Stealing a Build

The concept of stealing a build was introduced to me by Day[9] (1h video) and was intended for Starcraft.

My aim here is to adapt that to a universal formula, and then specifically apply that to Diablo III.

Day[9]'s steps for stealing a build are as follows:

0) Get Inspired
1) Create Building Groups
2) Fill in Unit Mixes
3) Refine Refine Refine!

Finding inspiration is one of the key concepts behind stealing a build; you need to have a build to steal in the first place. You can see professionals playing in tournaments, or streaming on TwitchTV or other similar enterprises such as JustinTV. You can also find replays on dedicated replay sites or YouTube. Depending on which game you are looking for, you may also be able to find sites dedicated to builds.

When he says Building Groups, he refers to which buildings you should get relating to major stages of the game (mainly expansions and tiers of tech). I will adapt that to say that this refers to the major building blocks of your build.

Unit mixes refers to knowing specifically what units you can produce in each stage of the game. My interpretation of this is knowing *how* to use those building blocks in the correct manner.

Refine Refine Refine! is a continual process wherein you play games and test your overall strategy to determine its strengths and weaknesses, so that you can execute it better with cleaner play and crisper timings.

A Universal Adaptation of Day[9]'s formula:

0) Get Inspired
1) Figure out the major building blocks
2) Figure out the execution of the build
3) Refine your build and execution based on experience with it

Adaptation of said formula to my Witch Doctor build:

0) Get Inspired
My inspiration came from a pro-player on a Twitch Stream, TurkNukem. He keeps changing his equipment and skills, so I will type them as they were for reference:

Active Skills:

• Acid Cloud - Acid Rain (increased radius)
• Zombie Charger - Zombie Bears
• Spirit Walk - Honoured Guest (mana regen)
• Summon Zombie Dogs - Leeching Beasts
• Sacrifice - Pride (gain mana per dog sacrificed)
• Soul Harvest - Soul to Waste

Passive Skills:

• Grave Injustice (gain life, mana, and reduce cooldowns when enemies die nearby)
• Blood Ritual (pay 15% mana costs with life, increased hp regen)
• Gruesome Feast (bonus mana and intelligence for health orbs)

If you have read my previous posts, you will know that this is a far cry from what I have used previously. It sacrifices my beloved Pierce the Veil, and has no basic attacks that are not mana intensive. I am forever experimenting, and hoping to find a build that actually benefits from using mana.

This build is a good example of just that - it was a good bridge for me to break out of my usual style and try something completely different. It also contains several spells that I had previously overlooked, namely Sacrifice and Soul Harvest.

Sacrifice is good because it helps provide burst damage as well as a source of mana. It also gives you something to do with your Summon Zombie Dogs when it is off cooldown and you already have a full pack.

Soul Harvest is great because it basically acts as a flat damage bonus, essentially acting as a fourth passive skill that you have to refresh every 60 seconds. It gives you an extra 650 Intelligence at full stacks, which for me, provides comparable damage to what I lost from giving up Pierce the Veil.

1) Figure out the major building blocks

My adaptation of his build would not be a carbon copy of it; many of the finer details would be changed, mainly because my gear is not as good as Turk's.

Active Skills:

• Spirit Barrage - The Spirit is Willing
• I chose this skill because I can't maintain quite as much mana as Turk, requiring me to take a skill that isn't as intensive on mana. I picked this one because it is great for single target damage; better than any of the basic attacks.
• Acid Cloud - Acid Rain (same as his)
• I toyed with a few different runes for this. Several were tempting, but seeing the damage it does to spread out units, it makes it a solid choice.
• Spirit Walk - Honoured Guest (same as his)
• I grudgingly gave up Healing Journey in exchange for a more reliable supply of mana. It greatly increases my ability to maintain spamming spells, but it does hurt me against Reflects Damage champions. I do not currently have a good answer to reflects damage champions with this build.
• Summon Zombie Dogs - Leeching Beasts (same as his)
• Sacrifice - Pride (same as his)
• Soul Harvest - Vengeful Spirit
• I picked Vengeful Spirit after trying most of the other runes, including Soul to Waste. I can see the appeal of StW, but it makes casting the spell an obligation, rather than a privilege; whereas with Vengeful Spirit, it turns into a great feeling to cast it and watch minions fall around you. It also compliments Grave Injustice well, giving you a relatively low cooldown, high power spell to proc with the reduced cooldowns.

Passive Skills:

• Gruesome Feast
• Grave Injustice
• Blood Ritual

I grudgingly gave up my Pierce the Veil, as I am forced to admit that the 20% it gives pales in comparison to the roughly 100% bonus damage you get from just casting more powerful spells.

2) Figure out the execution of this build
and
3) Refine your build and execution based on experience with it

I have found that this plays fairly well, I originally was too aggressive with my Sacrifices, leaving me without dogs for significant periods of time, much to my detriment. I have since learned to wait on the Sacrifices until I have a new pack of dogs ready to cast, or until a time that I know my dogs are going to die anyway, and the damage from their explosions or the mana it generates will benefit me.

Most of my refinements are reflected in the build listed above, as my process of refinement is not as easily demonstrable as Day[9]'s. Suffice to say, I tried many combinations of spells, runes, and play styles.

In terms of general differences from my previous builds, each build I go through seems to have less of an emphasis on defence, and more on offence. This is partially due to my gear improving, and my skills no longer needing to compensate for my lack of survivability, and also a general shift in metagame; since the damage reduction patch, and with the introduction of Monster Power, it has become much more important to deal more and more damage in Diablo.

I originally intended to switch back to Andariel's Visage, but I am actually happy with the amount of life and mana that Zunimassa's Vision gives me, and so have not switched back (yet, though I will switch it out when doing the Infernal Machines and similar boss runs).

As ever, I will continue experimenting with my build, and refining my play style. But more on that later.

-Colin

Djinni

This is a written work of mine, it is not really a game, but more a creative endeavour of mine. It will be presented in two parts, the first the plot as it is written so far (it is an incomplete story) and the second is the underlying "rules" behind djinni.





