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August 20, 2012 By Jack Jones 4 Comments

The ULTIMATE guide to staying healthy during an MMO release


MMO launches. The perfect excuse to abandon all illusion of self control. The time to just let loose and have fun.

Fresh fruits and vegetables? HAH! The only thing resembling a fruit that you’ll be eating for the next week will come in the form of delicious fruit flavored bears.

What if you could maximize your play time AND shed unwanted pounds?

It is possible to not only be healthier, but the strategies I’m going to show you in this post will actually give you more play time, save you money, and are EASY to implement.

The Strategy:

  1. Drink healthy meal replacement fruit smoothie shakes in the morning
  2. Snack on easy to prepare healthy snacks during the day
  3. Eat one large meal that takes less than five minutes to prepare at night
  4. Exercise in the mornings before you start playing
  5. Incorporate bodyweight exercises into your play time
  6. Supplement your vitamin intake to ensure that your body runs optimally

Meal Replacement Fruit Smoothies

Meal replacement fruit smoothies have been the cornerstone of my own diet for months now. They are amazing because even though I work from home I find cooking more than once a day tedious.

Making meal replacement smoothies will allow you to get in all of the nutrients required to keep you alert and energized. I recommend making a shake during the “brunch” time so that it will keep you satiated until the late afternoon.

Crucial elements to create a complete and healthy meal replacement smoothie:

    • Frozen fruit – I generally use a cup of mixed fruits(strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, peaches, blackberries)
    • Protein powder – 25 to 50g of protein will make the shake more filling, more nutritious, and also taste better without needing to add loads of sugar
    • Flaxseed – 4 tablespoons of flaxseed will add 8 grams of fiber and 12 grams of fat to the shake, in addition to completing its nutrient profile flaxseed contains Omega-3 fatty acids which are healthy for the heart and brain
    • Almond milk/Coconut milk – Adds extra flavor to the shake. Regular milk will work as well but lactose does not sit well with my body and I’ve found almond milk and coconut milk to cause a lot less bloating.
    • OPTIONAL: Banana – add a banana if you are a hardgainer and find it difficult to pack on weight and generally need a lot of calories.
    • OPTIONAL: Almonds – add a handful of almonds to increase the fat/fiber/and protein content of the shake
    • OPTIONAL: Greek yogurt to add more protein and calories

I LOVE this Ninja blender, it’s super easy to use and clean up and it’s only $42! http://www.thehealthygamer.com/ninjablender

Note: the links above are affiliate links, if you purchase something from those links I get a small fee from Amazon. It does not cost you anything more and helps support what I do here at The Healthy Gamer.

Meals

Body composition and especially fat storage is primarily a result of your eating habits. Abs are built in the kitchen, not in the gym.

Cook big meals that you can quickly reheat

The main reason for eating so much junk in the first days of an MMO’s release is that junk food is quick and easy to prepare. But it is possible and EASY to cook big batches of healthy food that is every bit as quick and convenient as junk food.

Here is a playlist of quick and easy healthy meal video guides that I regularly cook while gaming: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL285B11116B848413&feature=view_all

Recipe for success

  • Cook a large portion of meat in the oven(5+ pounds).
    • How to cook a pork roast here: http://allrecipes.com/howto/roasting-meat/detail.aspx
    • How to roast a chicken: http://allrecipes.com/HowTo/Roasting-Chicken/Detail.aspx
    • Roast beef in slow cooker: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/slow-cooker-roast-beef/
  • Cook a large batch of sides(5+ pounds).
    • Rosemary roasted potatoes: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/rosemary-roasted-potatoes-recipe/index.html
    • Rice can be cooked up in large batches and easily stored.
    • Frozen and fresh veggies can be stir-fried in under five minutes to give you an extremely healthy side to go along with the meat: http://thaifood.about.com/od/quickeasythairecipes/r/stirfriedveggie.htm

Five minute meals you can make with pre-cooked meat

    • Heat up a slice of roast beef/roast pork/roast chicken along with your pre-roasted potatoes and you have meal.
    • Throw some slices of your meat on some tortillias with hot sauce and you have a meal. Optionally you can cook up peppers and onions in less than 5 minutes and really make delicious fajitas.

    • Make a bowl of rice and serve your meat ontop. Add a little soy sauce for flavor. Optionally you can chop up some of the meat and stir-fry in a skillet with veggies and soy sauce/stir-fry sauce for five minutes and make an even healthier and delicious stir-fry.

