terabient

Okay, that's a lie. The obstacle to writing more is mental illness, but u know. Overwatch being a Good Time again makes it very easy to pick playing it for hours, instead of spending any time related to fic, RIP

I've lost the ability to write actual journal entries so here's just a list of Feelings I Have About Overwatch:

- The new hero Illari has a special jump/gtfo move and the animation is like, a ballerina spin?! It's so cute?! Really most things about Illari are cute, and they also gave her a very grimdark background story which gives her some of the most powerful gap-moe in all of Overwatch, even more powerful than giving Bastion a bird friend.

- I am not really sure how address how the origin stories continue to be "White People's Concept of Cultural Diversity" except that, well, it's still a thing and will likely always be a thing. Amid all the cringe there are still many lovely and enjoyable things to be found with these characters so I'll continue to hyper fixate on this game.

- Blizzard did, in fact, give Lifeweaver a "flirtatious" line with Baptiste which is great thank you i was shipping them already but it's nice for Blizzard to let everyone know that my shipping preferences are the right ones.

- i used to have a complex about playing Overwatch for years and "only" being in Platinum. Now that I'm playing in a dependable group of 4 I am...in Silver, lmao. Still it's better than queuing alone because the last time I tried to make a call out in ranked I was told I was a dumb bitch and should kill myself. (This person then died to the flanker I called out, so thanks, opposing team!) In comparison a 40% winrate is not so bad.

- This Ana costume rules but it's also a battlepass exclusive and i don't want to pay ten whole-ass dollars just to get it (and unlock Illari earlier) There is also robot Symmetra but they didn't give that costume any description BOOOOOOOOOOO

Taken from tumblr: For ten days, I post an image from a video game that has impacted me without a single explanation and nominate somebody to take the challenge.

Final Fantasy X-2


today's tag is fujicori! (i got ~fancy and used a virtual name drawing site this time)

Some other game stuff:

★ I got Downwell during the steam winter sale and uhhhh I LOVE IT. Very disappointed in myself for dying to bats like 90% of the time. Very pleased that one of the abilities you can get is gaining health by eating the bodies of your enemies. I also think this might be one of those games I play for a long time but never actually beat.

★ In Overwatch I've been trying to re-focus on improving my support play--for the past few competitive seasons I've basically been a D.va one-trick with some DPS fills when necessary (which happened more often than usual during the last two seasons.) But I feel like D.va + hitscans that aren't McCree is too narrow a hero pool and my performance is too streaky on DPS to make them my main role. I've been trying to get better at shotcalling as well, since I think I've got decent enough awareness to do so, at least for my rank...it's gone alright so far? At least when I'm playing Mercy or Lucio (I've had a few games where I've literally told the team's Reinhardt what to do, like "drop your shield and start swinging" levels of micromanaging...) I'm struggling a lot with Zenyatta, my aim is okay but I never feel like I'm using discord efficiently. I just kinda pick whoever's closest to me, or the Widow if they have one lol. I don't really know what to look for in terms of prioritizing discord targets :/

★ Soulcalibur VI released a balance patch last week and i've spent an inordinate amount of my free time trying to figure out how badly my main has been nerfed. (A LOT LOL) I've worked out how most of the changed stuff works, at least at a basic level, but I'm kind of nervous about posting it on public forums because I've never labbed stuff like this before, and I'm worried about being wrong. Only, being wrong is totally normal thing when you're trying to suss out game mechanics and it usually takes a group effort to do so...I shouldn't be nervous, but I am anyway hahAAA. I've just been sitting on this growing txt. file trying to talk myself into posting it.

I think I have said this multiple times every year i do NaBloPoMo, but I really ought to set aside some time to write instead of waiting until 11PM to get started. WHOOPS.

★ I went to the day phlebotomy course to make up for the Friday I missed. Our instructor saved the liability/risks and dangers video for the last classes because it's uhhhh kind of terrifying. "Here's a recreation of a draw that ended in permanent disability for the patient!" It was hard enough doing draws on classmates & volunteers after weeks of practice...I would have quit the class if I'd seen the video BEFORE performing my first venipuncture.

The course ends December 8th. I'm not sure I'm going to apply for phlebotomy jobs specifically anymore, but I'm glad I took the course and like...found that out now instead of later, I guess. Next January I will hopefully be able to start a medication distribution certification course to broaden my prospects but I think I'll have the job I want anyway well before that.

★ I got a Nintendo Switch today! My sister had like, a bunch of coupons she wanted to use before her Gamestop membership thing expired, and they were running a promotion where you got a $50 gift card with the purchase of a Switch console, so...now seemed like a good time to buy one. I only have Let's Go Pikachu and Blazblue Cross Tag Battle right now; I don't want to get too many games because I don't have the time to play the ones I have :( But it's hard because the Switch has a bunch of stuff I'd LIKE to play.

