As a great deal of gamers know, Modern Warfare 3 came out at midnight and I can say I was one of the many waiting in line at my local Wal-Mart. (I’m not a fan of Gamestop, so if I go any place for a midnight release, it’s Wal-Mart)

After coming home and taking care of the chores that involve stepping foot into my house (ie, letting the dog out) I planned on making a quick post, bragging about obtaining MW3; only to find out that my internet* was down and had been for some time. I occupied my time with some NHL 12 and L.A. Noire until recently when my internet has decided to come back on. I think I’ll try to get a few games in, but the bulk of my evening has been wasted.

I’ll try to have my review up by Saturday of the online play. I’m very interested in seeing a few people post on Facebook that “MW3 sucks. I think I’m going to trade this in for Battlefield 3″

*To answer any of you that would say, “Well why didn’t you just play the campaign mode?” First off, I don’t think I’ve played any of the campaign mode for the last two Call of Duty games, they just don’t appeal to me that much. I tend to pick up Call of Duty games mainly play them online with friends and to have the joy of shooting other people. Besides, I really wanted to work on my L.A. Noire I got in from Gamefly.

Contents of the box are:

Diablo III Full Game
DVD Behind the scenes
Diablo III Soundtrack
Artbook of Diablo III
Skull of Diablo
4gig USB Soulstone Flash Drive containing the full game of Diablo II & Diablo II: Lord of Destruction
Special digital bonus features in Blizzard games:
“Aesthetic Artifacts” in Diablo III: Two special glowing dyes and glowing Tyrael wings
World of Warcraft Fetish Shamen pet
Starcraft II Battle.net character portraits

Shortly after Amazon posted this I pre-ordered it, knowing I’m going to get the game once it comes out. Plus, how can anyone say no to a statue of Diablo’s skull?

*Images and information gathered from http://www.diablowiki.net/Diablo_III_Collector’s_Edition

I was really wanting to give Brink a try but they only had two copies. So yeah, we could have played, but I wanted to get more involved. Instead, I ended up playing some Portal 2 Co-op. Let me just say, I couldn’t imagine doing this game with someone over the internet. Sitting right next to them made communication way easier. If anything came up I was just able to point to it on his screen. Although I suppose I could have just looked at it from my screen and he could have used the in-game feature to see what I’m looking at. Still, was an amazing experience once again. I ended up passing out for a few hours around 4-5am while some of the guys played the story line for the new Mortal Kombat.

As of right now, we don’t have another LAN party scheduled, but there is talk of one and we are thinking about going to another place. Not that eBash isn’t nice and they really help us out with setting this stuff up, but we would like to get some older games up and running. Some of the old classics we loved in our earlier days as gamers.

Anyway, it looks like Starhawk will bring out some new features that Warhawk was lacking. First off, a single player mode! When Warhawk was first announced it had a single player mode, but was later cut by the team because it didn’t “feel right.” Now, it looks like it’s back and should bring a nice addition to the game. I mean, I think all PS3 games should have single player modes now-a-days since you can’t play online anymore. It seems they cut out picking up health items and have swapped to the newer tradition of slow health regeneration. As you mow down your enemies you will acquire rift energy which can be used to call down strategic structures in the middle of a battle to help alter the fight in your favor. This is pretty much all the information I was able to get from my first viewing of the video found below but felt I should share some the key points I was looking forward to. If you’re a fan of Warhawk, own a PS3 or just like awesome games. Check out the video and see what you think. I can say with 100% certainty  that I will be pre-ordering this bad boy when it makes it way to Amazon.

****Edit*** I removed the video here because it stopped loading. There is a better video that can be found here.

Intrigued? I thought you may be. Well, BLC an arena based game balanced around 3v3, however there are is also a 2v2 ladder and 1v1-5v5 custom non ladder games, as well as bots you can play against. There are currently 21 Bloodlines (Heroes / Champions, whatever you wanna call em) all quite well-balanced with no one Bloodline more OP than the next. Each Bloodline has several escape / engage abilities. While only healers can heal they, have lower hp than say a tank style Bloodline and do less damage than a melee or ranged style Bloodline. All Bloodlines have at least two ranged attacks, a way to escape, and a way to engage which creates a great balance for the game overall.

So you’re thinking, well, that must make healers the OP class then because they can just stand there and spam heal everyone, right? Wrong. Not only is healing skill shot based, but you can only receive 40% of your max hp in healing before you take damage again and it just keeps capping. So no, you can’t just stand there and spam healing  your way to victory.

An average match is between four and eight minutes for a best of five series. Making it great to log on, play a few then go to class, work or pay some attention to your girlfriend on the bed staring at you wondering when you’ll get off that computer. That third thing totally happens to other people too …right? It’s also an amazing game to play when you want some downtime from your main game, or taking a break during a raid, etc.

