The Problem With Tracer - Rework Suggestion (Brainstorm)

Ah yes, Tracer, one of the first (well let's be honest here, the first) heroes I fell in love with when keeping up with the development of Overwatch. So imagine my delight when they announced that they were going to bring her over to Heroes of the Storm. And to prove just how much I wanted to play her, she's the only hero (up to this point) that I've ever bought when she was first released at 15000 coins. Yes, I didn't wait for her price to be lowered to 10000 coins, and I played a lot of games when she was announced just so that I would be able to purchase this hero when she was finally released!

But alas, time was not so nice to the Overwatch agent, after being repeatedly bombarded with nerf after nerf, some justified, like increasing the cooldown of Recall, and some not, like adding more cooldown if you picked the level 20 Total Recall Talent, a first for Heroes of the Storm, simply because other talents in the same level weren't picked as often. The problem here, however, is not that Tracer's kit is bad. Her kit is really strong, but as a person who plays Tracer quite often, there simply isn't that much diversity to her talents. No diversity and to add to that not much synergy between her talents.

That's her Master Skin btw, one of the things that need a remake as well IMO

So how about we contemplate on this (because this is so important, am I right?) and figure out how we can iron out a few of her kinks without making her extremely overpowered. Just to clarify, I'm not saying that she's a bad hero, by all means, she still plays quite well in some situations, but when you consider her talent choices and kit, she seems to have gotten the short end of the straw. If you compare her to some of the other popular picks, like Kael thas, Li Ming and Valla, heck even Thrall, all have well rounded talent choices with a lot synergy between them. But I'm getting ahead of myself, let's start from the beginning.

Talents

The reason why most of her talents are nerfed is because those talents were picked more often than others. And there are two reasons for that, let's get to it:

When people pick talents, it's either to enhance her current play style or counter the enemy's lineup. So when Tracer was first released, her popular talents were Slipstream at Level 1 and Spatial Echo at Level 7. Why? Mostly because, Slipstream reduces the cooldown of Tracer's Recall ability, one that allowed her to be placed at where she was 3 seconds ago. On top of that, it made her go back 1 second more, so instead of going back 3 seconds, she'd go back 4. Now, compared to her other talents, Pulse Strike and Tracer Rounds (let's not even talk about Tracer Rounds) Slipstream had the least amount of skill required to make it work. Pulse Strike, though a good talent as well, required you to land Melees on enemies, which required you to get in close to the enemy. And being a squishy hero with a low health pool, most players won't want to do that, even though it was a good trade off. Slipstream had zero, and I mean ZERO trade off, you just get a lowered cooldown and you get transported further. Of course, this made that talent extremely popular. Slipstream has since been nerfed to oblivion, so now it only increases the time recalled by 1 second.

Current Talent Effects:

Pulse Strike: Increases ultimate charge from Melee strikes on Heroes from 10% to 20%

Slipstream: Increases time recalled by 1 second

Tracer Rounds: Tracer's basic attacks reveal heroes for 4 seconds (see? useless...)

The current situation for these talents, taken from HotsLogs, look at the popularity

Now let's talk about her second favourite, Spatial Echo, it returns 2 charges of Blink when Tracer uses Recall. Compared to her other talents, Bullet Time and Jumper, which reduced her Blink cooldowns by 0.1 second per shot and Jumper which increased the Blink charges by 1, Spatial Echo was of course the better choice. And again, I'll bring up the fact that it didn't need any skill to use, Bullet Time needed you to constantly be attacking for you to benefit from it, and Jumper was only useful at full charge. In addition to the fact that Spatial Echo synergized with Slipstream, it was an extremely favourable talent compared to the others.

If you've been following me closely, you'd notice that those then popular talents (now not so much), gave a lot for the zero skill needed to use them. AND THAT'S WHY THEY WERE SO POPULAR! Now consider these talents after the nerfs, Slipstream is picked less now, because people would rather gamble a little than just go back 1 second further. And Spatial Echo now requiring you get the kill to get those charges is picked the least. BECAUSE IT REQUIRES SKILL AND A KILL. Guess what talent is picked the most now, Jumper. Why? Because you get one extra blink, no strings attached, a blink and nothing else. It's simple, and that's why people go there. And speaking from experience, Bullet Time actually gives so much more once you get the hang of Tracer. But the ease and security of the pick is what people mostly go for.

Current Talent Effects:

Jumper: Increases Blink charges by 1

Bullet Time: Basic attacks reduce blink cooldown by 0.1 seconds (note that Tracer dishes 10 attacks per magazine)

Spatial Echo: Hero kills grant 2 charges of Blink

Need another argument? Let's look at Tracer's Level 16 Talents, or in other words, her power spike talents, Sleight of Hand reduces her reload time, allowing her to attack faster, Focus Fire, increases the damage of her last bullet, should she empty the whole clip on the same target and Locked and Loaded, which by pressing reload at the right moment, increases the damage for the whole clip. Now, just a guess, which talent is the most popular? SLEIGHT OF HAND!!! Why? Security, it requires no skill yet it gives a decent damage boost, even though her other talents promise more damage should they be used effectively.

Current Talent Effects:

Sleight of Hand: Reduces Reload time by 50% (0.75->0.375), increasing damage over time by 20%

Focus Fire: The last bullet of a clip deals an additional 35% damage, if the whole clip is used on the same target

Locked and Loaded: Activating Reload at the right time increases damage for the whole clip by 40%

Her Level 10 Talents show the same story, increase explosion size and slow, increase damage or increase throwing range and charge rate? Of course, THROWING RANGE AND CHARGE RATE. People mostly use her Pulse Bomb to kill off single targets, so the increased explosion size and slow doesn't give anything to her kit, the increased damage is good but because of security, the increased range and charge rate is the most favourable here. IT'S THE SAME WITH HER LEVEL 20 TALENTS AS WELL. Reduce melee cooldown and give knockback, Recall heals but increases cooldown or if the bomb sticks to an enemy, a second one is dropped. Just based on the previous arguments, of course they'd pick the Recall talent. Even though the cooldown is increased, the security of getting her health back makes it better than the other talents.

Current Talent Effects:
Sticky Bomb: Increases explosion radius by 50% and slows by 70% for 3 seconds
Quantum Spike: Pulse Bomb deals additional damage equal to 10% of the target's health
Pulse Rounds: Increases Pulse Bomb's range and charge rate (against heroes) by 100%

Current Talent Effects:

Get Stuffed!: Reduces melee cooldown by 3 seconds and causes knockback when used on an enemy with a bomb stuck, causing the bomb to explode instantly

Total Recall: Causes Recall to heal health lost during that time but increases Recall's cooldown by 8 seconds

Composition B: Tracer drops another bomb that explodes sooner if it sticks on an enemy hero that deals 50% less damage

So what have we learnt so far? People go for security and ease above anything else, yes sure but the bigger picture here is, Tracer's other talents suck, BIG TIME. I have to be blunt because I love Heroes and I want it be a popular MOBA (you can call it Hero Brawler all you like but it directly competes with DoTA and LoL) but the lack of versatility and choice in a game that has no items means the meta for Tracer stays the same. It's stagnant and people can't develop new strategies or play styles for a hero. Let's not blame anyone here, be it poor planning and such, let's do something about it. And hence I introduce...