This is the story of a djinni and his master. It is essentially about the Djinni, but the master is what makes it interesting.

Essentially, he is a djinni in a lamp. He is millenia old, and has served countless masters throughout the years, all of them have been selfish with their wishes.

Which of course changes with the master. He came upon the lamp, and when asked to wish for his greatest desire, he couldn't think of what to ask for.

He is a traveller, a former monk, he comes upon the lamp surrounded by bodies. The djinni asks him his greatest wishes, and he can't come up with an answer. The following morning, he leaves the lamp, wishing to be rid of such temptation, unaware of the Djinni Rules.

When the friends of the dead arrive, they recover the lamp, but discover that they cannot master the djinni, which is now slave to the Master. The djinni in question senses this opportunity to transfer himself to greedier, more manipulatable hands, and informs them of the Monk's whereabouts.

The bandits grab the lamp and are guided by the djinni, who eventually catch up with him amidst a crowded city. They choose to strike at night, in the hopes of killing him in his sleep. He is staying at an inn, and they kill the innkeeper, then move to attack him. They are unsuccessful, and he manages to beat them up, injuring several, and while the djinni stays invisible, the monk notices the lamp among them.

In the aftermath of this, the monk notes that he seems to be cursed by that lamp, and is appalled when he observes that this curse of his has killed the innkeeper.

With this in mind, and no other leads, the monk decides to pursue the lamp, in the hopes that it will lead to it no longer haunting him, so that he wouldn't endanger any others like the innkeeper.

He doesn't really have any leads, he asks around about local gangs. He comes to understand that a local gang resides here, who run extortion and gambling rings in the town, and who have been acting up lately. He associates this gang with the raiders that attacked him, and after a few days of searching, he is approached by a few suspicious characters.

They bring him to a room where he is bound and confined. He is later approached by the leader of the local gang, who is under the impression that he is a Zoushi agent.

The Zouchi gang is a larger, more powerful gang that controls surrounding towns and villages with their sights set on this town. The local gang, the Sumi gang is outpowered, but well established in this town, and well hidden, making it difficult for a direct attack to succeed. The Zouchi's next logical step is to send in spies and agents to either identify the Sumi or to disrupt them enough by forcing them to hide to diminish them entirely.

The Sumi gang is set on opposing the Zouchi, but doesn't have the resources to fight them, despite the fact that they have started pushing the locals harder to get more money. The locals are unhappy being pushed by the Sumi. The Sumi leader thinks that it will be even worse if the Zouchi were to come in. The Sumi leader is an old man, and sees this as his chance to give back to his town.

Given the unique position of the monk in this situation, he volunteers himself to investigate the Zouchi, as if they are the ones pursuing him, then they might be able to solve both of their problems. The Sumi boss admits that he is taking a huge risk in doing so, but trusts the monk to conduct his investigation, seeing his honest face.

The monk leaves that town, happy to see it behind him. He follows directions given to him by the Sumi to the nearby city of Chosen. This is where one of the Zouchi underbosses resides, his current lead. He operates out of a restaurant, and is quickly tracked down by the monk. Our hero demands a meeting with the underboss when he arrives. He gets his meeting, but is heavily guarded.

The monk begins explaining himself, he is searching for a particular lamp in the hands of a group of criminals. The Zouchi, being a large criminal group in the same area seemed a likely candidate. The underboss has no idea of the true nature of the lamp, and just assumes it is valuable; he proceeds to laugh and applaud the audacity of the monk, walking into an enemy stronghold and demanding things. The monk begins to explain the curse it carries, and in doing so, accidentally gives away that it is a djinni's lamp he is pursuing.

Upon doing so, everything changes in their meeting. The underboss orders the capture of the monk, who takes this as his cue to leave. He manages to escape, and in doing so delivers minor injuries to many of the Zouchi men, and kicks a cup of hot tea into the face of the underboss, which would give him some distinct burn scars around his left eye later on.

Seeing as how the Zouchi underboss did not know of the lamp, the monk takes the Zouchi off of his list of suspects, leaving him back at square one, now with two criminal groups after his blood. His first priority is to get the hell out of there. He departs Chosen without a backwards glance, now relying on the bandits to find him.

The bandits in question are still recovering from their first failed attempt. The djinni is still with them, though he isn't giving them any help. They are collectively unaware of the Zouchi's involvement in the situation. The Zouchi underboss, who is unaware of the rules of Djinni, sees getting this lamp as his priority; turning his focus to the bandits rather than the monk. He happens to be a greedy and ambitious man, and sees the lamp as a valuable tool to usurp his bosses. However, he does not know where to get the lamp, and sees the monk as an unuseful lead, given that he doesn't know where it is either; his only clue is that it is in the hands of a group of criminals.

The monk at this point decides to camp evasively on the far outskirts of Chosen. He concludes that he wants to confront the bandits, despite the obvious danger, in order to break the curse. Therefore, by camping evasively, he will be able to reduce the risk from the Zouchi, and will presumably be able to be found by the bandits, enabling him to confront them, as at this point he assumes that they can find him just about anywhere, though he doesn't know whether this is the curse or their intelligence network. He stays in the same area, despite the Zouchi risk, in order to not evade the bandits, who he believes to be a localized organization, though he doesn't have any information to back this up just yet.

In the following weeks the standoff continues; the bandits to prepare their attack; the monk camps out in hiding; while the Zouchi search for the monk and the lamp; when fate interjects, in the form a merchant caravan. It passes along a trail that is overlooked by the monk's hiding spot. It proves to be too much of a temptation for him, as he has survived for days off of whatever he can forage, leaving him quite hungry, and he goes down to buy some food.

As he is making his purchases, a small group of robbers steps out of the woods, demanding money, valuables, and whatever else they desire. The caravan sounds the alarm, a large and loud horn, and moves to defend itself. The robbers attack,  and the monk tosses aside his soup to defend both himself and the caravan. The monk, the robbers, and the guards have a brief scrap, and in the end, the robbers retreat, ending with two robbers dead, along with one guard, with several guards and robbers injured. The monk begins lining up the dead, although several members of the caravan protest him putting the robbers' bodies with their own; he explains that after death, there are only men, they are robbers and merchants no longer, as if we cannot forgive our enemies in the afterlife, our souls will never be at peace.

