Seattle Mariners Are Bad 2024 Edition - Another Season and Another Playoff Miss

The Mariners, once again, got eliminated from post-season contention in the final week of the regular season, and it never felt at any point like they stood a chance during the second half of the season. The first half of the season the team was overachieving while the rest of the league was struggling. The Mariners had a 10 game lead over the Astros before falling apart completely. 

All off-season, and pre-trade deadline, the fans and media were clambering for management to go find some bats. Instead the Mariners signed a bunch of washed up veterans (as they always do), and the team unfortunately faltered offensively and defensively. Jrod didn't show up statistically until the last month of the season and the rest of the team struggled mightily, outside of Cal Raleigh who had an amazing season.

The lone bright spot this season was the firing of Scott Servais. I've been calling for this for years and it's about time management got rid of him. Unfortunately a lot of his assistants stayed and the replacements are 1995 Mariner veterans with no caching experience. While the team finished strong, it was too little too late. I still went to a game to show my support for the firing, but this offseason needs some serious bats and infielders if they plan to make a push. I won't hold my breath.

I still believe the Mariners need to bring in an actual manager with actual championship coaching experience. The Mariners need a guy who understands how to build a lineup, how to position the defense on every play, when to pull pitchers, and who to put in for key situations. We'll see if Dan Wilson and Edgar Martinez can have a good season but I still saw similar blunders at the end of the season. Bad defensive plays, awkward pitching changes, and lots of strikeouts. Perhaps a whole offseason building the roster and chemistry they desire will change things around.

Credit: AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson

Last year I saw the Mariners actually regress, and that is not want you want to see as a fan whose team made the post-season 2 years before. Instead of signing a big name middle infielder and bat to be DH, they rolled with guys like Garver, Rojas, Haniger, Polanco, and Urias. Most of these guys are off the roster going into the off-season because of how horrible they were. Most were replaced mid-season by AAA callups and mid-season trades. 

On top of the bad free agents in the lineup, the Mariners also allowed their bullpen to regress yet again. The year they made the playoffs 2 seasons ago, they had a top 10 bullpen in MLB. This latest season they were middle of the league. They dealt with multiple key injuries and players underperforming, but relying on those injured players was a bad bet. The Mariners starters only go for 5-7 innings max and Servais replaced starters with the bullpen with runners on too often, which resulted in a lot of inherited runners scoring. 

Let's dig in to how the Mariners can shake off a bad season and make a championship caliber team in 2024. 

1) Getting On Base and Moving Base Runners (again)

The focus from Dan and Edgar needs to be with OBP and manufacturing runs via sacrifices and putting the ball in play. Once again the M's were middle of the league on OBP. They had the most strikeouts in the league and set a franchise record for striking out. This was after they told the fans that the focus this off-season was on eliminating strikeouts (an excuse used to justify getting rid of their best hitters). The plate discipline needs to be an off-season target. Additionally, the Mariners were horrible at sacrifices and lost multiple extra inning games because they were unable to score the free runner on 2nd. 

2) Coaching (again)

We will see how Dan and Edgar do as coaches. They finished the last month of the season on a decent note as the Mariners had a better W/L ratio under Dan than under Servais. It still wasn't enough to come close to making the playoffs. Their lack of coaching experience makes them wild cards but also elicits hope as they can learn and improve as they go. However, we need to see them consistently making the right strategies and decisions to match their players and stadium.

3) Roster Improvements (again)

The Mariners need to replace a couple key positions and bolster their bullpen for next season. They have key decisions to make in the entire infield. They also have a couple RP spots to consider. The only thing they have is a stacked rotation, but that wasn't enough to help them this season.  

I'm skeptical that the Mariners will make any big moves after hearing the GM and owner consistently tell fans the same story, which has had the same results. Dipoto says the same thing every year and it scares any potential major players from signing with Seattle, which is why they always have to get players via trades.

Players Who are Free Agents: Who to re-sign and who to let go (most have been let go already so here's the remaining list).

• Justin Turner - starting 1B/DH, JT came mid-season via trade in hopes of bolstering the lineup. Unfortunately he was terrible defensively and offensively he regressed. Given his age I wouldn't be shocked if he retired or had a homecoming in LA. - ($13M/yr, should not re-sign)
• Yimi Garcia - Yimi was a RP who came in and helped Seattle but was up and down to end the season before getting hurt. They shouldn't re-sign him as his WAR was less than 1 and he's hurt.  - ($5.5M/yr, should not re-sign)
• Jorge Polanco - Jorge was one of the "big" off-season acquisitions that resulted in mediocrity. He was hurt for a month mid-season, and was up and down from there. Some games he was on fire, while other games he struck out a ton and played average defense. Overall he was ok but not great.  - ($5.1M/yr, already gone) 
• Josh Rojas - Rojas was a surprising early season league leader in hits and average. Then he fell off as teams figured him out. He couldn't hit at all after that, and his defense was average at best, which is not good for the hot corner. He still had an above average season given he wasn't supposed to be the team's starting 3B.  - ($3.1M/yr, already gone)
• JT Chargois - Chargois was brought in mid-season via trade to bolster the bullpen. Similarly to other RPs, he had bright spots and bad spots. Overall he underperformed and wasn't worth the trade as he had a less than 1 WAR.  - ($1.3M/yr, already gone)
• Austin Voth - After decent playoff season in Baltimore, Seattle brought in Voth to bolster the  middle of the pen. Unfortunately he extremely underperformed and had a negative WAR.  - ($1.2M/yr, already gone)
• Sam Haggerty - There was a time where Swaggerty was a potential future utility player for the Ms but he's been very inconsistent and often injured. Unfortunately he never lived up to his hype and is more of a AAA caliber player.  - ($900k/yr, already gone)
• Luis Urias - he was so bad that he was already release by the Mariners before free agency decision even began.