MY SUGGESTIONS:

So the problem we know right now is that Tracer's talents don't really offer much for her talent choices to be diverse and we all know (based on the arguments above) that it's because the trade off is not compelling enough for people to trade security for advantage (in the right moments because if you see Untouchable, people do go for power, only if it's compelling enough)

Another problem is that her talents don't synergize much, so talents that offer less, have nothing to else to be more compelling. If she had weaker talents, but had amazing synergy with her higher tier talents, it would make those talents more compelling with the potential it offers in the future.

Ability Changes:
I can hear the collective gasps from you guys, now hear me out first, I know her kit is strong enough so just keep an open mind (hehe see what I did there?) These changes are mostly to even out benefits from talents so they are not as compelling.

Recall: Tracer heals health lost during that time, but cannot heal more than 30% of her maximum health this way. Cooldown is increased from 26 seconds to 30 seconds

Recall was one of the talents that was the hardest for me to suggest balancing, initially I wanted to suggest that she can only heal 50% of the health lost. But that would be too powerful if she lost a big chunk of health only to heal 50% of it back. A big counter to Tracer before she hits Level 20 is to pile on damage so that she can't be as aggressive during teamfights. Which also justifies the power spike she gets from Total Recall at Level 20. By doing this, it kinda makes Total Recall irrelevant, which we don't want. But then again, she wouldn't be able to shrug off chip damage because she'd only heal 50% of what she lost. Which is one of the reasons why people pick Total Recall in the first place, to get rid of unintended damage she receives. So by adding the 30% health limitation, we can give her half of what Total Recall promises, but if they truly want the sustain that Total Recall gives, they still need to take that talent. And why 30%? Because at 30% health, it's still dangerously low for Tracer, but it can help to avoid sudden death after a recall from one unintended auto attack. The increased cooldown justifies this as well since she actually regains health now.

Explanation:

Allows you to get rid of chip damage which is one of the reasons Total Recall is picked, but still makes the counter to Tracer relevant. This makes Total Recall less compelling which opens up choices for her other Level 20 Talents.

Pulse Bomb: Damage and charge rate remain the same, but the throwing range is increased by 25%

I've talked about security and reliability when it comes to picking talents, so by increasing the base throwing range of Pulse Bomb, we get rid of some functionality that comes with Pulse Rounds, making the other talents more compelling. It's also necessary because in Overwatch you can at least alter the throwing range of Pulse Bomb. Following this, Pulse Rounds range increase would have to be reduced to only 75%, which is a still a big increase, justifying the talent, but not so much that the other talents become irrelevant. If this change is too strong for a Level 1 Tracer, every talent at Level 10 could increase the range by 25% but Pulse Rounds would still increase the range by 100%, giving her a power spike at Level 10 instead of Level 1.

Explanation:
The added throwing range makes Pulse Bomb more reliable so that Pulse Rounds is less compelling,

Talent Changes:
Level 1:
Pulse Strike: -no changes-
Slipstream: same functionality but Recall's cooldown regenerates 50% faster when below 30% health
Tracer Rounds: -no changes- (jk, remove it please, it's like bait for those who's never played Tracer)

NEW TALENT:
Motion Blur: Tracer gains evasion after using Blink for 0.5 seconds -1 second (based on how OP this could be, I don't know how much time should be given)

Explanation:
The added functionality for Slipstream makes it more compelling and maintains the initial essence of the talent with the trade off so that more experienced players can benefit more from this talent. Motion Blur gives nice added functionality for Blink and gives Tracer the option of sustain by trading up mobility. One of the problems that Tracer faces is that she can't approach a powerful but less mobile team so this allows her to linger in the fight more, trading off her blinks for much needed evasion instead.

I view Level 1 Talents as a foundation for the player to use the Hero, Pulse Strike allows for more Pulse Bombs and in effect more damage, Slipstream let's the player play more aggressively for those clutch moments and Motion Blur let's players mitigate some damage against auto attack heroes by trading Blinks for evasion. You might also see Tracers being played differently with these different talents.

Level 4:
Parting Gift: I personally don't understand this talent but yeah, -no changes-
Untouchable: -no changes-
Is that a Health Pack?!: same functionality but this is a questing talent

Quest:
After collecting 15 regen globes, Tracer gains an ability that generates a regen globe for her, cooldown: 60 seconds

NEW TALENT:
Get Stuffed! (ver 2.0): If Melee hits only one target, the target is slowed by 50% by 1 second. Additionally if she hits a target with Pulse Bomb stuck to them, they are knocked back. (knockback distance reduced by 50% from the 20 talent)

Comments:
I KNOW YOU GUYS WOULD SAY THAT THE SLOW WITH BULLET SPRAY WOULD BE OP SO WAYYYY AHEAD OF YOU!!! Anyways, the problem with Get Stuffed! is that usually people would melee first and THEN pulse bomb, so there was a learning curve to the talent. So moving it to Level 4, removing the cooldown reduction and halving the knockback distance would make it less powerful but allow people to experiment with that talent earlier on. The slow is so that Tracer has a way to contribute to the team, one of the things Tracer lacks in her kit and play style. It also adds more versatility because she can slow down an enemy chasing an ally or do so to help the team secure a kill.

The added questing talent is because that talent is really good as it offers Tracer an option for self sustain, however, most of the functionality is lost as you advance into the game. So the quest doesn't give her that self sustain instantly, but provides it when you get into the later stages of the game.

Level 7:
Jumper: doesn't increase the charges but increases blink range by 15-20%
Bullet Time: -no change-
Spatial Echo: -no change- (though returning the old functionality wouldn't hurt, because I could see some Tracers played quite differently, as they used those added blinks as a way to scout ahead for the team, then recalling away, giving her some sort of way to benefit the team)

Comments:
The reason why I'm suggesting the change for Jumper is because of how her talents would synergize with the Level 20 Talents I'm going to suggest, but Jumper as it is doesn't really need a change actually. Also, if you were outraged or felt some feelings reading the change, MADE YOU FEEL THINGS! Another reason why the old functionality of Spatial Echo wouldn't hurt is because Bullet Time now synergizes with Motion Blur, so it makes Bullet Time a decent pick even though Spatial Echo grants extra charges.

Level 10:
Sticky Bomb: Same functionality but also increases throwing range by 25%
Quantum Spike: Same functionality but also increases throwing range by 25%
Pulse Rounds: -no change-

Comments:
These changes are if, and only if, the changes to Pulse Bomb, were too strong for a Tracer at Level 1.

Level 13:
Her Level 13 talents are the most balanced, in my opinion, and it also changes the way Tracer is played with each one. Bullet Spray gives her a wave clear, Ricochet is good when you want inflict more damage as it becomes harder for healers to keep up with her damage. Leeching Rounds allows her to be more aggressive and stay in the fight longer.

Level 16:
Her Level 16 talents are also balanced, each trading off some reliability with the promise of more damage. Level 16 talents are usually really powerful, so I'm fine with the current choices available.

