Almost Reborn

Daily Ramble 67: Almost Reborn

I’m just about ready to be reborn with DC but I’m holding off one more post…for I don’t know why, but I just didn’t feel like going for it today. Maybe it was the bear trap I had fun playing with in Secrest World Legends or maybe it was the frustration of not getting all the gems from SMITE’s weekend event. I don’t know but it’s my blog so I can post what I want. And I didn’t feel like posting my first steps in Rebirth yet.

Gem Weekend

This past weekend featured a special event in SMITE in which they gave away 50 gems for 3 “first win of the day” accomplishments each day. The “first win of the day” is an achievement you can do every day, kinda like a daily mission, but not only once but in every game mode. I’m not sure about ranked, but for normal play, that’s 7 different “first win of the day” opportunities that a player can get each day. Every one typically provides extra favor but for this weekend if you got at least 3 a day, you received 50 extra gems. Favor and gems are used to purchase items such as skins, gods, and voice packs from the SMITE store. Gems are more valuable than favor and there are some things that you can only purchase with gems, further you can buy gems with real money. From what I can tell, 200 gems cost about $5 so if you got 3 “first win of the day” achievements each day this past weekend you basically earned $1.25 – not bad.

My problem was that even though I took care of business on Saturday and cranked out my 3 “first win of the day” goals, I was unable to get more than 2 wins Sunday. And I really tried. I got wins in Joust and Conquest but every game of Arena or Clash ended with me yelling at my computer about an AFK or someone doing something stupid, or my inability to hit my relic then a spell. It was very frustrating. So I ended up with 50 bonus gems for the weekend and a bunch of frustration.

All that was wiped away with my gameplay this morning. I went 3–1 as Sol and feel pretty good about having learned her kit. The one loss was a game we almost won with an AFK, but 4v5 in Conquest was too tough. 2 wins in Conquest and one in Joust and I’m starting to feel that I might get up the nerve to give ranked play a try. At the very least I should give ranked a shot before the current season is over so I can get the novelty out of the way. In any case, I’ve gotta find out when the season ends.

Bear Trap

One thing I forgot to mention about the Rolls Downhill mission in Secret World Legends was the deadly fight that occurred with the Sanguine Wendigo. This guy was pretty tough and to top things off, I got stuck in a bear trap while fighting him. This cut my mobility down to zero and I was extremely grateful that I have a sustainability build. I spent half my time either shooting with my Assault Rifle to heal up or casting my bubble to provide a shield, but the fight was fun.

It’s these types of things that make this game enjoyable. Sure, the combat is the same from one fight to the next but when you throw in special circumstances like this bear trap it really mixes things up. I hope things like this continue throughout the game – it’ll definitely help keep my interest.

Starting the Rebirthing Process

I am finally to the beginning of DC’s Rebirth and from what I’ve heard, this is a pretty good issue and a great beginning to a re-branding of many of the heroes. Apparently there were a bunch of people who weren’t too happy with the direction that DC’s New 52 was heading and how things were disconnected from the rich past of the publisher. I guess I don’t have to worry about that too much since I’ve barely read any New 52 titles – only a few that I was told are direct precursors to Rebirth.

So basically what I did was read through the following titles to prepare myself for Rebirth:

Superman issues 32–40, 51–52
Aquaman issues 49–52
Justice League issues 40–50
All the Justice League: Darkseid War one shots
Justice League of America issues 1–10
Superman: Lois and Clark issues 1–8
Batman/Superman issues 31–32
Action Comics issues 51–52
Superman/Wonder Woman issues 28–29
Titans Hunt issues 1–8

So now I think I’m ready to move forward with DC Rebirth…next time.