What should the Mariners do to replace the few pieces that are leaving, as well as bolstering their lineup to be more successful and make a championship run? Here's a few areas they can look at: 

Weak or Missing Positions: 

• 1B: The Mariners don't have a starting 1B entering next season, but there are some huge names available in free agency such as Christian Walker, Pete Alonso, Paul Goldschmidt, Anthony Rizzo, and Connor Joe. There's rumors they're targeting Carlos Santana who would basically be the same type of player Turner was at 40 years old. Hopefully they get someone younger like Alonso, Walker, or Joe.

• 2B/SS: The Mariners don't really have an all-star middle infielder. J.P. is often injured and has regressed as a player. He's never lived up to the hype of the future star SS that was promised. At 2B the Mariners have nobody right now. The Mariners need to serious look at signing a major middle infielder or trading one of their many SP's for one. They can roll with J.P. at 2B or SS and pickup someone else who's willing to play the other spot.
• Some FA available are Gleyber Torres, Kyle Farmer, Nicky Lopez, Whit Merrifield, Willy Adames, Ha-Seong Kim, Jose Iglesias, and Paul Dejong. I'd like to see them make a push for Ha-Seong if they can and move him or J.P to 2B.

• 3B: The Mariners are also short a starting 3B with Urias and Rojas being gone. Bregman is best available in free agency but nobody wants him on the team. I'd like to see a trade here as Rojas is actually the second best FA available and they let him go. Perhaps the Alec Bohm trade rumors are true but every team is interested in him.

• RP: The Mariners had a top 5 bullpen in 2022 and then dropped to middle of the pack in 2023 & 2024 after losing arms. The M's are now lacking good consistent arms outside of Munoz. Getting Brash back could help but he missed an entire season after a bad injury so it's difficult to know if he'll be back to his old self. They're going to need to replace Chargois and Garcia. They also have some guys who are mediocre who could be replaced easily. There are 27 RPs available in FA with a WAR of 1 or higher.

• DH: The M's revolving door of below average hitters at DH needs to stop. They need to find a big bat in free agency who can hit in cleanup. No more experiments like Mitch Garver or Justin Turner. They need someone who can hit consistently, or someone younger with upside. There's many free agents available at DH and other positions that could rotate with DH. If they go with Garver again then it'll be disappointing. Maybe they can package Garver in a deal to another team start or mid-season.

• OF: The Mariners have great depth in the OF currently but they also have some guys who are injury prone. I wouldn't be surprised if they added depth to platoon with Haniger, Arozarena, Robles, and Jrod. They could also swap these guys to DH occasionally to get them some rest. 

In a nutshell, the M's need a new infield and some relief pitchers so they can try and make a run at the division this season. The Astros have been slowly regressing as time is catching up with their aging and expensive players. 2025 may be the last chance for the Ms to win the division before they have serious contracts to consider with their pitchers and catcher.

Path of Exile 3.25: Settlers of Kalguur "Boat League" Review - League Mechanics and Frostblades of Katabasis Slayer & Righteous Fire Chieftain

It isn't often I do reviews or updates on PoE this often but I wanted to recap what was the easiest and deepest league I've played in, but also frustrating. As stated previously, I usually play a new league for 1-3 weeks. I get to about 10-20 achievements and call it (usually around 2 void stones and finished atlas). Starting at Affliction I started getting deeper into PoE and finished 31 achievements that league and 28 achievements in 3.24. In 3.25 I have hit 34 achievements. 

League Starter: I still have a philosophy to never play the same build twice. I'm also still playing through all the ascendancies. You can see my previous post for every build I've played so far, but this league I really wanted a melee start because of all the buffs. 

I then settled on Cyclone Slayer because I've never done slayer and I saw multiple build guides for shockwave cyclone which were decent pre-melee buffs. I leveled using sunder and it went amazing. The build was almost exactly the same as Zizaran's slayer slam build, which is a bit of a bait build after you get into maps but it's great in campaign. For a walkthrough of the campaign see my PoE general leveling guide here: https://mastuh.blogspot.com/2023/08/path-of-exile-poe-leveling-league.html

Then I swapped to cyclone and it was painful. Cyclone is very tough to play. It's slow, it's not safe, and it requires too much gear and passive nodes to get the most out of it. I almost quit the league at white maps when I was struggling, and I've never struggled in white maps since my first league when I didn't know the game. 