Also it took me like 45 minutes to create a Nintendo account because I kept getting mixed up at the "sign in with your nintendo network id to easily make a Nintendo account, which is not the same thing as a nintendo network account" thing. @_@

Adventures in SCVI's Libra of Souls:

★ Mitsurugi abandoned me because uhhhh I guess he wants to fight people in Japan now
★ I beat up the Wind Priestess from yesterday, who turned out to be Talim's older cousin. Still haven't met Talim but I think that's for the next visit. I'm not sure what the purpose of this questline is beyond making sure my automaton avatar meets every character in SC canon, but maybe something interesting happens later on?
★ I was enlisted in the "Bring Seong Mi-Na home" army (I didn't have a choice orz) which i guess means my avatar has straight up replaced Hwang like a true Mary Sue AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
★ A weapons dealer tried to beat me up for my sword so I stole one of his weapons instead, which apparently is an Important Decision
★ I met Groh in a field full of rocks, told him "the truth about everything" and he ASSUMED I WAS LYING WHAT THE F U C K
★ Azwel showed up for the first time and in a mode filled with primarily pedestrian dialog he was GLORIOUS AND CAMPY and now I love his goofy evil!Jesus-lookin ass
★ Libra of Souls has a food mechanic where you "equip" a piece of food to get buffs, and because this is the 16th century like over half of the sidequests involve you protecting spice shipments. This means I have a sack full of rare and expensive spices and absolutely nothing else. So I keep imagining my human-sized doll shoving a big satchel of black pepper into her mouth before every fight. X)
★ On that note, absolutely no one has commented on the fact that my character is a giant, sentient ball-jointed doll. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Adventures in Overwatch

★ I had some goooooood games playing Ashe tonight (and a few not so good ones but whatever) I'm a little better at using B.O.B and detonating dynamite early. Still struggling a bit in sniper duels but I'm generally coming out on top in Ashe v. Ashe and Ashe v. McCree fights. Also been pretty consistent in taking out Pharahs, but a lot of people are playing Pharah way out of position after her direct damage buff so maybe it's less me being good and more them being reckless.
★ Managed to win a match without a shield tank on Hollywood defense while playing Mercy, which was PRETTY UNEXPECTED like no one on the team is quite sure how it worked. But that's Overwatch for you ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

★ I am s l o w l y improving at performing venipunctures in class. I had 4 successful ones tonight and one that started but the vein was blown early into the draw, but it does not look like there will be any complications beyond a bruise in the area...phew. I still have over 15 venipunctures to go until I can take the certification test and I hope on Friday I won't have an unsuccessful draws...but I don't know. I'm not sure phlebotomy is going to be something I look to get employed in, but at least now I know a lot more about how it works which should help out in my field regardless.

★ I tried out PC Overwatch and it's basically the same as console Overwatch except my framerate fluctuates more and I'm really bad at just like, moving around with the WASD layout BUT my accuracy across heroes is up by like, 15%?!? I missed every single sleep dart I shot as Ana, though. And I was playing against the A.I.

Did a bunch of QP matches with my brother and sister tonight (on console) and I think I have a decent handle on Ashe. I feel like the hardest thing I run into right now is not being able to get the kill I need when I need it, because aiming can be squirrelly and repositioning to get better LOS isn't always an option, but that particular frustration is becoming less frequent. Getting value out of dynamite is also iffy--throwing it behind a barrier means you can't shoot it to detonate it early, and it's easy enough to walk out of its radius before it explodes--but I've been having better luck with that, too. I still don't know what to look for in terms of optimal ult use...B.O.B is pretty great at drawing aggro and mowing down slow-reacting players, but besides being a big shooty tank that disappears after a few seconds, I'm not sure what to do with him.

★ Still making my way through SCVI's single player stuff, the writing is uh. Pretty dull in a lot of spots and even in entire character stories? Kilik, Maxi and Xianghua were all pretty bare-bone plots about how the power of NPC friendship will help you in the dark times ahead. Taki's would have been more interesting if i could keep track of the like, 5 or 6 different organizations/people trying to take Mekki-maru from her...although some wanted her to re-seal Gel-o-Fury and some i think wanted to kill her just because??? This storyline was needlessly complicated.

In Libra of Souls my character left Maxi's crew (there isn't really a choice involved BOOOOOOO ) and I get to hang out with Mitsurugi, who is incredibly dumb. I'm not saying that I dislike the character (although, I've never had too much interest in him), it's that in SCVI there is a clear, concerted effort to portray Mitsu as the absolute stupidest character in the roster because....humor? It is, as the kids say, a weird flex but okay.