The merchants offer him goodwill, and they begin preparing the bodies. As they are doing so, it becomes apparent that they are not the only ones that heard the alarm. The bandits and the Zouchi approach the caravan from opposite sides of the forest, looking for a caravan in distress for easy pickings, but rather they both encounter something they much more desire, namely the monk.

The monk commands the merchants to flee from here, to avoid this battle entirely if possible. Many of them follow his advice, however many more of them stay, to defend their wares or out of duty to the stranger monk. The bandits and gangsters size each other up, largely ignoring the skitterings of the caravan-folk. When neither of them retreats upon seeing the other, the Zouchi figure that the bandits are the ones with the lamp, while the bandits just see the Zouchi as enemies, but have a reasonable guess as to their intentions.

And with that, the battle begins. All sides draw swords and rush into battle. There are three main parties, the two criminal groups, as well as a group of guards and armed merchants under the command of the monk. There are many scattered merchants throughout the caravan, but they play little purpose in this battle, just being killed as they desperately try to salvage or defend their wares. The monk leads his group to a withdrawn position, effectively forcing the other two groups to fight each other to get to them. They can see this move, and recognize that the two groups must fight to get at the third.

At this point, the djinni steps in and takes charge of the bandits. He takes on the Zouchi single-handedly, and wins impressively. He spares the Underboss, who he declares to be the newest bandit in their gang. The merchant guards, witnessing this slaughter, suddenly find themselves lacking courage, and the monk steps forward to defend them all.

The djinni, realizing that he cannot directly confront his master, sends the bandits after the monk. The monk stands bravely against the bandits, but is being overwhelmed and is losing ground quickly, being so terribly outnumbered. The merchant guard, seeing his valiant efforts (as well as the fact that the djinni isn't fighting) gradually rejoin the fight, evening the odds.

Seeing his plan failing before him, the djinni intervenes. Knowing he cannot harm the side he wants to, he stops the fight, and tells the bandits to head for the hills. The bandits are unhappy about this, but the djinni is furious, and none of them dare protest.

The guards and monk emerge to survey the damage. The dead are numerous, a multitude of merchants, guards, bandits, and Zouchi. The wounded were taken care of, the merchants and guards by their own, while the monk worked on the rest.

Opinions are divided on the monk. He appeared to be the harbinger of three groups of undesirables, which cost them many of their comrades; however he also fought valiantly and effectively saved most of those remaining, as he was the only one who dared oppose the djinni and his forces, and they even managed to repel them under his leadership. The general consensus is that they can't wait to see the back of him, as even those that like him wish to get going soon, so as to arrive shortly in Chosen to lick their wounds and sell their wares. The monk is of a similar opinion, seeing the damage he brought on, he is eager to leave them, however, not without doing what he can for them first.

They work for the rest of the day without significant incident, the monk and a few merchants tend to the wounded firstoff, then begin burying the bodies. Many of the Zouchi bodies are dismembered, and they are assembled as best they can get them, so that each body is buried with its parts. By nightfall, they have erected a small burial mound on the side of the road, in honour of those fallen in this battle, on both sides, following the monk's counsel. They make a single collective monument for the fallen.

They prepare for the night, setting camp. They plan to rest the night here, pay their last respects, and then leave in the morning. The monk plans to leave tonight, eager to get himself away from the camp.

As everyone is settling in for the night, the monk prepares his departure. He is stopped by an aged storyteller within the group, who takes him aside to talk. The storyteller recognizes that the monk had some connection to the djinni, which is why the caravan was not slaughtered like the Zouchi were.

He reccomends that the monk leave before others start making this connection, but not before speaking with him. He gets right to the point and asks how the monk relates to the djinni. The monk denies any. The storyteller insists on the connection, as the djinni wanted to kill them all, regardless of what anyone else said; which means that either the djinni didn't want to kill the monk, or he couldn't.

If it is true that the monk doesn't know the djinni, then it wouldn't have been because he couldn't harm the monk - and the only way he couldn't have harmed the monk is if he was the djinni's master.

A startling revelation. The monk tells the storyteller that he rejected his mastership of the djinni, so he couldn't be his master. The storyteller reacts to this, as it is proof of their connection, and then proceeds to reject the monk's explanation, insisting on his own theory. The monk concedes, and asks him how to rid himself of the djinni. The storyteller is taken aback, because despite his great knowledge of djinni folklore, he has no idea how to reject a djinni, as noone in his stories has ever even considered that possibility.

The storyteller then reevaluates his position, as it was mastery of the djinni that saved the caravan. The monk responds that it was his mastery of the djinni that caused the attack in the first place. The storyteller assures him that if the attackers had mastery of the djinni instead of him, that it would only have been worse - and not just for them; but a gang like that would terrorize the entire county with that kind of power.

Seeing his point settle in, the storyteller wishes the monk a good night, and starts towards his own wagon, reminding the monk to leave as he intended now that they have spoken.

Slightly taken aback, the monk reciprocates the storyteller's good night and goodbye,  then promptly finishes packing and leaves the camp. He leaves, off into the night, his destination largely unknown to him, but with the ultimate intent to confront the djinni to prevent him from inflicting further tragedy.

-----------------

While the monk lacks a destination, he still has one immediate objective: to get away from the caravan. This he does, moving away from both the caravan and Chosen. So he takes to the road.

He continues in this manner for several weeks, foraging for himself, with neither hide nor hair of humanity, avoiding passersby, so as not to get them involved. He avoids roads and towns, moving away from populated areas entirely.

Meanwhile, the Djinni's gang is following the monk. While many of its members have lost heart in the matter, the Djinni's wrath is enough to keep them in line. Several members have already attempted to escape their obligations, and were horribly punished for it, to dissuade similar ambitions in any of the others.