After watching a video from bigducks I realized there was a behind the scenes build from Rue that utilize frost blades of katabasis. However, I never found a legit guide for it so I looked at a bunch of builds on PoEninja and built out my own version of this build (POB here:  https://pobb.in/ImBG2xqwe3J4). 

Something to know about this frost blades build is that it's very good until you get to bossing. The build relies so heavily on building charges that going into a boss fight cold causes it to struggle. It's also not overly tanky because of that and the single target damage isn't amazing. However, it's the easiest map clear I've ever done. Once I got the awakened support gem I didn't even have to worry about elemental reflect and could literally do any map modifications. I was juicing maps above 100% item qty on all my map runs and didn't struggle at all. Very rarely would I hit an enemy who was too hard to kill, other than a super juiced map boss which happened a couple times. 

The gear for this build is extremely cheap. You can get most of it in white maps. The jewels are icing on the cake. I didn't get them until I was deep into red maps. Prior to that I was using yellow viridian jewels. The build itself is basically a 1 button build, aside from an occasional war cry cast and the use of a movement ability. 

Eventually you will want to transition to a claw/shield build. That version of the build I never tried. You really need a perfectly crafted claw and shield to replace the gear you have. However, if you plan on going above void stones you will have to transition to this end game version. I quite the league before that so I cannot attest to it but poeninja has many builds to copy from for that. 

Now let's talk about Settlers of Kalguur. The QoL changes to the game were great, especially the currency exchange which makes currency trading so much better for everyone. However, the gold costs for some exchanges are a bit annoying. I find myself doing lots of smaller exchanges to avoid the thousands of gold the larger trades cost (i.e. trading an item for 100 chaos might cost 3k gold but trading it for a divine would cost 300 gold). I hope GGG fixes this, but this gets into why I really dislike this league and hope most of it doesn't go core, gold sinks. 

This league was designed around people who play PoE 24/7 and can keep up with the gold costs of your settlement. The costs are extremely high to do anything productive with the town that you find yourself constantly managing your town instead of playing the game. However, the less time you're in maps making gold the harder it is to keep up. If you want my advice, save up 250k gold first and then dump it into your settlement. Upgrade everything as far as possible. Ensure you max out mining first because it actually becomes a gold maker for you. When it comes to boats ensure you do about 100 of each resource and dust and send to the closer ports. Don't worry about the items the ports are actually requesting other than the challenge related to that. By this mini shipment method you will have far less risk, far more rewards/hour, and will stack up the runes you need to finish enchanting achievements. 

Overall 3.25 brought a host of great QoL changes, buffs to melee, and an interesting new league mechanic. However, I hope Kalguur doesn't go core other than the currency exchange and gold respec. Good luck exiles! 

Update: I played Pohx's righteous fire chieftain for the mini-event (Necro Settlers) and I have to admit, it's not good. I think RF is dead. It'll get you through the campaign and early maps fine, but juiced red maps are difficult and bosses take forever. The build is very bad at taking on bosses and archnemesis enemies and  can die easily in juiced maps because you have to be near some dangerous enemies to damage them. Overall I only recommend it as a true league starter but once you get your 2 voidstones then you are topped out.

Diablo 2 Resurrected: Ladder Season 8 - Melee Paladin Zeal/Smite Guide

D2R Ladder 8 has launched! While Blizzard didn't add any meaningful updates (YET AGAIN); they did fix some bugs, which is promising. The state of balance still needs some fixing, especially for mosaic assassin. There's also a bunch of quality of life they initially promised but abandoned in favor of Lilith 1 (the 4th best Diablo).

I decided to roll a build I've never tried before. This time around I decided to go for a melee Paladin (zealot/smiter). I've always played hammerdin, and in recent years FoH, but never tried melee. Let me say it was both challenging and awesome once I got the gear for it. Melee Paladin is very gear dependent. 

Credit: Activision/Blizzard

There's multiple build guides on icy-veins, maxroll, and wowhead, plus some other sites and youtube videos. However, don't be fooled by these sites. There's actually an ancient D2 secret a friend of mine let me in on. Smite doesn't really scale off of more points in the skill. It scales based on gear, specifically damage, IAS and Crushing Blow. My first attempt was following the popular build guides online, which are heavily written for very specific content (uber Tristram). However, I was able to make a good all around zealot/smiter who could do any content in the game by going away from these guides because they were too content specific for me. I highly recommend checking the old purediablo and forum posts for 1 point smiter builds if you're curious about researching it but I'll walk you through it below. 

For leveling through normal and nightmare max out fire aura, zeal, and holy shield first. Then fire resist and sacrifice equally until each are maxed. You may also want 1 point in lightning resist. You will be running around with holy fire on right skill and zeal on left skill. You focus your melee attacks on the big enemies while the smaller ones die to fire. This build got me through nightmare but was fading in A5 NM. 