Level 20:
Get Stuffed!: -moved to level 4-
Total Recall: Recall can now heal 100% of Tracer's maximum health, no increased cooldown
Composition B: -removed-

NEW TALENTS:
Combat Ready: Reduces Melee's cooldown by 3 seconds and increases Tracer's attack speed by 50%
Extra Ammunition: Tracer gains a second charge for Pulse Bomb, 10 second cooldown between charges
Overclock: Reduces Blink's cooldown by 1 second - 1.5 seconds and increases the charges by 1 (or increases the range depending on Jumper)

Comments:
I've explained Total Recall so the increased cooldown is unnecessary because it was just to make the other talents more compelling. Combat Ready can synergize with Pulse Strike, Sleight of Hand and Pulse Rounds, Extra Ammunition gives people the security they want with landing Pulse Bombs by adding another charge. Overclock allows you to have a healthy list of talent synergies, as it can synergize with Motion Blur, Jumper or Bullet Time. It's also quite flexible because you can build Tracer to be very mobile or you can make it so you get more evasion charges with Blink. Which is why I suggested the change for Jumper.

The problem with Tracer is that she has a powerful kit but the kit only works one way. The talents I'm suggesting here allows her to trade off some of her strengths for added functionality while giving her better talents that have synergy, making them more compelling and this should even out her talent picks more.

That's it and have fun playing TRACER!!!

Also please share this if you agree with these changes, maybe the devs might read this and inspire some changes!

Paratyphoid Fever - Resolution (Part 4)

If you haven't read Parts 1, 2 and 3, go read those first! You're missing out ;)

If you knew how time has easily slipped through your hands, you'd grasp it with all your might. And while I was there, lying down in bed, doing nothing, and wishing instead I could do something, I saw it. My days came and went, but I was still there, I wasn't getting better and why wasn't I? We knew what was wrong with me, we knew the cause of my suffering, I ate the medicine and yet there I was, in the same place I was in before all that. The thing they don't tell you about recovering is how patient you have to be. Sometimes you'd learn it, then forget, but this time I had no choice. Everything was in the way. I had planned for so much more and this was a reminder that, you can't plan everything and you have to accept that there will be things you can't control.

I had two weeks left in Miri before I started my semester and I already knew, even though I planned a few simple things to do, that it would be uneventful. And it was. It was kinda depressing watching each day go by and it depressed me even more when I think about it as the days grew short. The double vision robbed me of driving (the two lanes would merge together) and using the computer, that is if fatigue and vertigo haven't done so already, so three days before I had to go back to KL, I just tried playing Heroes of the Storm, any game would have sufficed but I wanted to try Li Ming for ages already. So I played, the double vision meant I could only see the center of the screen clearly, any peripheral vision was useless, but it was the most fun I've had in days, wait, no WEEKS. The first game, I was sluggish, I kept getting hit, I kept dying, and none of my attacks hit. The second, still sluggish, I didn't really die much and my attacks finally connected. Things started to pick on with the third and there were a few times honestly I felt as though I didn't have a headache.

My twin was there playing as well, but that was all I could muster before my return to KL. My bags were packed, everything was ready, it's kinda sad to leave your home knowing you've just spent around 9 months there since the start of my practical training, and now you have to leave again. The fever also made it seem longer so I felt like I was leaving home for the first time all over again. I still had to recover for another week or so as the doctor said meaning I had to run errands a different way. Plan around the fever y'know? So I had to go to Shah Alam to get my transfer letter to the new campus, I thought I would use that opportunity to get supplies as well. I needed clothes so I would need to make time for that. The registration for the new student's college was on Saturday. Should be easy right? Well some things are easier said than done.

I arrived on a Thursday, meaning I had to do the Shah Alam thing on Friday and then check in on Saturday, if everything plans out right. Thanks to my recent encounter with drug induced insomnia, I was always sleepy to getting to sleep early was easy, CHECK. I woke up early and proceeded to go to KL Sentral. At the same time sending my cousin off since he was going back to Kuching. He didn't really know KL yet so I brought him around and we ate breakfast before we left. Everything going great so far right? WRONG, as we sat down to eat, I could already feel my head getting heavier. And my double vision was getting worse. My double vision served the purpose of informing me of my condition, if you divide your peripheral vision into 3 parts, the front, the sides and the corners, you can kinda get a feel of how this works. When I wake up, well rested and fresh, there's no double vision unless I glance left or right, like move my eyeballs. As I start to get tired, the double vision creeps into my peripheral vision, so at that point, the double vision had already creeped into the sides of my vision. AND I HAVEN'T EVEN REACHED SHAH ALAM YET. Maybe I shouldn't have walked to the LRT station. I went to the platform for the KTM train, and proceeded to sit down, hoping to get some rest while waiting for the train. If any of you know KL, you'll know there aren't any seats at the KTM platform so I at on the stairs, I even made sure I sat down on the side so that people could pass by easily. But when a crowd came down the stairs I had a person come up to me and told me not to sit on the stairs. I didn't look sick so I stood up.

Again, if any of you know KL, you'd know how long it took for the train to come, so let's just say by the time I boarded the train, I was burned out. To the point I fell asleep on the train, at 10 am in the morning. I messaged my sister, who was in Shah Alam, because of that, I didn't want to at first because she was sending her husband off at the airport and the whole family was there and such. But she had already planned to pick me up at the station, she just needed to know the time (bless you). They picked me up, I got my letter, materials, and then they brought me to their house in which I slept like nobody's business. So thankful to get the opportunity to recharge~ Having done that, we then proceeded to go the airport. But then my friend called. Apparently you can register for the student college on that day. I knew we could register early on Wednesday but obviously I wouldn't be in KL then so that ship had sailed, I was fine with it. But now my friend calls and tells me I could have registered on that day as well and the places were running out. The problem was it was already 3.30pm and the offices close at 5pm, the journey from Shah Alam to Puncak Alam would take about an hour and I had to get on a cab and such. After much thought and discussion with my sister, I opted to not go. If I get a place, I get a place, but if I don't it's fine, because there are other colleges around.

So we went to the airport, and we sent my brother in law off, my sister told me earlier on to not ask her if she's fine, if she'll be able to handle him not being there, just let her collect her feelings and carry on. What comes, comes, so to speak. We stood there waving goodbye, then proceeded to head back to the car. My attempt at making her feel better was simply buying chocolate and offering some to her (cause like chocolate is scientifically proved to make you feel better and such so I was thinking, stuff her with chocolate, I know, such a good brother, so lucky to have me) We had a wonderful dinner, got home at around 2 am and slept at 3 am after the usual routine of checking instagram and facebook. Suffice to say, I didn't wake up early to fight for those final spots in the 5 minutes away student college. And true enough, there were no rooms left, the only ones available were the rooms in the student college on the hill. BUMMER. I dropped my stuff off and for some reason I don't know what (it's the fever, you always blame the fever) I decided to go back to KL. Despite my fever, despite the fact I had no transport, despite I was already there I didn't need to go back. But alas, the heart always yearns for home (if you can't blame the fever, homesickness is a good second)