    • Make a salad. Fill a bowl with salad greens, chop up meat and put on top. Optionally add avocados, tomatoes, onions, etc.

    • Boil pasta noodles and mix part of your meat with spaghetti or alfredo sauce to create delicious pasta in the same amount of time it would take you to cook a packet of ramen noodles.
    • Just eat a piece of meat cold! It’ll still satisfy and help fuel you.

The problem with Junk Food

  1. They are devoid of important vitamins and minerals. Malnutrition comes about from not only a lack of calories, but a lack of the essential vitamins and minerals the body needs to function at optimal levels. When you eat junk food you get calories and a lot of carbs/sugars. And that’s about it. A great article about how junk food causes malnutrition: http://articles.latimes.com/1991-06-09/news/mn-898_1_junk-food
  2. They cause spikes in your blood glucose levels, which will lead to a immediate spike in energy levels followed by a large crash.
    1. “The human body requires a relatively constant input of glucose, a sugar produced upon digestion of carbohydrates, for normal functioning. Glucagon and insulin are among the hormones that ensure a normal range of glucose in the human body[6]. Upon consumption of a meal, blood sugar normally rises, which triggers pancreatic cells to produce insulin. This hormone initiates the absorption of the just-digested blood glucose as glycogen into the liver for metabolism or storage, thereby lowering glucose levels in the blood. In contrast, the hormone glucagon is released by the pancreas as a response to lower than normal blood sugar levels. Glucagon initiates uptake of the stored glycogen in the liver into the bloodstream so as to increase glucose levels in the blood[7]. Sporadic, high-carbohydrate snacks and meals are deemed the specific causes of sugar crashes. The “crash” one feels is due to the rapid increase and subsequent decline of blood sugar in the body system as one begins and ceases consumption of high-sugar foods. More insulin than is actually needed is produced in response to the large, rapid ingestion of sugary foods.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugar_crash

MMO launches are marathons, not sprints. Junk food will give you short-term energy at a cost of lethargy an hour later. Ontop of that they are empty calories which will most likely be stored as fat.

Healthy Snacks

The goal with a healthy snack is to give you a burst of quick energy so you can play for another two to three hours before needing to eat something more substantial(or another snack).

Healthy Snack Ideas:

  • Home-made guacamole – One avocado, a bit of salsa along with mayonnaise will give you a snack with roughly 300 calories. Avocados are rightly called a superfood. They contain very high quality and nutritious fats and proteins that will give your body sustained and long-lasting energy. I find that eating an avocado will keep me alert and filled with energy for 4 hours. A great guacamole recipe: http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/perfect_guacamole/
    • The guacamole is great to eat by itself but you can also spread it on tortillias to make a guacamole taco.
    • It goes without saying that guacamole makes for a great dip
  • Fruit with peanut butter. An apple or banana with two to three tablespoons of peanut butter contains the perfect mix of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats to keep you fueled for three to four hours.
    • This is a wonderful pre-workout snack or breakfast
  • Beef Jerky. Expensive, but delicious, and perfectly healthy. Pure protein!
  • Nuts – almonds, peanuts, mixed nuts. No one nut is especially superior to any others. I prefer almonds just because of their taste.
  • Dried fruits – these can help stave off your sweet tooth, but I would recommend against eating too many as they are still very high in sugar content. Craisins are delicious!
  • Eggs – eggs are super easy to cook and make wonderful snacks. To prepare for Guild Wars 2 I’m going to hard boil two dozen eggs and just store them in a big bowl. A few eggs with some salt and hot sauce makes for extremely nutritious and delicious snacks. Eggs also contain choline, a nutrient found to improve memory and mental function along with exhibiting protective effects for our livers. Not only will eating eggs help fuel you, but it will actively help you concentrate and focus on the game! Source: http://www.3fatchicks.com/4-health-and-dietary-benefits-of-choline/

Get your workout in before you start playing

Back when I played WoW regularly I would often tell myself “okay just one dungeon and then I’ll go workout.” Well nine times out of ten that “one dungeon” turned into ten and I just skipped my workout for the day. Rationalizing to myself that I would make up for it the next day.

Remember your priorities. Hitting max level is cool, but five years down the line what is going to matter to you? The fact that you were one of the first level 80’s on your server? Or your health? Don’t let your excitement for a new game cloud your judgement and make you lose sight of your true priorities.

I recommend writing out an affirmation and promise to yourself. “My health is my number one priority and I will only play after I’ve finished my workout.” Write it in the comments below if you’re serious about making a commitment to being a healthy gamer.

