[mid-week heads up]

There will be a public stress test this weekend for Path of Exile. I know a good many people looking forward to this game, so you can actually help them out and get a free peek at the same time. 2 birds, 1 weekend.


Wrath of Heroes is doing stuff:

• There is a new tutorial. I really wish it was more comprehensive. There are a lot of players who need some boning up on basic PvP dictums, like overextending and assisting and such-not. But it's just "Use WASD, Capture the Flag."
• The tutorial also unlocks a new hero, Lucian the Blade, who looks sort of like your typical human bandit. Very straightforward, damage-damage-damage dealer.

*Lucian uses dual swords

 

• Felicia the Bright Wizard is back, although you have to buy her for the time being. Note that the graphic in-game announcing new heroes has a silhouette that looks strikingly like Conrad the Warrior Priest. Perhaps he's next week?
• Also, they changed it so the user display name you've chosen is gone and will be replaced by your EA/Origin Master ID. Apparently this is for "exciting changes and opportunities with friend lists", although there already was a working friend list, and nothing about friend lists are exciting unless you really just overuse the word 'exciting' for no real reason.
• So, now I go from using a nick I liked, 'Soul', to using another name I had to settle for because every other word in the dictionary was taken. Exciting. 
• Ilyana the Sorceress got her damage buffed slightly for some reason. I'm kind of baffled by this, but hey, metrics, right?
• More in the patch notes - appear to be several tweaks / improvements / upgrayyeds.

Sounds like they're working hard, but some of the decision making is just still really questionable. Like, why the Rat Ogre was (A) made so monstrously OP in the first place and (B) hasn't yet been violently nerfed -- it's really eyebrow-raising. I'm not expecting this to be at the level of true e-sport, I just don't want to play an e-joke, you know?

Why would I pay for a game that's so obviously headed towards a pay-for-rat arms race? Seriously, I feel foolish even typing a sentence like that, but here we are, again.

I'm excited about new heroes, though. You can come kill me, I'll be playing as [JS]Soulshatterer.