As usual, ensure you put enough points in strength and dexterity to equip your gear as you go, and don't lose track of the attributes your items are giving you because you could end up trying to swap gear and suddenly can't equip it because you're replacing something with strength on it. 

Leveling/Budget Gear: 

• Helms: I start with whatever I find then transfer to 2os helmet for Nadir (Nef+Tir) then to Lore (Ort+Sol), Peasant's crown or any circlet with +pally skills is fine too. Eventually you'll want Guillaume's Face for end game, which you'll eventually want to socket a 15ias/20-40ed jewel into.
• Chest: Use whatever you can find until you get a 2 open socket base to build Stealth (Tal+Eth). I always run Stealth while leveling any class, while continually upgrading it as I find new bases. You can also utilize any decent rare or unique chest until you get to end game. Eventually I got a spirit shroud which lasted me through hell campaign when I found Guardian Angel which I'm still using. Eventually you will want Chains of Honor or Enigma in an elite armor base. Until then and upgraded Spirit Shroud, Viper Magi, or regular Guardian Angel will do just fine. You could also use hustle if you want.
• Weapons: Use whatever sword or paladin weapon you can as you find them. You can look for 2os, 3os or 4os swords, flails, scepters, and maces as well and build some starter rune words. Black is probably bis starter melee weapon in a 3os flail. However, finding a paladin specific mace or scepter with +specific skills and open sockets can also be used to build some cool rune words. Note your melee damage scales off weapon damage and attack speed so it's important to keep them updated. 
• Shield: Use any shield as you level but focusing on paladin shields. Look for paladin shield bases with 2/3/4 sockets. You can build rhyme (cannot be frozen), ancients pledge (resists), or spirit (+2 skills) to play through the game. You want bases with high defense, high chance to block, and high all resist. Pally shields with sockets and 40+ all resist are best in slot until you get Herald of Zakarum (Hoz). Once you get HoZ you will want to upgrade it to a zakarum shield base and socket it with an Um. 
• Gloves: Any gloves with defense, life, resists will do while leveling. Once you you can afford it you'll want any attack speed gloves. You can use laying of hands, blood fists, lava gout, or venom grips as filler if you find them. Eventually you'll transition to Dracul's grasp in the end game.
• Belt: Always try to to upgrade belts early and often from 4 to 6 to 9 to 12 potion slots. You can use Thunder Gods (Tgods) for lightning resist, which helps when fighting uber Mephisto. Otherwise you can use just about any end game belt for this build for most situations. I've been using an upped Nightsmoke the whole time without issues, including easily defeating ubers. Ensure you have 1-2 columns of healing potions, 1-2 columns of rejuvenation potions, and 0-1 columns of mana potions.
• Boots: run/walk speed, life, resists are always what you want on boots when leveling. Aldur's, Rite of Passage, Infernostride, Waterwalk, and Natalyas's if you're lucky while leveling. There's also plenty of yellows that can roll with good stats, including run/walk, life, resists, and MF%. In the end game you'll want Goblin Toe for crushing blow then eventually Gore Riders.
• Jewelry: Rings and amulets wear whatever you can find while leveling. Prioritize life, resists, mana, attributes, and attack speed. MF doesn't hurt either.
• Rings you'll need Raven Frost mandatory for cannot be frozen and eventually Bul-Kathos. You can also craft a blood ring with resists, life, and leech on it until you get a BK. I crafted a dual leech (mana/life) with all resist on it which has been fine for even ubers. 
• Amulet, you'll always want an amulet with +skills to help get you through NM & Hell. In the end game go to Highlord's, Mara's, or a +1-2 skills crafted blood/safety/hp amulet. I've been using Eye of Etlitch which has served me fine even in ubers.

• Charms: Same as any end game you want annihilus, torch, and gheed's. Pcomb skillers are nice as well but not mandatory. While leveling I usually try to utilize charms with FHR, life, all resist, single resist, or MF% but I usually only carry 1-3 GC's and a 3-4 SC's at all times for extra defense. 
• Physical sunder is optional. I found having a merc with decrepify (A2 with reaper's toll or A5 with lawbringer) was far more favorable than having a sunder charm. Just note that life tap and decrepify override each other which can be annoying at times.

Attributes: As always enough points into strength to equip gear and dexterity to hit max block while holy shield is active (75% chance when you hover over defense in your character sheet). Then put all the rest in vitality. 

Ultimately you will want a grief phase blade and upgraded HoZ so those will be your limiting factors. Anni + Torch + gear will give you attributes so re-speccing in the end game will happen at some point. You only get 3 re-specs so use 1 at end of nightmare, 1 after leveling to ~70-80 if you need it, and 1 in end game once you get most/all your gear. 

End game points: 142 strength (for upped hoz), 136 dex (for grief pb), the rest in vitality.

