#the other three are incredibly fragile in different stats and as such a lot of my gameplay at higher levels involved baiting and switching

[arolesbianism]

I have been playing beastieball and first of all very good game second of all smth smth Olivia Broussard

[muffinrecord]

One Hundred Evils and You: Stall Teams (for the F2P Player)

Introduction:

Here is a guide on how to defeat the Hundred Evils/Hundred Calamities with easy-to-acquire units and easy-to-aquire memoria! 

Please note that this is not the only approach to the Hundred Evils, and it might not even be the best approach for you personally. However, it is the most generic approach that is made with Free-to-Play Players in mind. Stall teams are easier and more accessible to make than most Charge or Magia teams. Blast teams can work in the Hundred Evils (I’ve done them before) but it’s tricky and they’re not always applicable, depending greatly on who you fight. In the end a Stall team might be your best option!

This is an extremely long guide. I wanted to be thorough, but I might have overdone it. Still, I hope this is helpful! Some of these hints might be a little obvious, but I wanted to make sure that even new players could get some practical advice.

What is the Hundred Evils? 

The Hundred Evils is located on the far right tab where you have three different battles to fight that only cost a reasonable 1AP each. Inside, you’ll battle against several different waves of Magical Girls (and only Magical Girls-- no Witches, Uwasa, Kimochi, or other kinds of minions will be found inside).

What is a Stall Team?

A Stall team is a team that 

Uses Magia to protect its team + deal out damage

Uses memoria to protect its team and debuff enemy

Uses specific characters for buffing, debuffing, healing, ect

This is not a team that will kill fast, but is one that can take some serious hits and stick around.

Preparing Your Team

Like many strategies, most of the difficulty is in the planning. But before we talk about the characters themselves, let’s take a quick moment to talk about the preparation needed to make them excel at their work. Unfortunately this will require investment in both their Spirit Enhancement and in their Magia (you’ll want several of them to have Doppels).

More importantly, you’ll also want these characters to have multiple slots-- the worse your memoria are, the more slots you’ll want. Essentially, you really need each character to have four of them.

For more established players, it’s very possible that you’ll have several of these girls kitted out already with their required slots, but for very new players, it might take a few events to finally get them fully slotted. Luckily you can do this easily with Magia Chips and Destiny Bottles, unlike with natural four-stars, but this still might take time to build up.

As for Spirit Enhancement, it depends-- some characters you’ll really want that Active (for example, Kako’s party-wide HP Regen heal) and some characters... eh. It’s not as important.

But it’s still a good idea to grab as much as you can. Some characters, like Kako again, have SE that gives them more MP at the start of the battle or HP Regen. This is inconsequential for high-end content, but vital for a FTP Magia Stall strategy team. You want everything that will make a character live longer, heal themselves on their own, get them to Magia faster, ect. You don’t need to get them to 60/60 SE, but it’d be good to aim for them to have all their Passives and Active.

Who to Use:

Let me introduce you to a F2P’s saviors:

Let’s go through them and analyze why these girls in particular are so good for Stall teams. 

Oriko Mikuni: Oriko is the team leader of this bunch. Why is that? She’s your go-to Magia damage dealer. She’s a Magia type, she deals a decent amount of damage for an uncapped girl, her Magia is an AOE, and her typing (Light) means that she should be able to deal decent damage against anything you throw at her. Her Spirit Enhancement is full of increased Magia Damage Up, and she also has the passive 15% chance to inflict Skill Seal on her enemies-- it’s not enough to be reliable, but I find that it’s still really useful when it pops off unexpectedly. The focus on Evade can be useful in some circumstances-- she’s fragile, and it’s an easy way to protect her. Lastly, her connect gives Accele MP Gain Up, which lets her help your team gain more MP.

Kako Natsume: The GOAT for F2P, Kako Natsume is pretty mighty. Her Accele Draw personal memoria is great for getting things set up, she offers good heals through her connect, her Magia/Doppel, and even through her Active SE, and her SE is also pretty decent with giving her lots of stuff that helps her survive. Her damage isn’t the best as a Healer, but her single-target Magia/Doppel can kill troublesome Aqua-types when needed. Her Magia/Doppel/Connect also gives “Remove Status Ailments” which can be extremely helpful. Lastly, her Doppel will provide “Remove Buffs” towards the target which can help with increasing damage potential.

Emiri Kisaki: Don’t let Emiri fool you into thinking she’s all giggles-- she's fearsome! She’s excellent as a Debuffer and will protect your team through inflicting Dazzle onto the enemies. Not only does Dazzle make them more liable to miss, but it also means the enemy takes increased damage from their weak element, so she can also help increase damage done. Additionally, her Magia/Doppel gives all enemies Damage Down for three turns, making her Magia even more protective. Lastly, she has Skill Quicken as part of her Spirit Enhancement, meaning it’s an excellent idea to equip memoria on her that you want to use more often than the cooldown let’s you.

Manaka Kurumi: Manaka is fucking incredible. Like Kako she’s a heal-type, but don’t be tricked into thinking that’s all she can do. She has one of the highest Attack Up connects in the game and her Magia/Doppel offers an excellent amount of Attack Up to all allies for three turns. This gives her the role of being the buffer-- if you’re facing a tough enemy, use Manaka’s Magia/Doppel first and then use the other Magia after. She has two Accele MP Gain Up passive nodes and an active that gives her more Accele MP Gain Up, so don’t be afraid to use her Magia/Doppel often.

Other Good F2P-Friendly Units

Now, you’ll probably notice that I only included four up there, but that you can use five in total for your team. If you need to use a Magia Stall Team, then I recommend using all five spaces so that you have more room for potential Magia/Doppels. The fifth slot can be swapped for anyone in particular, but if you’re looking for a F2P-friendly character then I’d recommend one of these girls.

Umika Misaki: Personally this would be my most recommended option. Umika is another healer, which makes your team even more protective than before, and she can fill a very protective role. First, her connect won’t just heal someone but it’ll also give them Damage Cut and almost 100% Defense Up-- making her excellent at protecting someone. Her Magia/Doppel act similarly to Kako’s, restoring health to all allies and also removing Status Ailments. Her SE is similarly useful-- like Emiri, she has passive 15% Skill Quicken, so she’s a good choice to equip active memoria you want to use often on. Like Oriko, she has a chance to Skill Seal on attack-- not enough to be reliable, but enough that it should still be good. Her SE active is MP Damage for 30MP-- situational, but it can be extremely helpful if you’re not able to kill an enemy before they can Magia you. Her DEF and HP make her solid, not as much as a proper tank, but as someone who can stand in for one. 

Hotaru Yura: A bit of a bold choice, but Hotaru can be good. She’s another healer, but she has some excellent supportive capabilities. First, you don’t need to worry about her dying, unless she can’t Regen HP-- her SE Active gives her 100% HP Restore (with the cost of Attack down on self, but no one is using Hotaru for damage). She has passive HP Regen, Defense Up, and Status Ailment Resistance so she can take a bit of punishment. Her connect is a generic heal, and her Magia has a generic HP Regen, but what makes her really shine is the MP Regen from her Magia-- this means you can use her to keep your party having topped off MP gauges. 

Haruka Kanade: If you have Haruka, she can be a good choice as a tank. Despite being a Support, she has a ton of tanking capabilities, and she can protect your team through a variety of methods. She has passive Provoke chance, meaning she can draw aggro away, Skill Quicken (you want to probably use her active slots for taunt memoria and for defense up/damage cut memoria though), and HP Regen. Her active lets her taunt the enemies while also inflicting a 52% chance of Charm onto them-- it’s a long cooldown, but can serve as a panic button when things are going wrong. Her connect gives Charm as well, meaning you can protect the party from hits. Her Magia/Doppel is also a good defensive panic button of sorts-- the target will deal less damage, Haruka gains Provoke and Damage Cut (and hp regen), and she can protect your team for that turn.

Sana Futaba: Sana has decent DEF and HP stats, so she will do well as a tank. She has a passive Provoke and a passive Endure-- meaning that she can draw hits and also stay alive past one potentially fatal one. Her SE gives her Accele MP Gain Up and MP Gain Up nodes, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to get her to Magia/Doppel. Her Anti-Debuff SE active is situationally useful. Her connect gives 100% Damage Cut, making it a good way to protect the user, and her Magia gives Damage Cut/Defense Up to all allies, again making her a good way to defend her team. Her Doppel has a chance of being very defensive or of inflicting Status Ailments (Burn, Darkness, Bind). This does make her more tricky to use if she gets to 150 MP as opposed to 100-- you can’t guarantee if she’ll protect your team or inflict ailments on the enemy.

Good Four-Star Units to Use

There are too many good units to list here-- believe me, I tried to actually do that and after the first twenty characters I realized I’d have to tackle this in a different way. However, here are some extremely notable characters, who you should bring even if they only have one slot:

Madoka & Iroha

Madoka Kaname

Mikage Yakumo

Outside of that, if you have someone with a few slots and you’re wondering if they’re good to bring, ask yourself these questions:

Do they have good disks? Characters with two or more Accele disks are better than ones with only one. 

Do they help with MP generation in any sort of form? It’s not a must-have, but it’s a plus.

What do they provide to the party-- do they have a protective role, a defensive one, an offensive one? For example, you can swap out Emiri for a slotted Mifuyu since they share similar roles, or a Sayuki for a Manaka.

Last Notes on Choosing Characters

Here are a few last things to consider when choosing some characters.

First off, you don’t always fight every element. You might not know who you’re fighting, but you can know what element they’ll be-- you can then use your characters accordingly. For example, it might not be worth it to bring an Aqua-element if you could use another Forest type here. Just make sure that you don’t miss important team roles!

You can always try to use memoria to fill in missing character gaps. For example, some fights might have you face teams that build up MP to use on deadly Magia. You could try to get your one-slot Touka to work... or you could just use Magia Damage Down or MP Gain Down memoria instead.

Tanks can be really helpful here but also sometimes not. A tank really needs 3+ slots to work properly so that they can have enough defensive passives plus an active that grabs aggro. However, you don’t need to choose a proper tank-- any character with a passive Provoke or Guardian can work if they have the right memoria for it. Just make sure you keep them alive. 

Three healers on a team might seem excessive, but personally I find it to help cover bases. This way you don’t run into a situation where your healer needs help but no one can help them, and you also are able to use Magia more strategically-- Manaka can heal, sure, but you don’t need to waste her Magia on someone when you don’t need the Attack Buff right then as long as Kako has her Magia up still. This is also really helpful if you don’t have any tanks on your team.

When it comes to filling in the fifth member of the F2P team (Oriko, Manaka, Kako, Emiri), I prefer aqua types so that you can fill in all elemental slots. Again though, make sure you check what elements you’re fighting first!

The formation you use can be important too. This one for example gives increased Status Ailment Resistance and HP Regen. Additionally, make sure you place your characters with consideration. Characters closer to the front will be targeted more than characters towards the behind. If you have a tank with Provoke memoria, then make sure whoever is horizontal and vertical with them can also take some hits when the enemy uses a blast attack.

Equipping Your Team: What Memoria to Choose?

Okay, so you’ve chosen your characters. What about memoria? Do you need top of the line stuff here? 

Nah. You can do this with event rewards easily!

Going through a list of everything that could potentially be helpful would be extremely long, so the above provides some examples. Let’s go over some notes:

For passive memoria, I prefer to do one Accele MP Gain Up/MP Gain Up memoria paired with one Attack Up/Damage Up/Damage Increase memoria. That way your units can get to Magia easily and still deal decent damage when they get there. If your characters are fragile, then using memoria with Defense Up/Damage Cut are good ideas too. Memoria with passive HP Regen aren’t a bad idea-- you probably have a lot of good healers on your team, but a character who can passively heal themselves means you can use those Magia for more offensive purposes.

As for Actives, your choices are expanded. I mentioned above that memoria can fill in missing gaps that you couldn’t fit characters in for. Actives are part of that. Accele Draw memoria are always a must, and memoria that help increase your MP Gain is always a plus. The biggest key though will be Attack Down / Damage Down memoria. Memoria like Mito Rain are the best thing possible for a F2P-- it has a low cooldown, effects everyone, gives a ton of its percentage, ect. You’re actually better off keeping five separate copies of Mito Rain instead of max awakening it to one, because then you can give each character one copy-- this means you can use a Mito Rain on every turn. This will protect your units and keep them safe in addition to all the healing you can do, and it also will help you deal increased damage thanks to its Defense Down.

One memoria that can inflict MP Gain Down is generally a good idea. 

Characters with passive Skill Quicken should be given memoria that you want to use more often-- Mito Rain is a good idea on them of course, but so are other debuffers. 

Tailor your memoria to your needs. If you find that all your characters are constantly at 150 MP but you’re never in a good place to use it, try decreasing the amount of MP Regen memoria you’ve got going on and replace them with more damaging effects.

DON’T OVERLOOK THREE STAR MEMORIA. They can be extremely helpful and even better than some four-star ones! For example, Leila Rain is an overlooked hero and definitely worth considering! Three-star memoria are easier to max awaken too, so in some cases, a max awakened three-star memoria is going to be better than a single copy of a four-star one!

If you’re a newer player, then chances are you’ll struggle with having good memoria along with having good units. Memoria can be just as much an investment as characters can be-- so make sure you’re getting 3* Over Limiters from your events and spend them wisely. 