They bring terror wherever they go, raiding and pillaging caravans and small towns to survive, and to replace their fallen and bolster their ranks. The gang is actually growing stronger as they go, being backed by an indestructible leader, as well as naturally excelling when a goal is in sight, as men tend to do.

As they move further away from civilization, they begin to lose their steam. Their attacks become less frequent and less intense, as they must divide their numbers between raiding parties and the pursuing force. However, they are quickly closing on the monk, as he is quickly running out of space to run.

The monk meanwhile is quite aware that he is cornered. Seeing only small, vulnerable villages ahead of him, he stops running, convinced that he has to confront the bandits - here and now. He sets up camp for the night, on the side of a mountain, giving him a view of the woodlands below.

As he prepares for the night, he is confronted by none other than the Djinni himself, who makes the comment that the monk has finally stopped running. The monk, expecting conflict, reacts suddenly. The djinni assures him that he intends no foul play, and rather he came to give him a piece of advice; his second in command, the zouchi underboss, is in possession of his lamp.

The monk does not find this particularly helpful. He asks the djinni how this is supposed to help him. The djinni explains that the bandits have a severe morale problem, and that he could destroy the entire band by killing the leader and stealing the lamp. This information seems very suspicious, as the djinni has worked this entire time to construct this gang, and is now working to undermine it.

He questions the djinni, as to why he is telling him this. The djinni explains that he is bound to him, as well as the lamp; and the separation of these two elements is his main problem; as such he wants him to fight his second in command, and the winner will take all. He continues to explain that trusting him is risky, although the djinni really has no reason to lie, as he has an entire gang hunting him, and if he wanted him dead, he wouldn't even have to make this offer.

The monk sees an opportunity to exploit the gang's morale and the djinni's presence, and attempts to wish for the djinni's freedom from his mastery. The djinni gives off an evil laugh and tells him that he needs the lamp in order to make a wish, and further encourages him to face his second in command this night, as the gang will make their attack tomorrow.

Seeing no alternative, the monk sneaks off into the darkness to infiltrate the camp. His intention is to steal the lamp and then disappear. He is successful in infiltrating the camp; the guards are incompetent and do not even know who they are looking for; however, when he reaches the underboss' tent, he comes face to face with the Zouchi underboss and the djinni, who are both awaiting his arrival.

The alarm is raised, and the monk is quickly subdued. The underboss orders his execution, but the order is overruled by the djinni, who insists on a fight to the death between the two of them. The Zouchan is offended by this betrayal, as this arrangement was not what was agreed upon. The djinni has the upper hand however, and his will is done.

Both the monk and gangster are thrown into the middle of a circle of bandits. Each is given a knife. The lamp is left in the leader's tent. The monk, not wishing to kill his opponent, tosses his knife aside as the fight begins. The two circle each other, and as they do, the underboss picks up the discarded knife. Seeing his advantage, he throws one of the knives at his opponent. The monk dodges it, but the knife strikes one of the onlookers to a ruthless cheer from the crowd. The monk takes the offensive, charging at his opponent, quickly disarming him and pinning him to the ground.

The onlookers are unsatisfied with the outcome of the fight. Though the victor is irrelevant to them, they were promised a fight to the death, and they cry out for a finishing blow. The djinni is foremost in demanding a killing blow, however the monk refuses to comply.

While everyone is occupied by the fighting, one of the bandit's captives makes use of this time to escape. She is a clever woman, and she recognizes that there should be a lamp to control the djinni, and has also figured out where it is being kept. She breaks into the leader's tent, and uses a spare blade of his to unbind her hands, she then takes the sword and the lamp, and begins running.

The moment she moves the lamp, the djinni's focus is diverted from the fight to the lamp. Knowing that he will not be able to stop her himself, the djinni calls upon the bandits to get her. The bandits are meanwhile quite oblivious to the lamp's theft, and are much more concerned with the fight.

The djinni is furious. He attempts to gather up a party to chase after the escapee, asserting himself and barking orders, but the result is simply pandemonium. Everyone is startled and scared by the djinni's sudden and threatening change of mood, having gone from enjoying the fight to attacking the audience in a moment with no cause apparent to the rest of them. The bandits scatter, leaving only the two combatants on the ground amidst the chaos. Seeing no alternative, the djinni makes his request of them to end this conflict and find his lamp.

The monk misunderstands this, and again refuses to kill his opponent. The djinni explains that their contest has changed, and they now must find this thief rather than kill one another, as the prize for this contest has been stolen. The monk resists this new directive, but is silenced when the djinni asks him what happened the last time he left the lamp's ownership to fate.

The djinni sets out with the monk to find the girl, and as an incentive for him to stay true to this goal, he sends the underboss out as well, who will surely kill the girl if he finds her first.

They all set out into the forest as a group, led by the djinni. Both the monk and murderer are trying to outdo the other, racing through the trees and over the terrain recklessly.

The girl is lost in the woods, scared, and tired from running. She continues heading away from the camp, fuelled by fear, but running on empty. She is malnourished, dehydrated, carrying a weapon that is too heavy for her, and is varying her course to throw off pursuers. Her pursuers however are in excellent shape, are unburdened by baggage, and have the djinni's unerring guidance in tracking her.

The three of them continually gain ground on the girl, and the two humans vie to outpace the other


---this is where it ends for now. I may continue writing this in future. This is the document on google docs: link.

And here are the rules of Djinni; it includes many of my personal notes, which have not been edited out:

-------Djinni Rules--------

1. Any master may have up to three wishes.

1b. The first wish has no cost.

1c. The cost of the second wish is at the djinni's discretion. It may be the death of the master or nothing at all.

1d. The cost of the third wish is the master's soul. This will kill the master. The djinni gains ownership of the soul.

1e. The word 'wish' as well as a command must be present for it to count as a wish.

1f. A soul can only be taken by the third wish clause.

2. A djinni is bound to one master until the death of the master.

2b. The master is the first one who touches a lamp with a djinni in it who does not already have a slave djinni.

