Tal Rasha and His Imaginary Friends:

“How will I survive? I don’t intend to get hit in the first place. If you even touch me, it’s because I allowed it.” This quote accompanies the Wizard passive, Glass Cannon, and is spoken by the unequivocal badass, Maloth, the renegade wizard.

The Skills

·        Magic Missile (Conflagrate)

o   Magic Missile + 2 additional missiles from Mirrorball, enough said

·        Meteor (Molten Impact)

o   Goes BOOM, Meteor Dmg % increase will impact this meteor’s molten levels as well as the damage from Tal Rasha’s meteor procs)

·        Teleport (Wormhole)

o   The new 3 second allowance makes this spell especially fun to play with, jump in, CC, and jump back out

·        Black Hole (Spellsteal)

o   Essentially your opener and the beginning of your CC chain, applies Arcane damage for elemental exposure as well as Tal Rasha’s star pact proc

·        Frost Nova (Bone Chill)

o   A spell for your imaginary friends to use, applies cold damage for elemental exposure as well as Tal Rasha’s comet proc.

·        Mirror Image – (Duplicates)

o   Propagates all your other spells, elongates your CCs and their accompanying effects, helps maintain Magic Missile’s DoT, and added DPS from Molten Impact Meteors

I wanted to formulate a build that adhered to the Glass Cannon philosophy – a high damage class with low toughness, but as I treaded into higher torments, I needed a way to retain my survivability. I needed control. Black Hole, Frost Nova, and the most integral piece of the puzzle, Mirror Image, serve this specific purpose.

Although the root of Frost Nova and Black Hole are defensive, the accompanying runes for both spells (Bone Chill and Spellsteal) were chosen to meet my damage and survivability needs somewhere in between.

The Passives

·        Conflagration

o   Boosts the damage of you and your allies, a solid inclusion

·        Glass Cannon

o   Don’t get hit :D

·        Elemental Exposure

o   A driving force towards how this build was constructed - your skills will trigger 3 of the elements, the lightning damage should come from your weapon

·        Evocation

o   Impacts 5/6 of your skill slots, nearly maxing out the passive’s efficacy

The Items

This build doesn’t need all that much to take you through the lower torments. But if you want to clear the likes of TV and TVI swiftly, you’ll need to get some specifics.

Tal Rasha's 4 piece, or 3 piece with Ring of Royal Grandeur, all the pieces are viable with the exception of the Source, Tal Rasha's Unwavering Glare

Tal Rasha’s Relentless Pursuit (Chest)

Tal Rasha’s Brace (Belt)

Tal Rasha’s Allegiance (Neck)

Strongarm Bracers

Thunderfury

Mirrorball

Stat Preferences

Damage, damage, damage! The idea of the build is to be as glass-cannony as possible.

Your defense is reliant on your control spells, which are all based on cooldowns, making CDR your secondary focus.

Weaknesses

The most difficult affix this build has to deal with is Jailer. The damage from Jailer is immediate, is not broadcasted by a projectile, and is therefore pretty much impossible to dodge, but this doesn’t mean the build doesn’t have solutions. There are a couple of tactical solutions to cope with this predicament.

Option 1: the easiest solution would be to equip Don Julia’s Cameo, nullifying the damage issue all together. You have Image and Teleport to remove the immobilizing effect if necessary.

Option 2: Jailer, like many other affixes in the game, has a cooldown. Bait out this cooldown with your friends. They may die in the process, but don’t feel bad, they’re just imaginary.

Option 3: One cannot jail, if one is being sucked in by a black hole or frozen solid. Apply your damage during your CC rotation, and then teleport out when it’s finished. Wait for your cooldowns to refresh and then repeat.

Vortex can also be pretty deadly for the same reasons as Jailer, adhere to options 2 and 3 to cope.