I spent the last few hours in the condo, playin games and whatnot, doing my final checks of what I need and don't have. When the time came I went to puncak alam, along the way discovering that if you want to ride the bus to shah alam at kl sentral you have to wait at the bus stop in front of the tennis court and not the bus stop in front of nu sentral (after having 3-4 buses pass me and then finally deciding to ask that is). And that the bus to puncak alam comes every 2 hours as you'd better plan around that because of which I arrived at puncak alam at around 10pm, leaving the condo at 5.30pm ish. The first week of class started off fine, I woke up early (yeah, I know, I was surprised as well) and headed to class, it was my first time meeting my friends since we left for practical training so we chatted and I felt fine, no double vision or fatigue (like is this real? Was I cured, finally?). Then the lecturers came in and as we gathered around for our briefing, it hit me, the double vision and headache. I felt like sleeping right there. And so that happened for the rest of the week. Luckily I had friends that were willing to send me to my college, waiting for the bus in the hot sun didn't exactly work well given my condition. What really shocked me was that during that weekend, I woke up  from bed and there was no double vision anymore, I immediately knew I had fully recovered which was weird cause you don't normally know you're done but yeah. Quite anti climactic if you ask me (the doctor was right by the way, that was two weeks and I was cured)

So that's it, going through a fever that was supposed to last 2 weeks ended up being one for more than a month. Mostly because the doctors didn't know what it was since it was really hard to get it in the first place and in a place where dengue steals the spotlight, people don't really take into account other things. My advice here is that just go for an in depth blood test if it's more than a week and it's not dengue.

That's all and have fun not being sick?

P.S. Yes I know this post is a little late (little here meaning I was sick before the start last semester and I'm already in my new semester). And I must say that after the 3rd entry I felt it was kind of hard to follow up with this one since what transpired after was somewhat boring. But I'm happy it's over, I can finally go back to posting about Heroes of the Storm and other things, especially with Machines of War out and everything. I like Warhead Junction a lot, though the sheer size of the map is a bit off putting, Braxis Holdout is a bit of a mixed bag to me because it's really easy to snowball in it. But that's for another post, bye!

Paratyphoid Fever - Revelation (Part 3)

If you haven't read parts 1 and 2, go read those first!

We went to the general Hospital two more times but honestly I don't remember when anymore, the things I do remember were the that on one trip I was assigned this really rough doctor that gave me my first ultrasound (because I haven't pooped for like 3 weeks). The gel is super cold guys, no joke but I remember him just really ramming the scanner into my stomach cause he couldn't get a clear picture. He even pressed down on the lower part of my stomach, telling me it's hard because of all the "waste" deposited there. I understand the severity of my situation but peeing was hard enough so I guessed my body just simply couldn't handle number two. We left with some poop medicine, pee medicine and painkillers.

The other trip I remember quite vividly because it was the first time I ever got a rectal exam (am I being to informative here? I don't know) and I must say it's highly unpleasant. I still wasn't defecating so he wanted to check whether... I actually don't know why he wanted to check THAT part. As for the experience, I would accustom to having a baseball shoved up your butt. Because it's such a long time since I last pooped, he said he was going to induce it, because it was getting dangerous. You know that liquid they squirt up your butt when you have constipation? I did exactly that, and though pooping felt so good, it felt like my intestines were burning the whole time. The first poop I've had in three weeks and it was induced, what a monumental chapter in my life.

It was nearing the weekend, and my mom was going to take my grandfather to the doctor, something about his back. She suggested that I come along, because like why not right? And this doctor was considered one of the best in my town because he tries to tackle an ailment from all angles, very thorough. You know, maybe 7th time's the charm, right? And considering my twin was coming back to here tomorrow, I didn't think it was a bad idea. I just wanted to get better, to get rid of this headache, the double vision, fatigue, muscle pains and I wanted to poop, badly. The thing you don't realize unless you haven't pooped for two weeks is that you're constantly feeling bloated, your farts stink like crazy, you feel full all the time and you just feel uneasy. They have a medical term for that, believe it or not, MALAISE, you can check it out yourself, really helps explaining what your feeling in one word.

But I digress, we met up with the doctor, and went through the usual Q&A session, and I loved the part when I told him I haven't pooped in two weeks, his eyes grew wide with surprise and just stared at me. It's nice to see someone comprehend how bad you feel, without you telling them, he knew the implications of that and I knew by looking at him as well. Then we did an ultrasound, yeap, my second trimester and then, surprise, surprise, they needed my blood. But somehow I felt this visit gave more information compared to those other visits, and I hoped for the best, even more so judging by this doctor's reputation. So we returned home, it was Chinese New Year so my results weren't coming for another week. And so the waiting game began, my twin came back home and so did my sister. I was really excited but I was still bedridden most of the time so I couldn't really do much with either of them. My twin made attempts to play Monster Hunter 4 since our friends were on holiday as well but honestly I couldn't even sit up, let alone play an intense game. For real though, as a person that loves playing video games, I would if I could right? So I clearly couldn't.

Another thing they don't tell you about being sick is how depressing just lying in bed and staying in can be. Because I didn't even know I was depressed, (just a note though, this was not like hardcore "omg so depressed gonna kill myself" kind of depression,  there are people actually suffering from that but I wasn't) and I actually found out because I felt down and wanted to cry all the time. Not to mention tear inducing ads which I could just watch without feeling anything, suddenly broke me, it was like I was looking for reasons to cry just to make myself feel better. And clearly it didn't work cause I kept feeling that way. My family were really nice because looking at the state I was in, you just had to believe what I was telling you, there weren't any visible clues that could tell them what I was going through but they were very accommodating and let me be a lazy slob by just lying down all the time.

As expected, Chinese New Year was uneventful, I didn't visit anyone, which was a bummer because I really wanted to visit my boss' house, I left on a good note, and I wanted to keep it that way. I was actually excited because the week after, if all was well, I could finally know what was wrong with me. I was treated to a wonderful gift on the weekend, I POOPED. And not just any poop, a poop that lasted for half an hour with excruciating pain cause you haven't flexed those muscles in a long time (if you know what I mean) but at the same time, with that pain I was rewarded with one of the best poops in my life. Not induced whatsoever, a totally natural poop, like my body was telling me, "yo faruq, this is yo body man, you don't worry, you gettin better bruh". It was so monumental (haha this is so sad) that I went down stairs, and hugged my mom, and I was like "guess what, I pooped". She was glad as well, so yeah, story of my life. My full appetite kicked in too and how I craved spicy food, from which I proceeded to poop 2 more times.

We could finally get the results on Wednesday, and the doctor said those magic words everyone was waiting to hear. PARATYPHOID FEVER. Which was a lesser version of Typhoid Fever, and he was surprised I actually got it considering they were only common is rural areas, and not a city like Miri. I was happy, I finally knew what was wrong with me but then came the bad news, Chinese New Year was from 7-13 February, and I only got my results on Wednesday which was on 17 February, I needed at least 2-3 weeks to fully recover. And I was going back to university on the 25th. I was worried that my parents would worry, I was worried I couldn't make the trip, I was worried I had to live with the sickness alone in KL until I got better. I had to get better in 2 weeks, it's true I was going back on the 25th but my classes would only start the week after was was more than 2 weeks. Renewed hope, I just had to survive and not push myself too much until I got better.