2c. If the master is not fit to be a master, for example if it becomes non-human, than mastership is revoked. This is most commonly done by humans becoming djinni.

2d. A master can only be human.

2e. A djinni will always know who and where its master is. He will also know exactly what and where his lamp is. This means that he cannot confuse two identical ones next to each other.

2f. A person can only be the master of one djinni at a time.

2g. A djinni cannot directly act against the will of his master, unless doing so would violate another one of these rules. Note that wish-interpretation overrides this clause, and that this only includes action against the master's will. He is free verbally and may refuse orders.

3. A djinni can only be destroyed by the destruction of its lamp, however, the lamp itself is indestructible, as is the djinni.

3b. As this implies, a djinni is immortal.

4. To be freed from this contract, a master must wish for the djinni's freedom on his third wish, costing him his soul, and binding the djinni within the human's body.

4b. This will make the djinni human, in every sense.

4c. Any souls owned by the djinni are returned to their original owners.

4d. This excludes the master's soul, which becomes property of the djinni-human.

5. A djinni is not obliged to tell the master of these rules, nor is he obliged to he honest in any way, and may lie outright at his own discretion.

5b. Despite this, a djinni cannot break these rules, nor can he cause another djinni to break these rules.

5c. A djinni does not have to tell the master the cost of his second wish, or that there is one. They may also lie about it.

6. A djinni's true power can only be used to grant wishes.

6b. A djinni does have lesser magicks to use at his discretion.

7. All djinni are bound by these rules.

7b. A djinni will never forget these rules, and know them instinctively.

8. A wish may be denied if it is impossible, or if it would violate any other rules.

8b. Under any other circumstances a wish cannot be denied, even if it is against the djinni's will.

9. A djinni may use his own interpretation of a wish, and he may violate its intentions, but must adhere to the meaning of it. This is especially true when a wish is made unclearly or in partial violation of these rules, and when the djinni is left to decide *how* to grant a particular wish.

10. There are innate limits on what may be wished for. These limits are not quantified, but are definite, and every djinni will know their limits.

10b. A person's body cannot be directly tampered with. That is to say that a djinni cannot modify their body or increase their strength directly. There are many loopholes to this.

10c. A person's mind cannot be directly tampered with. That is to say that djinnis cannot alter free will, nor can they directly grant skills or knowledge.

11. A djinni is bound within its lamp unless it has a master, at which time it cannot enter its lamp.

11b. A djinni cannot move its own lamp. Ordinarily, the lamp would feel infintely heavy to the djinni, however if the lamp is forced upon the Djinni, it will be ethereal to the djinni.

12. When the master touches the lamp, the djinni will be summoned if he is not already in the presence of the master.

12b. Therefore, a djinni cannot leave the master's presence so long as the master remains in contact with the lamp.

--------------------------------------------------

X. This is so not a ripoff of deathnote.

XX. Note the many loopholes created by the interaction of these rules.

XXX. Read them carefully and pay attention to the details.

XY. Inspiration includes: deathnote (though indirectly), bartimaeus trilogy,
shi long pang, NNFB, samurai champloo (kinda) [links added for reference, not in original notes]

-most djinni are jerks. they will lie, cheat, and manipulate their way into the deaths of their master; usually.

-there are some nice djinni, but they are rare, and usually are occupied by masters who get two free wishes, and then don't use their third by the djinni's advice

-there is no central djinni culture, as each is either bound to a master or within their respective lamp.

-djinni can only be created by those wishing to become one, and can only be destroyed by becoming human. They cannot reproduce in the human sense.

-all ancient djinni are roughly equal in power, as there is a limit, and it is generally reached after 100 years. New djinni take time to master their powers, but must adhere to the rules regarding wish-granting.

-a djinni's magic is primarily illusion, but they are capable of various things with their magic. Note that this magic gets weaker as it is further from the djinni and as the djinni gets further from the lamp
-note that djinni are incapible of teleporation, except when summoned by the master touching the lamp, as specified in rule #12.

-djinni lore is mixed, between tricksy spirits, omnipotent wish-granters, and deceptive demons. That is to say, there are many views on them, especially whether one is lucky or unlucky to have a djinni slave.

-A person wishing to become a djinni on their third wish will become a wraith, a soulless magical horror. The soul will go to the djinni, and a soulless djinni is a wraith. Wraiths are a shadow of their former selves, they have vague memories and intentions.

-djinni are corporeal, but also have some magic at their disposal; they can bend the rules of physics around them to some extent

-granting most wishes is very painful for a djinni, as they usually are beyond the djinni's ability; however they cannot not carry out the wish, and work beyond their limit - this process would destroy them if it weren't for their invulnerablility.

-the motives of djinni varies; some want to be human, some want to be left alone, some want to rule the human world, some just like killing their masters, most don't like humans or granting them wishes, some want to help humanity, some collect souls, and several newer ones have far more specific motives, such as eternal romance - but it varies from djinni to djinni.

-djinni is pronounced genie.
-------------------Wraiths----------------------

-wraiths have no soul
-wraiths are ethereal
-wraiths are immortal
-wraiths' magic is *extremely* weak
-wraiths have no lamp
-wraiths can only be destroyed by returning their soul to them.

-----------------Characters----------------------

Master (monk)
Djinni
Gang Leader (sumi)
Zouchi Underboss
Captive Woman
Storyteller (one time character)

What Starcraft Does Right

In a word: everything.

Starcraft and Starcraft II are probably the best RTSs in history. I will usually refer to them collectively as Starcraft throughout this article, and probably Brood War (BW) or Starcraft II (WoL) when referencing one in particular.

What makes Starcraft so good?

• Responsiveness

One of the first things I immediately liked about the original Starcraft was how responsive the units were. Tell them to move, and they moved. It is surprising how many games screw that up; Dawn of War is particularly bad for this, where you can only tell your units a vague area to go to, and must rely on their (idiotic) AI to guide individual units.

Starcraft gives you pretty much perfect control over your units, allowing and even requiring you to position them individually for optimal play. 