Don’t forget you can negate Evade through Status Ailments-- memoria can be extremely helpful with that.

Actually Fighting

So now you’re fighting. Cool! What now?

First you want to build up your MP for everyone. If you have an Accele combo without needing to use an Accele draw memoria, take it!

For your first wave, try to build up MP slowly across everyone. Use your Accele Draw(s) here and prioritize Accele combos-- even if it means using an Accele disc for someone who already has max MP. For example, if I got an acele disc option from Umika, Manka, and Oriko, I’d still use Umika’s to get all of that MP.

Remember that the order the Accele disc goes in determines how much MP they get! The first character gets the least amount of MP with the last one getting the most. Using the previous example, I’d use Umika’s disc, Oriko’s disc, and then Manaka’s disc. Don’t forget that the characters get a flat +20 MP boost too.

Choose your target enemy wisely. For example, you can generally count on Touka featuring some sort of anti-MP gain/MP Gain on self, and Nemu to inflict a status ailment onto your team. Here, the Rena hits harder than her Rena-chan self. You can’t always predict who is going to use what, but general familiarity with the characters helps.

Some enemies are better for generating MP against than others. You can’t always predict who you’ll get and what they’ll do, but if you come across easy enemies, take advantage of the situation to farm some MP. 

There are lots of tricks to getting more MP out of situations. For example, all characters will gain more MP after they hit 100MP than before they do-- so using an Accele disc before a Magia is an easy way of regaining your losses.

Using an Accele disc before any others will increase the MP gained by each subsequent disc, even for Blast. If your disc selection is bad, try to make the most of it with squeezing out what you can.

Additionally, if you’re confident a Magia will kill a target, use the Magia last. You can put two potential accele discs in front of it to get even more MP out of the thing. 

This line of thinking can go with charging up connects. You don’t actually need to use the disc (if the enemy dies) to get the + for it, so if you’re confident a Magia will kill a target, pick discs that will give you a connect on your next turn.

This is a little overkill, but personally I like to go into the last wave with as many Doppels and Memoria up as possible. Don’t stay on any character too long-- you can only use three doppel a turn after all, and using one of your five to finish someone off isn’t a bad idea-- but also don’t be afraid to sit for a bit either. Just make sure you’re under the 40 turn time limit. It’s possible that whatever you face in the final wave will need more than three doppels to die.

It’s time. It’s the final, toughest wave. You’re here! You’ve got all the Doppels ready and a bunch of memoria ready too. So what order do you do this in?

In general a safe bet is to go Manaka > Emiri > Oriko. This is so that Manaka will buff the entire team, making each Doppel hit harder, Emiri can inflict Bewitch (possibly making Oriko hit harder if she counters the element, though it doesn’t work in this scenario) and use your main damage dealer (Oriko) last.

If your characters have some lingering status ailments, or if the enemy has an annoying buff, Kako’s doppel might be a good idea to go first instead. It’s not a bad idea to save your defensive doppels/healing doppels for a potential second round though.

And that’s it! You did it! Congratulations!

Other Advice that I Don’t Have Screenshots For

You’ve got at least two healers who can heal through connects, magia/doppel, and one through her SE Active. Don’t blow a Doppel when a connect will do just as well.

If you don’t have enough debuff memoria to “blanket” the enemy every turn, then use Emiri’s connect to try and blanket them with Bewitch instead. 

Connects in general are a tricky thing to use. You want to save them for times when their effects are needed, but sometimes you also want to give someone an Accele disk to get their MP up. Don’t get too greedy, but conversely don’t hoard them.

If you mess up and want to redo a wave, forcefully exit the game. When you bring it back up, you’ll have an option to go right back to the beginning of that wave (the answer “yes” is the right button). 

Try not to overcap on effects. For example, don’t use two active Attack Up effects Oriko, have Manaka use her Doppel, then have Manaka connect to Oriko. Attack Up has a cap of 100%, and anything over that is completely wasted. Space stuff out over turns, or use a variety of different memoria to provide different buffs.

Conclusion

I hope this helps! I think I covered everything...? You might notice that some of these screenshots come from different events because I was lazy because this took a little while to write.

There are lots of strategies you can use for this challenge. But this one is for new players/F2P players who don’t have a lot of good units/memoria yet. Eventually you’ll outgrow this team and have better characters to use. There are all sorts of cool strategies one can employ with the right characters; lots of people will try to finish the Hundred Evil fights with as few turns as possible using Charge strategies for example. 

But, if you need a tried-and-true method of defeating the Hundred Evils with easy-to-aquire characters, then the above method is for you. Good luck out there, you can do it!

[askkrenko]

Krenko’s Guide to Pokemon: Tyrogue Line ( Hitmon- )

POKEMON SHOULD NOT WEAR PANTS.

DESIGN: 

I’m fine with how humanlike this looks. I’m fine with the bands on his wrists that look like bandages, and around his waist, but he’s clearly wearing shorts and shoes. I’d much rather a design that gave the illusion of shorts and shoes, like making his hip-section very furry and giving him hooves like a satyr.  I accept the simple appearance in the early games, but it could really have used a redesign at some point.

I do love the way the side of its head looks like it’s wearing protection over its ears. Tyrogue is very clearly some kid ready to wrestle in school, and I’m totally on board with that... but actual clothes are wrong.

My other issue with Tyrogue is that it’s a male-only line without a female equivalent. See, female-only lines make sense because of how Pokemon breeding works. Sure, there’s no male Chansey, but that’s because every male Clefable, Wigglytuff, and Grimmsnarl is lining up to fertilize that egg. But with Tyrogue, there’s... nowhere for Tyrogues to come from other than Dittos.

Now, this may explain the relative scarcity of the Tyrogue, and maybe they are all the result of dittos, but it’s really weird to me if that’s the case. You’d think by now we could have a female Pokemon that could lay Tyrogue eggs the way Illumise can lay Volbeat eggs.

Now, Tyrogue has three evolved forms, and the first numerically is Hitmonlee. Hitmonlee is made of kicking, and its body really shows that. It doesn’t wear clothes, it doesn’t have a head, and those leg bands stretch for super kicks.  Now, I’m pretty sure I’ve seen this thing in various mythologies, the headless man with a face on its chest, but Hitmonlee’s just got eyes. It’s a pretty simple design when you think about it, but it’s cool and striking and looks like a monster that fights like a man but better.

Hitmonchan has boxing gloves, a skirt, and booties. Look, I’ll get on a lot of Pokemon’s case for being too humanoid or whatever, but HItmonchan is seriously just some dude. His shoulder pads don’t even look like part of him, they look like he’s wearing them. I can’t even begin to imagine what a Hitmonchan might be that it just looks like that in nature.  Its Pokedex entry mentions it has the “spirit of a pro boxer” and while that seems metaphorical, but when you see entries like “A Hitmonchan is said to possess the spirit of a boxer who aimed to become the world champion” you have to wonder if this is one of those supernatural things like how so many Ghost pokemon are actually dead humans.

Hitmonchan is an interesting design for a creature in a video game, but it’s not a good design for a creature in a world, which is what Pokemon need to be. I just can’t accept that your Tyrogue grew up into this without you buying gloves and booties for it.

Hitmontop mostly fixes the issue of inexplicable clothes. Yes, it looks like it’s wearing some sort of V-Neck leotard like a professional fighter might, but as it doesn’t pop off the Hitmontop’s body in any way, it could just be blue fur which is pretty normal in the Pokemon setting. 

I don’t particularly like Hitmontop’s design overall- I think it looks too toylike, and much less badass than Hitmonchan or Hitmonlee. It feels like something you could just avoid by taking a step to the side. But unlike Hitmonchan, nothing in its design actively offends my sensibilities. It just feels more like a middle form than a final form.

Art by MajMajor

EVOLUTIONS: 

I mostly love the design of this evolutionary line. While HItmonchan and Hitmonlee were introduced in gen 1 as a matched set, Tyrogue and Hitmontop came in generation 2. Tyrogue is the best use of a Baby Pokemon, adding a pre-evolution to turn two previously unattached Pokemon into a branching path. They haven’t done that again since, even though there’s multiple paired lines that could really use it (most notably Tauros/Miltank and Cubone/Kangaskhan.) Also, Tyrogue evolves at level 20, but what determines its form isn’t some weird item or what time it is, but simply how its stats fall out. This means that to a novice it’ll seem random which one you get, but a skilled trainer can ensure Hitmonchan or HItmonlee (and a more skilled trainer can ensure Hitmontop.) 

Also, with base stats of 455 each, Hitmonchan and Hitmonlee are much more deserving of getting a Baby Pokemon than things like Pichu and Jigglypuff, whose baby forms don’t do anything for gameplay but get in the way.

Art by IDunnoLawl

TYPING: 

Unlike most Pokemon with multiple forms, all three of Tyrogue’s evolutions are pure FIghting type. Fighting is pretty evenly balanced offensively and defensively, and is notably super-effective against Normal and Steel types. The lack of a second type really hurts, though. Fighting is bad against six types, and that’s not something you want to see on all your STAB attacks.

STATS: 

All three Hitmons are physical attackers with 50 HP and 110 Special Defense, but the rest of their stats vary.  Hitmonlee has a mere 53 defense, making it the most fragile of the three, but its 120 Attack and its 87 speed make it the fastest and most damaging. Hitmonchan has a lower attack and lower speed, but higher defense, and Hitmontop has the lowest attack and speed of all three, but a 95 defense which actually compensates for its low HP. 

None of these stat arrays are particularly impressive, but they all have solid attack stats, and their high special defense means their low HP is only a problem when confronted with physical attackers. Speeds for all three are about average.

Art by mcgmark

ABILITIES: 

Interestingly enough, Tyrogue’s abilities are different than all three of its evolutions... but Tyrogue’s incredibly weak so there’s no reason to talk about building it.

Hitmonchan has Keen Eye (prevents accuracy loss) and Inner Focus (prevents Flinching and Intimidate) but what sells it as a Pokemon is Iron Fist, an ability that increases its punch damage by 20%. It’s not Earth shattering, but 20% on attacks is a very solid boost and Hitmonchan learns a lot of punches.

Hitmonlee can get Limber to prevent Paralysis, but nobody cares. Its other options are much better. Reckless adds 20% damage to any move with Recoil or a Crash chance. Unfortunately, Hitmonlee only has one of these. Fortunately, it’s Hitmonlee’s signature attack, High Jump Kick. Hitmonlee’s other ability takes a bit more work to use, but is even better in competetive battles. Unburden doubles Hitmonlee’s speed if its held item is lost or used.  While berries are an option, a White Herb can be forced with Close Combat, turning Hitmonlee into a potent sweeper as long as it survives that first attack.

Hitmontop has the basically useless Steadfast (increase Speed when flinching), but has the ever-powerful Intimidate, as well as Technician. With Hitmontop already being the most defensive of the three, Intimidate just makes it a bit more survivable by lowering enemy attacks. Technician increases the damage of any moves with a base damage of 60 or lower, and Hitmontop has a variety of attacks that can take advantage of this. Most notably among these is Triple Axel, a three-hit move with an increasing power of 20, 40, and 60. With Technician, these hits become 30, 60, and 90 for a total of 180 power, albeit with problematic accuracy.

Art by Zilvan

MOVES: 

Despite all three being physical attackers, all three use different Fighting type moves. Hitmonlee gets its signature High Jump Kick with Reckless, or can use Close Combat + White Herb with Unburden. Hitmonchan uses Drain Punch. Iron Fist bumps its attack to an effective 90, and the healing increases proportionately.  Hitmontop, unfortunately, doesn’t have any great options, so Close Combat is generally the way to go. Revenge is an option with its slower speed and Technician fixing its ‘failure state,’ but unfortunately Revenge and Technician don’t stack if Revenge activates.

Coverage comes next. Fighting type is resisted by Bug, Fairy, Flying, Poison, and Psychic, and Ghosts are outright immune.  Hitmontop’s Triple Axel is going to work just fine against all of those, even without Technician. 

Hitmonlee has a decent lineup of options- Blaze Kick, Earthquake, Stone Edge, Poison Jab, Knock Off- but which you pick is really dependent on what you expect to face and what the rest of your team has coverage for. Earthquake’s the strongest, but it still doesn’t work against Flying or Bug types.  Stone Edge covers them both, but is a much weaker move. Of course, Hitmonlee could take both. 

Hitmonchan has great coverage options with Iron Fist enhanced elemental punches, plus the aforementioned Earthquake and Stone Edge, as well as Throat Chop.  There’s no real right or wrong answer here, just be prepare for whatever you’re most worried about.

Tyrogue’s evolutions share a lot of utility moves. Rapid Spin, Mach Punch, and Bulk Up can be useful on any of them. For each of the three, I’d suggest a build of a fighting move, an off-type move for coverage, Rapid Spin for Rapid Spinning, and then whatever feels right to you of Bulk Up, Mach Punch, or another coverage move.

Art by birdmir

OVERALL: 

Despite the three Pokemon here being very similar, they each have abilities and stat differences that give them different niches, with Hitmonchan’s being the best defined. I do wish Hitmonlee got more than one attack that worked with Reckless and Hitmontop’s signature attack were stronger (triple kick still only ends up at 90 power with Technician), but overall they’re not too bad, just a bit on the fragile side. A 10 or 20 point boost to each of their HP stats would make me feel a lot better, and small stat boosts between gens is something Pokemon occasionally does. 