We left the clinic, all contented (still sick though) that we finally knew what it was. I even googled it on the way home. Symptoms included, constipation, fatique, high fever for the first few weeks of illness, muscle pains and headaches. All the things I've been suffering from the past few weeks and they at last made sense! I did also have double vision, which was one of the reasons why I couldn't drive, because the lanes would merge together and I was scared I would drive into other cars. The doctor wasn't sure if it waa related but if I still had double vision after the 2-3 weeks were over I would have to see a specialist again. I continued to take the medicine he gave me, and here comes another bit of advice, check the side effects of the medicine the doctor gives you. Because the medicine he gave me for my fatigue, headaches and vertigo could cause insomnia, I couldn't sleep properly (hereby referring to going to sleep at 12 but being unable to do so until 4 am in the morning) for 5 days, it's like having red bull in your system, 24/7, when the initial kick has worn off, your eyelids heavy and tired but your brain keeps running. I rationalized that I didn't need the medicine, so I stopped taking the ones for fatigue and headaches, I only continued taking  medicine for the liver and pooping.

I still couldn't bake or play games, I have to get better in 10 days, I'm going back to KL soon and I just wasted more than a month's worth of holidays. What is life people?

To be continued in part 4, hehe~

Ok guys it's official, I'm posting every month which is a far cry from my initial plan to post every week. I'm having fun writing this series though, it's like writing a story, which is probably why it's long and winded. I promised myself I wouldn't post anything else until I got this series done, my original plan was to write a four part story, I wanted to get it over with and end it with this one, but it turned out longer than expected so I guess there'll have to be another post! BTW Tracer's (super fun hero) out already and I've been meaning to write a first impressions post, I've also been meaning to write about Li Ming, I've learned quite a bit about how to use her abilities and talents to the fullest. All those coming up next! Final year is no joke guys, I'm struggling to find the time to write so I appreciate that you still follow my blog!

Have fun and be careful what you eat!!

Paratyphoid Fever - It's Not Dengue (Part 2)

If you haven't read Part 1, go read that first!

My accident brought about many things, the first that came was the first 2 hours of great sleep I've had since the fever started, but then a prompt trip to the doctor, again, this time we proceeded to go to the general Hospital. Having just hurt my head, I didn't really like the idea but my mom insisted, trying to cure it before it got any worse. The general hospital would be cheaper (that's why I chose to go there instead of a specialist) but I did not expect the excruciating wait. By fever had the tendency of shying away from doctors, such was so as during the trip, I was the least in pain. The hospital was hot so I of course I bathed in my own sweat. And I felt so bad since we had to wait for such a long time but my parents never blamed me.

Time came and we finally met the doctor, a little meet and greet before we started but then came the usual affair of asking how I felt and talk of my symptoms, she worrying more that I was dehydrated. If you've ever had fever for more than 3 days, any doctor would want a blood test. So I got one, again, the first time being a trip to the specialist between this doctor and the first (which I forgot to mention in the first post because we went to so many doctors, guys!). I told her it's not dengue, we already went for a blood test, I have the results. "Nevermind we do a bloodtest," Great, another needle going in me. Hate needles.

It didn't help that the "needle guy" wasn't really good at his job (I guess, he was still in training?), me being well covered (an expression I thank Obelix for) he had trouble finding the vein and proceeded to draw blood from the side of my wrist. Yes, the side of your wrist where it's really bony, I looked away, the pain came and then more pain came, he hit my bone... and yet no blood was drawn. He called his friend and good God that guy was amazing, he did my other hand and he drew blood in less than 30 seconds. Hey other guy, learn from this guy, that was so awesome, I could almost forgive you. ALMOST. Another reason why my skin was punctured was because the doctor wanted to put me on drip. She was extremely worried of how dehydrated I was, so as I was waiting for my results, they let me lie down and just rest. Turns out the trainee that missed my vein forgot to make sure to get the water flowing so I basically sat for about half an hour with a needle in my wrist FOR NO REASON. It was later that his friend (yea the awesome one) came to check on me and correct his mistake.

The results came, I didn't have dengue (told you so) and they gave me paracetamol as we left. We burned 4 hours (and a dollar, cause it's a general hospital), I felt bad for my parents for the long wait, I got a needle stuck in me and my blood drawn, and in the end, all we got was panadols. And some hydration but I only got half of what I was supposed to get so it don't count y'all. I'd be totally fine if they were looking for something else that was wrong with me but telling me I don't have dengue and that it was a fever caused by viral infection even though I already told you I didn't have dengue and just getting painkillers seemed bit counterproductive for a 4 hour wait.

It just so happened that the day I went to the hospital was one of the days where my fever was at it's lowest. The next day I proceeded back to feeling horrible, a nice cocktail of lethargy, headaches and a burning fever. It didn't help that my appetite was so bad, I was mostly eating fruits, an apple and an orange for every meal. I got so worried for myself that I forced myself to eat bread because I wasn't getting any carbohydrates. I didn't feel like eating anything so I ate bread with... Wait for it... Ice cream. You should never complain about having to eat ice cream, but knowing that you're eating bread with ice cream because you can't eat anything else doesn't have the same ring to it. Solid foods were totally out, I've hardly eated any meat but considering the fact that I had a hard time even getting out of bed, energy and energy from the bread and ice cream would have to do.

I wasn't getting better, my lack of sleep taking its usual toll, so we went to the doctor again the next Monday (the specialist from before and this marks the second week of my fever). The worst doctor visit ever because this time, my fever was done being shy. He could see it, we had my blood drawn, but this time, I had new problems, I had trouble peeing (an experience I would compare to squeezing water out of a rock, the rock being my bladder) and I haven't expelled since I got the fever. Which was like more than a week already. So I got new medicine, one for peeing and one for pooping. The pee medicine certainly did it's job, I did feel like peeing, all the time in fact, but it didn't make it any easier, it was still extremely hard to relieve myself (this sounds sooooo wrong, FYI, each session taking 10-15 minutes). To add to that, after my fall, my parents had me sleep in their room just in case I faint again so I was getting up every hour, which was harder to do since I was sleeping on the floor (I almost fell countless times, my body already forgetting how to balance itself) to pee... It felt nice and comforting knowing that your parents are close but the other part is something even I wouldn't wish for anyone. Pee medicine with a rock for a bladder, something so whimsical sounding yet so painful and torturous.

I regained my appetite near the end of my second week, which I was incredibly thankful for, come here you amazing fried noodles you, but my fever, lethargy and headache are still here to stay I guess. I was thinking of spending the Chinese New Year holiday playing games with my twin brother but how can I if I can't even sit up? Would I feel good enough to do all those things when he comes home for the holiday next week?

To be continued in Part 3

WOW!!! How long has it been since my last post? But I've just started my third week in the last year of university so things have finally started to settle down, classes are in order in my new campus and all I have to do is not fail. I hope I can continue to post regularly like when I was on holiday. Just have to try and try again!

Paratyphoid Fever - Hello! (Part 1)

You know how you have your entire holiday planned out and it's going to be awesome cause you have the ball rolling, you update your blog on time, regularly too, you smile gleefully as well cause someone actually reads what you write. You even have games lined up to play and review, and also a pair of headphones for the same treatment. I even baked a bit and I finally got the recipe right, everything seems great and then...