• Racial Diversity

Starcraft is probably the most diverse RTS out there. It has three genuinely unique races, each with completely unique play styles and strategies. Each of their economies works differently, each aims for different types of engagements, each peaks in power at different points in the game - and above all else, each is balanced.

Even within each race, there are massive opportunities for diversity of play style. You can play aggressively or aim for economy; you can favour a tech-rush strategy, you can aim for mass units and production, or you can catch your opponent off guard with unusual technology and special tactics.

The sheer mind-boggling possibilities of the game speak volumes of the undeniable amount of time and effort that has gone into testing and balancing the game; the elegance of the design and the robustness of its systems.

• Economy

The subtle brilliance of Starcraft is hidden in its economy. I won't get into the individual race's traits in building and maintaining their economies, rather the resources as a whole.

There are two primary resources: Minerals and Vespene Gas. 

Minerals are the primary resource, available in abundance with a high capacity for mining and a relatively low maximum yield (at 1500 per field)

Gas geysers vary from BW to WoL; BW gives one geyser per base with 5000 gas, WoL gives 2500 gas in each of 2 geysers. They have a low variance, and can expected to be mined at a constant rate per base. (By this I mean they achieve worker saturation easily, and it is generally expected that you would max out your gas collection more so than your minerals)

There is also the tertiary resource of Supply, which is created by building the required buildings/overlords with your minerals.

Lower tech units require more minerals and supply, while higher tech units require more gas. Lower tech units are also more mobile, while higher tech units are much stronger but slower. Ultimately, the backbone of your forces is made of minerals, while the muscle is made from gas.

This creates the following economic metagame: early game, you expand regularly and build basic units with your minerals. As the minerals in your starting bases begin to die, you must expand to secure more minerals - however your original gas geysers are not expired yet, giving you proportionally more gas, which fits right in with your plans of advancing to higher tech.

You start off quite far from your opponent, which fits that the earlier units should be faster; however, as the game advances, your bases creep slowly towards each other as you expand over the map. The game then shifts towards a battle of positioning, with the slow late-game units besieging the more exposed enemy positions (as you get more bases, it gives you more area to defend, with slower units to defend it).

Seeing it explained like that, can you help but appreciate the brilliance of Starcraft's design? None of that is explicitly stated or coded anywhere, however, because of the incredibly clever way the game was put together, that metagame has shaped the way that people play Starcraft.

• The Races

I won't actually get into the races themselves, but I want to comment on how perfect 3 is for the number of races in an RTS.

Ignoring mirror matchups, the number of potential matchups scales triangularly (muahaha), so that even a single additional race would double the potential number of matchups. As anyone who has tried to balance anything should know, this makes things exponentially more difficult. 

Having only a single non-mirrored matchup gets boring pretty quickly, as anyone who played the first few Command & Conquer games found out (and probably why they moved to a 3-race format in later games). 

Having 6 match ups makes things overwhelming, as there is twice as much to follow, to prepare for, and to balance. Twice as many interactions usually means half as much balance, which isn't good for anyone.

• Skill Ceiling

Starcraft is great because it is playable and enjoyable, even for new players; but at the same time, you can (literally) play the game for 16 hours a day for years, and still not have mastered it. There is always some new facet to be explored.

Starcraft is the game that spawned the term APM (actions per minute); which measures your ability to command the battlefield. Good players usually have very high APM; 200 is a common threshold for skilled players to reach, while some players will go to 300 and higher.

Top-tier Starcraft players are in a world unto themselves; they have such mastery of the mechanics and strategies of the game that regular players don't stand a chance against them. Watching Pros is a great experience, and can teach you about how to improve your gameplay.

The skill ceiling is great because it gives you something to work towards without relying on the stick-and-carrot methods employed by RPGs. It also allows player to practise and improve without relying on avatar strength.

• Unit Diversity

Within each race, each unit feels truly unique. There is no overlap between units in what tactical role they fulfill. This goes a long way to giving each unit a distinctive feel and play-style on the battlefield.

 Starcraft employs a "rock-paper-scissors" approach to its unit design, which ties in very well to scouting. It is vital to the game that you keep tabs on what your opponent is doing, and you prevent him from learning too much about what you are doing in turn. If you see your opponent stockpiling Scissors, you'd best start building some Rocks, or else your Paper will get shredded.

This is better than most games, whose units tend to feel pretty interchangeable (C&C, Age of Empires); which tends to result in a monoculture of the best unit available, with the occasional smattering of support units.

By making various units "super-effective" against others, it forces diversity and interesting unit compositions to the fore-front of battle; also ensuring that the engagements themselves are involved and benefit skilled tacticians more than '1-A'ers, as the rocks seek to avoid the paper and gouge into the scissors of their opponent's army.

• Community

Part of what makes Starcraft so great is the community that plays it. Starcraft has a far better community than League of Legends (which is notorious for its troll-infested player base)

In addition to the generally nicer players, there are also dedicated community sites, such as Team Liquid, that provide forums for players to discuss Starcraft, or just life in general. It is also a great place to find player streams; professionals or otherwise who broadcast games.

Starcraft is a game great for both watching and playing. I heartily recommend it to anyone who is looking for an outlet for their creativity and dedication. It is not an easy game, but is fun and rewarding; even if is occasionally frustrating that you are not as good as the Koreans out there. But more on that later.

-Colin

What Diablo III Does Wrong

This is not a post to antagonize or to spread my hate of the game - if my previous posts have been any indicator, I am quite a fan of the game. So why am I writing this?

Because I feel that the game can still be improved, which is the unscratchable itch of every game designer (or maybe it is just me). I want to address non-balance issues facing the game - I have quite a lot of faith in Blizzard to balance their games, and every patch thus far has been a godsend to addressing outstanding balance issues facing the game.

• Lack of mass white minions

I long for the cow level. Whimsyshire is cute, but doesn't really fill that niche very well. What Blizzard has seemingly failed to realize is that killing huge numbers of average enemies is very, very fun. Forget about drop rates for a minute, and just remember the most fun you had playing this game. It was probably facing a particularly large mob of average white guys - and I am not talking about those stupid Shade Stalkers - but run of the mill mobs, packed shoulder to should numbering upwards of 50.

