I was perfectly content with playing Diablo 4, progressing through the current season, and making my way to the final challenge of the game (Echo of Lilith)
Until a friend that I met through this community asked me if I'd come back to play for this season?
I told him that I would come back and play this season if he was planning on doing so--we hadn't played together in a while, and gaming communities (such as this one) tend to foster positive relationships that can last for many years!
Bottom line: I have never detested a season of MXL as much as I detest this one.
I absolutely HATE this season. The randomization of enemies is so inconsistent, many areas are borderline undoable and there is nothing more frustrating than constantly being killed when you're just trying to farm for more/better ac's and gear. I hate everything about it.
I'm seriously beginning to question the intelligence of our Dev team. I love you guys but I really don't get this one at all. Was the intent behind this season to offer an MXL experience that was more akin to a modern-day Randomizer?
https://ootrandomizer.com/[Randomizer: you take an old game--say, Legend of Zelda, Ocarina of Time--and shuffle all the possibly attainable items in the game across the entire game. There is a logic in place to ensure that every game "seed" you create is viable, ensuring a unique gameplay experience every single time.
-You can then set the game up to obey certain constraints, depending on how you want the experience to play out.
-Do you want to start the game as adult Link? Ok! It's nighttime, you're in Kakariko Village, the only accessible place is "Dampe's Grave" wherein we acquire the Hookshot.
-Having the Hookshot opens new and different possibilities throughout the game--we can now make our way over to Saria, and use the Hookshot to enter the Forest Temple.
-We go in the Forest Temple, and--if we've randomized the Golden Skulltulas throughout the game--we can climb up the wall on the right hand side of the entrance to the Forest Temple, use the Hookshot to kill the Golden Skulltula, then use the hookshot again to hook onto the nearby small chest (that would normally contain a small key needed to progress through the dungeon) and it contains the bomb bag!
-Having the bomb bag changes the dynamics of the game significantly! We can now leave the Forest Temple for a moment, Reset the game, and make our way back from Kakariko Village to Kokiri Forest.
-From Kokiri Forest, we go to the Lost Woods-- we can make a right turn, followed by a left turn, and end up in front of a rock just next to the shortcut to Goron City; we can use a bomb from our bag to blow up that rock, enter the grotto underneath it, there will be a chest inside (that would normally contain 20 rupees, or a recovery heart) and now we get our third item--and it happens to be the Ocarina that Saria gives us after finishing the very first dungeon of the game (Inside the Deku Tree)]
Please understand: I've been playing this mod since I was 17 years old. I'm 31 years old now. I've been around since the Brother Laz days, back when Median was Single Player only. I've gone back in time over the last few months, re-playing older iterations of Median in between Seasons--gathering what items I can get, trying out different "concept characters" (I was able to get my hands on a Shared Stash file save that contains all the charms min-maxed, trophied, etc etc etc). I replayed through the original 2012 Median; I played through Ultimative (AKA Marco's baby). In that time, I was able to come up with three insane builds!
-an Apocalypse-based fire sorceress that absolutely wrecks!
-a thunderzon (Stormy Daniels
) using Stormcall to absolutely wreck enemies with a massive AoE (similar to Apocalypse)
-a quad-elemental neutraldin, using the 3 periodic relics, wizardspike knife, and a crafted pally spear with "Pestilence" on swap
taking advantage of the passives available to a neutraldin, this character absolutely wrecked everything he touched--and was a FANTASTIC SCOSGLEN FARMER. Like--completely untouchable and wrecking everything in sight
I bounced ideas back and forth with my buddy on Discord, as well as SP files of various items, constantly theorycrafting MXL builds and bouncing ideas off each other. That person, by the way, is Van. You may remember him as the guy who broke the Psionic Storm assassin a few seasons back (when relics were socketables and there were no limits/stacks) and got her damage up to ~500k?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ry1EL_bZsMsGave Samael a run for his money, that's for sure! What's amazing is that Van is Russian, and I am an Egyptian living in America (California, to be more specific). In spite of our differences, he and I have gotten along quite well--and, as it turns out, we tend to agree on a lot of the same things. I personally try to avoid political conversations--I'd much rather the US stay out of the Russia/Ukraine situation, let them work out their differences on their terms--and, maybe, we can find something we can agree on! Because the more things we agree on, the more difficult it is for people who are otherwise diametrically opposed can find common ground--and we can focus on working together!
Bottom line: I have never detested a season of MXL as much as I detest this one.