Incorporate bodyweight exercises into your play time


I will be doing bodyweight squats, pushups, pullups, flutter kicks, and crunches every hour.

Benefits of doing small sets of bodyweight exercises:

  1. Increased blood-flow! Doing just one set of squats can raise your heart rate and increase the blood flow to your brain for the next half hour. This will lead to increased alertness in game.
  2. Small sets of bodyweight workouts add up for big results. Doing ten sets of 10 pushups a day over the course of a month can increase your maximal pushups by more than 30!
  3. Burn more calories. Doing ten pushups and fifteen squats seems small, but again doing it throughout the entire playing day can add up to hundreds of extra calories burned.
  4. Exercise releases endorphines which will make the gameplay experience even more enjoyable for you.

Note: Don’t tie your exercises to negative events in game. For example many people will set a rule of doing ten pushups everytime they die. While this may look like a good idea on the surface what you are actually doing is building a connection in your brain between negative events(like losing, or dying) and exercise. Eventually this can get to the point that simply by doing an exercise you will trigger the negative emotional state associated with losing or dying.

Use a Standing Desk!

I have an entire write-up on standing desks here if you would like to read it. But the cliff notes version. Standing burns 50 more calories per hour than sitting. Standing for 12 hours playing MMOs will lead to an extra SIX HUNDRED calories burned for that one day.

Take small naps

When Diablo 3 released I would go to bed around 1-2 am, wake up at 5:30, get all my workouts done and then play all day, taking small 20 minute naps around 10am, 4pm, and 8pm. If this kind of sleep pattern sounds interesting to you check out polyphasic sleeping: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyphasic_sleep

Now you don’t need to do anything as crazy as this, but generally it is much better to take small naps(20-30 minutes) then try to push through fatigue by using caffeine.

The use of energy drinks is actually detrimental to your overall play time. What you are doing is essentially borrowing energy from the future. Your body cannot sustain the caffeine fueled energy for more than about 24 hours and eventually you will crash really hard. This crash might cause you to sleep 10-11-12 hours.

Whereas if you had just taken a small 20 minute nap when you started feeling really tired you could continue to play with 5-7 hours of sleep per day indefinitely without ever crashing hard.

Vitamins that you NEED to perform optimally

  • Multi-vitamin. I recommend NOW Adam: http://www.thehealthygamer.com/nowadam Cheap multivitamins that you buy from Wal-Mart don’t dissolve properly and studies have shown that most of the cheaper multi-vitamins mostly pass through your system without being absorbed and come out in your poop looking much the same as the way they went in!
  • Vitamin D-3. D-3 is produced by your skin when it is exposed to sunlight. The internet is full of anecdotal stories of individuals who cured their depression and low energy/low motivation through supplementing with high doses of vitamin D-3. I recommend taking 5000 IU’s per day since none of us are going to see an ounce of sunlight for the next few weeks. You can D-3 at most grocery stores.
  • Protein supplement. Not at all necessary, but very useful for getting in extra calories and fleshing out your meal replacement drinks. I really enjoy Myofusion. They taste great and mix great: http://www.thehealthygamer.com/myofusionprotein

Note: the links above are affiliate links, if you purchase something from those links I get a small fee from Amazon. It does not cost you anything more and helps support what I do here at The Healthy Gamer.

Drink Green Tea instead of Energy Drinks or Soda

“The secret of green tea lies in the fact it is rich in catechin polyphenols, particularly epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG). EGCG is a powerful anti-oxidant: besides inhibiting the growth of cancer cells, it kills cancer cells without harming healthy tissue. It has also been effective in lowering LDL cholesterol levels, and inhibiting the abnormal formation of blood clots. The latter takes on added importance when you consider that thrombosis (the formation of abnormal blood clots) is the leading cause of heart attacks and stroke. http://chinesefood.about.com/library/weekly/aa011400a.htm

Cutting out sodas and energy drinks can be very difficult especially if you’re dependent on caffeine. Drinking green-tea can give you the caffeine you need to stay alert and energized while cutting out all the sugars and other junk that come along with energy drinks and sodas. And if that weren’t enough they’re also full of powerful anti-oxidants with innumerable health benefits!

I brew loose leaf green tea with the Ingenuitea system, it is WONDERFUL and I highly recommend you getting one if you enjoy loose leaf green teas. These allow you to brew multiple cups of green tea from the same leaf with incredible ease and simple cleanup. Ingenuitea system: http://www.thehealthygamer.com/ingenuitea

Conclusion

Staying healthy during an MMO release comes down to prior preparation and a few simple choices.