I want some area where you can just go to fight hundreds of enemies at a time; no ranged mobs, no bullshitty teleporting/burrowing/whatever abilities, no kiting - just massive numbers of regular enemies.

• Lack of meaningful distinction between armour pieces

This was my original take on everyone's complains that "there are not interesting enough uniques". It isn't that the Uniques weren't interesting enough, it was the item slots themselves were boring. Every item slot should have a distinct purpose to contribute to your overall character.

For example, in D2, your Shield served as a wonderful way to massively improve your resists (especially by adding Diamonds). In D3, a shield is a sort of generic survivability booster, that adds about 1000 armour, and is otherwise completely interchangable with chest armour, shoulders or pants.

In my mind, each slot should have a distinctive role. At the moment, only the Gloves and Weapons really have such a role. Gloves are excellent damage boosters, as most characters should have gloves with good rolls in two of the three holy trinity of glove attributes: Attack Speed, Critical Hit Chance, and Critical Hit Damage. Weapons are the defining DPS item, as you can have the greatest items in the world, but they are meaningless without a good weapon.

There is no such distinction for defensive attributes however. If you need to boost your resists, you basically need to get resistances on as many items as possible, rather than allowing you to focus on the "resistance" item. If you want more armour or health, just try and get better items - there is no "armour" slot (which rightfully should be the Chest Armour) or "health" (vitality?) item slot. 

If I were in charge, and could retroactively change the way item rolls were distributed, I would give each defensive item slot a distinctive role in keeping you alive. For example:

• Head - Mostly fine as is, I wouldn't mind seeing a viable helm other than Andariel's Visage; though I am sure more are coming in future patches.
• Shoulders - Would double or triple the resist all rolls, and quadruple or more the single resistance rolls; making this the primary "resistance" item - possibly including several cloaks or capes in addition to the current line up. If someone wants to improve their resistances, Shoulders should be the place to look.
• Chest - Would probably triple or quadruple the effect of the Bonus armour attribute roll. They should not come standard with bonus armour, but any "good" chest plate should have a very high armour value
• Bracers - Sort of a weird item, I am fine with their current state, though I wouldn't mind giving them some distinction other than the other armour piece you can get with crit chance other than gloves/helm. Possibly include pickup radius as a more common attribute here, as it is a fantastically great thing to have, although most people will never choose it over a core stat.
• Gloves - As is. I am happy with this being a primarily damage focussed item.
• Belt - Sort of a weird hybrid item, I am mostly fine with how it works now, as there are some interesting Unique belts. This would probably be similar under my direction.
• Pants - The primary health item - again doubling or tripling any vitality or % life rolls on them. If your HP is low, get new pants. I would also consider making Movement Speed a regular affix on them, as it should be possible to reach the MS cap without a unique item.
• Boots - Mostly fine as is, Movement speed is the focus here.
• Rings & Amulets - Fine as they are; they serve as an all purpose slot that can supplement your weaknesses or further boost your strengths.
• Hands (Weapon + Offhand) - Fine as they are. 
• Shield - Boring, but otherwise fine. I suppose I wouldn't change much about them, though perhaps boosting the resistance rolls significantly on them wouldn't hurt.

• Act 4 is crap

Sorry guys, but I really don't like Act 4. I have tried doing some runs, but I really don't see the point. The enemies are harder, the stacks are much harder to come by, the drops aren't any better - I want to like it, but you really aren't giving me a reason to. 

The first boss is the epitome of bullshit - he spawns hundreds of little minions and makes for a fairly unique fight, but it is literally impossible to have any stacks when you fight him - and he doesn't even give you a stack, despite being a quest boss. There is literally no good reason to fight him more than once (for the initial quest). He is also a bit of a game breaker, he is either very easy (almost comical for someone with my build that profits from killing enemies in mass numbers), or completely unbeatable for someone with an incompatible build.

• Spells not casting, or casting in a very stupid way

For any character with an "escape from death" spell, you know what I am talking about. Leap, Spirit Walk, Teleport, Smoke Screen, Vault - few things are more frustrating then hitting the key in time, only for it not to cast and for you to be pummelled into a fine red goo.'

These spells (and indeed most) *should* interrupt any standard attacks (and in many cases many stuns and knockback effects) and allow you to get away. It isn't adding any tactical depth by having them not cast, it is just frustrating and pointless. Please, just make the damn spell cast when I hit the button, no questions asked.

The second half to this is spells casting in a very dumb way. This is mainly a jab at how walls work in this game. Some spells can be cast through walls, others cannot. Some can be cast over low walls, but not others; and in addition, it is very, very unclear what constitutes each type of wall.

It is very annoying for me as a Witch Doctor when I cast Wall of Zombies against a Waller champion, only to discover that they got a wall off a few milliseconds before I did, and as such, my 20 second cooldown spell is now worthlessly mauling away at their wall instead of them. Would it really unbalance the game that much to actually let me cast my spells where I want to instead of arbitrarily blocking them?

My interpretation of walls:

• Solid walls - anything you cannot see through. Nothing should be able to cast through them.
• Movement blockers - includes anything that stops movement, but not vision or attacks; includes cliff edges (between platforms), water (especially in Whimsyshire), and jail bars. Spells should be universally not blocked by these.
• Short Walls - mainly just the ones cast by Wallers. These should block basic attacks and movement (so as not to disadvantage the monsters that make them) but should not block any spells that appear from nowhere, such as Zombie Wall or Hydra; or spells that come from the sky. For the most part it is fine as is, with just a few exceptions.

• Unintuitive Threat Assessment

This is a big one for me. If you had to choose which looked more threatening between a Skull Cleaver and a Demon Trooper - 

You would probably be wrong. The Demon Trooper is much larger and scarier looking, but is largely a joke; boasting terrible stats. The Skull Cleaver looks very much like many other skeleton type enemies, and does not stand out visually, but does a ridiculous amount of damage, often one-shotting some characters.