Hitmonchan and Tyrogue wearing clothes is really dumb, though, as are the ecological issues of a species that can’t reproduce without the help of a DItto.

In the future, I’d like to see a trio of regional forms for them, granting each a second element, but different from each other. Bonus points if the alternate Hitmonchan has Protean for his elemental punches. That’d be a cool Pokemon. 

Little Asskickers by Aniforce

[pokemon-strategy-dex]

Who needs banned?

Of the new and returning Pokemon to OU, here is who I think should be banned or kept in OU with a bit of reasoning for each. I’m obviously not going to talk about something like Altaria, that’s kind of obvious. I’m just going to cover the Pokemon who were unbanned and the returning Pokemon who were once Uber. since this is a pretty long post, I’m just going to put the names here and then put a read more with my reasoning for each.

Needs Banned Immediately:

Genesect

Melmetal

Naganadel

Zygarde

Will Need to be Banned:

Cinderace

Kyurem-Black

Magearna

Tornadus-T

Can Stay in OU:

Blaziken

Glastrier

Landorus-I

Pheromosa

Spectrier

Needs Banned Immediately:

Genesect:

Genesect gets released into OU every generation and then gets rebanned in like a week or two. This generation shouldn’t be any different. This bug boy is still insane and just rips through Pokemon it shoulldn’t be able to. It does everything, and then some more. It has few reliable answers, and absolutely no reliable ones which can handle all of its sets. Please get rid of this thing as soon as possible.

Melmetal

MY BOYS BACK...and should probably be banned. I love this thing so much. I put it on every team I can and it always puts in so much work. It knocks out everything and tanks every hit thrown at it. Literally nothing takes more than a couple of hits from Melmetal and he just eviscerates Pokemon who are normally quite bulky. It has its checks, but its just so overwhelming for most teams that those checks become mandatory and restrict building. No matter how much it pains me to say it, he needs to go.

Naganadel

Beast Boost is one hell of an ability and now Naganadel gets Spikes! As if that wasn’t broken enough on Ash-Greninja last generation. It sets up and just blows everything apart. Just like in gen 7, Tyranitar is like the only thing that can check it and now Tyranitar is kind of horrible. Even though I love this thing almost as much as Melmetal, Naganadel also needs to go.

Zygarde

Zygarde is one of the scariest Pokemon in the tier right now. It sets up on everything with the sub-coil set and it breaks through everything with the Choice Band set. Its nearly impossible to deal with since common checks last generation like Tangrowth and Landorus lost HP Ice. We also don’t have Gliscor who could kind of handle it. Zygarde is a menace who terrifies me in game and in the team builder.

Will Need to be Banned:

Cinderace:

Cinderace is still an absolute menace in the tier. With the release of the 2nd DLC, a lot of offensive Pokemon were added, but not too many defensive ones. The only real major defensive threats are Landorus-T, Heatran, and Tapu Fini. Cinderace rips all three of these to shreds just like it did all of the other defensive walls the tier had before. The only way Cinderace got worse was the speed creep which came with the dlc, and Cinderace no longer outspeeds the entire meta-game. Even so, I still think that Cinderace has no hard counters and its checks are very limited. As such, it restricts team-building and should return to Ubers.

Kyurem-Black

Kyurem-Black is pretty much the same as Cinderace. It eviscerated the tier’s defensive checks and that hasn’t changed. Kyurem-B is worse at sweeping thanks to things like Melmetal, but it needs banned too. Kyurem-B is still incredibly good and needs banned. I would probably focus on some of the more broken Pokemon first, though.

Magearna

Again the same as Cinderace and Kyurem-B. Magearna was banned because there weren’t any defensive answers to it and nothing has changed. Sure Heatran is pretty great, but Magearna runs Focus Blast. It still sets up and still blows everything apart. The only reason Magearna doesn’t seem completely broken is because of broken Pokemon like Melmetal.

Tornadus-Therian

Tornadus is probably the most unassuming Pokemon on this list. Well Tornadus got a few new tools that make it absolutely broken. Tornadus has Heavy Duty Boots now, which makes the bulkier sets even better than they were last generation. That’s saying something because Tornadus was ridiculous. It also gets Nasty Plot now, making the offensive sets better than they ever have before. Tornadus hasn’t been popping up too much because everyone’s playing with the new toys, but I promise that once the dust settles and a few of the most broken Pokemon get banned, Tornadus will become overcentralizing. For context: it was banned in the national dex meta which is way more ridiculous than the normal meta because it has everything we have plus megas and z-moves.

Those that should stay in OU:

Blaziken

This might be the first generation since it got Speed Boost that Blaziken can stay in OU. Blaziken has one of the worst cases of four-moveslot-syndrome. It needs both of its stabs for obvious reasons, it needs Earthquake for Toxapex, it needs Knock Off for things like Latios, it needs Protect to get the Speed Boost against offense, and it needs Swords Dance to break against bulky teams. If you run the protect set, then you’re going to struggle against bulky teams and probably can’t break Toxapex. If you run the SD set, you’re near useless against offense due to Blaziken’s fragility. You’re also walled by the Lati twins who are really good this generation. I could see Blaziken needing banned in the future, but it certainly doesn’t need to be banned right now.

Glastrier

I’m only including Glastrier because its new. It has a good movepool and a solid attacking stat. But its so incredibly slow and has a terrible defensive typing. It’s insane on Trick Room teams, but its not great otherwise. Its no better than Stakataka.

Landorus-I

Landorus-I isn’t broken yet. And I mean yet because it will be. Losing HP Ice hurt, but I don’t think its enough to make it not broken. It will do what it does every generation. It’ll start off slow and then absolutely destroy the metagame once it settles down. It thrives in a metagame that is fairly uniform and consistent, but struggles in the early stages when it doesn’t know what to run. Give it like three months and this will need banned, but for now it can stay.

Pheromosa

I don’t think Pheromosa is all that good. It’s decent, but without Z-moves, it’s nowhere near what it once was. Close Combat was nice, but it certainly doesn’t make up for its faults. It just doesn’t hit hard enough without a Beast Boost in an attacking stat, and then its kind of slow with how insane the speed creep is. I could see it being broken in the future when a lot of the more broken stuff is gone, but for now it’s just kind-of average.

Spectrier

Spectrier is pretty cool. Pure ghost is always great and its got a pretty great stat spread....but that movepool is atrocious. I know we joke that ghost types only need to click Shadow Ball, but we didn’t mean it literally. The thing runs Mud Shot for gods sake. Its pretty strong and ghost is ridiculous, but it just can’t do enough on its own.

Things like the Tapus and the new galarian birds are good, but they aren’t near ban worthy. Tapu Lele may become suspect in like a year, though.

[fullymechanized-consoomer]

40K factions and you

Space Marines:

Your favorite flavor of ice cream is vanilla, but occasionally you might try some Neapolitan, if you’re feeling dangerous. You’re faction’s lore is designed from the ground up to accept your self-inserts, and the models are some of the easiest to paint in the entire range. None of this matters because no matter how unique you think your super-cool “realistic marines who use real tactics maaaaan” are they’ll always come out looking like a slight variation of the ones below

8th edition has finally allowed you to feel a tiny sliver of the unbalanced and over-costed hell other factions have been stuck in for years, but unlike them, daddy GW is more than willing to spend a little extra on his bulky good bois so they still get all the coolest gear and lore. Like vanilla, small children love them, but they grow out of both eventually. 

edit: it was only a matter of time before GW stamped its foot down and made the inevitable decision that its favorite kid needs to be busted again. Then again in all fairness they toned down their overpoweredness from “godlike” to merely “demi-godlike” 

Imperial Guard:

You’re a big “history fan”. You’ve seen Enemy at the Gates, watched some history channel shows about Nazi wonder weapons, and make 54 karma post on r/history_memes recycling debunked Eastern Front jokes. Only your intelligent eye is able to conflate this factions obvious Metal Slug levels of cartoonish design and tactics with realism, and you make sure to remind everyone else of said realism by comparing your tabletop exploits to your military experience in the reserves. Everyone used to like you back when the faction was actually made up of underdogs and under appreciated, but the Guant’s Ghosts references have gotten kinda stale, and no one appreciates the brass balls of these Starship Trooper knockoffs now that 8th edition supports and rewards the very same mindless horde tactics the Guard used to be mocked for in Lore. Despite having some of the most tried and true designs in the game, as well as an incredible amount of options, you will quickly find how limiting the only “realistic” army is in terms of customization and paint schemes, as anything but camo, grey, or tan looks goofy and reveals how silly this faction actually is. 

edit: If your army consists of wrapping 30 guardsmen around basilisks I recommend you take a short fall down a long flight of stairs. Fuck you, Evan.

Eldar:

You’re a real shooter. You know what you like and you stick with it, cause lets face it, it takes a lot of loyalty to stick with these arrogant pricks. Their designs are unique but dated, their lore is a uneven mishmash of 40k grimdark schmultz Tolkien telephone, and Oliver Twist-esque whipping bois for whenever GW writers need to remind us how cool Space Marines are. But none of that matters because you know the truth: Eldar can kick tons of ass on the board, and look good doing it, as their unique designs lends them to all sorts of brilliant color combinations

And unlike other armies their rare design updates improve on their aesthetic while keeping their 40k-ness, something that is becoming increasingly rare in this era of Tacticool marines and Fantasy-creep. Just don’t expect to be taken seriously by anyone but the old-heads.

Edit: Leave it to the whipping bois to be outshined in their own event and get a single model update. Thanks GW, very cool. 

Dark Eldar

You are one of two people: a meta hopping smooth brain who only jumped ship once these guys got one of the best updates in 40k history, or a true intellectual who understood their hidden merit all along. Other faction players like to make fun of you for being edgy, when in reality you know that the Dark Eldar are just a bunch of sociopathic theater kids. They, like you, know how fucked from top to bottom this universe is, and instead of getting depressed they exclaimed “how can we be the best cartoon villains we can be?”. Despite having a relatively bare army list, the fact that these d-bags come in 3 flavors of crazy in a single army offers a ton of variety: the mustache twirling villainy of the Kabals, the crazy bloodstained snuff-stars of the Wych cults, and the BDSM horror show of the Covens. All three offer substantial benefits and drawbacks and must be played carefully in order t- 

Who am I kidding? You’re just gonna stuff  a bunch of Kabal warriors into Venoms and zoom around the map, aren’t you? Enjoy that speed, because your abysmal save stats wont protect you anything more than a furiously thrown walnut. At least your corpses will look rad clad in some of the grimest armor and gear in the game. 

edit: no longer anywhere near as dominent as they were in the earlier years of 8th, but they still look slick as hell and play great. 

Orks

Your IQ randomly jumps from 20 to 200 throughout the day. There is no predicting this, no planning around this, no stopping this. You’re best bet is just to go along with it, and that’s why you play Orks. Orks are roudy good-time buddies who love slapstick slaughter, not having thoughts, and occasionally pulling of cunning plans that human savants would struggle to comprehend. Orks seem to be the only faction that know what joy is, which is why you as a player spread it to everyone else. Yes, the memes and screaming can be a bit much to others sometimes, but like with any other mentally handicapped child  everyone around just grits their teeth through your bad episodes if it means not upsetting your unique sensibilities. And considering that this army’s aesthetic revolves around cobbled together nonsense, you have a lot of uniqueness to give. Orks are easily the most creative faction in the game when it comes to conversions. Nothing is too goofy, too dumb, or too silly to scrap together. As for performance on the tabletop? Go ham. This is an army that rewards merry bullshit and randomness. Remember, you didn’t pick Orks to win, you picked them to have fun. 

edit: So are Orks actually getting anything or what? GW’s plans for this faction is as chaotic as the minds of the ADHD scrambled minds who play them

Necrons

You have a very specific taste in... funky weird-science space Egyptians. Seriously, these guys are practically a completely different army to what they were a decade ago. Gone are the terminator references and eldritch lore nonsense, and here to stay is senility and glyphs. You lie to yourself, saying that you’re not really sure why you chose Necrons, but I know the truth: you chose them because they used to be busted. They used to be unfair. They used to be able to take out top-tier tanks with their version of pea shooters and come back after every turn. So overwhelmed were you by their dazzeling stats and bullshit cheese your brain’s wiring fried and the erratic firing of billions of flayed neurons made you think Necrons had cool lore and interesting models. But now they’ve been nerfed to hell, and you’re no longer stuck in that lasting state of sensory overload. Like a drunk snapping awake with a hangover you come to the painful reality: Necrons are kind of dull. So like me, you put them away in a shoebox forever, leaving their fragile sculpts to slowly fall apart.

Edit: FUCK WHERE IS THE SHOEBOX WHERE DID I LEAVE IT OH GOD OH OH NO OH FUCK THEY’RE ALL BROKEN MAYBE I CAN PUT THEM BACK TOGETHER BEFORE 9th EDITION LAUNCHES I’M SO SORRY FOR WHAT I DID TO YOU NOW MORE THAN EVER I NEED YOU, I NEED MY BOOOOOOOOYS!!!

Tau

You will forever be hated by the community unfairly. You are accuse being anime - and this is true - yet the Eldar get away with being copied wholesale from 80′s space anime and no one seems to notice. You are made fun of for your bad melee, despite having one of the most comprehensively designed niches in an otherwise sloppy game and dominating with nearly every edition. You are made fun of for your lore, despite being largely separate from the cliches and story traps that everyone else has fallen into. You are hated because you are different; hated because you are Asian. 