The man who has no time for health will soon find that he must make time for sickness – Robin Sharma, Megaliving

I want to leave you with this message for the conclusion. Remember that the longest journey begins with one step. None of us were born with rippling six packs and twenty two inch biceps. These are built over the course of years through consistent hard work and dedication. If you’ve been neglecting your health choose to change that TODAY.

Filed Under: Diablo 3 General, Featured, Guild Wars 2, Health, Nutrition, Video Posts

August 20, 2012 By Jack Jones 1 Comment

Your mind is trying to destroy you

The mind can be our most powerful ally or our most hated enemy. The mind can is capable of creating within us heaven and hell. It is the single most important factor which determines our success or failure.

Be conscious of the different ways the mind attempts to sabotage our success. When you can recognize these devious tricks then you can stop the vicious mind cycles before they send you into another abyss of depression, fear, or self-doubt.

Your mind loves to stress about things that will probably never happen

Our ability to plan for the future and see dangers and possibilities that have not yet happened is one of our greatest assets. But when that asset is allowed to run amuck it can do incredible damage.

Imagine that you’re standing on the edge of a cliff. Imagine looking down the sheer cliff face thousands of feet below. The elevation is so high clouds are even lower than your position at the edge! A gust of wind blows at you and you feel yourself being knocked off balance. You totter precipitously on the edge.

How do you feel? Is your heart beating a little faster? Are your palms sweaty?

(If you said no you may be a psychopath, just saying). This is because your mind produces similar physical responses to imagined stimuli in the mind as it does to actual stimuli that occur to us.

So why does this mechanism hurt us? Because an undisciplined mind will constantly scan the future for possible negative outcomes. It will constantly imagine the worst case scenarios for any number of events. Failing your tests, getting fired at work, your girlfriend cheating on you, dying in a car accident, not getting into the school you applied for, being turned down for that date, not achieving the success that you want. And in the process of imagining these negative outcomes your body will experience releases of the stress hormone cortisol. Cortisol in small amounts can be extremely adaptive and positive, but very negative in large prolonged doses.

Effects of a short burst of cortisol:

  • A quick burst of energy for survival reasons
  • Heightened memory functions
  • A burst of increased immunity
  • Lower sensitivity to pain
  • Helps maintain homeostasis in the body

Effects of prolonged levels of cortisol in the bloodstream:

  • Impaired cognitive performance
  • Suppressed thyroid function
  • Blood sugar imbalances such as hyperglycemia
  • Decreased bone density
  • Decrease in muscle tissue
  • Higher blood pressure
  • Lowered immunity and inflammatory responses in the body, slowed wound healing, and other health consequences
  • Increased abdominal fat, which is associated with a greater amount of health problems than fat deposited in other areas of the body. Some of the health problems associated with increased stomach fat are heart attacks, strokes, the development of metabolic syndrome, higher levels of “bad” cholesterol (LDL) and lower levels of “good” cholesterol (HDL), which can lead to other health problems!

Source: http://stress.about.com/od/stresshealth/a/cortisol.htm

If you allow your mind to constantly go over possible negative outcomes in your future you will flood your system with cortisol and experience all of the negative effects listed above, the most noticeable being increased fat storage.

The negative physical effects are just the beginning

The real danger of an untended mind is the paralysis it will cause in your life. Why would you ever start an endeavor when you can imagine all the terrible ways in which it could end? I would contend that uncontrolled thoughts of negative future outcomes is one of the leading causes of lack of motivation and drive in our society today.

Is the thought of going broke and being a failure keeping you from starting your own business? Is the thought of thought of not finding new work keeping you locked in a job you hate? Our fears of things that we have only IMAGINED, our fears of events that aren’t even a REALITY keep us from living the lives that we truly want to live.

The reason I wrote this post was because I experienced this paralysis this week. With the release of Guild Wars 2 and several other projects that I’ve taken on all I could think about was how I would never be able to get all of this work done in time and imagined all of the terrible ways in which I was going to fail at everything.

The logical thing to do in this situation would be to sit down, prioritize my projects, put off the ones that could wait, and plan and work piece by piece to accomplish as much as I could.

However my brain was flooded with cortisol. I was in a state of fear. When your brain is in a state of fear creativity shuts off. You cannot think outside the box. Creative solutions do not arise. All you can see is the problem facing you and the impending doom that your brain is projecting.

