Hunting for the West
Daily Ramble 120: Hunting for the West
I’ve made no secret of the fact that I am an avid baseball fan and whenever the calendar turns to January I start itching for Spring Training. While I’m not sure I’ll make it to Arizona for the games, I will definitely be following my favorite Western teams throughout the entire season. With that said, I think there are 2 teams that are seriously hunting for the West title – the Astros and the Angels. I take a brief stab at my initial thoughts for their prospects and then I turn to the hunters I’ve been leveling up in SMITE. Playing the adventure mode has me looking at these ADCs much more than usual and I think I might be learning a thing or two.
A look at the AL West
With the new year here I can finally feel comfortable putting the last MLB season behind me and start looking forward to the next season. Spring is coming fast, though those on the west of San Diego might feel the thermometer might never reach above 40 again, so I wanted to take a bit of a look at things in the AL West.
The AL West is my favorite division in baseball and when I look at how the West in general is treated by the sports media, I really feel I should ignore the Central and East as much as they brush off the West. The thing is…The West produced both teams in the World Series last year and the AL west now has the reigning champion.
In any case, my personal view is that the AL West is gonna produce at least 2 of the post season teams in 2018. And personally, I think those teams are gonna be the Angels and Astros.
Houston was great last season and they were able to hold together despite their pitching injuries and ride their offense to win the World Series. The Angels, on the other hand, struggled with injuries all over the place and horrible production from Left Field, 2nd Base, and an aging Albert Pujols, 3rd base wasn’t that great either. And every one of their ‘ace’ pitchers spent time on the DL with some out for months. They still ended up in 2nd place in the West and were fighting for the Wild Card up to the last week of the season.
With key additions in Left Field, 2nd Base, 3rd Base, and a healthy Pujols, I think the Angels have the offense to keep up with or surpass the Astros. Also, I seriously can’t imagine the pitching staff could ever have 3 seasons in a row with so many injuries. So I have a strong feeling the Angels will be up near the top of the AL West and since I don’t see the Astros losing much other than a regression to the mean, I see both these teams contributing to a strong division.
We’ll see, but I’m gonna be keeping an eye on the AL and NL West since I think they’re the divisions to watch in 2018.
Mastering Hunters
My main focus recently in SMITE has been on the PS4. I went ahead over the holidays and purchased the Ultimate Gods pack that gave me access to all gods that have released and any new ones that come out. So with tons of new gods to play I’m working on getting a stable of mastered gods so that I can eventually try out ranked play on the console.
My current focus is on mastering some hunters. The basis of this that I tried out the Odyssey Adventure and hunters seem to play better in that game mode than mages. Sure a mage does well for healing but with the random item drops – I really should put together a post about this game mode – I was picking up mostly physical power and attack speed. My favorite god, SoI, loves attack speed, but prefers magical power over physical. So I started hunting for a hunter to try out.
It turns out Cernunnos is pretty good at the adventure. The main idea is having someone who can cause good damage and has good sustain. With attack speed and physical power items, Cernunnos fits the bill. So not only did I play him in Odyssey, but I also started gaining some experience with him in Joust, Clash, and Conquest as well.
Cupid also shines in the adventure mode and I’ve been playing a bunch of him lately as well. With his Share the Love ability he can heal not only himself it also his teammates. I’ve found myself drawn to him when we end up trout a dated healer. The good thing here is that his healing scales with physical power so my items help that out as well.
With both these hunters in my current rotation, I also added Neith and Medusa so I can have a decent group of hunters when I level up to play ranked. And I’ve mastered all of them except Medusa who I am one worshiper away from level 1 – I just haven’t been able to get a win with her and that’s slowed me down.
So far, I’m still enjoying SMITE though I have run into a couple games where it was clear that the matchmaking system messed up. One team or the other would end the game 21–1 or something like that and it would be a horrific slaughter. While I know that my skills are not advanced enough to garauntee a kill in each game but I really don’t see how a team of at least 3 players can be shut down with so much domination. It happens but it’s not often. I just wish the matchmaker didn’t have flaws like this. BTW, sometime, I was even on the side dominating so I know it really doesn’t feel good on either side.