Weaknesses

The most difficult affix this build has to deal with is Jailer. The damage from Jailer is immediate, is not broadcasted by a projectile, and is therefore pretty much impossible to dodge, but this doesn’t mean the build doesn’t have solutions. There are a couple of tactical maneuvers to cope with this predicament.

Option 1: the easiest solution would be to equip Don Julia’s Cameo, nullifying the damage portion of jailer all together. You have Image and Teleport to remove the immobilizing effect if necessary.

Option 2: Jailer, like many other affixes in the game, has a cooldown. Bait out this cooldown with your friends. They may die in the process, but don’t feel bad, they’re just imaginary.

Option 3: One cannot jail, if one is being sucked in by a black hole or frozen solid. Apply your damage during your CC rotation, and then teleport out when it’s finished. Wait for your cooldowns to refresh and then repeat.

Vortex can also be pretty deadly for the same reasons as Jailer, adhere to options 2 and 3 to cope.

Valve Adds New Stretch Goals to Bolster Dota 2’s $6M Prize Pool

Yesterday, The International 2014, Valve’s premiere and annually held Dota 2 tournament, broke a $6M prize pool milestone. Funding this respectable sum of money are fans. Valve offers fans the opportunity to purchase “The Compendium”, a digital booklet that enhances the viewing experience of The International, for $9.99, while allocating 25 percent of the proceeds to plump up the prize pot. Fans can level up their Compendium by “watching games, collecting player cards, making tournament predictions and more”, doing so well grant players in-game rewards. The more money funded, the more milestones are reached and each milestone grants purchasers of the compendium with some nifty, non-game breaking rewards. Today, Valve introduced nine new milestones, with the 22^nd/final milestone granting purchasers with a “Victory Prediction Taunt”, whatever that means, when the prize pool hits an audacious $10 million mark.

Now… crowdfunding is by no means a revolutionary concept, but Valve’s approach is an exemplary model and should be utilized by smaller, more nascent eSport studios to foster their respective scenes. Most eSport aspiring titles are free-to-play games and although microtransactions maintain the life force of an eSport studio, a robust competitive scene is necessary in maintaining players’ interest. And the only way to do that is to properly pay competitors.

With behemoths like Dota 2 and League of Legends, breaking into the eSports scene in a prominent way seems like an impossible task. Fans are resources, use them.

SOURCE: Valve

EA to Announce Six New Games at E3

Could the next Mass Effect be on its way? Electronic Arts will be revealing six new games during its E3 press conference this June. I’m hoping that one of these six will be a redemptive return to the Mass Effect world, hopefully this time around with some more truthful advertising.

On top of the six title reveals, the company will be expanding on previously announced titles. This may regard the next Mirror’s Edge game, BioWare’s Dragon Age: Inquisition, and most certainly, Star Wars: Battlefront.

SOURCE: Polygon

YouTube to Acquire Twitch for $1 Billion

For those who questioned the legitimacy of eSports, Google’s venture to purchase video game-streaming company and promoter of eSport content, Twitch, will put any of their arguments to rest.

According to a report from Variety, YouTube is looking to acquire Twitch for more than $1 billion. The rumored deal is supposedly an all-cash offer and the announcement of the acquisition is to be announced “imminently”.

Since YouTube is the dominant force in the online-video market, the company is prepping to combat U.S. regulators that may deem the deal to broach monopolistic issues.

SOURCE: Variety

Irrational Games "Winding Down", Ken Levine Sets Sights On New Studio

February 18, 2014 - The studio behind critically acclaimed Bioshock and Bioshock Infinite, Irrational Games, is closing, according to a message published by company co-founder Ken Levine today. The news is poor for all but 15 members of the Irrational Games team, as the rest of the two-hundred plus developers will be let go. These 15 members will be aiding Levine in his pursuit to create a new studio that will focus on creating “narrative-driven games for the core gamer that are highly repayable”.

Back in October of last year, Levine talked about a “thought experiment” called “narrative LEGOs”.