Mastering your fear, mastering your mind

What can we do? Are we just slaves to this mind-response of searching out all the negative outcomes in our future?

Not at all. Our minds can only hold one dominant emotion at a time. You cannot at the same time feel love and compassion for an individual and feel extreme anger toward them. You cannot feel inspiration at the same instant that you feel fear. You cannot simultaneously see yourself succeeding and see yourself failing.

This is the secret to mastering your mind.

My own cycle of fear and stress about all the projects I’d taken on was broken while driving today. I was listening to my favorite radio show(Coast to Coast AM) and a guest was on speaking about the power of positive intentions and positive thought and just how absolutely wonderful life really was. This program completely changed my state of mind from one of fear and stress to one of hope and inspiration. Instantly I saw my situation from a different perspective.

Sure, I had a lot of projects. But if I had to put one or two off for a few weeks then that’s fine. I also didn’t NEED to play GW2 for 16 hours a day like I’d been planning so that would leave me more time to finish some of these projects. And finally, even if I didn’t get any of this done, my life was still wonderful and the future looks great! In essence all of this stress and fear I’d been going through was completely artificial. There was no real threat or danger. It was a complete fabrication of my mind.

Recognize that scenarios the mind comes up with are almost always worse than reality

Very rarely in life does reality actually match the outrageous scenes we build in our mind. For example one common fear for most men is the fear of rejection. We fear that the girl will completely humiliate us if they turn us down. But this never happens. Most girls are pretty nice about it, and they’re usually rather flattered that you would even ask, even if they’re not interested!

And remember your mind can only hold one thought. So when you find that you just can’t shake a negative thought focus your mind on a positive thought. Don’t focus on trying to eliminate the negative, that will never work. If you can’t shake the fear of failing the test you should focus on the image of getting the test back and seeing a 100% and feeling the joy and elation at having done so well.

Accept the possibility of failure

“The only hope you have is to accept the fact that you’re already dead.  The sooner you accept that, the sooner you’ll be able to function as a soldier is supposed to function: without mercy, without compassion, without remorse.  All war depends upon it.” – Ron Speirs, Captain, 101st Airborne

Only when we can fully accept that we will die can we be free of the fear of death. Similarly only when you can fully accept the possibility that you may fail whatever endeavor you embark on can you embark on that endeavor without the fear of failure.

Get positive!

When you find your mind wandering to negative outcomes you need to recognize it immediately and then take action. Do whatever is necessary to think positively.

Here’s a list of things I like to do to get positive again:

  • Watch Archer(because Archer is hands down the funniest show on TV right now)
  • Watch inspirational talks on Ted.com
  • Listen to great music
  • Read biographies of inspirational people
  • Read inspirational self-development books – One of my favorite is Megaliving: http://www.thehealthygamer.com/megalivingbook
  • Meditate
  • I’d recommend against playing Act 4 Inferno, this will just produce more anger and frustration 😛

I find the most successful strategy is to get into a spiritual state of mind and remember the bigger picture. We are all here for just a short time. We will all die. The petty day to day struggles are really quite meaningless when we consider the bigger picture. Remember that your only job here is to live. All you have to do is live. Follow your heart. Follow your intuition. That’s it. Everything else is complications we pile onto ourselves.

Filed Under: Featured, Health, Video Posts

August 17, 2012 By Jack Jones Leave a Comment

Interview with Kaeyi Dream | Community building and healthy gaming


Kaeyi is a youtuber who will be focusing heavily on Guild Wars 2. She has some very interesting ideas about community building and she’s a healthy gamer! In this interview we talk about her idea for building a stronger Guild Wars 2 community and the importance of having a strong, supportive community on the server. We also discuss healthy gaming and talk about tips and tricks to surviving the Guild Wars 2 launch without becoming morbidly obese or getting diabetus.

Check out her channel here: http://www.youtube.com/user/kaeyidream?feature=results_main

The guild council video:

Filed Under: Featured, Guild Wars 2

August 16, 2012 By Jack Jones Leave a Comment

Implications for the Monk with Patch 1.0.4 in Diablo 3


Some general changes being made in 1.0.4

  • Legendary items are getting a buff! A big one! Not only will they have better stats all around, but they’re going to have unique affixes. Such as affixes which spawn demons and angels to fight beside you, and affixes that give you elite mob skills(like shielding and molten).