So, back on track, haha — Out of the 21 Bloodlines available, 4 rotate every Monday for free, other than that you can buy them with coins that you obtain from playing the game. Thanks to the amazing balance between Bloodlines they all cost the exact same price, so just pick your favorite. There is also an item shop that you can use to purchase items for cosmetic use, from total armor make overs to bad ass swords, shields, and bows for in-game coins or Funcom coins. (Funcom coins are purchased with real money akin to Riot Points in LoL, they can be used to buy anything outside of tournament specific titles and avatar pictures). Tournaments are hosted several times a day (no cash prizes for these, just in-game awards) using the in-game tournament mode.

Now the best part of all? The game is ENTIRELY free-to-play! Now, if you really like the game you can spend $30 (or Euros) to buy the Champion Edition, which unlocks 16 Bloodlines for you and gives you enough Funcom coins to either purchase one more Bloodline or pimp-out one of the ones you already own. If you really, really like the game, the Titan Edition is available for $80. This unlocks all 21 Bloodlines, gives you access to every new Bloodline ever released, you earn 10% more coins from matches and a 10% discount on anything bought in the store using Funcom coins AND $20 worth of Funcom coins.

At the time of writing this article the population is fairly low, around 4k players, averaging from 700-2500 on at any given time. The average queue for a game is roughly 30 seconds, so it’s not bad at all. I highly suggest you give this amazing, unknown game a try. If you’re into the competitive scene there are also tournaments for $5,000 and $10,000, so check it out and feel free to friend me when you log on. Oh, and a tip: Try to stay out of the ladder system until you’re at least grade 5, it really helps to join a bit later so you don’t bring down your team from a lack of general knowledge about the game. I suggest playing bot games until grade 3 then playing custom matches until a minimum of grade 5. Once you’ve hit that you still have a long way to go, but you’ll understand what’s going on a lot better and can be of more assistance to your team. In the game there is an incredibly well written knowledge base which can explain what levels, grades, custom matches, ladders, etc all are. :)

User Name: Chedeuine

Youtube vidoes:

This is a newb giving newb help, it’s actually pretty good, and he’s also playing Spear Master (my favorite Bloodline). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9shB0KBkgk

This is the final match of a tournament about a month ago, it may be a bit hard to follow with no game experience, but it’ll let you see how the game works from a spectator point of view, of course the camera will be different when you’re the one actually playing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgHoCZdfOVg

This is your favorite legendary Cleric again, making a round two post. This time I’m going to be putting out my rank 6 guide and some of the best leveling builds I know of. So, jumping right into things, just click below to read on.

Rank 6 Spec: Sentinel (21) / Templar (12) / Warden (24)

Now, right off the bat you may be thinking that spec is completely weird and why in the world should you try it? Well, it’s coming from me first off, so you KNOW it’s good and secondly you shouldn’t even be mocking it before you try it, just trust me on this one, you’ll love it. I would like to mention though, I generally still use my other spec (the deep purifier one) for Black Garden (simply because my group generally steam rolls hard so I don’t have a need for any Silences or AoE Healing) but in the other three Warfronts where my group (or when I pug, which I do often) can’t control as much I very, very much prefer this setup.

What Makes This Awesome: The build has two different silences, Quietus and Drown which are great for shutting down enemy healers or Pyromancers. It also features a ton of AoE healing with Ripple, Healing Flood, Healing Communion, and Healing Momentum, so keeping up several targets at once between silences, AoE healing, your Healer’s Covenant and Overload(for taking single target damage) is a breeze of ocean air (har har). By having heavy Valor from the PvP gear (which will make you much stronger next patch 1.2 ^_^), Restorative Tide, Barb Shackles and Break Free on top of rolling HoTs on yourself makes anyone trying to focus you down an utter fool wasting their time. To finish off the complete awesome, you have an in warfront self res, and cool downs for instant cast heals (I like to combine them with my AoE heals for massive numbers) one of which is guaranteed to be a total crit (which when using an aoe = every single heal on each person is a crit). That, my friends is what makes build the an amazing rank 6 build.

Leveling Build – Melee Focus: 1-30  : Druid (29) / Shaman (11) / Purifier (0)

This is my favorite build to level as from 1-30, having the druid fairy pet makes leveling ezpz because she’s basically a permanent HoT on yourself. When you combine that with three shields you can pull 3-5 mobs at a time and walk away virtually untouched (You can swap out Purifier for Sentential if you prefer the instant heal over a third shield or if you’re leveling with a friend) This build combines high crit chance with a lot of damage mitigation through shields and pet heals.