“LEGOs”, Levine explained, are a bunch of “primitives”. They begin as simple shapes, pieces that can be combined and recombined into millions of different things. Levine hopes to iterate this concept in the video game narrative space.

According to Levine’s message, to achieve “narrative LEGOs”, he’ll have to refocus his efforts “on a smaller team with a flatter structure with a more direct relationship with gamers”

.

Unlike the usual case of developer and publisher fallout leading to the departure of studio heads, Levine remains in good standing with his studio’s respective publisher, 2K. In fact, his next entrepreneurial endeavor will operate, within the walls of 2K. Levine is also handing the reins to his iconic franchise, Bioshock, over to the publisher. However, without the franchise’s original creative director at the helm, who knows how successful 2K will handle the future of Bioshock. Studio 2K Marin was appointed the task to produce Bioshock 2, a project that paled into comparison to its inspirer.

It would appear on the surface that Levine is going for something I’d dare to call indie, perhaps inspired by the nascent, yet flourishing sector of the gaming industry. However, with 2K as its backer you’d expect whatever title Levine chooses to produce to be one that is qualitatively triple-A, and I use the word qualitatively in a very loose term to describe a product’s aesthetics – like graphics, voice acting, audio prestige, etc.

I suspect the abandonment of nearly all of Irrational Games is likely due to the fact that Levine’s “narrative LEGOs” remains still a mere inkling of Levine’s imagination and that fueling over two hundred developers to work on something intangible would be a waste of resources. The game design veteran is also attached to write the screenplay for 1976 sci-film Logan’s Run remake, which I would presumably take up much of Levine’s time. I posit that when Levine’s inkling becomes more physical and less of an apparition, his new studio will grow in size and scale to produce something that is relative in those regards to prior projects like Infinite.

Here’s to hoping that ex-Irrational Games employees find a suitable and deserving home and that Levine’s next project is one of success.

SOURCE: Polygon

EA Cancels Upcoming Command & Conquer

REDWOOD CITY, Ca. October, 31 - EA cancelled their upcoming free-to-play s RTS title, Command & Conquer, the publisher announced in a statement. The reason for the game’s abandonment, according to the post, was a response to negative player feedback during C&C’s alpha testing phase.

“Part of being in a creative team is the understanding that not all of your choices are going to work out,” the statement says. “In this case, we shifted the game away from campaign mode and built an economy-based, multiplayer experience. Your feedback from the alpha trial is clear: We are not making the game you want to play. That is why, after much difficult deliberation, we have decided to cease production of this version of the game. Although we deeply respect the great work done by our talented team, ultimately it’s about getting you the game you expect and deserve.”

Consequentially, the “talented team”, Los Angeles-based development studio Victory Games, has been disbanded. From what I understand, alpha is a relatively early playable state of the game and is used to test and correct any issues that participants deem problematic. Was the project so far gone in the wrong direction that it was beyond repair?

I don’t have access to alpha, but some are speculating C&C’s cancellation was due to the F2P monetization method, in that profit projections were not as high as EA hoped.

It isn’t all bad news though, EA has stated that they plan on publishing another C&C project in due time, whenever that means.

Steam Surpasses 65m Registered Users

BELLEVUE, Wa. October, 30 - Valve's popular PC gaming platform, Steam, has surpassed 65 million registered users, company owner Gabe Newell announced today.

The 65m count represents a 30 percent increase in active accounts compared to last year's. Steam has come along way since its launch 10 years ago. The platform is home to over 3,000 titles, is Linux friendly, and the company has some promising advances for the near future, particularly in the living room setting.

Steam's main goal "has always been to increase the quality of the user's experience by reducing the distance between content creators and their audience," Newell stated.

"As the platform grows, our job is to adapt to the changing needs of both the development and user communities. In the coming year, we plan to make perhaps our most significant collaborations with both communities through the Steam Dev Days and the Steam Machines beta."