Random Ramble

It's a hot Wednesday afternoon (41ºC) in Australia and it's hard to concentrate. I'm downloading the new Diablo III patch and looking forward to getting back to playing my Beorning who has made it to Lothl­órien (yay!). She really is so much fun. She needs new legendaries though - her current ones are at max level but she's starting to feel it taking longer to kill mobs and some of the quest rewards she's received do as much or more dps than her legendary. :(

In Rift I'm trying to decide what to do with my new dimension. I've got a beautiful personal guild dimension, but ...

(Wow, one moment it's blue skies and calm, the next the wind is howling and visibility has been obliterated by a dust storm - I couldn't see the neighbours' houses! Five minutes later, the dust is almost gone, the blue skies are back but the wind is still bending the trees nearly horizontal. Crazy weather.)

... as I was saying, new dimension, need a new theme. My new dimension (Infinity Gate) has lots of stone squares and triangles and a great big portal like something from Stargate - but Stargate has been done to death in dimensions (very cool though it may be), so I need something different. Hmm, maybe something like the Dwarven gardens of Moria (Tharâkh Bazân)? They use lots of geometric patterns. Maybe the portal leads to Middle Earth and a stranded dwarf decided to remind himself of home?

In other random news, I'm reading Tolkien's Unfinished Tales at the moment. Interesting stuff, reading about other places and times than what is shared in the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. I've got the Silmarillion lined up to read next. I wish I could create such a detailed and fantastical universe like Tolkien. Alas, I'm better at writing SOPs than fiction. Such is life.

Diablo finished downloading. Shall I play it now - or Path of Exile? My characters in Diablo are all max level so there's not much for them to do but get better gear. The new patch did introduce a new zone, but that won't take long to explore. In Path of Exile, my character in the Hardcore Talisman league is only level 35 so has a long way to go. My last character died to Piety in Act 4 - didn't have enough movement speed to avoid her attacks. So I'm hoping this one will be faster and stronger and make it to Cruel. I don't usually play Hardcore, but, I thought for this league season I'd give it a try, and if the character dies they weren't fit enough to survive on Wraeclast. In Standard league I have a few characters around level 75 doing maps (I wish maps were available at low levels because they're fun and I wish Act 4 could be skipped because it's so gross), so they've still got challenges ahead to reach the max level 100 too.

Or maybe I should just log back into Middle Earth ...