PARATYPHOID FEVER

You can wiki it if you want (though you shall be frowned upon by your doctor friends), but those words were a relief for me to hear. You know why? Also please note that by asking why, you've set yourself up for another one of my story telling sessions~

Fever... Obviously getting sick was the last thing I would expect to disrupt a perfectly good holiday. I was home, good nutritious food, plenty of sleep, not a care in the world, not something that should lead to being sick. I mean, if I were in university things would be different, irregular and unbalanced meals, lack of sleep, and stress are perfect recipes for being sick. It's like you're just begging to get ill, but I digress.

It started with a really bad headache, as though metal pipes were being pressed into my head at several different spots at once. Well, I thought, nothing a quick massage won't fix, that it did, but only for a few minutes, then we were back to square one. I slept, thinking I was tired, didn't go away. It was only at night after I was done playing heroes of the storm (cause you gotta work for that Li Ming) did I realize, oh this was going to be fever. I drank lots of water and brought a bottle upstairs in case I wake in the middle of the night. I thought I was armed enough with panadols and water. How wrong I was.

The next day, I had errands to do so my parents woke me so I could start the day early. It was then where I uttered the million dollar sentence, "I'm sick," A quick feel on the forehead and they knew as well. The problem was, this fever was different than those other fevers I used to have, usually a quick pill and I can just go about my day normally, but this fever, pills didn't seem to do anything, my head ached constantly, which at that point metal pipes were being pressed at nine different spots in my head. I could barely get up, and my body burned like it was trying to kill itself. My only remedy at that point was water, everytime I woke from the heat and pain, I answered with a drink of water.

Day 3, and my fever was not letting down. So my mom brought me to see a doctor. It didn't help that my fever somehow knew when it was going to be studied and I must say, the times I visited the doctor were the times I felt the most healthy. The doctor assumed it was normal fever cause by a bacterial infection so I got antibiotics and painkillers for my headache. (not that it did anything, also note that this was trip 1 to the doctor, more to come soon) The medicine did nothing, I was bedridden most of the time, as soon as I could lie down I would fall asleep, my body would burn myself awake and I would find a way to remedy that, go back to sleep, rinse and repeat. No playing games, no baking, no nothing, if I were a king, my bed would be my throne, and I started getting weak.

What used to be me determined to fight my fever became me struggling for sleep. Nice, uninterrupted sleep. Because so far, I've been living off an hour's worth of sleep before being woken. To the point I began dreaming of doing real things, like its hot, better turn on the aircond, to which I would, but I actually didn't. I would wake up frustrated but too weak to do anything about it, go back to sleep, dreamed of the problem solved and wake to be disappointed again. And I must be completely honest, it can drive you mad. Because in my great discomfort all I wanted was peace, a moment of uninterrupted rest. That I did get, for a short time, the fever would go away, giving way to cold sweat and with it, comfort to which I used for sleep, but it didn't last, at most was 2 hours and I was back to being sick.

But nothing would have prepared me for the fall, a week into my fever, that night I was feeling worse than I normally was, so I barely got any sleep, and as the morning came, I figured I would get myself some water. As I got up, my head just pressed on me, I opened the door and my vision started blurring, I knew I was going to faint, so I thought, I should step away from the stairs, better I fall here than down the stairs. I took a step back (genius) but being in my current state, I lost balance and fell. My head banged against the door and I just lay there, cold sweat came and the pain was gone, a silver lining.
My parents came soon after, so did my brother, the bang obviously alerting them. That was when they knew something was off, this wasn't normal fever.

To be continued in part 2,

Sorry guys for not posting for such a long time, but this fever has been going on for a month now and I'm only now starting to get better, the doctors only knew it was paratyphoid fever after 3 weeks, and I could literally do nothing other than eat, sleep and go to the toilet for those 3 weeks. I am writing this post on my phone as I still can't sit for long hours, my recovery is expected to take 1-2 weeks so pray for my swift recovery and I look forward to getting back to my regular schedule!

Have fun and get yourself checked if your fever persists for more than 3 days (seriously)

Heroes of The Storm - Wizard Brainstorm Post

If you've been reading my blog, you'll know I play a fair share of Heroes of the Storm in my free time. What you might not know is that I'm really into Diablo 3. So imagine my delight when Heroes of the Storm released a teaser video for their upcoming heroes on Twitter. You can check the teaser trailer out and although we still don't officially know what those heroes are going to be, a lot of people (including myself) are strongly guessing it's going to be Wizard!!

I mean like, the laugh, her confidence, the way she talks, and even that bit about knowledge, it's got to be Wizard. So I was all like,

and like,

y'know, like when you're in bed on your phone and receiving wonderful news

Then it got me thinking, what would her class be? What abilities would be available? And so on. So without further ado, let's kick off this brainstorm session!!!

UPDATE, 22 JAN 2016:

Blizzard announced that Wizard was going to be a Ranged Assassin, hence I will have to make another post =) That will be coming soon! The rest below are of 21 Jan 2016 when I wrote the post.

Before that, a disclaimer:

This is not the official build for Wizard in Heroes of the Storm. I do not even know whether it will most definitely be Wizard as one of the new upcoming heroes (though I highly hope so). I do not work or is affiliated with Blizzard in any way. And this is just some sort of discussion post on what I expect the new hero would be and hope to be. That is all.

The first thing that I thought of was, what the gender was going to be.

Since, there were 3 female characters, and 2 male characters, I initially thought that the wizard would be the guy version. But alas, it's the woman like in the Diablo 3 trailer. Another thing was what class would the wizard be. I played the Wizard Class in DIablo 3 and he had no healing abilities whatsoever. Hence I came to the conclusion it would either be as an Assassin Class or Specialist Class. My money's on the Specialist Class since most of Wizard's skills are more towards area based damage and not really single target damage abilities.

Then it came down to the abilities the Wizard would use, to which I referred to the Wizard Trailer from Blizzard:

My reasoning being, since Heroes of the Storm is a free-to-play game and Diablo 3 isn't, they would want to use skills and abilities from the trailer so that a lot more people would recognize the character even though they haven't played Diablo 3. That being said, Blizzard has done a lot of things differently with the past heroes, so I'll be using the trailer as a guideline, but spells that can transition very well to the Heroes of the Storm Meta will not be overlooked as well.

The first thing we always look at first is the class, which I have assumed is Specialist, but the trait would most definitely be Arcane Power, It just transitions so well to Heroes of the Storm, like the Barbarian's Fury Trait. In essence, the trait would allow the Wizard to constantly cast spells without having to rely on Mana conservation, but at the same time cannot continually cast spells in quick succession because of the limited supply she has to use at once. I feel as though including this trait will allow the hero to remain faithful to the play style in Diablo 3 so I'm really hoping this would be the trait when the hero is finally announced.

With that in mind, the Wizard should be a hero that can deal a lot of damage to a large group of enemies, but at the same time can mitigate and move around the battlefield quite freely due to the glass cannon nature of this type of classes. The wizard should be one that won't be able to last long after taking hits but will reward you with heavy damage should you not look out for her.

The basic attack should most definitely be Magic Missile because if it isn't and it is a skill shot instead, I'll just rage so badly at their lack of imagination.

ON TO THE ABILITIES!!!