Leveling Build – Melee Focus: 31-50: There are actually two I like here. 1) If leveling solo:  Justicar (32) / Shaman (23) / Druid (11)

I absolutely loved this build. You basically run around with Mein of Honor on and pulled 700 mobs then AoE them down with Even Justice / Strike of the Maelstrom. By putting two greater (or just one) faesource of healing into your Planar Essence with your Salvation and Doctrine heals on top of Shaman shield you can just outheal almost anything. To cover the mana cost of AoE spamming you have three abilities on separate one minute cooldowns that will fill you right up, aka you should NEVER go out of mana. You have an in combat res just for grouping over elites or during a rift and an AoE silence for caster mobs that don’t want to seem to stack to be shown the justice. Really though, pull as much as you like and you should never die, just spam yourself with heals in between even justice and it’s cake, I preferred using a 2her over a 1h and shield as noted by my talent selections.

Leveling Build – Melee Focus: 31-50 2) Leveling with a partner / more DPS oriented  Shaman (51) / Justicar (5) / Sentinel (10)

Pretty much just throw every point into Shaman then charge and kill things with a 1.5 min cool down crit spam skill. :P Not much to explain on this one since it’s just straight up damage. You still have your Shaman shield and a heal from Sent, but you can’t go pulling 800 mobs and expect to live, with your AoE and high crit chance though you can pull 3+ and walk away fine (possibly more, I never really tried to be honest)

Leveling Build – Ranged / Caster Focus: 1-50  Inquisitor (45) / Shaman (11) / Sentinel (10)

So this build is amazing and the build I recommend from level 26-50 (You get fanaticism at 26). This is a warrior / priest style build. Pull several mobs using Vex (at least 3, can tank more, I once tanked 32 mobs at level 50 with this build, ran out of mobs to pull but could have taken more easily) and once you get at least 3 in range pop Fanaticism + Soul Drain for monstrous numbers, re-Vex anything still alive or Circle of Oblivion if multiple still up. What makes this build great is you have two dots (Sanctum Heretic hits very, very hard), an instant cast nuke that is normally a 3 second cast (combine with Fanaticism if single target since it’s stronger than soul drain) and then you still have all your melee skills. Since you have a Shaman soul it automatically converts your spell power into attack power and you hit HARD. Lightning Strike adds a third dot and you will routinely find yourself getting huge crits with Massive Blows due to having 60% increased critical strike damage.

Level 50 DPS: Druid (31) / Shaman (24) / Inquisitor (11)

Well, not much to say about this build that isn’t already said all over the forums. This build puts out over 800 single target DPS. When you combine Satyr (a great group pet also) with high crit chance, crit bonus damage, and bleeds, stuff is just going to die ..and quickly. Give this a try to see for yourself what all the fuss is over. :)

As usual, please leave any comments or questions you have and I’ll answer them as quickly as I can and if you’re hungry while eating be sure to click on my name for some amazing, and amazingly simple recipes even you can do, and be sure to check out my other post on Rift as well. My other post touches on another PvP build, my expert healing build, and my raid healing builds. http://www.button-smasher.com/2011/04/11/guide-ultimate-healing-cleric-rift-planes-telara/

UPDATE: I apologize to people asking me questions, but I no longer play Rift. My motherboard died and I had no computer for a month, during that time all my friends quit and moved onto other games. I appreciate the interest in the article still and will keep it up as a guide, I just won’t be replying to most of the comments because I am unsure how Clerics play now and I do not wish to give out wrong information.

This guide will focus on three different specs, one for Experts, one for Raiding, and one for Warfronts, since I believe that each situation is best suited with a different spec.

Gear: Your priority should be: Spell Power -> Spell Crit -> Wisdom -> Endurance -> Intellect

Planar Focuses: (Not counting epic drops, because this isn’t a gear guide, but simply a guide) One greater should be the Faesource that has a chance on spell cast to heal over x seconds, and your second greater should be chance on cast to add x spell power, for lessers follow the gear priority list.

Expert Healing Spec: http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=00jGe.x0Ezbstco.xxkEMxdoz

This is, in my opinion, the best spec you can use in an expert for both t1 and t2. This spec gives you a large amount of cool downs for those Oh #*#$ moments, decent aoe healing, and amazing tank heals. Make sure to cast surging flames on the tank and as long as they’re topped off (which is very easy with this spec) you can easily cast aoe heals for 1500+ for only 40 mana. You have Divine Call + Flash Over for an instant 1800+ AoE heal or Flash Over + Touch the Light + Healing Invocation for an instant 5k heal on your tank, Healer’s Covenant for massive burst damage or pulling multiple trash groups, Healer’s Haste + Serendipity for .5 second 2500+ (non crit) heals for just getting everyone up, and your healing breath can heal 3 targets at once. A silence for helping pull in caster mobs during trash pulls and an in combat res (abet on a 10 minute cooldown) round out this spec’s complete domination of experts.