This is what I have a problem with. Enemies should *look* as threatening as they are. The larger an enemy is, the more damage it should do, and the more health it should have, and vice versa. Small enemies that blend into a crowd should not be the major threats. You shouldn't have to closely examine a mob of enemies to search for the one or two threatening types of enemies - the big threats should be so immediately obvious that even someone who has never played before should know to be wary of them. This also applies to the Shadow Clones that emerge when fighting Diablo; any player who has faced them knows that most of their deaths while fighting Diablo come from these little bastards, as they can 1 to 2 shot even the tankiest of characters.

I don't want to get into enemies that are just generally bullshitty, such as the Fallen Maniac and the Terror Demon, who are generally orders of magnitude more threatening than even champions of other types. Suffice to say that if they were to be removed from the game, I certainly wouldn't miss them.

• Pathetic rewards for quests

Most serious players don't bother doing quests. That is sort of unintuitive, given that one of the objectives of Diablo 3 is to have players commit to longer runs in order to get optimal drops. It sets the stage to make large scale questing popular, but falls flat on delivery. That is because the rewards for doing quests are pathetic. 

Most quests give about 800 gold for completing them. No experience, usually paltry drops, and 800 gold. Whoop-de-freaking-do. It is no wonder why people skip them. 

At the very least, give back the experience rewards; now that we have Paragon levels, experience matters again, and is a worthwhile reward. If you are feeling generous, give better drops and/or stacks for quest monsters (especially in act 4).

As a final note, do something about act bosses; it becomes stupidly hard to kill them on reasonable monster powers, even for a character that breezes through the rest of the act. Perhaps consider increasing the enrage timers, or not scaling their health the same way as regular mobs. It feels... wrong... to blaze through act 1 without any difficulty, only to get stomped by the Butcher when the entire bloody level is on fire at the same time. The drops you get for your troubles are not worth it; scale their difficulty to be similar to the rest of the act, and give an appropriately generous reward to those with the grit to fight and defeat them.

• Poor indicators of range/radius of enemy attacks

Generally, when players die, their first reaction is to call out "bullshit". This isn't because they are shifting blame for their own careless actions, it is because they are (usually) genuinely surprised and disappointed that they were killed by a situation.

Whether it is because of silly escape radiuses, or area of effect attacks that hit a slighly larger area than the game's graphics indicate, or an attack animation that deals damage before they seem to be making the attack (Unicorns - I am looking at you in particular) or that hit further than their model seems to (Mallet Lords); or worst of all what I call "arcane sniping". Arcane sniping is where you see a purple ball of arcane, and when it chooses a direction, it picks the worst possible one for you. It is not a good feeling, and can only really be avoided by avoiding the entire area that the arcane can hit, as their direction really isn't predictable; it is usually away from you, but not necessarily so. To alleviate this, perhaps make it take a second to reach out from its initial ball state to the full length of its attack, or force it to never point towards a player initially.

• "Mandatory" Rolls on items

This is a touchy issue with me, as I can acknowledge the importance of having a certain rarity of quality goods when dealing with the auction house. I can't honestly decide if this is a good thing or not.

Basically, the issue is that certain items outright *require* certain attributes in order to be worthwhile. For example, any decent offhand item should have at least 8% critical hit chance. If you fail to make the roll, the item is worthless, regardless of how otherwise good it would be.

I am undecided in the matter, however I want to perhaps raise the point that the odds of getting the "required" fields should be higher on level 63 items than their lower level counterparts.

• Lack of practical DPS test

I remember talking with someone about another game in which they had a "scarecrow" they could attack in order to test their DPS. Essentially, it had infinite health, and you could attack it as much as you wanted, and after you were done, it told you exactly how much damage each of your attacks did to it, and how much damage you dealt per second, how many attacks you hit it with, how many of those were critical hits.

This sounds like an awesome feature. As is, Diablo feels like a number-crunching game, to determine if your DPS would benefit  from attribute X or Y more, and numerous sites, spreadsheets, and apps have arisen to accommodate this need (and Diablo's refusal to provide an EHP stat).

I, for one, would love to have a nice friendly scarecrow to actually put numbers to these things, to show that a certain combination of skills gives about 30% better burst damage than another; rather than the current method of experimenting with what can only be called way too many variables.

• Creep Blocking

When I said that your "not die" spells was one of the most frustrating ways to die, here is the other: getting creep blocked.

Creep Blocking is when you are surrounded by creeps and cannot move to escape them. It does not happen very often, but it is beyond frustrating when it does. It is especially bad for the Monk, who lacks a good all-around escape spell.

It generally isn't an issue, but it will make you want to rip your hair out when it is.

• A lack of a "shut the hell up" mode

For those of us grinding the game, I would really appreciate an option that automatically disables or skips any and all quest related dialogue and cutscenes. Honestly, it wasn't particularly interesting the first time, and becomes less interesting and relevant with each iteration. 

• A particularly annoying bug regarding Monster Power

For some reason, my option to enable the Monster Power mode keeps disabling itself. Almost every time I start a game, I feel that it is too easy, only to realize that my settings are messed up (yet again) and have to quit the game, forfeit whatever stacks I have, re-enable MP mode, and the remake the game on the appropriate difficulty level. 

I am not sure if this is just me having this issue, but it is really damn annoying. Would appreciate a fix, as this cannot be called anything other than a bug; thanks Blizzard.

I want to reiterate, this is not a post bashing Diablo. I think it is an excellent game, and Blizzard is doing an excellent job improving it with every patch. If it comes off as harsh, just consider it to be in the style of Zero Punctuation's Yahtzee; who bashes everything, and anything not mentioned can be considered fine by exclusion (that being said, his review of Diablo is pretty much worthless, as he didn't even beat the tutorial (i.e. the first 59 levels of the game)).

Those are the issues that I can think of, again, excluding balance issues. The only thing else that I want to mention is that playing the Monk is perhaps the most profoundly boring experience you can have in this game. It is the most passive-oriented, boring class. But more on that later.

-Colin