Tau are an anomaly in 40k: a completely new faction that wasn’t directly ripped off of some other franchise and with an aesthetic that is wholly their own. I won’t be making fun of them because they get enough of that, and you don’t deserve it. Just know this dirty secret: Tau outsell almost every other xenos faction, and despite the supposedly unanimous hate are probably one of the strongest factions in terms of play-style and modelling in the franchise. 

Edit: The tau are grittier than ever, happy now? They still do the same thing they have always done anyways.

Chaos

Unlike the DE you actually are edgy. You worship satan, you throw rocks at homeless people, you start fires because your dad doesn’t spank you enough. Chaos are the closest things that this cluster fuck of a universe can get to being the main villains. Their lore is at once intricate and stupid, both childish and metal as hell. You play chaos because getting your fingers pricked by the models’ spikes is the closest you can come to feeling anything anymore. Just like the chaos lore you love to hype yourself up, to puff your chest and revel in the darkness inside, but when confronted you tend to fold like wet tissue paper. You’ve stopped playing public games with these guys, because the other players don’t understand you and abuse the meta and make fun of your painting skills and  everything is so unfair and don’t you think that chaos marines should get buffs for their points cost, fuck?

Edit: The new models are slick and more power-metal minivan than ever, though the rules are still abysmal despite GW desperately wanting everyone to takes these guys seriously for once. 

Sisters of Battle

GW writers and designers hates Catholics and they hate women, so naturally they hate Sister of Battl. They also hate you for playing them. Because of this SoB are a monument to neglected potential. They have one of the best female armor designs in fiction, great lore, and an interesting playstyle that relies on faith/determination based feats of strength and valor... but GW hate Catholics and women, so SoB get shafted everywhere all the time. More often than not you will be disappointed reading about their exploits as they continually get unfairly slaughtered, corrupted into the horny service of the pervert god, or used as receptacles for blood-based paint when the writer’s favorite faction needs to fight demons. With no plastic models in sight for over a decade everyone began to come to the slow and dreadful realization that GW was looking to Squat our favorite estrogen warriors, until a new revamp was announced. Unfortunately the beta rules look as lackluster as ever, but that’s fine, because as a SoB fan you have learned to expect that GW hates you, Catholics, and women. 

Edit: GW found God and got woke because now they love women and Jesus’ one true Church, but let it be known that reformation doesn’t occur overnight, as the SOB’s faces still betray GW’s lingering discomfort in the female form:

Their rules are fun, and if every codex was designed like it 40k might actually be a fun game

Tyranids

nom nom nom nom nom nom nom nom nom nom nom nom nom nom nom nom nom nom no- and that’s it that’s the Tyranids. I don’t know anything about them besides that, and neither do you, cause that’s their lore. Yes they have cool models, but next to no reliable updates. I’ll pray for you.  

Edit: it really looks like GW has just completely forgotten about you poor souls huh? The Night King, a character who is closely associated with the totally-not-reconned-Tyranid-invasion, comes back and not one word about you guys. They don’t even actively hate you like, say, they hate the Eldar. It’s just... apathy. 

Grey Knights

HAHA AHAHAHAHA HA HA UHAHAHA HAHAAHAHAAHAH HAHA ha ha Ah......... he. hehahaaaAHAHAHAHA HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

edit: I hope you all realize that Grey Knights are far too specialized in fighting the permanently under performing forces of chaos to be 40ks “elite among elite.”  You and your entire faction has been made completely obsolescent by the Custodes. The rough times will continue, say hi to the Squats in heaven will you?

Custodes

You are either insufferably full of yourself or a fine practitioner of the model making craft. Most likely though you are neither, and you picked them because you only need gold and red paint to make them look good. Custodes are the space marine’s space marines, and they’re better than you and everyone else. period. At least in lore. On the table their incredible individual stats and elite status are reflected in points cost, so for most large games you will be fielding what amounts to any other faction’s skirmishing army. Unfortunately, since 40k is a stat-sheet battler that favors raw bulk of rolls and stats over the quality of them, you’d be hard-pressed to do well in any serious game. However, for the luminous of mind, the small size is a blessing in disguise since you don’t need to buy and paint as many units as the other armies, and no matter how hard the guard player trashes you his 50 unpainted manlets will never look as good as your 15 gloriously crafted golden Chads. Stick to smaller games, and the individual strength of each model will make up for the glaring absence caused by their loss.

Ironically enough despite being an elite faction from a relatively obscure part of 40k lore, these attributes make Custodes the perfect casual player’s faction. It is my personal theory that if GW didn’t grossly inflate their prices to such a high degree everyone would have a Custodes army. 

Oh yeah, Henry Cavil plays these guys, because of course he does. 

[monstersdownthepath]

Spiritual Spotlight: Narriseminek, the Crownless

Chaotic Neutral Protean Cantor of Ascendance, Keketars, and Revelations

Domains: Chaos, Knowledge, Liberation, Madness Subdomains*: Protean, Education, Self-Realization, Truth

Concordance of Rivals, pg. 14

Obedience: Surround yourself in a burning circle of flames at least 5 feet out from where you stand, chanting prayers until the flames burn down to coals or smoke from any source harms you. Benefit: Gain a +4 sacred bonus on saves against fire-based spells and attacks.

(*IMPORTANT NOTE: The Subdomains are my best guess; Subdomains are not listed in Concordance of Rivals)

Hope you remember to bring oil and tinderboxes! And remember to practice fire safety, because this Obedience is a real good way to burn down an entire house. Or forest. There’s also the worrying detail that this Obedience requires you to wait until the fires burn down to the coals, suggesting that a ring of oil or grease will NOT, in fact, satisfy the conditions of the ritual. That’s a real chin-scratcher to me, and though my Rules-Fu may be weak, I can see how a more exacting DM might force their players to jump through hoops (or into them as the case may be). Do you have to lug around wood or paper and burn it? Can ‘smoke from any source’ come from a cigarette or stick of incense you have nearby? Does the Obedience end early if a freak gust blows ash into your face? Questions, questions.

Also don’t ignore the fact that standing in a ring of fire while chanting ominously is incredibly suspicious and you probably shouldn’t do it in a location someone can barge into, especially a Good someone. Or a Paladin someone. Or a Devil-hunter someone. In fact, it’s really hard to do this Obedience regularly without seeming like you might soon plot to sacrifice babies, so you might want to warn your party ahead of time that no, you don’t worship Asmodeus, you worship a different flaming serpent! ... Wait, Asmodeus isn’t a serpent in Pathfinder, scratch that last line.

As for the benefit, nothing we haven’t seen before. Nothing special, nothing grand. Fire is the most common damage type, so this ability WILL come up often and it’ll save you a lot of HP, and for that it has my applause. It’s just not exciting in any other way. I’m a little concerned that it doesn’t say “fire-based spells and abilities,” but “attacks,” but that could just be me being picky about language and wording. It comes in handy when dealing with fae, but it makes me paranoid everywhere else!

Boons are gained slowly, gained at levels 12, 16, and 20. Servants of the Monitors, though, can enter the Proctor Prestige Class as early as level 8. If entered as early as possible, you can earn your Boons at levels 10, 14, and 16. You MUST take the Monitor Obedience feat, NOT Deific Obedience. Monitors grant only a single set of Boons.

Boon 1: Ascended. Gain Anticipate Peril 3/day, Detect Thoughts 2/day, or Heroism 1/day.

Oooh, not bad! Three decent spells! Anticipate Peril gives the target a +5 bonus to Initiative for one combat, and as I’ve said before, Initiative is one of the best stats you can have bonuses to. Heroism gives +2 to arguably more important stats, though, in saving throws, attack rolls, and damage rolls. It also lasts for a phenomenally long time--a whole 10 minutes per level! It’s a pretty good boost for the beatstick of your party, but I’m not sure if it’s worth giving up on boosting up to three people’s Initiative (or one person’s Initiative three times). It depends on how many attacks your local DPS can throw out in a round, I suppose, or if your team is made up of the more fragile sorts who’d give their left arms to move first. Do note that Anticipate Peril only works for one initiative roll before fizzling, but Herosim’s lengthy duration means it will likely last through multiple fights, so scouting is essential if you want to use AP!

Detect Thoughts is something we’ve covered before, and though it technically only has niche use, it’s invaluable against enemies who’re holding information you need or sifting through crowds for specific individuals who’s thinking about how bad it would be if you found them. It’s powerful when you NEED it, but Anticipate Peril and Heroism are useful in the many battles that come with Pathfinder’s adventures.

Boon 2: Crownless Crown. You gain a floating halo of Protean symbols around your head. 1/day, you may use the Reshape Reality ability of the Keketar Protean, heightened to a 7th level spell instead of 9th; this means you may cast Mirage Arcana as a spell-like ability, except all of the illusions are woven with Maelstrom matter and become partially (20%) real, even to disbelievers, and the DC to see through the illusion is 17+your Charisma modifier.

CHAOS!

CHAOS!!

I CAN DO ANYTHING!!!

Have you ever thought to yourself “this battlefield is really nice, but I would prefer to be anywhere else”? Have you ever found yourself wishing you were on a nice beach while in the middle of a dungeon, or that this jungle would look better as a desert, or that this desert could use a giant glacier smack in the middle of it? Then have I got an ability for you!

Reshape Reality can overlay one 20ft square per level with terrain of your choice, and here’s some math for you: a 20ft square is 4x4 tiles, which means you affect 16 tiles per level. If you’re level 14 when you first get this ability, that means fourteen 20ft squares are yours to command, or 224 tiles. Numbers are good and all, but how about a visual demonstration?

(Green: You. Blue: unfortunate enemy)

BAM! That’s one configuration you can throw it down in. It affects a LOT of terrain, basically letting you decide if the current room is to your liking. You can also throw it down in a long line or loop to form a ‘cage’ for yourself and your enemies, or form an enormous barrier to cut a swath between enemy forces. Like many illusion spells, Mirage Arcana is best used by someone with a good imagination... But even the most unimaginative sorts can still cause an environment to turn itself into pure acid or magma. Whoever fails their save against the illusion takes 5d6 damage from hazards you manifest, while disbelievers still take 1d6 because of its semi-real nature. 

You can also do some fancy things like creating a small stony labyrinth or even just whip up some cover for yourself and your allies if you so desire. And there’s nothing saying that every square has to be the same environment, either! Go nuts! This is one of the most powerful battlefield control abilities you can get! ... Provided your allies are away that reality is an illusion.

Also, I think it’s really cute that you get a floaty rune crown like all the Proteans. Makes it real hard to hide what you are and what you’re worshiping, though, so watch out!

Boon 3: Mantle of Revelation. 1/day, you can cast Foresight as a spell-like ability.

For those who’ve never used it, Foresight is a level 9 spell that lasts 10 minutes per level. Mechanically, it grants the recipient a +2 to AC and Reflex saves, and prevents the recipient from ever being surprised or flat-footed. At high levels, robbing an enemy of a surprise round can mean the difference between someone outright dying to a Sneak Attack or a spell thrown from out of sight, making this spell a life-saver... Though not a level 9 lifesaver. Such a feat could easily be replicated by a level 7 or 8 spell, allowing more crunch to be packed into this Boon, right? AC is nice and all, but...

You know what else is nice? These little portions:

“Once Foresight is cast, you receive instantaneous warnings of impending danger or harm to the subject of the spell.”

Don’t open the chest, don’t drink that potion, don’t sample the cheese, don’t take another step forward, don’t say the next words you’re planning, don’t cast that spell, don’t don’t don’t... Foresight stops a LOT of incoming harm in its tracks, allowing you to step back just as an arrow flies at your face, or stop your foot just before stepping on a landmine, or re-evaluate your attack target if forewarned of some sort of defense they have. You can even cast it on someone else to give them the same benefit... so long as you’re within earshot. You need to be able to communicate with them in some way to grant them the warnings, making it more attractive to cast on yourself than another, unless you have some form of telepathic connection with the second subject.

And speaking of second subjects, here’s the other interesting portion:

“The spell gives you a general idea of what action you might take to best protect yourself and gives you a +2 insight bonus to AC and on Reflex saves.”

And gives you a +2 insight bonus. Why’s that important? Because it means ‘general idea of what action you might take’ does NOT directly lead to this insight bonus, but is in addition to it. Foresight’s greatest power relies a bit on DM fiat, which is painful if they aren’t super open to discussion of the spell’s minutiae, but elaborated on and discussed beforehand with the DM will allow you to solve encounters MUCH more smoothly than normal. Say, perhaps, the enemy has a Scroll of Disintegrate on them that no one has seen yet. Foresight may warn you ahead of time to bolster your Reflex save even further, or somehow strengthen your touch AC. You don’t know WHY you’re receiving this warning, but all will become apparent in time.

Foresight warns you not to open a door, but you must to progress. The spell then warns you to protect yourself from Fire damage, and you can extrapolate from there. Or perhaps it tells you to draw your weapons and prepare your spells as you walk down an otherwise empty hallway, just before you’re ambushed.

Really, Foresight is a far more powerful spell than many give it credit for because so much of its power relies on interpretation and the DM working with the fact you can see danger coming at least six seconds before it happens. See? Me being ridiculously careful about interpretations of wording worked out in everyone’s favor for once!