Skills (end game): 

• Combat - unlock skills to get to Holy Shield & Zeal. Max out Holy Shield, Zeal, and Sacrifice. You don't need more than 1 in Ice Arrow because it doesn't give you any damage increase. 
• Zeal/Smite will be your main attack skills. Assign Zeal to left click/main attack and Smite to another skill button. Use Zeal to attack 99% of enemies and only use smite on bosses. 
• Offensive Auras - Max out Fanaticism. Fanaticism will be your main offensive aura. Assign it to a skill button on your right skill.
• Defensive Auras - Put 1 point in Defiance, Resist Fire, and Salvation. All remaining points go into Resist Lightning.
• Salvation will be your main defensive aura. Assign it to a skill button that you can quickly swap to on right skill. I often swap to this when dealing with high elemental damage enemies and mephisto. 
• Movement ability will be charge. Set this to its own button to cast it. Note that running into objects stops you in your tracks and burns your mana so aim carefully when zooming. I usually go in short bursts from pack to pack of enemies.

Merc: 

I have a rule of thumb. If I'm melee/tanky then I utilize a ranged merc. If I'm ranged or weak then I utilize a melee/tank merc. However, this build is a bit different because you will need a melee merc hacking with you. This means A2 Might or Holy Freeze or A5 Frenzy are best mercs to use for this build. 

Ethereal items are always BIS for mercs because they can't lose durability and will come with higher stats. However, you can utilize non-eth until you find or afford better. Always itemize yourself over your merc first so non-eth is fine. 

A2 Merc: Might (best damage) or Holy Freeze (good survivability)

Weapon - You want your merc to be casting decrepify so reaper's toll is mandatory. You could also run some other budget runewords if you have the base and extra runes (Malice, Honor, Passion, Obedience, Insight, Strength) until you find a reaper's. 

Helm - start with Nadir or any good rare/unique until you find something like Andariel's Visage, Crown of Thieves, Stealskull, or an eth elite 3os base to build the new runeword Bulwark (Shael+Io+Sol). 

A5 Merc: Frenzy (damage and speed). I tried A5 merc this time around because I wanted to try something new. He couldn't survive ubers without gg gear but he could do everything else in the game. 

Weapons - 1-2 Law Bringer in phase blade. Law Bringer has decrepify and the chance to cast stacks so having 2 is a good thing, but you need at least 1. You can also free up the second slot for another rune word such as Plague (for cleansing aura), Death (crushing blow), BotD or Headstriker or Last Wish or Grief (damage), Fury (frenzy stacks). There's lots of room to play on weapons. 

Merc Chest: use anything with good defensive stats until you find a good base to make or Smoke (Nef+Lum). Then use that until you find an elite ethereal base to make Treachery (Shael+Thul+Lem) until you can afford to make a Fortitude (El+Sol+Dol+Lo) or Chains of Honor. Duriel's shell is another good budget chest option and is what I used until I made treachery. Note that once you get Fortitude or CoH you should still equip Treachery until fade procs then swap it out (only necessary for harder content like ubers or harder TZ).

Generic D2R Playthrough Guides: 

For playthrough, magic finding, and trading guides please look at my past blog posts. They are largely unchanged but I suggest you fine tune a few things that go with this build and this ladder theme. 

Melee Paladin Gameplay:

Cast your Holy Shield and keep it up at all times. 

Use your charge ability to zoom from pack to pack or to zoom through a level quickly. 

Use Zeal for 99% of your attacks and only smite on bosses or enemies who are immune to physical. 

Keep your merc healed. Understand that if lifetap doesn't proc you need to heal yourself, otherwise don't panic when your health goes up and down. 

Switch to Salvation aura when up against high elemental damage enemies.

Overall this is a B tier PvM build and S-tier for bosses and ubers. 

Diablo 2 Resurrected: Ladder Season 7, Freezing Arrow Amazon/Bowazon Guide

D2R Ladder 7 has launched and disappointingly Blizzard has again abandoned updating this game. The state of balance still needs some fixing, especially for assassin. There's also a bunch of quality of life they initially promised but abandoned in favor of Lilith 1 (the 4th best Diablo).

Since nothing changed this patch, I decided to roll a build I've never tried before. This time around I decided to go for a bowazon. I have never played a bowazon in my 20 year D2 career so this was a new experience for me. 

Credit: Activision/Blizzard

There's multiple build guides on icy-veins, maxroll, and wowhead, plus some other sites and youtube videos. I decided to go with a full M'avina's frostmaiden style build from icy-veins. However, you can tweak a number of things as you go and you don't even need M'avina's if you want to use runewords instead. M'avina's was surprisingly good for super cheap. The down side is it's very difficult to trade outside of d2jsp (an RMT site I refuse to use), so getting M'avina's helm and Bow weren't easy. Traderie seemed to be the best free site to utilize to get them. I paid roughly 2 Lem and a handful of Pgems to acquire the set. 

