Classes, Avengers, and Facts on Day 23 of #BlaugustReborn

Daily Ramble 21: Classes, Avengers, and Facts

Today I got the opportunity to have some fun looking into six degrees of #Blaugust where I checked out Soul of the Forest and a post asking about the classes I play in games. I also took a look at the 2016 version of the Avengers comic by Mark Waid and a cool new book about Factfulness that just came out earlier this year. It was a good day to ramble.

SixDegrees of #BlaugustReborn

Ocean Mariee over at [Soul of the Forest](http://https://www.souloftheforestblog.com) came up with an interesting question that I’ve seen a few people in the #BlaugustReborn realm have provided answers for so I figured I could easily throw in my two cents. The basic question is [what class do you refuse to play](https://www.souloftheforestblog.com/2018/08/what-class-do-you-refuse-to-play.html).

For me, if I were answering this question before 2018 I would certainly have immediately yelled out tank. Before earlier this year I don’t think I’d ever played a tank except on the off day where I shifted into Bear form on my Druid. I was always playing healers and ranged DPS, even in Eve Online I tended to fly a logistics cruiser to heal my fleetmates.

Then earlier this year I happened to try out an Oathbound Paladin in Neverwinter Online. These guys can do melee DPS (which I usually hate almost as much as tanking), they can heal, but they excel at tanking. They are such good tanks I’ve heard that people are laughed at if their Paladin ever dies. Since I was gonna be doing a lot of leveling by myself I figured I’d give the class a shot for it’s survivability and what do you know…I enjoyed it. Sure, it didn’t level as fast as some classes but I didn’t worry about dying – they just have so many abilities to keep them alive it’s pretty silly. So while it’s not my first choice, I suppose I would not refuse playing a tank any further.

Having given tanking a shot I realize that I shouldn’t rule out any playstyle. There can always be something that would make any style enjoyable and even exciting if I’m in the right mindset.

Overwhelmed by the Art

I read through the first couple of issues of the 2016 iteration of the Avengers by Mark Waid and Mike Del Mundo and I’m a bit overwhelmed. While I’ve read previous team compositions and I don’t think I have much of a problem keeping track of all the characters in most situations, I was kinda distracted by the story and the art. The art struck me first. It seemed well drawn and distinct and I liked each individual page but as a whole, I just think it was too much. Particularly with my unfamiliarity with the current team and their opponent – Kang. I guess Kang is a pretty bad ass time traveler and Vision actually kidnapped him (as a child back in time) and…well, it got a bit time paradoxy and between that confusion and the dominant art I didn’t really like the first couple of issues. I’ll give the title more of a chance but it certainly didn’t seem like a Number One intended for new readers. The thing that bothers me further about these few issues is that I love the [*Champions*](http://www.beyondtannhausergate.com/2018/04/30/champions-win-some-and-lose-some/#Comics) series which is where some of the previous Avengers went. While that team split off from the Avengers I wouldn’t have expected them to leave while the team was fighting some archenemy like Kang.

Started Up Another Book

I didn’t want to include the title of this book in a large font because it’s way too long as it is… Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World–and Why Things Are Better Than You Think by Hans Rosling.

In any case, I started reading this book and it’s pretty interesting so far. The basic idea seems to be that many of the things people believe about the world are wrong because they’re not based on actual facts – they’re based on opinions. It’s pretty dramatic and I will say that it is refreshing to see a book that promotes critical thinking and fact checking in a world where everyone seems to just throw out their opinions as reality. And this isn’t just fact checking to see if the President exaggerated something in a political speech, it’s fact checking to see that the number of people living in poverty is half now than what it was 20 years ago or that tens of millions of planes landed perfectly fine last year.

I always get so upset when journalists interview “experts” and they’re both talking about the epidemic of suicide or the opioid epidemic or the epidemic of gun violence. I’ve long since given up believing that people in the news understand half of what they’re saying and this book points out that it’s not just the talking heads. World leaders, decision makers, and heads of business all guide others, make financial decisions, or enter into treaties based on information they only think is correct – they never try to understand the facts.

I’m looking forward to getting through this book and seeing what the proposed solution is to the problem but so far, I’m enjoying it.

Daily Ramble 21: Classes, Avengers, and Facts