You can read more about Narri here.

[vividlywriting]

Dbh and DND you say....( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°). Alright, let's try this on for size: the main cast of Detroit: Become Human plays DND? Who plays what class? I imagine Millenial on a Mission Hank DMs but I'd be open to any of them writing a campaign and forcing the others to play

So my partner and I are pretty into DnD, and as he partook in my play through of DBH and listens to all my fanning out I asked his opinion on this prompt.  So I will put his additions or contradictions in here as well.  This is gonna be a bit long

Let’s start this off right!

DnDBH

Hank Anderson, millennial.

Has played DnD at least once in his life.  

It probably wasn’t his forte at the time, likely something his roommate pulled him into, and the campaign was probably a bust as it was.  

Has most likely played video games like Divinity Original Sin 2 and Baldur’s Gate and liked them.  

He’s also played WoW and Guild Wars 2 at different times and for different reasons in his life

neither of which lasted super long, but he did enjoy them at the time

He honest to god hasn’t thought about DnD or anything even similar to it for a couple of decades until Connor found an old set of dice in the spare room (now Connor’s room) at Hank’s place

Now Hank is running a campaign and he has no gods damned idea how he got roped into this

He thinks it’s hilarious when he throws moral quandaries at his players, which all happen to be androids

He once had his players break into a government building to locate a prisoner for information, they were forced to choose between freeing the prisoner and escaping or leaving them behind.  

All of their information on the prisoner was shaky at best and they had no way of knowing if the character would turn on them later because they all failed their sense motive checks

He was dumbfounded when they managed to befriend the character, completely ruining the arc that had the character as the big bad

Hank is well over the “I roll to seduce” aspect of the game, and is thankful none of his players tried to do that more than once

The only time an NPC flirts with a player character is when Hank is trying to throw a player off/fuck with them and derives a lot of pleasure from seeing his players stumble and try to get out of it

Except for the time when it backfired on him

He finished two glasses of whiskey after that

Hank will not admit that he enjoys DMing, he often complains it’s a pain in his ass and he can’t wait until the whole thing is over

Hank agreed to test Markus’s homebrew oneshot…once

Hank Anderson, millennial, by Zeke

No bad guy at first but increasingly intricate moral quandaries

Before moral quandaries he forgets he can’t just throw puzzles at the players cause fuckin androids

General DMing

Almost everyone has DMed at one time or another based on their interest

Connor as a DM

Connor’s DMing style is very straight forward

He usually goes with premade campaigns, luckily there are a lot out there

He’s not the best at improv when his players go off the beaten path

But he’s very good at playing NPCs

Probably thanks to his programming as a detective, because he can play the NPCs’ emotions to a T

As a DM he is a little bit of a hardass though

Connor as a Player

Connor style of character play is much different than how he is in real life

He seems to enjoy the fact that he doesn’t have to “complete his mission” 

In fact he seems to enjoy causing as much chaos as he can, while still somehow doing what he needs to, and often by accident (or design, no one really knows)

He started with a classic rogue character build

Now he takes characters not often in the rogue class and building them in ways that end to his chaotic play style

Connor is the main reason Hank has had to set off random events or traps, e.g. rocks fall sort of situation, just for annoying him

Connor takes incredible care to keep his characters alive, somehow in spite of the trouble they get into

His character’s tend to have a much higher charisma stat that Connor portrays in real life, he takes it as a challenge for himself more so than his characters

Connor as a Player by Zeke

Likes to play Dex based characters

Likes the concept of spells and often leans towards characters that can do both sneaky stuff and magic

Tried playing evil alignment character once, went balls to the walls and then got banned from playing characters like that because even North was like “wtf”

Markus as a DM

Markus usually starts with a premade campaign

By the time the party gets through the first “dungeon” he’s tossed the script out off the window and is rolling dice and making it up as he goes along

His NPCs often sound a little the same

And when he digs into the homebrew style of DMing he likes to bring in scenarios that either play for or against his players personally

Markus as a Player

Markus avoids leadership character roles like the fucking plague

He actually leans towards the utility characters, buffing and healing the rest of the party

That does not stop the other players from looking to him to be the deciding factor in major decisions of the game

Sometimes he literally just rolls a dice to determine his character’s answer out of frustration

When anyone but Hank DMs he enjoys flirting with most NPCs to try and mess with the DM

He has flirted with enemies before

He has bedded enemies before

It is ridiculous how his lowkey background character playstyle manages to have that much charisma

He is usually the reason Connor doesn’t die in game, and he never lets him live it down

Markus as a Player by Zeke

Every once in a while Markus likes just playing a barbarian and raging

After the first campaign of him ending up as a leader character he just wants to play something simpler

Simon as a DM

Simon is a very thorough DM

He’s very keen on everyone enjoying themselves

But he’s also a very fair DM and if you roll a Nat 1 you’re gonna have to deal with the consequences

He actually really enjoys building homebrews, but he also has a handful of backup plans depending how the players move forward and how much time they have to play

His NPCs have a decent amount of variety, and they often come back into play later whether or not the players realize it at the time

Simon as a Player

Simon is probably the most diplomatic character player you’ve ever seen

His characters are usually quiet, and startlingly efficient

He plays arcane casters usually, and uses it about as equally against enemies as he does against the party to quell the in party bickering that tends to happen

He likes being useful, but more importantly he enjoys the fact that there are many times the party would have been screwed over if he hadn’t stepped up

It took about three sessions before the other players stopped underestimating him and his characters, they tend to be quite lethal 

Simon’s characters usually try to solve things without violence, or without deaths

Someone, either player or DM usually makes that impossible 

While Simon usually just sighs and says “ok then”, he often laughs at the resulting destruction

He has incredible luck with his dice rolls

Simon as a Player by Zeke

Tries making things with high charisma scores but usually ends up defaulting to Markus’s leadership who just tries to put back to simon

Really good in the cleric/healing character classes

North as a Player

Prefers playing, not DMing, the one time she tried to take over for someone to run a oneshot everyone died. 

It did not go well

Most of North’s characters fall somewhere between chaotic neutral to chaotic evil

The others have fallen in the Lawful side of the chart, lawful evil to be exact, and it is terrifying

Her characters change alignment the most as she plays based on how she feels towards other characters and NPCs

Despite that she has yet to fall into the Good column of the chart

Her characters are also either highly destructive or just plain really good at violence/fighting

She doesn’t have a preferred class type, she just likes doing as much damage as possible

North does like playing races that are often less liked in the campaign world

She also likes to retaliate to in game racism and has before collected a small gathering of NPCs she’s helped in someway because of this

As a character player she can be quite cold

She has yet to play a game where the DM included any sort of brothel, unless it is there for the sole purpose of being infiltrated and the workers being saved

Yes that was a game Markus ran

North as a Player by Zeke

Fighter, Ranger, Swashbuckler/Pirate Characters

Josh as a Player

He is just happy being a player

LOOT

This boy will find the loot and you may or may not know about it

He has killed the least number of people than anyone in his party

He prefers to not kill anyone if he can

Leave them out cold, or tied up, he’s even fine with dismemberment so long as they still have their life

When he does have to kill its in either one of two ways

Either he poisons them and they or most characters have no idea he did it

OR he makes it quick and clean

He plays the assassin class very very well, or he would if he actually did his job as an assassin

Josh as a Player by Zeke

Uses the loot for a good cause

Chaotic good or neutral good

Always good and opposite of north, by accident

Monk or brawler and always specifies he is doing non lethal damage

Stealthy monk - josh becomes one punch man

Kara as a Player

Kara is a healer

She’s learned the best builds to give you the best buffs all day long

Her characters are often pretty fragile though so the other players usually have to strategize around her to make sure she lives so she can make sure they deal the most and take the least damage

Her characters have all ended up rescuing someone or something at some point 

This has lead to her almost always having a companion animal or favors she can call in from NPCs later in the game 

It’s been pretty handy

Kara Player by Zeke

Witch, Druid, Shaman classes

Alice as a player NPC by Both of Us

Was allowed to join to play as an NPC, reprising similar roles, because the first one went over so well

She learned to make stuffed animals just to slam them on the board

They are always too big

It was a dragon

It only happened because she found Hank’s old copy of The Hobbit

When she plays as her NPC she jumped up on her chair and holds up a stuffed animal of a dragon and screamed “I am fire! I am death!” slammed the toy onto the board and yelled “ROLL FOR INITIATIVE!”

Hank’s response was to look at his confused players and say “Well, go on, do it.” because they didn’t think it was serious

Almost no one has it in them to actually kill her characters, even tho they only exist to be fought

So Hank has to come up with “an out” for the NPC baddie to get away

Because of this Alice gets really into high fantasy books and movies

Hank doesn’t mind babysitting her as much now

Luther as a Player by Both of Us

He only plays occasionally

Mostly oneshots not full campaigns

Plays the smallest characters he can

He knows what it’s like to be big, he wants to be smol

He made one min/maxed orc that was too broken to be used more than the one time

He’s a really soft spoken player, he doesn’t say much but he enjoys playing

The Jerry Gaming Collective

Is a thing

Find them on twitch

[orange-you-say]

the chains of harrow quest was really, really bad imo

(spoilers for literally the entire quest under the cut)

the quest starts out really promising - an abandoned steel meridian vessel, the crew slaughtered and the red veil insignia scrawled on the wall in what looks like blood. something really really wrong is happening here, a feeling amplified by a sudden red veil ambush after the spending the whole mission in eerie silence. then, when rescuing palladino, rather than fight against clear and defined red veil agents, you’re pitted against a force composed of some sort of shadow figure that shuffles about with no label. you’re hard pressed to spot them before they’re in your face because the level is also ominously dark, allowing them to blend in with the shadows, usually only seeing their red health bar when targeting them

after you rescue palladino you next investigate an abandoned corpus vessel. it’s the same deal as before - pitch black, eerie silence, with strange shadows dancing along the walls, looking almost human. you think you know what to expect this time, especially as you’re crashing a red veil seance - they’re gonna try to fuck you up, and you’re gonna have to fuck them up first and steal their sacred relic so palladino can try to get through to their god-figure rell.

the neat thing is that that isn’t what happens. the veil agents are all already dead, with their sacred artifact sitting in the center of the room. you nab it and get ready to head out, but you’re stopped. something is talking to you. it’s not happy you took the sacred gizmo.

and that’s when rell appears and all hell breaks loose

the shadow figures are back, and the veil agents are reanimating, which on their own would be easy enough to deal with - their defensive stats aren’t particularly noteworthy, and they drop after a couple of hits. the problem is rell. rell is a particularly ill defined shadow man with glowing red eyes who stands out for two other reasons. the first is that he has little minions that will chase you down while he catches up. the second thing that sets him apart is that he doesn’t have a health bar. you can’t kill him, and the doors are all chained shut. so you’re stuck in a room with shadow monsters and zombie edgelords and what amounts to about eight different horror movie monsters in one really pissed off god-figure who’s immortal. it’s great, it’s different, it takes away your ability to cheese it with a silly high amount of damage. it removes the sensation of being overpowered from you, which warframe struggles with in a lot of areas. anyways you escape and get back to your ship after palladino warns you that you can’t kill him, and that marks about the point where the quest starts going downhill

the next three missions of the quest are the same mission spread across different tiles - go to a room, use a kinetic siphon trap that simaris sold to you assuming you’d use it to capture prospective sanctuary candidates, and shoot the physical manifestation of one of rell’s emotions until it’s weak enough for the trap to absorb a la danny phantom. it’s boring, it’s grindy, and it would be painfully dull if it weren’t for rell following you and trying to murder you the whole time. it’s a very nice touch, as are his remarks on each emotion as you trap them, but the justification for it - apparently doing this will help him regain his “true self”, as well as the fact that you must capture a total of nine emotions over three missions, make it tedious and irritating.

finally, once rell’s emotions have been contained, you are asked to go to the red veil temple and straight up murder rell because apparently capturing his emotions did absolutely nothing to help him and now it’s his time to pass on, so off to destroy his vessel you go. this has the potential to have been a really touching moment in which we see rell’s humanity restored and free him from his prison after an epic showdown with who you’ve come to understand as “dark rell”. instead, you get a really obnoxious and painful sequence where you must fend off waves of veil agents between rounds of shattering the chains around rell’s vessel - as your operator. this could have been relatively simple and painless, albeit a little too easy, but instead you are forced to use the most fragile unit in your arsenal, and the enemies aren’t going easy on you. the veil agents will throw dagger users at you, and then bows that can take out a significant chunk of health (enough to kill me every time they hit me, but i never got hit by them at full health so idk how much damage they acutally do), followed by veil agents who are just straight up reskins of the shadow stalker with lowered stats. to top it off, “dark rell” or “the man in the wall” is floating around like an asshole and will pepper you with balls of fire periodically. it’s a really painful mission that perfectly captures how lacking in any ability at all the operator is - something that we’ve all been complaining about since the War Within dropped, so DE really has no excuse for how poorly thought out this was. the only positive side to this mission is that death didn’t set you back in the slightest - you respawn a few seconds later with the map exactly as you left it, right down to the number of hit points that asshole had left before he killed you, and keep going

level design notwithstanding, the lore to the quest also leaves a lot to be desired. over the course of the quest, we learn that rell was a tenno who was “different” (autistic), and for this, margulis cast him out. we already know margulis is a character of questionable morality from how she sealed our memories and abilities in the War Within, but this feels much more like a character being driven by the plot, rather than the other way around like it ought to be. margulis loved the tenno, and it seems odd that rell was the only tenno out of many who was “different”.