For leveling you can play javazon if you want, but fire or frost bow is fine and safe. The one thing to know is that mana is tough to come by so ensure you split your points between energy and vitality. You will also need multiple columns of mana pots at all times, and pick up arrows as you find them to replenish your stack. I really wish D2R would've made quivers with stats, much like in PoE and D3. Considering all other builds in the game get an offhand with stats, it makes no sense for arrows to not have stats. It could also add an affix that replenishes stacks much like javelins.

As usual, ensure you put enough points in strength and dexterity to equip your gear as you go, and don't lose track of the attributes your items are giving you because you could end up trying to swap gear and suddenly can't equip it because you're replacing something with strength on it. 

Leveling/Budget Gear: 

• Helms: I start with whatever I find then transfer to 2os helmet for Nadir (Nef+Tir) then to Lore (Ort+Sol), Peasant's crown or any amazon skills helm.
• Chest: Use whatever you can find until you get a 2 open socket base to build Stealth (Tal+Eth). I always run Stealth while leveling any class, while continually upgrading it as I find new bases. You can also utilize any decent rare or unique chest until you get to end game.
• Weapons: Use whatever bow you can as you find them. You can look for 2os, 3os or 4os bows as well and build some starter runewords. Any of them are find while leveling, but the best leveling bow I got was kukashakaku. This will give you immolation arrow free of cost on top of +3 skills. 
• Gloves: Any gloves with defense, life, resists will do while leveling. Once you you can afford it you'll want +amazon skill gloves or any attack speed gloves, until you get your M'avina's. For a non-M'avina's build you can use laying of hands, 2/20 rare gloves, or 3/20 magic gloves.
• Belt: Always try to to upgrade belts early and often from 4 to 6 to 9 to 12 potion slots. Eventually you'll want M'avina's belt. You can swap to Arachnid's Mesh for DPS in the end game if you move away from M'avina's set. Keep your belt with 2 columns healing and 2 columns mana pots at all times. Eventually switching to a column of full rejuvs for panic situations.
• Boots: run/walk speed, life, resists are always what you want on boots when leveling. Aldur's, Rite of Passage, Infernostride, Waterwalk, and Natalyas's if you're lucky. There's also plenty of yellows that can roll with good stats, including run/walk, life, resists, and MF%. I usually struggle finding good boots until Hell. In the end game you'll want War Traveler's or Treks.
• Jewelry: Rings and amulets wear whatever you can find. Prioritize life, resists, mana, attributes, and attack speed. MF doesn't hurt either. End game you can transition to Mara's.
• For end game rings you'll want at least 1 Raven Frost and eventually a Stone of Jordan for DPS. You can also craft a ring with resists, life, etc on it until you get a SoJ.
• For amulet, you'll always want an amulet with +skills to help get you through NM & Hell. In the end game go to Mara's or a perfectly crafted amulet for DPS.

• Charms: Same as any end game you want annihilus, torch, and gheed's. Passive & Magic or Bow skillers are nice as well. While leveling I usually try to utilize charms with FHR, life, all resist, single resist, or MF% but I usually only carry 1-2 GC's and a couple SC's. 
• Cold sunder is optional. I found having a few points in exploding arrow did more damage than a cold sunder with freezing arrow. However, if you do a non-M'avina's build and can get cold penetration or minus enemy cold resist, then sunder is best.

Attributes: As always enough points into strength and dex to equip gear. Then put all the rest in vitality and energy. I got my energy to about 50-60 points because this is a mana hungry build.

Skills: 

• Bow - unlock skills to get to freezing arrow. Max out Freezing Arrow and Cold Arrow. You don't need more than 1 in Ice Arrow because it doesn't give you any damage increase. 
• Also put all leftover points to get Exploding Arrow as high as you can after all other skill points are properly used. This will help you in Hell farming when you hit cold immunes.
• Passive & Magic - Put 1 point into everything. Put at least 15 points into Valkyrie or max it out if you want a tanky lady. Put a few points into Penetrate to get AR to 100%. Put enough points into Pierce to get piercing chance to 80-90+%. Everyone will recommend 100% but what I learned with high attack speed is that you're still constantly piercing 8/10 arrows and having those points in valkyrie or exploding arrow has a higher value to me.

Merc: 

I have a rule of thumb. If I'm melee/tanky then I utilize a ranged merc. If I'm ranged or weak then I utilize a melee/tank merc. For this build I recommend using an A2 merc with might aura. Since you're using a freezing build you don't need a frozen aura merc, prayer and defiance kind of suck, and blessed aim will actually overwrite your armor penetration passive so it's best not to use it. 

Ethereal items are always BIS for mercs because they can't lose durability and will come with higher stats. However, you can utilize non-eth until you find or afford better. Always itemize yourself over your merc first so non-eth is fine.