★ I passed my LNA exam today! Now it's just a matter of waiting for the results to arrive by mail so I can send it in to the Board of Nursing and get my license reinstated.

★ Ashe went live on the Overwatch servers TODAY, along with a number of other character adjustments from the PTR, and I had a lot of fun trying out all the new stuff.

Ashe: She kinda feels like a Borderlands character plopped into the world of Overwatch--she can ADTS (much faster than Widow and Ana can), is strongest at mid-range, and her coach gun knockback is best used for self-mobility so it feels like she has a Borderlands TPS type superjump at her disposal, even with the cooldown aspect. Her Dynamite seems pretty meh if you just throw it out and wait for it to blow up--it moves slowly enough that people can just move out of its range--but if you detonate it early by shooting it (either in the air or just after it lands) it's a lot more threatening. The burn effect is stronger than I expected although any type of healing will cleanse it.

Her ultimate B.O.B. is interesting. He's thrown out as a projectile like Mei's Blizzard or Zarya's Grav, and once the projectile hits a surface B.O.B materializes and just....runs down the map until he hits something at which point he starts shooting at anything in sight. I didn't pay attention to how long the duration is, but it felt like 6s-8s? Given how much damage he can put out instantly it seems a little long although if you summon him in a bad spot he's worthless--it doesn't seem like you can re-position him if you throw him out in a way that makes him run away from the enemy team.

Mercy: Her ultimate, Valkyrie, charges 10% faster and her healing while in Valkyrie is 60 HPS instead of 50. In practice, this means getting Valkyrie up roughly every other fight, and I had two games where I started a teamfight with Valkyrie and the fight lasted long enough for me to get another one to end it. Having better HPS also means there's some wiggle room for Rez/damage boost to so there's just...a lot more utility overall with her ultimate. I still think Valkyrie is in a weird spot where it's not strong enough defensively to be used as a counter-ult, and not particularly good as an initiation ultimate like Nanoboost or Rally, but at least you get them quickly so you can use it more freely.

Roadhog: His hook and gun spread got tweaked, so that his hook reels in people faster and his damage is more consistent and predictable so ideally there are fewer instances where hooked targets survive with like, 4 HP and escape. In practice it didn't seem like there was much difference but I suppose that was the intent.

Reaper: His shotgun spread also got tweaked to be more consistent (though not tighter) and he heals 30% of damage dealt rather than 20%. Unfortunately he still sucks because his ideal range is still right in your face, he doesn't have a good way of getting into that range without getting stopped by a zillion different CC/stun abilities, and his damage even at ideal range plummets if he's shooting into armor health which he is doing basically all the time. Poor dude can't catch a break.

★ For my next phlebotomy class i have to bring in a volunteer and I'm kind of nervous about having someone I know come in because what if I severely mess up and hurt them? I've been doing this weird thing where I ask someone about volunteering and the moment they agree I immediately try to talk them out of it. Still, I have two people committed for this week's classes so I just have to....not suck.

PLACEHOLDER LOL i will be editing this in about half an hour i just want the post to be up before midnight

It's been years since I've really squee'd about a series at length so why not change that? i tweet about Overwatch on janejana but it's usually about Overwatch League/professional play stuff and bitching/bragging about my own matches in ranked and quick play; i've never really talked about the ~lore~ or fanfic or shipping which I miss doing. (thanks hamimi_fk for the encouragement!)

( Favorite Overwatch characters by personality/lore )

( Favorite Overwatch characters by playstyle/most played characters )

THERE'S SO MUCH OVERWATCH HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND!!!

First: there's a new hero, Ashe (and her ult, Bob) and a new cinematic with McCree

Also, Lucio-oh's will be a real thing come December! (but only in USA orz) I'm kinda upset that the box art isn't an exact replica of the in-game spray, though. >:[

The Overwatch World Cup is also finishing up this weekend. I've really gotten into watching pro Overwatch this year (it helps that I live near Boston, one of the few cities that has an Overwatch League team, and the local fanbase has been very active in organizing viewing events) and I'm really excited to see what kind of compositions and strategies will be pulled out over the weekend. The community is rather split on the state of the game and what the strongest compositions are, and that split is reflected in the top 8 teams: some teams have gone all-in with refining triple tank/triple support comps with others being rather open with their belief that 3tank/3support as it's been played for the last few months is pretty weak. The first day of play was today and just finished up as I started writing this entry, so the pool has already been cut from 8 teams to 4.

( Some thoughts on the matches, cut for results )