FIRST ABILITY

The first skill is always a skill shot in some ways, be it a skillshot that bounces to other targets, or a skillshot that deals damage in a straight path. So I'm hoping it would be Arcane Orb. It's an iconic spell, one shown in the trailer and also one the first spells you get in game. Arcane Orb also allows for a different type of skill shot, because it would be one where you release a projectile and when it hits a target, deals damage to the units around the target hit. As far as I know, we don't have that kind of skill shot in game yet, the closest being Greymane but that deals damage in an arc behind the target hit.

Talents

The talents could be very unique, given the fact that Wizard has a lot of elements in his arsenal. He can pull a Kharazim, meaning one level of talents could be just for Arcane Orb, one being like the Flame Arcane Orb, another being the Frost version and the last being one that increases damage like the first rune you get for Arcane Orb. It would be so amazing if that would happen!

I'm never going to go with just one idea so I thought I would include other ones as well, a Specialist Class Hero is especially good at clearing down waves of enemy creeps, so although Arcane Orb would fit the description, Disintegrate would prove better at pushing back lanes of enemies with the constant damage it dishes out. The way the spell could work would be like Diablo's Heroic Ability Lightning Inferno, the only problem being, I find that standing still in one place goes against Wizard's play style given the limited number of abilities you will have as compared to in Diablo 3.

Talents

Some talents they could include for Disintegrate would be Temporal Flux, which is a passive that can slows down enemies should they take damage. It would allow Wizard to somewhat limit heroes from getting close to her when she channels Disintegrate and slow down enemy creeps from advancing, Another one could be that creeps explode on death, dealing damage to the creeps in the vicinity, increasing your wave clearing power.

SECOND ABILITY

The second ability is usually one that can affect units in an area, so I can see that being Slow Time. Slow Time is one of the first abilities introduced to the Wizard Class during Diablo 3's development and is an iconic spell in my book. The ability should slow down enemies that venture into the sphere, reducing their movement speed and attack speed. The ability should also affect creeps more severely, allowing the Wizard to capture creep camps more effectively, further strengthening her role as a Specialist.

Talents

There are so many good talents that Slow Time can use, and this is just from the rune upgrades that come in Diablo 3. One talent can increase the amount of damage enemies receive when inside the sphere, which can scale really well in taking down heroes but also in clearing camps. Another could cause creeps to get stunned when entering or leaving the sphere, further improving your laning and camp capturing ability. They can even include a talent that keeps the enemies slow for a certain duration even though they have left the area of effect.

Most specialists have a way of diverting creeps by introducing other units that can soak up the damage when capturing camps or in lane. Mirror Image would be the perfect ability to have for this, although they would most probably only produce 2 clones instead of 4 like the one above. The clones would be able to deal damage as well, casting the exact spell when you cast a spell, while dealing less damage since it's only a clone. The mirror images can soak up damage when capturing creep camps, but at the same time contribute to clearing the camp faster with the added damage.

Talents

Like I mentioned earlier, you could have a talent that allows the clones to cause damage. Or increase the duration of the clones or increase the amount of clones.

Left Out Abilities

Where are blizzard and frost nova? It would be silly to have two heroes have the same spell, so I doubt that Wizard would have Blizzard as well even though it was featured in the trailer. Frost Nova is centered around the caster and although it fits the bill of being an area of effect spell, I find that having an ability that centers around the user in a team game defeats the purpose since positioning the spell would be incredibly hard for a squish hero like Wizard. If Wizard were a Warrior Class Hero, it would make more sense since you want to be the center of attention.

THIRD ABILITY

The third ability is always a utility spell, meant to allow the user to escape from battle or in some way mitigate damage dealt. Teleport is iconic to the hero, one of the first spells introduced to the Wizard and fits the bill as an ability to escape from danger. Even though it's a really simple ability, it can allow for so much for a hero like Wizard. She's a glass cannon so teleport allows her to position herself well and escape when needed.

Talents

You can have a talent that creates an explosion at the area targeted, or increase movement speed after teleporting or even create a clone at the point of arrival. I have this one idea where after using teleport, a mirror image is created and while teleport is on cooldown, you can use the button to instead control the clone, allowing for more interesting plays. A talent to follow that up would be you being able to switch positions with the clone when double tapping the skill, giving so much more mobility to a hero that needs to be elusive and mobile like Wizard. It would be really awesome if Blizzard includes something like that, but at this point we can only hope.

If instead Blizzard opts to go for something different, then Diamond Skin would make a great choice. It allows the Wizard to mitigate damage by gaining a shield, and then the shield exploding dealing damage to any brave nearby enemy heroes that insist on chasing you down. Diamond Skin would give Wizard a temporary shield but it's functionality can be greatly increased with talents. The added damage also allows Wizard to capture camps without taking damage while the explosion after would make it easier to defeat the camp.

Talents
The shield exploding can be one talent, or other talents can increase movement speed while providing the shield like the rune Sleek Shell, allowing for a more reliant escape ability. Or even a talent that allows the shield to absorb unlimited amounts of damage, further improving survivability. Though I still think I would prefer Teleport as the utility skill, I can understand if they choose Diamond Skin.

Additional Thoughts
Wizard's arsenal of spells include a lot of utility skills, so even mirror image or slow time can be listed under here should the second ability be something different.

HEROIC ABILITIES

Specialists are geared towards clearing camps better but their ultimate is more catered towards team fights. Be it dealing huge damage to units in a large area or just a single unit. So it would be SO, INCREDIBLY, AWESOME if they include Meteor. It fits the bill quite well, being an iconic spell to wizard, one you really look forward to getting in game and it's just an awesome spell to have in my opinion. But so much more can be done with Meteor as well with it being able to deal heavy damage on impact but also leave the area burning, allowing the wizard to interrupt the enemy team positioning like how the Phoenix works for Kael'thas.

Level 20 Talent

You can be unimaginative and just increase the damage dealt or increase the time the ground burns or you could make a level 20 Meteor strike instantly?! I mean that would be broken but it would also be awesome!!!

This spell was added later on after Diablo 3 was released and that makes it more of a reason to include it in Wizard's list of abilities for Heroes of the Storm. It also allows you to have a balance between two choices, one to deal heavy damage, and one more to put the enemies out of position. If Meteor is the damage dealer, then Black Hole would be a great choice for crowd control in game. Not to mention it would be great to combo up with other Heroic Abilities as well. Black Hole would gather enemies in one place, while dealing relatively low damage but the key goal is to create an opening for a huge follow up from your team.

Level 20 Talent

You can do so much here, increase the area of effect, decrease the cooldown, increase the damage or make enemies caught in it take more damage, it's a good spell so talents would only make it better.

Probably the most unimaginative and creativity deprived option that I'm including to this list but it's highly unlikely since it would be very similar to Tassadar. I hope they don't include this. But then again I might be wrong.

I hope you enjoy reading this, and I hope that it somewhat sates your desire for more Heroes of the Storm news until the heroes are finally revealed. I wrote this post in sheer anticipation so it kinda helped me here as well. Feel free to leave your own ideas in the comments, it is a brainstorm session after all and I would love to hear your thoughts!