(and frankly, i find it incredibly frustrating that DE didn’t have the guts to outright say “margulis rejected rell because he was autistic” and instead left plenty of hints and implications that he was. it’s 2017, warframe is set even further in the future than that, we can say that characters are autistic without having a meltdown, and we are certainly above the idea that autism is grounds to reject someone is an acceptable plot device)

anyways margulis deciding rell wasn’t good enough for her apparently turned out to be a good thing, because he goes on to become an expert in void related knowledge which he shares with his disciples, who will eventually form the red veil. he also takes it upon himself to protect the system from what he calls the “man in the wall” - an entity hinted to be the “something out there, watching us” the tenno’s father talks about in TWW. because he knew he would eventually get old and die (which finally starts to answer my questions about tenno mortality - at the very least, people think the tenno are gonna age over time), he chose to permanently transfer his consciousness into the Harrow warframe

let’s back up a second here. rell wasn’t good enough for margulis. he wasn’t allowed to be put in cryosleep and dream with the other tenno. he never received a precursor to the warframe, and yet somehow he happens to have his own warframe? something doesn’t add up here, and it’s never going to be addressed.

after declaring that he must be chained up in the depths of the red veil temple for all eternity, he slowly starts to deteriorate into “good rell” and “bad rell”. “good rell” is who rell is - the clever, knowledgable, autistic child who was ostracized and made to be an outsider. “bad rell” is the man in the wall.

wait, what?

it turns out, while aboard the zariman, after his mother sends him away for his own safety as she succumbs to the madness all adults aboard the ship did, the other tenno still refused to acknowledge him and continued to exclude him. this resulted in him feeling incredible isolated and alone, which allowed the man in the wall to slip in and manipulate him. “bad rell” is nothing more than the man in the wall breaking free after rell’s mental state begins deteriorating. killing rell has apparently retrapped him - inside our own operator’s mind. (this last sentence is purely speculation on my part, given some of the weird things that happened after returning to the orbiter post quest)

this quest starts off strong gameplay wise, but deteriorates quickly in much the same way the Glast Gambit did, and has lore that’s more messy and contradictory than the current US administration on pretty much anything. it also raises a lot of questions for the few that are answered. what exactly is the man in the wall? where did it come from, and why is it so hostile? how did rell get a warframe, and why did his mind deteriorate, when Silvana, who didn’t even share the tenno’s powers, retain her mental stability, if not her ability to think quickly? why did rell’s emotions get free, and why didn’t capturing them do anything? for that matter, how did rell’s emotions attain physical manifestation and separation from their host? how does harrow actually play into all of this? is he really just a glorified set piece, or did his abilities in particular serve some purpose to rell?

honestly this quest was a mess and a disappointment all around

[mementosrp-blog]

( KIM YUHWA )

ALIAS › lily

FACTION › ada

( PERSONA )

BACKGROUND :  delicate beauty. gentle grace. endless power. the proud queen possessed it all. her pride was her downfall, her power useless when faced with humiliation, with the foolishness that love brought — love also almost came to cost yuhwa’s life; the pretty little girl in her pretty little dress with her pretty long hair and chin high up, elated with pride and power brought by influence and wealth. love and trust was her downfall and had it not been for the fair queen’s sedulous and protective core aligning with her own stubborn wish to keep fighting they would have never came to form a bond. titania; she carried the delicate beauty of a frail flower and the powers of a restless warrior.

ABILITY/ABILITIES :

– flower manipulation: titania has the ability to control, shape and manipulate all blooming plants; turning, for instance, vines into vicious grips and thorns into weapons as sharp and lethal as daggers.

– sleep manipulation:  she can induce and manipulate aspects of sleep in others. it’s possible for her to induce instantaneous sleep or tire someone out to have them fall asleep a more natural way. it’s also possible to force anyone sleeping to wake up regardless of the circumstances, which can come in handy should they put themselves into a dream like state for health recovery.

WEAKNESSES :

– the flowers are still fragile and delicate and therefore not especially durable, as well as incredibly susceptible to fire and ice attacks

– personas with strong mental abilities can’t be kept asleep for as long as she wishes and are sometimes able to control for how long they sleep or even, in some cases, if they’re affected at all

( STATS )

Knowledge : [ 6 / 25 ] Guts : [ 10 / 25 ] Proficiency : [ 14 / 25 ] Kindness : [ 3 / 25 ] Charm : [ 17 / 25 ]

— BACKGROUND

the white water lily « floating along restless waters ｡｡｡ »

                                               ⁕⁕⁕

｡the root ⁕

the flower seed was sown on soiled ground, poisoned and soaked with blood. there’s many secrets her family hides, many nooks and dark corners in the vast house she grew up in that hid grotesque memories of unresolved and restless lives.

yuhwa is the youngest child, the only daughter.

she’s wild, not passive; loud, not meek.

disapproving glances follow her wherever she goes. there’s loud voices and and harsh slaps and cruel punishments and as much as they try to get yuhwa to bend, she doesn’t break. there’s stubbornness in her, a fighting spirit that wants to grow and spread and entangle her roots deep within the earth.

                                               ⁕⁕⁕

｡the stem ⁕

yuhwa grows tall, like the stem of a lily. her shoulders are squared, her eyes are focused and she learnt to bend with the strong wind but not let it break her.

her family’s wealth and importance grew with her oldest brother’s marriage and while her parents and siblings all dinned at the table with laughter and music, she still had her place on the floor. it still hurt, deep in her chest, it still felt tight and uncomfortable to watch them, still stung bitterly in the corner’s of her eyes with each and every unshed tear. she’s still young and her voice only grows louder as she grips at her mother’s sleeves and desperately wails ’why’.

the answer never comes.

her hands are slapped away.

the girl locked into her room and sedated with pills as colourful as candy.

                                               ⁕⁕⁕

｡the leaves ⁕

she’s wild, they say. too savaged, like a beast. unrefined. a flower that bears thorns, too thick leaves with prickly ends wrapped around a delicate flower that had yet to show herself, had yet to bloom. yuhwa searches for love and encounters nothing, but rejection. she has three older brothers and three monsters living underneath the same roof as her. they push her down a staircase, try to burn her hair, try to look her into closets and crush her arms and legs between doors.

yuhwa learns to live with disgust cast her way, like she was marred and disfigured to a point of no return. she wasn’t even sure when it started, but remembered feeling tender touches and small affections as a young child. memories turned to dreams and yuhwa doubts her own mind, at times, thinks she must be going insane.

she’s only fourteen but lays awake late at night, gnawing her fingers bloody, her whole body restless and jittery as she stares straight at the ceiling of the cellar and tries to distinguish what was real and what was imagination.

why was she different?

she looked like them, she moved like them - didn’t she?

                                               ⁕⁕⁕

｡the flower ⁕

the flower blooms a year later and yuhwa doesn’t realise what the consequences until she’s shoved along dark corridors and into a metal ring. there’s an audience, loud cheers, a blinding light and an opponent. she didn’t know how to fight, but she was quick and small and pain was her teacher. bruises bloomed along her skin; sweat slicked, cut and dirty.

from the corner of her eye she always sees her family cheering and sneering at her pain and suffering - she’s nothing but an animal to them; a mean of entertainment.

it breaks her heart and it breaks her trust and it takes her a year to find titania and finally break free.

                                               ⁕⁕⁕

｡blooming ⁕

with sixteen years of age she’s living on the street, scamming and stealing, just to get along. she lives from one day to the other, spends nights falling asleep with a rumbling stomach and tears dried on her cheeks. her heart hurts, her chest is heavy - yuhwa knows how to bend, but not break. survival was what she was trained for, fighting for her life was what she became used to.

it happened purely by chance that a man she attempted to scam invited her to his agency. it’s a job he plans to offer her, but it’s advice and help she gets after he finds her age and living circumstances. yuhwa learns about support from the government, about how minors had to be taken care of and family.

she’s placed within a patchwork family with two other children and smiling adults.

two years pass in the blink of an eye and yuhwa enjoys a warm environment with people who care for her growth and education. the agent who had helped get her off the streets had ended up offering her a job again as soon as she turned eighteen and yuhwa accepted it without hesitance.

she cut her hair, moved out, keen to support herself instead of mooching off her adoptive parent’s.

modelling earns her just enough to get by, but it’s when the government finds her and the ADA is formed with  her that things really start to look up.

yuhwa is twenty-one and the flower is finally blooming.

                                               ⁕⁕⁕

{ diary of a beast -

17.1.2011

it hurts. my fingers are all bloody and my nose and cheek and shoulder are throbbing and i can still hear them cheer on and on and on and ON

i didn’t stop when the girl beneath me started screaming, i couldn’t, i was too scared. i’m sorry. i didn’t want to hurt her but i had to, i had to. i’m scared and i just want it to stop but begging and crying was useless. what did i do that they hate me so much? i tried to be good but being good didn’t make them love me. they always look at me like i’m a nuisance, like they don’t want me here. why not?

mother used to tell me i’m too feisty and too aggressive. i threw too many tantrums. i fought with my brothers too much. a girl doesn’t kick and throw punches she used to say but today they forced me to do just that.

gladiator brawls. there were so many people and so many kids. younger than me. older than me. they’re saying it’s either them or me. i don’t want it to be me, it hurts too much. i keep screaming and crying but nothing happens. i’m scared they’ll lead me there again.

                                              ⁕⁕⁕

3.4.2011

i hate them so much. i hate each and every one of them.

fighting has become easier by now. girls are weaker but they last longer, they can take more. the boys’ punches hurt more but they’re easier to hurt too.

i avoid looking at mirrors. i don’t think i’ll like what i see a lot.

the bruises are all fading but i feel like a monster. i’m being treated like one.

                                              ⁕⁕⁕

19.6.2011

i want them to hurt too.

i feel like i’ve been fighting my whole life. it’s always been a fight with my brothers, against them, for my parents’ love. it all got me nowhere, right? so why am i still fighting?

because i want to survive.

                                              ⁕⁕⁕

27.9.2011

something…. weird happened today.

i felt lightheaded and weak and i was losing. there was no energy in me. i just felt cold and my arms and legs felt so heavy. it was scary but in a way it was also relaxing. for a moment i thought it was nice to not have to fight. i wanted to give up.

and that’s when it happened…. like vines there was something wrapping around my limbs. it was weird. i couldn’t see anything but it was like there was a really soft touch, almost warm, and a really really faint voice but just for a moment.

i probably just imagined it but it was a good enough wake up call, it made me feel like i had some energy still left in me.

i’m taking that as a sign to continue fighting no matter how tiring it is.

                                              ⁕⁕⁕

2.12.2011

i don’t feel so lonely anymore. it’s like whenever i have a moment of weakness that warm touch comes back and that faint voice tries to talk to me. i can’t understand it properly and i can’t really hear what it’s saying but i think it’s the voice of a woman. when i’m back in my room i try to think who it could belong to but nothing comes to mind. sometimes it remind me a bit of how mother used to be when i was really really young but that is such a far away memory that i’m not even sure how much of it is actually real.

i don’t know if the voice and the touch is real either, but i like to think so. it’s like my very own angel that’s here to protect me.

i’ll show her, i’ll show them all that nothing will ever destroy me.

                                              ⁕⁕⁕

8.1.2012

titania. that’s her name.

it almost feels like a dream.

i had no chance today, i should have lost. i had used up all my adrenaline, i had used up all of my energy, i couldn’t move and everything was blurry and getting darker. i thought i had fainted but…

when i opened my eyes i wasn’t in the metal ring anymore instead there were dark walls and giant flowers and weird monsters. i heard her call out to me and i rant to her, i found her and i immediately knew that there was no time to be weak. giving up wasn’t an option. failing isn’t an option.

i refuse to be treated like a monster. i refuse to be kicked around for entertainment like a mutt.

i’ll take my life into my own hands again and now that i have titania by my side too nothing can stop me. i’ll grow up to become a queen. }

[gamerszone2019-blog]

16 Essential Tips for Training, Battling, and More in Fire Emblem: Three Houses

New Post has been published on https://gamerszone.tn/16-essential-tips-for-training-battling-and-more-in-fire-emblem-three-houses/

16 Essential Tips for Training, Battling, and More in Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Last Edited: July 26, 2019 at 8:48 AM

If you’re having troubles adjusting to life at Garreg Mach Monastery, or just looking to get the advantage over the rival houses, check out these tips to help you in your academics, exploring the monastery, battling, and more!

Classes and Personal Abilities[edit]

Every character has their own unique ability, and some of them work even better when paired with the right classes. For instance, Dedue‘s ability to raise his defense is made all the better when gaining defense bonuses from being an Armored Knight, and Ashe‘s Lockpick ability allows him to pursue other classes without anyone on the team having to be a Thief. Take a good look at all of your units abilities, and see where you can make teams work best together to play off each other’s strengths.

Invest in Budding Talents[edit]

Many students you teach – including Byleth – have Budding Talents that are unlock potentials of skills that can vastly alter what classes they can excel at. These talents are represented by three start slots that fill in as you give 1-on-1 training, or when Byleth gets faculty training at the Monastery.