  • Weapons will get an overall buff. iLvl 61 and 62 items now can have as much top end DPS as iLvl 63 weapons, which should hopefully fill the market with more attractive weapons that have good LoH/Dex/Crit hit damage. I’ve seen so many weapons with +800 LoH and 300 DPS that I want to cry. Hopefully this alleviates some of those moments.
  • Legendary items will be added which promote build diversity. For example this spear increases the thrown damage of Barbarians by 45%! These open up a whole world of possibilities. Builds that are completely non-viable as of now could become extremely powerful with the right gear set up(providing Blizzard implements this correctly).

  • Elites are getting a nerf(10-25% reduction in health) and also some of the more frustrating affixes are getting nerfed(fire chains, vortex).

1.0.4 Changes and Implications for the Monk

  • The primary focus of 1.0.4 will be to make improvements to damage-focused Spirit Spenders
    • This should open up a whole new world for monks and spirit per second items. Effectively spirit per second items have gotten an indirect buff, because spending spirit on skills like exploding palm/SSS/wave of light is much more effective.
  • Exploding Palm will have improved visuals to make it easier to tell who is affected by the bleed and who is being damaged
    • The bleed effect and damage is being increased from 220% over 3 seconds to 745% over 9 seconds
    • I can see some awesome builds using really powerful 2handers with a lot of spirit per second and stacking exploding palm dots on mobs and kiting them to their deaths.
  • Seven-Sideded Strike will be receiving a straight damage buff to make it more appealing
    • Maybe it will actually be worth it to have on your skillbar now? Maybe…
  • Wave of Light is being increased from 215% weapon damage and +45% AoE Holy damage to 390% weapon damage and +45 AoE Holy damage
    • 390% That’s MASSIVE. Especially if Pillar still does double damage. Imagine 390% on the first hit, and then another 390%…
  • They won’t be touching “mandatory” passives such as One with Everything for now
    • Meh, kinda wish they would make passives more interesting, but guess its good that they’re at least not nerfing us this patch.
  • The Spirit generation bonus from Guardian’s Path is being increased from 25% to 35%
    • Depending on how well they fix two handed weapons I can see some really interesting builds coming out of this increase. A 2hander with massive DPS and high spirit per second could be great alternative to all these DW LoH builds.

Positives:

Looks like there’s a good chance that spirit spenders will actually be useful. I know pretty much all through Inferno, 90% of my spirit has been spent just keeping Mantra of Evasion up. This really opens up the door to more builds and more interesting builds, especially those focused more towards offensive DPS. And ACTIVE offensive DPS. What I mean by active is that so far most DPS builds have focused around our passive abilities(sweeping wind and tornado procs) so that we were still spending spirit mostly to keep one of our Mantras up and just letting our passive procs and primary attack generate most of our damage. Now we can focus more on using big cool attacks like Wave of Light to do some 300k+ hits to mobs. That should be quite fun.

If they fix two handers in an intelligent way this literally doubles our choice of available weapons. This should in theory lead to a lower cost for good weapons across the board both one hand and two hand and give us a much greater variety of weapons and thus builds to choose from.

Negatives:

They still didn’t touch Mantra of Healing or Mantra of Retribution! What the hell. These skills are fairly useless in the state they are. Mantra of Healing right now grants us a 960hp damage shield when you hit it. FIFTY spirit to absorb not even ONE THOUSAND damage? Even mobs in Act 1 do way more than 1k a hit.

My biggest concern for Diablo 3 still stands, the lack of an incentive to really play after you’ve hit 60 and killed Diablo in Inferno. Yes, 1.0.4 is going to improve the loot and make it more interesting, but I foresee people getting bored again very quickly once the “newness” of the legendaries and builds fade away. 

If I were a cynic, I would say this is just a way Activision devised to pump some more money out of players via the RMAH by introducing a bunch of cool legendaries but not really addressing the underlying fundamental fact that the game isn’t fun to play longterm… If I were a cynic 😉
You can find all my monk builds here. My youtube channel with tons of Diablo 3 guides here.
[Read more…]

Filed Under: Diablo 3 General, Diablo 3 Monk Builds, Featured, Video Posts

August 14, 2012 By Jack Jones Leave a Comment

Healthy Asian Style Chicken Soup | High protein, low carb, great for cutting fat!

This Asian style soup is great for cutting fat and is super easy to prepare. Can you boil water? Can you cut things up? Then you have all the skills necessary to make this meal! [Read more…]

Filed Under: Featured, Nutrition, Video Posts

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