Have fun and watch Heroes of the Storm videos to help you deal with the excitement! =D

Avantree Audition Bluetooth Headphones - Review (Final Thoughts)

Okay, suppose you're lying down in your bed and you wanna hear music but your phone needs charging, the charger's way across the room and you use your phone as your portable music player even though it's 2 am and you should be sleeping but class starts at 9 am so you have faith in yourself that you'll be able to wake up (and we all know what happens next). Or suppose you wanna do work like model making the night before submission because you've put off your work for the 11th time due to sheer laziness (which is in no way is related to me, c'mon guys it's just an example) and you don't want to have those dang wires get in the way. I mean, it disrupts workflow and they're constantly latching onto things even though it should never happen but it's the way of the universe so your model pieces fall to the ground and you have to pick them up and urghhh it's just annoying. Or even suppose you wanna do the laundry and you also wanna sing because it's noon and you've just skipped class (because laundry is more important and not because you woke up late or anything) so there's no one home and you can sing to your heart's content but your hands are constantly moving, the earphone cables just don't cooperate with you and before you know it, your phone is flung towards the kitchen.

Pesky cables

Y'know sometimes I feel like I overshare too much on this blog... But then again maybe it's just me. Anyways so if you have any of these problems, have you thought about getting a pair of bluetooth headphones? WELL I DID!!! There's kinda a backstory to that over here so you can check that out if you want (shameless self-promotion). I got the Avantree Auditions so here's the review~

THE AVANTREE AUDITIONS~

Let's cut to the chase, first off it's...

Sound Quality

The headphones, although bluetooth, manage to pump out a significant amount of detail. The strum of a guitar is crisp with a twang and ring you'd expect to hear and the drum hits both evoke the force and impact as well as the deep thumps produced. Singing voices are clear with rasp and breath audible and clean when expected with the intensity of high sustained notes enjoyable. I mean, I was really impressed because there wasn't much difference between when the headphones are used wired and bluetooth. I'll admit at first there was not much of a difference, almost to the extent that I thought there wasn't any. But after a listen here and there, the headphones sound clearer when used wired, when used with bluetooth however, the sound became a bit muffled and the mids became more prominent. So note to self, don't plug the headphones in and switch between wired and bluetooth while testing, instead, use the headphones on bluetooth and then wired with a grace period in between. Then the difference was clearer.

When you're belting like mad and suddenly work with the traffic police

The headphones can produce adequate detail but the detail falls off when the sound produced becomes more intense, then the headphones display more intensity than detail. Almost like the intensity blocked out the small details. So keep that in mind because acoustic songs can sound nice and detailed and airy but when you have a song that starts out slow but ends with a ton of instruments playing at once, the music will not be as detailed. The headphones produce trebles with a good amount of sparkle and twinkle, just enough to make it sound good but doesn't slouch on the bass either which is deep and thumpy. Maybe a little muddy at times but most of the time precise. The mids are nice and warm, these headphones really shine with mids so if you like vocals, you should really try these. A high note with sustained vibrato sounds really good, intense but not to the extent that it hurts your ears. If you'd ask me to sum it all up, it that these headphones ticks off all the right boxes while failing at more of the less important ones. You have the part where when a lot of instruments are playing at once, the sound becomes a bit messy but never to the extent that it sounds bad and also with the slightly higher mids than normal.

When you hit high notes and suddenly start wiping imaginary windows

The soundstage is there but again when a lot more instruments come in and they're all loud then the sounds start to mix together. It's relatively small so you won't feel like you're in a concert hall or anything but good enough that you can discern where instruments are coming from and also their distance.

The headphones are black with red accents that make them look quite sharp

Comfort

This is where it starts to get bad (for some people), these headphones really clamp on to your ears. And it doesn't help that the headphones are not really over ear headphones but at the same time they're not really on ear headphones. The result is headphones that can completely cover your ears if you have smaller ears, but then squish them if you have bigger ears. I fit into the latter category so my ears did hurt after using them for an hour or two. Another thing I'd like to point out is that if you have ears that stick out more then they'll start hurting faster. My dad and my sister said they hurt after using them for just half an hour and so did a friend of mine. My ears didn't really stick out like theirs so it was more comfortable for me.

Heat build up is another issue. The faux leather they used on the earcups are not that breathable so heat starts to build up really fast. If you're in an air conditioned room it's fine but they're definitely not something I'd take with me on a jog, especially with Malaysia's climate. Have you ever taken a shower in your own sweat? HERE YOU CAN, TRY IT!!! (sneaky advertising FTW) And the only thing these headphones have to clamp onto your head are the earcups, (which are soft enough but the clamping force... not so much) the band that sits on your head is literally an elastic piece of metal that is sandwiched with faux leather.

Foam cups are nice and soft, the faux leather seems quite durable and won't peel off easily

Isolation

I'll just say one thing, for on ear headphones, these have exceptional isolation. The headphones on already block out half the sound, when music plays you basically won't hear anything anymore, like your mother next to you yelling. Another example is like if you're on a train to the airport and you're listening to music, and you just happened to fall asleep, expect the cleaner to wake you up and you'd panic cause you thought you missed the stop but then feel relieved because the train hasn't left the station and you then vow never to do that again although this wasn't the first time and yet here you are in this situation again (just an example and has nothing to do with me).

Buttons are easy to locate, press and are tactile, feedback is also good

Additional Features

Since I wanted a bluetooth headphone first and everything else was additional, I thought I'd include this part as well but last. These headphones come with a USB to microUSB cable for charging and also an audio cable so that you can still use these headphones if the battery runs out (super convenient guys) and they also have NFC. NFC is short for near fields communication, and if you have a phone that has NFC support, instead of  having to put the headphones into pairing mode and then pair them with your phone, you can just tap the phone to the NFC spot on those headphones to bypass the entire process! (mind blowingly convenient). The battery life is also wonderful. To give you some perspective, I've used these headphones for a week, 3-4 hours a day and they still had some juice left in them. I never reached a point where I had to charge them because they suddenly died while you were listening to music. I just charge them at the end of the week and use them for the coming week. The charging time is quite long, about 2-3 hours if you've used them for a week like I did. If they do run out, you can listen to them while charging (although I had to put it to pairing mode and then my phone could connect to it) The only thing I wouldn't recommend using them for are calls because, my god, is the microphone on this thing bad. It hardly picks up my voice which when it did sounded muffled and distant. I actually had to turn these off to resume my phone call, because it was that bad. The headphones also come with buttons so you can control your music without having to take out your phone. Pause and play with a press of the middle button, which is the one you use to turn it on or off with a long press, or a super long press from off to go to pairing mode. The "+ -" buttons skip tracks back and forth with a press and increase the volume with a long press. Hold on the buttons if you want to continue increasing the volume.

An image taken from their site

Conclusion

These might not be the best bluetooth headphones, but they certainly do a lot of good for what they cost, which is around RM150. The extra features they come with also make them a hard offer to refuse, you can use them wired if the battery runs out, not that you would need to because the battery lasts for a week on regular use. The headphones pair effortlessly with NFC support and you can use them while charging if you have to. The only thing to look out for is that you shouldn't use these to make calls, the sound can get a bit messy when the music gets intense with a lot of instruments but to the point that it sounds unpleasant it's just you can't really discern the instruments and they clamp hard with a significant heat build up. But for the price they come at, and all the perks of going wireless, I'd highly recommend them.

And as always... Have fun and do laundry while listening to music~

Or cables, more accurately cables