By unlocking a Budding Talent, not only does the skill get a positive xp bonus, but you’ll also unlock a special ability that no other unit gets for learning that skill. Because of this, it’s worth investing in at least unlocking the budding talent to nab a free ability, and then looking at your goals to see if a class change will benefit the unit – and the whole team.

Stick With Your Strengths[edit]

The character Byleth starts with skill proficiencies in Sword, Authority, Brawl, and Faith (if the budding talent is unlocked). There’s a reason for this, as Byleth will eventually unlock a unique class to certify as over the course of the story, and it just happens to excel in swords and faith

Because of this, it’s worth playing to your main character’s strengths so that you don’t needlessly reclass, unless you really want to impress a student and recruit them, or fill a gap that your team is missing. Since they are already great with swords and faith, Byleth can also excel as a Holy Knight when you reach Master level certifications, as you’ll only need to refocus a bit for riding and lance skills.

Lords Should Stick to Their Strengths, Too[edit]

As you can imagine, the three house leaders are much the same as Byleth. By Part Two of the story, each of the leaders will automatically reclass into a more powerful lord unit, and each is unique to that character, and plays off their base strengths. Because of this, you should always have Edelgard focus on Axe and Heavy Armor, Dimitri on Lance and Authority, and Claude in Bows and Flying, and dabble a bit in their secondary skills or budding talents.

Like Byleth, they all have Budding Talents, but some of them may require them to change away from their upgraded Lord classes, so be ready to sacrifice that new look if you really want to experiment.

Rare Classes[edit]

Not all Classes you can certify are equal – some are gender-locked, unique to certain characters, or very rare to obtain.

Over the course of the story in Part One, you’ll be able to nominate one student to unlock the Dancer class certification – so make sure that student is the right fit for the job (and preferably already knows magic) to excel in that role.

There are also two Classes – the Dark Mage and Dark Bishop, that can only be unlocked by obtaining a Dark Seal. This item is only dropped from a rare an unique enemy you’ll run into four times in the story, giving you a chance to obtain up to four. If you don’t have two characters who need to benefit from using Dark Magic, you should only try getting two Dark Seals – just be careful against the foe who holds them.

Don’t Spread Your Goals[edit]

It’s fun to experiment with different skills and goals, while learning new abilities and arts along the way. However, the more you spread out training, the harder it will be for a unit to certify new classes, and the less powerful they’ll be as a result.

Once you get the feel for how each of your units works, take a good look at the List of Classes to see which each one requires to certify, and make a list of which characters you want to be which classes, and focus their goals in those areas whenever possible.

That said, having multiple classes available isn’t always a bad thing, so once your unit finally certifies a class, see if there’s another class they’re close to obtaining already, and shift your goals slightly before setting your sights on the next tier.

Find Out What You Need Each Month[edit]

You’ll get a few Free Days each month to do as you please, and while there’s no wrong answer, you can really excel by figuring out the areas you’re lacking in and making sure you take advantage of the options.

If Byleth’s own skills are lacking, be sure to spend a day getting in Faculty Training to boost up your skills, or look for a Seminar that hits all the skills you’re looking to build that can benefit your team too.

If your team is looking good in their skills but feeling weak or fragile, take the time to engage in some Auxiliary Battles to boost up your experience and levels – which means more stats – ahead of the next main mission. Battles are also the best way to earn a lot more gold, if you find yourself low on funds or in need of new weapons.

If your team is constantly struggling to get skill levels or looking unmotivated, consider resting for a day, or explore the monastery and stock up on gifts and return lost items, or other activities to raise up the motivations of your crew.

Recruit Who You Need, Not Who You Want[edit]

Yes, it can be tempting to try and entice as many students into your house as possible, but you need to realize that in order to recruit everyone, you’d need at least a C or B in each skill, not to mention a crazy amount of stats across the board to persuade everyone.

By trying to impress a large selection of other students, Byleth may become weaker for it – especially if you end up trying to train up Heavy Armor, Riding, and Flying at the same time. Stick to one or two auxiliary skills that can impress multiple students that you need who specialize in something you’re lacking, and then focus on Byleth’s main skills like Swords and Authority to pick up characters like Felix, Dorothea, or Ignatz as well.

(Of course, feel free to make an exception if you’re looking to steal away a character for romantic reasons – but be smart about it and see if other characters are looking for similar skills!)

Explore at Least Once a Month[edit]

Unless you really can’t stand the thought of making small talk with characters between missions, you should absolutely explore the Monastery at least once every month. The amount of things that change from month-to-month are too great to ignore, while most things don’t change until the next moon arises.

Taking part in Tournaments, checking the garden for harvesting flowers and stat boosts, fishing up rare fish that can sell for gold, and taking on simple quests to get extra supplies are very important. You’ll also find plenty of new items each month like Lost Items to raise support levels of your team, and even books to raise your Professor Level to increase points and funding.

Treat Hero’s Relics Like Glass[edit]

Weapons like Byleth’s Sword of the Creator and Catherine‘s Thunderbrand are incredible – but only while they have enough durability to wield. Because they can do incredible damage, especially when combined with Combat Arts, you may end up using them too frequently to the point that they break when you truly need them.

Since Hero’s Relics cost rare materials to upgrade, its best to use it only in emergencies against regular foes or bosses that threaten to kill you if you don’t act quick. Otherwise, try saving them for battles against giant beasts, as most Hero’s Relics do increased damage to them anyway, and can save you a lot of pain.

If you’re looking for an easy way to repair your relics, be sure to have a good team focus fire on each part of a monster’s shield, using powerful weapons or Gambits to break each square. If you can break all four (without killing it first), you’ll gain special stones needed to help repair your weapons.

Have Backup Weapons in the Convoy[edit]

It’s easy to forget that Byleth alone has the ability to access the Convoy at any point in a mission – as does anyone who is next to him. If you ever feel yourself going all in on Combat Arts and breaking your weapons frequently, consider having spares at the ready in your convoy, and keep Byleth near whichever unit seems to be low on durability – just in case the worst should happen, they’ll be able to quickly trade and keep on fighting.

A Battalion for Every Occasion[edit]

Battalions are more than just eye candy – they provide buffs to each character that equips them, and can even get random stats leveling up like any unit. More than that, there are many Battalions that provide specific gambits that can turn the tide when used correctly.

Having trouble corralling a giant monster and getting him to look away from the rest of your crew? Consider a Battalion with Lure to swap the enemy behind your character, or put him in reach of the rest of your team.

If you’re in a mission where speed is essential, give someone a Battalion with Stride to increase your movement in a turn to get everyone to their destination that much faster. Make sure to ascertain the battlefield before starting to make sure everyone has the battalion they need.

Try to Prioritize One Secondary Skill[edit]

The more advanced the class, the more likely it may require one skill like Riding, Flying, or Heavy Armor. Because these are the hardest to level up (you have to be classed as a unit who makes use of the skill to get experience in battle), you don’t want to spread yourself too thin by trying to master all three.

Most units are best swapping between being a regular unit that can reclass into cavalry or a flier when needed – but usually not both, unless they happen to gain bonus experience for both. Otherwise, you run the risk of them failing to certify for any of their classes if they can’t get enough experience in either.

Might or Magic[edit]

Any class you become will let you use almost any melee weapon (Mounted units cannot use Brawling Weapons), but not every class lets you cast spells. If you’re training up someone to become a master of the physical and magical – be careful. Leveling up as a melee class will mean you won’t be able to make any use of your magical talents until you finally certify into a casting class, and in the meantime, your level ups can be affected by poor magical growth.

On the flipside, trying to raise your strength as a Priest is probably asking for trouble – so consider swapping between magical and physical classes every so often if you’re going to one day class that unit into something like a Mortal Savant or Dark/Holy Knight. Otherwise just remember that whatever your unit was prioritizing while leveling up, they’ll likely suffer trading off against a unit with better stats in the other department.

Always Be Thieving[edit]

It’s worth your while to have at least one student in your class certify as a Thief, even if they reclass immediately. You never know when you’ll go into a mission with lots of chests and doors, and if you forget to stock up on keys, the Thief may be your only hope.

It’s also important to check all your enemies inventories before starting a battle – you’ll find in later battles that many enemies carry Seals that do not drop upon death – they can only be stolen from a Thief with higher speed than the target!

Don’t Always Reclass Right Away[edit]

It’s tempting the second a unit reaches level 15, 20, or 30 – to immediately certify and reclass into a cooler looking unit. Since you don’t go back to level 1, there’s no harm to your stats either, though your stat growth may be altered.

However, remember that each Class has its own pool of Class Experience, which raises slightly each time you go into a fight. By getting the max amount of experience and getting a “Class Mastery” You’ll unlock a special Ability that will stay with you even after reclassing. Some units, like the Thief, allow you to keep Steal even when you become something else, but others will grant impressive bonuses – like being able to reposition units out of danger, get increased stats when attacking, and so much more. The more Abilities you unlock the more you have to play around with equipping and trading off before each battle.

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Source : IGN

[thehallofgame]

Review: Valkyria Chronicles

Release: 2008

My Rating: 8.5/10

              In the same way a fresh coat of paint can be enough to sell a house a fresh take on the tactical RPG genre was enough to sell this game to me. Valkyria Chronicles doesn’t do anything revolutionary with their gameplay or their story, but their world war 2 inspired setting is enough to make this game feel fresh.

              On a continent that looks very similar to, but isn’t quite, Europe a war between two major military powers breaks out. The empire to the east is more or less an analog of Russia and Germany as one super-country, while their opponent to the west is called the Federation and loosely resembles the allied nations. Between these two countries lies Galia, a formerly neutral and independent nation that is invaded by the Empire at the beginning of the war. The game follows a militia unit with one prototype tank and a whole lotta spunk to their name. Through skill, luck, and stubborn determination the unit manages to find themselves meeting all the enemy elite and fighting the most pivotal battles of the war.

              World War 2 can be a pretty touchy subject, and for the most part Valkyria Chronicles tiptoes around heavier issues for a lighter, slice-of-life-anime tone. Sometimes it works, sometimes it feels a bit forced and unnatural. This is exemplified by a group of people called the Darcsen, who are inspired by the treatment of Jewish people during the second world war. Sometimes the game feels like it’s on the precipice of a serious commentary on racism, but it always pulls back at the last moment. The game often does this, sets up a strong story thread and doesn’t quite get all the way to the payoff. That said, many of the characters are very endearing and are written with an appealing simplicity and honesty.

              The way that the narrative is structured has a lot to do with the often jerky nature of story continuity and tone in Valkyria Chronicles. The chapter menu is presented in the form of a book, with the player selecting what scene to view or battle to participate in at will. New events in the core story are unlocked in chronological order but as the player can also return to the capital city to manage resources as well as unlock and/or view bonus chapters whenever they like, it’s easy for the pacing to be blown to tiny smithereens. On one notable occasion, the militia has been ordered to infiltrate and liberate an enemy concentration camp whilst a beach vacation side-story becomes available at the same time. It feels a little odd and disjointed, though this problem abates about halfway through the main story.

              The game is also very-text heavy and focuses a lot on the interpersonal relationships of the young militia members rather than the actual plot of the game or progress of the war. This keeps the tone light, but the sheer amount of dialogue can be overwhelming when there are about four dialogue cutscenes for every combat encounter.

              Combat itself is fun, and surprisingly solid despite a myriad of minor issues. The player controls a militia unit centered around a tank called the Edelweiss. Squad size varies wildly with mission, but is usually 8 to 10 units. Tanks are unique units piloted by tank commanders. There are also five classes of infantry at the player’s disposal. The scout, which is what the tank commanders are classed as on the rare occasions they must leave their tank, is a fragile unit with a lot of mobility. Shock Troopers are much slower than scouts but can deal a lot of damage and, more importantly, take a goodly amount of damage before falling. The final front-line unit is anti-tank lancers, who are very slow but carry a lance-mounted anti-tank shell that is the only thing, other than another tank, which does significant damage to enemy tanks.

              There are also two types of support unit. The sniper is extremely slow and extremely deadly, able to take out any exposed enemy foot soldier with a shot to the head. The final class, the engineer, is a bit more of a puzzle. The class is introduced as an all-around useful unit capable of carrying ammunition out to troops, repairing broken cover, acting as a medic, removing mines, and repairing damage done to friendly tanks. This is misleading, however, as the Engineers are incredibly fragile and it’s better to never let them get hit at all. Their use for anything besides following behind the tanks and keeping their HP up is limited, though their use as a minesweeper is occasionally essential.

              Some battles will stipulate that certain party members must be present for story reasons, but usually, the squad composition for each mission is left up to the player. At first, this sounds like a golden opportunity to tailor the squad to the player’s preferred strategy or play style, but the game quickly undermines this. A few, story-important characters have command points attached to them. Command points are the currency the player spends to take control of a character or give stat buffing ‘orders’ each turn. So, naturally, the player will almost always want to put characters in their party that give them more Command Points. Each character also has a list of soldiers they prefer to fight with. Fighting beside preferred party members often confers buffs or activates special soldier-abilities. The final thing to consider is that each of the up to twenty recruitable squad members have a list of preferences for where and how they fight that will confer situational buffs or debuffs. By the time the player has judged how best to juggle these values and the specific needs of the mission there usually isn’t any space left to bring discretionary characters.

