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Finally reached elite mode in HGL. Its fun but quite lame considering how they nerfed the normal mode. So playing the elite mode is like playing the pre-patch 0 game with harder monsters. Classes like engineer and summoner are no-skill classes, its the usual swarm and kill mode.

In other non-gaming news, the PS attachment is fun! The experience is rare and I've made a good deal of new friends too! :) Shall update more once its over.

Time for a quick update on HGL. Server update postponed to 22nd, which gives some hope and tentative confirmation. I doubt there'll be a character wipe after all. For those of you who are reading this and are considering the game, do not play it for the following reasons - storyline, multi-player "get to know people rubbish". However, what I found attractive in the game was the item system. I'll briefly outline how it works:

Items are divided into 3 groups - consumables, equipment and quest items. Consumables are pretty straightforward, health injectors (for health), power packs (power gauge), various things to help guard against status attacks (there are 5 - physical, fire, toxic, spectral, electric). Quest items basically appear only when you engage in a quest (ie they are trigger specific, this imo helps prevent piggybacking where a veteran player boosts a noob by donating important quest items to get better items for the noob).

The interesting thing about the items really are the equipment. There are 7 areas you can equip - head, shoulder, arms, torso, legs, feet and your weapon. Items are characterized according to their rankings. Normal - Grey (identical to any other grey version you pick up or buy), Enhanced - Green (better stats and has 1 or 2 properties like +47% critical multiplier for beasts), Rare - Blue (even better stats and has 3-5 properties, one of which is level 2, ie RAPID FIRE 2), Legendary - Orange (high stats and 4-6 properties, one of which is level 3, ie AURA OF DEVOTION 3), Unique - Golden (give best stats but vary in properties)

All items up to the rarity of "legendary" are random. ie they follow a specific pattern. <PROPERTY> <WEAPON NAME>. The property is generated from a list of "enhanced" "rare" and "legendary" properties. An example is Demon Hunter's XM108 Trident Launcher. It gives OVERSHIELD 1, Critical Chance bonus 2%, +52% damage to demons and +18% damage.

Now comes the fun bit. Evidently people will trash all normal items in favour of the better ones. HGL does away with the pick-and-dump problem by introducing components. There are 4 types of components, 1 generic and 3 specific to class. Scrap materials are generic, Tech components are for hunters, Runic fragments are for cabalists and Blessed shards are for templars. This is not to say each class only uses their own component + scrap materials, it just means a hunter player has a higher propensity to obtain tech components but he still needs all 3 types for various armour and weapons. Components are obtained from breaking down unwanted items. Initially crap items give palladium (the gold in HGL), but later on they give components. Components are also divided into 2 classes, normal and rare. No special properties to each class, just that rare components can only be obtained from enhanced, rare and legendary items (technically unique too, but only an idiot would scrap a unique item).

So what do components do? They can be used to upgrade weapons in the Nano Forge. Or they can be used to make items, only happens in stations from covent gardens onwards. The special item shop has a list of random recipes spanning all 3 character classes and you can go over them to see what items they create and what components are needed. On a very rare occasion i managed to find a recipe for a unique item in the monument station. That being said, creating items is a fun and useful way to spend your components given the potential returns.

Scrapping equipment is useful because it helps to save inventory space on the go as items can occupy up to 8 item slots and a component only 1. Hence its very convenient since you don't need to run back each time to clear space.

The last thing about items are the weapon mod slots. Along the game, you will pick up modifications or mods - batteries, fuel cells, ammo clips, rockets, relics and techs. These can be fitted onto each weapon to increase damage or add properties. The cool part is that the mod is actually visible on weapon once you've added it :) To add, just drag and drop. To remove you need to pay a price ad the demodificator to have the mods removed.

I'll add some photos of the equipment i currently have once i get the shots.

OK this is going too far now...

Since my mum has taken away my hgl box (and game) from me, I've resorted to planning my skillbuild instead. Given the wonderful site http://hellgate.ingame.de/skilltree/marksman/, i came up with this..

Level 1 - 4
Tatical Stance
Tatical Stance
Tatical Stance
????

Level 5-9
Escape
Beacon
????
????
????

Level 10 - 14
Sniper
Overshield
Deadeye
Overshield
Deadeye

Level 15-19
Reflected Shot
Beacon
Elemental Beacon
Sniper
Deadeye

Level 20-24
Overshield
Elemental Vision
Reflected Shot / Sniper / Hollow Points / Elemental Beacon
Reflected Shot / Sniper / Hollow Points / Elemental Beacon
Reflected Shot / Sniper / Hollow Points / Elemental Beacon

Level 25-29
Homing Shot / Master Sniper / Escape / Escape Artist / Hollow Points
Homing Shot / Master Sniper / Escape / Escape Artist / Hollow Points
Homing Shot / Master Sniper / Escape / Escape Artist / Hollow Points
Homing Shot / Master Sniper / Escape / Escape Artist / Hollow Points
Homing Shot / Master Sniper / Escape / Escape Artist / Hollow Points

The sad thing is I don't know if I'll even get the chance to form a party online, so I'm not too optimistic about spending too many points in beacons. They also nerfed Breath of Meditation to Overshield :(  The ??? are there because in the beta, you needed 3 points of ricochet to start learning reflected shot. But since they're not linked now, I think reflected shot is definitely better than ricochet. The first 2 ??? are saved for more useful things like sniper/deadeye/hollow points at later levels.