Rotation: Ward of the Ancestors before pull (and as soon as it’s off cooldown – I fully understand it doesn’t scale with spell power yet, but trust me it is beyond worth the GCD to cast), Healing Invocation, Healing Spray, 2x Restorative Flames, repeat from top. The reason for this is that by stacking your two big healing spells you have a nice HoT from Healing Invocation and Healing Spray then you get the bonus shield from Restorative Flames and it just works out very nice.

Raid Healing Spec:  http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=00eja.EEdtqtRqz.x0Vx

This is a heavy AoE healing spec but still able to keep over 1000 HPS in HoTs active on 2 tanks or 700+ HPS on 3 tanks. With a multitude of AoE healing spells available to you, you will easily be topping parsing meters and keeping the raid alive almost by yourself. Don’t summon your pet during trash, summon on the countdown your tank gives before pulling a boss, since it’s only level 27 it can draw aggro and start an encounter early, however, the extra raid healing it throws out is a very nice set it and forget it 0 point ability.

Rotation: Ripple, Healing Stream x3, Healing Spray, Healing Stream (cast this on as many people as you want to maintain a 4 stack, as long as you cast it once before the stacks fall it will stay at 4 stacks forever), Healing Flood and Healing Cataract depending on how much AoE damage is being thrown out, if more than 3 people are below 50% cast your 2 minute cooldown Healing Showers followed by rest of your AoE healing spells, if more than 5 people are below 60% HP then cast downpour to heal everyone up to full very quickly.

Warfront Healing Spec: http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=00Gxj.EgkEItdqz.EV

This spec is for lower ranks, if there is a demand I’ll post my rank 6 spec, but at the moment I’d like to keep it a semi secret, they don’t call me The Legendary <Secret Name> for nothing. This spec is the best I’ve found to keep up a single target under incredibly heavy burst. It does lack any true AoE healing, but with a multitude of shields, instant cast healing spells, and cooldowns, you can solo heal Black Garden with rather good success.

Rotation: Since it’s PvP there is no set rotation, however, there are some little tips and tricks. Always cast your two shields when the 5 second countdown starts so that the cool down will be just about up by the time you engage the enemy. If an ally is being focused by several enemies at once cast Spiritual Conflagration to top them off very quickly, if they’re still under focus use Searing Transfusion and Rite of The Ancestors then a blessing or two if necessary, it’s very, VERY hard for enemies to kill someone if you’re willing to spend a lot of cool downs to keep them alive. If you see a saboteur stacking charges on someone you can either single target dispel or Sterilize to severely minimize the damage they can do.

That’s all for my basic guide to being the ultimate healing Cleric for Rift, if you have any specific questions feel free to comment and I’ll answer asap. Good luck and keep pwning the newbs.

As you play the game you will unlock all four drums, different beats you can play, which will allow your Patapons to perform actions. You will also unlock new units, miracle spells and fancy-awesome new weapons for your guys. Patapon 2 expanded on this by adding multi-player, more drum beats, more miracles, more units and a hero character that is supposed to be the best of the best.

The stories follow one another as you go from Patapon to Patapon 2, and Patapon 3 is supposed to follow suit. So if you’re played the first two, or even if you haven’t, be ready for a new campaign leading your men to whatever their heart desires. Patapon 3 is bringing more weapons, a new hero class system which will allow you to customize your own hero even more than you could in Patapon 2. When it comes to multi-player, they have announced the ability to play 4-player co-op in every level and all new 4v4 game mode. So that should really open up the extra hours you can waste, chanting over and over again in your head, Pata-Pata-Pata-Pon.

The next event is planned around early May, 2011. If you’re in the area next time, stop by and play some games with us.

As of this weekend, I re-activated my WoW account and began making a new character. (Trying to use the refer-a-friend program, buy my refereed friend and I haven’t been able to play at the same time!)

Why this sudden change? You know… I’m not quite sure. I think it may be partially because of the new expansion that comes out in a month. Although I can’t say that I’m stoked for it like so many other players. The one big reason I stopped playing back in the day was because I hated 40 man raids. They were fucking boring as hell!. As friends and I have relaxed at iHop, eating our delicious piles of sweet sweet pancakes, they began talking about their WoW characters. They mentioned that in the new expansion the raid level will be much lower, like… 10. I think I can do 10. So, we shall see, I have a month to get a character high enough to rock some socks.

Currently rolled on Smolderthorn, Alliance, Gnome, Rogue. Be looking for the short pink haired guy to stab you in the face!

Oh… PS! The Tauren Warrior on that server that decided that they needed to be a dick and take the name I love to use for my Rogue characters in any game. You better watch your back! I don’t care what level you are when I find you. You shall fall before my blades! Jerk!