              This isn’t as punishing as it could be, however, because a series of ‘bases’ on every map allow the player to swap out units or replace those that have fallen in battle. This keeps the party evolving and responsive to scenarios and also prevents the most difficult maps in the game from feeling petty or impossible. Retreating or calling in a new unit costs a command point each but it’s an investment well worth it. Likewise, though walking into ambushes or cross-fires can often feel unfairly deadly, a fallen character isn’t instantly dead or even KO’d for the rest of the mission. If a friendly team member can reach their fallen ally within three turns the team’s medic will evacuate the ally and their slot will open up for replacement. That slot can be filled the next turn by selecting a new troop from a friendly camp, and the same evacuated party member can be re-summoned the turn after that. However, falling in battle does have some consequences. If a Command Point bearing Leader Unit falls their command points goes with them, even if they’re latter re-summoned. Additionally, if the three turns winds down without rescue or an enemy soldier reaches the KO’d trooper first, the unit will die permanently. Or, in the case of the Leader Units, retreat for the rest of the battle even though they’ll be available for the next chapter.

              The mechanics of gameplay eschew the traditional grid-style of tactical RPGs and instead give troops Action Points to move around the map with. This essentially means that each character can move a certain maximum distance each turn and then choose to fire a weapon, heal some health or simply wait. The same character can be selected multiple times each turn, though they will have significantly less AP each time. This, combined with the use of cover mechanics and enemies who fire continuously on a controlled character in their line of sight, lends a sense of urgency and bouncing in and out of cover that isn’t typical of tactical RPGs.

              Explosive weapons and sniper rifles have a limited number of uses per turn. The player can deplete these fully in one turn if they wish but will only recover one bullet/shell per turn unless an engineer brings them more by being physically run to the other trooper’s position. This only works one way. A troop cannot approach an engineer to receive more ammo. Similarly, a player can end a turn with leftover command points which will then be added to the pool for the next turn. The enemy works on this system as well, which is hefty incentive to knock the enemy down before they can build up a pile of points.

Not that the player needs extra incentive to end the missions quickly, as the ‘grade’ assigned at the end of the mission is mostly given based on the number of turns the player required to complete the objective. This can be frustrating to veteran players who’re used to strategically eliminating all the enemies on a map. Rather, in Valkyria Chronicles, all that needs done is for the core objective to be completed. If a player can do this in one turn without killing a single enemy or very few turns after losing nearly everyone in their squad it doesn’t matter, their grade will still be good. It can be counterintuitive and maddening to do this. But it needs to be done because experience and money gain are tied to mission grade.

Money and experience points are essential to keeping the unit up to par with enemies. Each class levels up as a group and requires a given allotment of experience. Upon achieving level eleven each class becomes an ‘elite’ version of that class with new weapons and dramatically improved stats. However, there is another, expensive drain on experience. This is in the form of a mysterious gentleman who offers to teach the player special orders with which to control the battlefield. These orders can be the sole reason troopers surviving lethal damage just as well as it can mean the difference between victory and defeat for a whole mission. Similarly, finances have two separate places they can go. The first is into improving weapons and armor which is a priority for the obvious reasons. The other is into the pocket of a war reporter who’s attached herself to the militia. Buying stories from her unlocks bonus chapters and missions. In addition to providing expanded story content, these bonus chapters provide experience and money in a more interesting way than replaying old maps via the skirmish system.

The setting and combat system is interesting enough on its own, but Valkyria Chronicles excels at level design. Many of the maps are inspired by famous battles of World Wars I & II and others are inspired by the lore of Valkyria Chronicles. The vistas and visual stories present on these battlefields can be stunning for their content alone. This is despite a simple, pencil-drawn anime aesthetic. Moreover, this game also manages the difficult challenge of making bosses feel punishing and yet fair within the combat system. Valkyria Chronicles walks that delicate line with confidence and the result is often exhilarating. It’s not often that a player gets to enjoy the thrill of cracking just the right strategy to defeat an opponent without also feeling like they’ve been banging their head against a wall for endless hours.

Despite a few major issues, and a slew of minor irritants, Valkyria Chronicles is a solid and quite good game. It stands out as one of very few innovative series in an elderly and often stagnant game genre.

[backofthenetprofit-blog]

Premier League Title Tips 2017/18

Another summer break has flown by and the Premier League is back. It has been the most ridiculous summer transfer window yet - £50m for Kyle Walker anyone? £70m for Morata? £90m for Lukaku?! To be honest it’s testing my interest in the Premier League to the limit and there’s bound to be more to come before the window closes. Probably a few bargains such as £45m for Sigurdsson or £60m for Van Dijk. Speaking of the transfer window, it’s again a bit tricky to write a pre season preview as things stand when so much could happen in the next three weeks. 

Chelsea stormed to glory last season, with Spurs securing some place money with another excellent season. But who is going to lift the trophy next May? Here’s my verdict on the contenders … 

Manchester City

City were short priced favourites this time last year and I wrote them off for three main reasons; they had an ageing, unbalanced squad, Guardiola was taking on by far the hardest managerial task in his career and needed time to adapt to a new league, and their defence was their Achilles heel. All proved to be correct. As expected, they have spent a fortune to try and address those issues. Not content with one new full back, Guardiola has signed Kyle Walker, Benjamin Mendy and Danilo. Claudio Bravo was a liability last season so Ederson has also come in for a huge fee, not forgetting £45m Bernado Silva in midfield. Departures so far include Sagna, Zabaleta, Kolarov, Navas, Clichy and Caballero. They also received good money from Leicester for Iheanacho.

Kyle Walker - part of City’s defensive reinforcements and currently the joint most expensive defender in history. 

City are rightly favourites this time around at 15/8 and I believe they’ll win the league. Going forward they have Aguero, Jesus, De Bruyne, Sterling, the Silva’s and Sane. Yes, there are still doubts, such as how long it will take the arrivals to gel as a defensive unit and they still look a centre back short. Stones improved as last season went on, but surely City aren’t going to gamble on Kompany staying fit all season. Pep has confirmed that he wants to sign a centre half before the window closes and if that happens they’ll be very hard to beat.

Chelsea

Although not at the same level as Leicester, nobody saw Chelsea’s title triumph coming last season. I certainly didn’t pre-season and even more so after their early defeats to Arsenal and Liverpool. Those losses prompted the change to a back three and wing backs, and the rest as they say, is history.

However, they have their work cut out to mount a strong defence of their title. He may not have officially left yet, but Diego Costa is on his way out and his influence will be a massive hole to fill, perhaps even an impossible one. He has seemingly been replaced with £70m Alvaro Morata, who is a different type of player and from what I have seen of him for Real Madrid and Spain, has plenty to prove to live up to anywhere near that sort of fee.

Morata has big boots to fill and a lot to prove with a £70m price tag 

Last season, with no European football and some good luck with a lack of injuries, Conte could pick the same team every week. He won’t be able to do that this year, yet hasn’t been able to bring in enough reinforcements. Chelsea have only managed to replace the players they’ve allowed to leave instead of adding some much needed strength in depth. In addition to the puzzling decision to allow Matic to join United, the likes of Begovic, Ake and Zouma (on loan) have also left and have been replaced by Bakayoko, Rudiger and Cabellero. 

On Sky’s new ‘The Debate’ show earlier this week, the panel were discussing the cracks which are beginning to appear at Chelsea. Jamie Carragher went as far as stating that Conte is likely to walk away if he’s not allowed to sign the players he wants and do things his way and others have echoed that view. The Italian has made it pretty clear that he didn’t want Matic to go, so that’s already happening. With Abramovich preparing for another divorce and possibly tightening the transfer purse strings, watch this space. 

Manchester United

Through gritted teeth, it was a hugely successful first season for Mourinho. Two trophies and securing Champions League football was more than mission accomplished. After realising a top four spot was unlikely he prioritised the Europa League and it paid off.

Lukaku has got the big move he wanted, but can he deliver? 

United have again prioritised the spine of their team with the big signings of Lindelof, Matic and Lukaku, meaning their first choice eleven is very strong. However, with Ibrahimovic gone, a huge amount rests on Lukaku’s shoulders. United’s biggest problem last season was scoring goals, especially at home, and their total of 54 was way short of every team who finished above them and they need to find another 20-30. Lukaku not only needs to replace the goals scored by Ibrahimovic, he needs to perform in the big games, something he rarely did at Everton. He also needs help from others. The likes of Rashford, Mata, Pogba and Mkhitaryan need to reach double figures for United to stand a chance of winning the league.

They will definitely mount a stronger challenge than last season and I think they’ll finish in the top four, but the title is not quite within reach - yet.

Tottenham

Despite mounting the only serious challenge to Leicester and Chelsea for the last two seasons, Spurs are still available at double figures when they should probably be half those odds. Incredibly, they have gained nearly 20 points more than anyone else since the start of 2015/16, but as yet have no trophy to show for it.

So why are they still as big as 10/1? The main reason is undoubtedly playing their home games at Wembley. Not only has White Hart Lane been a fortress over the last few years, but this season’s odds have been heavily influenced by their performances there last season and understandably so. They were dreadful in both the Champions and Europa League, unable to adapt to the huge difference from their usual surroundings against the likes of Bayer Leverkusen and Gent. Arsenal took years to adapt after leaving Highbury for the Emirates and West Ham were terrible for most of last season at the London Stadium. If Spurs are to have any chance of mounting another serious challenge, they must find a way of playing at Wembley and fast. If, and it’s a big if, they can, then there is no reason why they can’t push City all the way. 

Spurs must put last season’s Wembley woes behind them to have any chance this time around. 

The other reason is their lack of transfer activity so far this summer. One of the most frustrating aspects of being a Spurs fan must be their continued insistence on leaving their business until the final hours of the window. Yes, their starting eleven is very difficult to improve on, but they should have identified two or three targets and made a statement by securing them early this summer. Apparently they were close to signing Morata, but like other strikers he wasn’t keen on playing second fiddle to Kane. No doubt they will make a couple of signings in the last week of the window, but whoever that is must be far better than Moussa Sissoko and Vincent Janssen. 

Liverpool

After a brilliant opening few months to last season, there was title talk in the air around Anfield (and parts of North West London). However, that talk disappeared as quickly as Sadio Mane’s flight to the African Nations. Many fans and pundits feared that Mane would be missed, but not as much as he was. His return helped Klopp and his team recover some momentum and achieve their main objective of finishing in the top four. A Champions League qualifier against Hoffenheim awaits later this month.

Liverpool finished 2016/17 with 76 points and 78 goals - averaging two per game on those stats is certainly an indication of a good season. However, in addition to losing Mane, and as it was feared, their defensive fragility cost them a real push at the title. Klopp chopped and changed the keepers, although Mignolet performed much better after returning to the team just before Christmas. A commanding centre back is still needed to partner the impressive Joel Matip and that could well be Van Dijk. The likely fee of £60m would be a world record for a defender, but with City also on the lookout can Liverpool afford to miss out? 

There is also still some uncertainty at left back. James Milner performed admirably last season, but is not the long term answer. The promising Andrew Robertson has been brought in from Hull, but it’s a huge step up and the early indication is that he will have to bide his time behind Milner.

Salah has made an immediate impression at Anfield and Liverpool fans will be hoping to see plenty of celebrating with Firmino this season

One of the big positives for Klopp is that he’s spoiled for choice going forward. He has done some excellent business in bringing in Salah from Roma, who has hit the ground running in pre-season. Dominic Solanke has also arrived after starring in England’s U20 World Cup victory and obviously feels he’ll be given more chances than at Stamford Bridge. The impression he has made in pre-season suggests he’ll be more than a Capital One cup player this season. Add them to Mane, Firmino, Coutinho (who Liverpool have insisted is not for sale this summer) and Sturridge, who Klopp says is in the best condition he’s seen, and they are capable of beating anyone. 

However, as mentioned this time last year, beating their top six rivals isn’t a problem. Dropped points against the likes of Sunderland, Hull, Swansea and Bournemouth made up a large chunk of the 16 point gap to Chelsea and that has to change. To conclude, this season is likely to be a year too soon for the title and the more realistic target is to finish higher than fourth. 

Arsenal

Sorry Gooners, but I’m going to be as blunt as this time last year. The uncertainty over Wenger’s contract situation dragged on throughout the second half of last season and after the performances against Palace, West Brom, Watford and Chelsea the end seemed inevitable. It looked even closer after they missed out on the top four for the first time in his reign. However, another FA Cup triumph secured Wenger another two years, although the more cynical part of me thinks that a lack of preparation in finding a successor was the main reason behind that decision. 

An incredible seventh FA Cup and two more years for Wenger, but has anything really changed?

They’ve managed to keep Sanchez, for what looks like being his last season at The Emirates, and have finally made the kind of marquee striker signing their fans have been demanding for years. However, yet again, they have not done enough to address their soft centre and more of the same beckons. It will be interesting to see how Wenger handles the Europa league and the Thursday/Sunday jinx. He’s admitted that he has too many players, but that could come in handy if he decides to play weakened teams in Europe and prioritise the league. Or if the league is going badly, he could take Mourinho’s approach and try to win the Europa league. Either way, I can’t see them being crowned champions come May and it will be touch and go for a top four spot. 

Tips: Straight Forecast (All Bet365)

City/Man Utd  10/1

City/Tottenham 20/1

City/Liverpool 20/1