• For weapon: use an insight (Ral+Tir+Tal+Sol) in a 4os polearm. Start with any polearm and upgrade as you go until you find a good elite base, preferably ethereal if you can afford it. I found a 4os eth CV and with Duriel's I had enough strength to equip it.
• For helm: start with Nadir or any good rare/unique until you find something like Andariel's Visage, Crown of Thieves, Stealskull, or a 3os base to build the new runeword Bulwark (Shael+Io+Sol). 
• For chest: use anything with good defensive stats until you find a good elite ethereal base to make either Treachery (Shael+Thul+Lem) or Smoke (Nef+Lum) in until you can afford to make a Fortitude (El+Sol+Dol+Lo). Duriel's shell is another good budget chest option and is what I'm using.

For playthrough, magic finding, and trading guides please look at my past blog posts. They are largely unchanged but I want to fine tune a few things that go with this build and this ladder theme. 

Bowazon Gameplay:

1) Cast your maiden so she's there to tank. You can also occasionally spawn your clone so keep it on a hot key. The clone can save you and your merc in a pinch but pulling aggro. Put explosive arrow on left click and frozen arrow on right click so you can shoot either as needed. 

2) Keep your distance. Your maiden and merc are your tanks and you will die easily. However, given you can frozen everything as long as you have mana, you are rarely touched. Just ensure you always have mana and rejuv potions. 

3) Note you'll be freezing everything with frozen arrow so you will screw over any teammates who use corpses (such as necro or barb).

I'll update this post after I play through the ladder using it but based on what I'm seeing it's definitely B tier in terms of solo PvM gameplay. It's not quite as good as lightning javazon but it's probably the 2nd best amazon build out there.

Path of Exile 3.23: Affliction League Review (league mechanics, my build, and the fun)

 It isn't often I do reviews or updates on PoE this often but I wanted to recap what was the most fun and deepest league I've played in. Usually in PoE I play for 1-3 weeks per league. I get to about 10-12 achievements and call it (usually around yellow/red maps). That was the case in about 10 leagues. The previous league I played through all the maps then called it. This league (Affliction) I made it to 31 achievements/challenges completed. 

League Starter: I have a philosophy to never play the same build twice. I'm also still playing through all the ascendancies. You can see my previous post for every build I've played so far, but this league I settled on Hierophant because I have never done a totem build. I settled on ice spear because it looked legitimately like it could 1 shot bosses, and it didn't disappoint once I got the gear I needed to make it work (spoiler: it's very expensive to make it OP). 

The TLDR for ice spear totem build is you have to use soul mantle chest which curses you when your totems die or are re-summoned but gives you a free level 20 spell totem so you can stack an extra support gem. 

As a result I decided to level using freezing pulse until I had the currency to get curse effect reduction gear. There is 1 passive that you can get, you can get it on jewels that you slot into your passive tree, and you can craft it onto rings. Eventually I got the currency to buy the jewel that made me unaffected by curses and did extra damage per curse on me. This is when my build took off. Unless map bosses were super juiced, everything died instantly as seen in this video from a youtuber who also used the build. 

The downside of this build is you have to stack so much offense to make it worthwhile that your defenses hurt a lot. You can take maybe 1-3 hits before you die so I would not recommend this build for hardcore. I also wouldn't recommend it for SSF as the gear you need to make it work is difficult to find without trades. If you'd like to see my build take a look at my PoB here.

Now my review of the league. This was the best league mechanic I've seen, even with some of its faults. The ability to choose to juice every level/map you're on is huge. You have a choice at the start of every level and map to go into the forest, collect wisps, maybe kill some random encounters or find a vendor, and then everything you gathered juices the level just like the sentinel league did. This will make enemies far more dangerous but the loot explosions it created were awesome. I made about 50 divine in 2 weeks without much effort at all. Streamers were dropping that in a couple maps. I also loved the extra ascendancies that came with the league. I chose the charms one because it gave me 3 extra passive slots essentially and extra inventory space, which was awesome. 

Personally, I'm bummed GGG was not a fan of this league. They felt they over juiced the rewards and made the game too easy. I'm worried we'll never see something this fun again. I can understand hardcore PoE players and devs hating on it, but if they truly want to continue to steal Diablo players then they really need to embrace software trade league players getting rewarded for their time. People who don't like it can play SSF or ruthless.

Seahawks Disappointing 2023 Season: What's Next?

It is difficult to summarize this season in a few words or pictures but I think the below captures it well.  After the Seahawks defense laid another terrible performance on the field and got a lucky win, the young players, such as Tariq "Riq" Woolen, think it's worthy of an immature celebration despite the fact they were eliminated from playoff contention. 

Credit: Fox NFL

Let's summarize another 9-8 season where the Seahawks needed a win and Green Bay loss, again, to be able to sneak into the playoffs. After a surprising 2022 season, hopes were very high for this season. The Seahawks were projected to be #2 in the NFC West and top 4 in the NFC, with the Niners, Eagles, and Cowboys. Instead it seems the Rams are back on their upward trajectory while the Seahawks have leveled out in mediocre territory. 

The defense has been historically bad under Clint Hurtt and his horrible 3-4 scheme. It's hard to tell if it's scheme, play calling, personnel, and/or lack of execution. Perhaps all of the above given the historically bad results. Let's break down some stats to understand it better....

