players for the extra challenge. Also drop of legendary items been highly increased (doubled), and with the same amount of % to drop on all acts.

The reason I'm posting this, is not because just to mention the patch itself but to give my opinion if this patch did work in favor or against the game. 

For the first time in a few months, I saw people happy with the game and not getting frustrated from hours and hours of farming without nothing to show up. Drops of legendary items is really higher then it was before and it's making the farming lot more fun. Despite the fact that it's now much more common to see those items, the chance of them being good is, i would say, a lot harder to get. Dunno if this is intended or not, but the amount of low quality legendary (with bad roll on stats) is higher. That could be for either 2 reasons. Either Blizzard did something to make it harder to get really good items, or due to the fact that there are more players back in the game, legendary items drop more and as a consequence chances of being bad quality are higher.

The Monster Power addition it's a nice tweak for the game, allowing players to increase the games difficulty to where they can stand it, while being awarded with more drops and experience (for the paragon system). It can be increase from 1 to 10. Where 1 can be easily done by most characters with a little gear on it, to 10, where only the highest equipped characters should try to.

The Infernal Machine is the at the moment the highest challenge available in Diablo 3. First off, players need to assemble a special machine, Infernal Machine, to access the uber bosses. Each act there is a new named elite, Keywarden, that hold a special ingredient that is needed to craft the Infernal Machine. From act 1 to 3, each warden drops a key, act four drops a recipe (this last one, once you have the recipe you don't need to kill it again). I can spoil you guys with the location (zone) of each warden:

1. Act 1: Festering woods, goat boss that throws spears and fireballs;
2. Act 2: Dahlgur Oasis (can look on any of the 2 waypoints), it's one of those floating guys that spin like mad, and when the spin they throw fire bombs like crazy. Also they have a missile dampening;
3. Act 3: Stonefort, just head forward you will find it. Can't recall that one right now, cause i only did it once, but beware the AoE on the floor;
4. Act 4: Silver Spire, level 1. Another dude i can't recall, kinda lucky if you ask me, 1 kill got recipe, so i probably wont see him much.

When finally you have the ingredients, head to your blacksmith, learn the recipe and craft the machine. Then head back to a new game on act 1, pick the last quest of that act if possible and then start a new game (if it's the first time i would recommend not to do it higher then monster power then 3). Go behind the healer npc, and smash the door there, shown here:

Go in, use the infernal machine only inside and voila a red portal is open. Go in and have fun!

There are 3 different encounters, and each encounter may drop a special ingredient plus loot. Once you have all 3 ingredient from each encounter plus 2 million gold, you will be able to craft the Hellfire Ring (shown below):

Note that the one displayed here, is the Strength version, but there are other versions of this recipe for each stat. Yes you need the 2 million gold to buy the recipe which is on act 2 at the npc Squirt the Peddler. I think it's a cool reward for the effort.

Overall, for the first time, i can see that finally a patch really helped Diablo 3. At least with more drops people seem to be more happy to play it then it was before. Even some friends of mine told me they were happy the way the game is going. Just hope that Blizzard keeps up the right track and keeps handing goods to it's players.

Riders of Rohan is live!

The Fellowship goes to Rohan and this time they have warhorses! I could put it that way.

Riders of Rohan, is the 4th expansion for Lord of the Rings online, where it takes the players into Rohan, home of the horse lords. Expected, as usual, with this expansions, are new zones to explore (they say Rohan is quite big), lots of new quests, 10 levels to go through (level cap raised to 85) and new items to discover. Would be pretty much regular standard except for the introduction of combat riding. Yeah, apparently Turbine developed a new gameplay for LOTRO, where players use their rides (which are new, nothing to do with the regular mounts), and use them as means of fighting. Now I haven't seen much about it except some Turbine made videos, so I don't know much, except that besides being a new sort of combat, players will be able to level up (or something), skill up and gear up their mount of choice. Meaning it's yet another thing to level. I think it could be interesting, will have to dig up. 

In any case you can always go to the official site of the expansion right here.

My only issue, is that it's been a year since Rise of Isengard (3rd expansion) was released. A year gap between 2 expansions, specially when both give 10 more levels each to players, i think it's a bit much. It's really a shame, because there is a ton of content from 1-75 that many wont ever touch (me included). Sometimes i would like to find a group of players that would rather play mmo games to enjoy the game, and not rush it to cap level. I wont  be rushing into 85 anytime soon, and funny thing I only reached 75 (Isengard level cap) a day before Rohan got out. So I'm gonna keep myself exploring a bit more before getting into Rohan and it's warhorses.

I've slacked on posting again...

I slacked again on posting stuff here, and i missed posting something about the Guild Wars 2 release and such... I do hope to fix it on the next few days.

Personally I'm back on playing Rift and waiting for the new expansion, which most probably will be awesome. Finally did my first raids on it, and am running everyday some dungeons to get some more pieces of gear and Planar Attunement experience before the release of Storm Legions in November. It's been great fun, with lots of stuff to do everyday. And from what I've heard, there's been good feedback for the new expansion. Also is expected a pre-expansion event and update that will change everything to ultimate the preparations for the release. I can only say I'm enjoying my time in Rift.

Also, beware those damn indie games bundles, they can be really addicting! Or www.gog.com!