Seahawks Defensive rankings 2022 vs 2023: 

• Yards Given Up per Game: 5th Worst => 3rd Worst
• Plays per Game: 3rd Worst => Last
• First Downs per Game: 9th Worst => Last
• Time of Possession: 2nd Worst => Last
• Punts per Game: 6th Worst => Last
• Rush Defense: 3rd Worst => 2nd Worst
• Penalties per Game: 6th Worst => 5th Worst

The offense also trended down this year with players like Geno and Tyler having less productive seasons and the running game not being as successful as advertised. However, the offense going from top 10 to top 20 wasn't as big of a drop as the defense. The overall trend down, however, is very concerning.

Let's dip into the off-season and look at who's leaving, who should be replaced, and how to fill the gaps. 

Coaching: 

Pete can stay or go. The expectations for next season are low given it's difficult to turn an entire team around in a season and it's the last year on his contract. Given his age it seems like he will retire after the 2024 season and then the search for a new head coach can begin.

Both coordinators should be replaced. After 3 years of Shane Waldron the offense has been middle of the road and 2 years of Clint Hurtt being bottom of the league is a guaranteed firing. I would like to see the Seahawks bring in a more creative play caller on offense and a defensive coach who goes back to a 4-3 so we aren't using pass rushers in coverage and put more emphasis on stopping the run. 

Training staff and doctors could use some changes. Injuries continue to pile up on this team and seeing how poorly they handled Abe Lucas in the off-season makes me question who's evaluating players and recommending decisions. Hopefully Abe finds help outside the organization to get his knee better because the O-line is much better with Cross/Lucas on the ends.

Free Agents: 

• DE Leonard Williams: Re-sign (~3 years $44M)
• ILB Bobby Wagner: Re-sign (~2 years $10M)
• G Phil Haynes: Let go
• QB Drew Lock: Let go if Geno stays, re-sign if Geno leaves (1 year $4M)
• ILB Devin Bush: Let go
• LB Jordyn Brooks: Re-sign (~3 years $30M)
• C Evan Brown: Re-sign (1 year $3M)
• OLB Darrell Taylor: Let go (RFA so if minimum is offered elsewhere then match it)
• DE Mario Edwards: Let go
• G Damien Lewis: Let go
• TE Colby Parkinson: Let go
• RB DeeJay Dallas: Let go
• CB Michael Jackson: Re-sign (~2 years $4M)
• T Jake Curhan: Let go
• DT Myles Adams: Re-sign for minimum
• DE Joshua Onujiogu: Re-sign for minimum
• TE Brady Russell: Re-sign for minimum
• S Ty Okada: Re-sign for minimum
• LB Patrick O'Connell: Let go 

Non-FA's To Release or Trade: 

CB Riq Woolen: It's very clear Tariq doesn't care about winning or putting the team first. His only thoughts are being good at coverage and avoiding injury by not getting involved in tackles. His attitude on and off the field this season are not the type of culture the Seahawks should be a part of and they should seek some trade capital for him immediately while he still has value. 

SS Jamal Adams: I have never been a fan of the Adams trade and especially the huge extension they gave him. I don't understand Pete's love of this kid. He's a liability on the field and a cancer in the locker room. At this point the Seahawks need to trade or release him. If they need to package him with someone else so they can do a contract dump then so be it. 

FS Quandre Diggs: Most likely to stay but hasn't earned his starting roster spot this season. After getting paid Diggs has been lazy on the field. You can tell he's making business decisions by playing at half speed and avoiding hits where he doesn't have the advantage. He's often coming in late to scrums instead of being the first to initiate contact. I do appreciate his leadership in the locker room shaking his head at the young kids who don't care about winning, but overall it's a competition and starting spots need to be earned, not automatically retained. 

WR Tyler Lockett: I love Tyler but it's clear at the end of the season he can't keep up anymore. He's sucking oxygen after every drive, isn't getting as open as he used to, and falls down immediately when he makes a catch to avoid getting hit. It's also clear he's growing his relationships and business outside of football given the amount of articles I'm seeing about him doing real estate. Again, I love Tyler, have his autograph, and want him to have a good ending to his career in Seattle, but I think it's time for him to retire and enjoy his non-football life so JSN, Bobo, and others get to step up.

2024 NFL Draft: 

The unfortunate side of winning the last game of the year is the Seahawks dropping 2 draft spots to #16 overall. The Seahawks also traded some picks for players (such as 2nd and 5th for Leonard Williams) so they are left with 7 picks overall (1st, two 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th). 

Draft needs: The Seahawks need to target QB, FS, RB, WR, G, T, and ILB. 

Overall Expectations: 

For 2024 I am not expecting much of a difference in the Seahawks results. However, I am expecting big changes to the roster and coaching staff. If no major changes are made it's safe to expect another disappointing season and a not so promising future. The important thing is to make the necessary changes to modify the team's trajectory back to heading up so they can hit a playoff run in 2025.