#I’m STRUGGLING in these mid-game fights and I need all the buffs I can get

[cryptidowl]

It’s kinda funny seeing how people are collectively struggling to get the romance they want in BG3.

Not me tho, I’m as curious and morally bankrupt as the vampire.

[59lists]

LEAGUE OF LEGENDS FOR DUMBASSES

as you all may or may not know I play a lot of a little game called League Of Legends. the in game tutorial for it just straight up sucks ass. So here’s a very simple guide to how to play League.

Note: I’m avoiding addressing things the tutorial already showed, like how to move or use abilities. My goal is to explain important things that the game won’t teach you, so you’re not struggling and confused lol.

THE MAP

the most important thing to understand is the League map. here it is.

let’s explain how this works!

your team is either on the blue side or the red side. this doesn’t really matter much besides what buffs are closer to what lane (more on that later). your goal is to clear a path down one or all of the lanes to destroy all of the enemy team’s inhibitors, and eventually their Nexus.

each lane has two towers, and the home base has five (one per inhibitor, and two for the Nexus). towers do a fuckton of damage, so it’s best you don’t get hit by them. towers automatically target the nearest enemy to them, or the enemy that hit an allied champ while under the tower.

the jungle is a massive sector of the map, full of beneficial plants and neutral monsters. it’s a bit of a dangerous place compared to the safety of the lanes, but full of important objectives. more on those later.

THE LANES

there are 5 different positions: top, jungle, middle, bottom/adc, and support. I’ll continually color code these to give you more awareness on what you need to be doing at certain times.

59 tip: start by playing support. It’s a more forgiving role, you have an ally, and it helps to teach you the game without you having to worry about farming minions or getting kills. You’ll also learn how to ward and read a map.

TOP- top laners are usually strong and independent champions who can hold their own. During their laning phase, their goal is to farm minions and get strong so they can help later on in teamfights (or just plain on 1-on-1 fights).

Some beginner level top laners are:

• GAREN • DARIUS • NASUS •

JUNGLE- Junglers roam in all the jungle areas of the map, securing objectives and helping other lanes to get kills. Junglers are often sneaky and have powerful attacks or crowd control that help their allies secure a kill. They’re arguably one of the most crucial roles in the game.

Some beginner level Junglers are:

• WARWICK • VOLIBEAR • MASTER YI •

MID- Mid lane is where a lot of magic happens. It’s in between everything, bisecting the jungle, and is the most direct path to the enemy Nexus. A midlaner’s goal is to be multipurpose, farming to get their levels up, but also being available to help an ally out nearby. Champions here vary a lot.

Some beginner level midlaners are:

• LUX • AHRI • ANNIE •

ATTACK DAMAGE CARRY/BOT- The high damage members of the team. They begin fairly weak but as they gain items they become extremely dangerous. Their goal is to farm and help the Jungler secure the dragons (Drakes) while they build up power and try to get kills. You’ll be a powerhouse by the end of the game. Another candidate for most important role.

Some beginner level bot laners are:

• MISS FORTUNE • JINX • ASHE •

SUPPORT- their goal is to babysit the bot laner and make sure they don’t die, as well as try to feed their bot lane as many kills as possible. supports have crowd control or defense (or both) that make them very pesky in battle, stunning or silencing their opponents so they can’t attack. They gain gold passively based on their item, so avoid attacking minions! Those are for your bot laner! You should, however, be attacking the enemy laners whenever possible!

Some beginner level supports include:

• LUX • NAMI • SERAPHINE •

remember this: champs are often designed for a specific role and should not be played outside of those roles while you’re learning to play!! later on you can experiment a bit, but start out with very fundamental characters. The practice tool and blind pick are your best friends for trying out new champs!

ACTUAL GAMEPLAY

okay, you have your role, you have your goal. what now?

PREGAME AND CHAMPION SELECT- You’ll need to choose and lock your character. In blind pick, which is your only option until you’re level 10, you will have to claim a position in chat. Once you get to draft, you’ll be assigned a role. you will also need to prepare a rune page. while you begin, you can often just use the premade rune pages, but as you play on you’ll want to learn how to make your own, as they’re vital to success on your champ.

common premade rune page options for lanes:

TOP - yellow or red

JUNGLE - varies, often red

MID - red, yellow, or purple

BOT - yellow or red

SUPPORT- green or purple

red and yellow runes are often for doing damage or attacking with extra strength/speed. purple helps spellcasters/mages, usually helping to regulate mana usage and magic damage. green tree is for defense, and is multipurpose and can be used in many lanes depending on what you’re doing. blue tree isn’t often used as a primary tree, but is seen often in secondary as it helps you bend the rules a little bit with bonus mana or free items.

59 tip: If your computer can handle it I recommend downloading Porofessor. It connects to your league client automatically and gives you recommended runes and builds, tips on your opponents, and comparisons to pro players so you can work on your game.

You will also get to choose summoner spells, the two squares at the bottom of your screen. One of them should be flash (yellow), and the other one depends on your position.

Top often takes ghost (blue) or teleport (purple), mid and support often take ignite (red),and bot often takes heal (green).

Junglers always take smite. always always always. do not take smite if you aren’t a jungler.

every summoner spell (except smite) is only to be used in an emergency, as they’re high cooldown.

there are more options, but these are the most commonly used.

WHEN THE GAME BEGINS- purchase your starter item. there’s a screen that you can go to that recommends a build for you, and you can often purchase directly from there. Junglers must purchase one of the three jungle seed starters. This will spawn a jungle companion who will assist you and give you bonus stats during the game.

If you’re a jungler, you’re likely going to go to one of the two buffs. There’s red buff (bottom left for blue side, top right for red side) and blue buff (top left for blue side, bottom right for red side). Red buff slowly heals you and helps you do a little extra damage, while blue buff replenishes your mana and hastens your ability cooldowns.

If you are in bot/support or top lane, you may need to leash. Leashing is when you follow your jungler to their buff (depending on what buff they go to) and auto attacking the buff to do a bit of damage so your jungler doesn’t lose as much health taking down the buff. If your side doesn’t need a leash, you can go to lane.

Midlaners can just go to their lane to prepare for the game if they’re not requested elsewhere.

Your 4th item slot has wards. These grant vision of the foggy parts of the map. Place as many as you can in bushes. They’re vital. You can also trade wards in for the red sweeper trinket, which scans for enemy wards and reveals them. Destroy any enemy wards you see.

As the game progresses, you’ll need to get drakes (dragons), rift heralds, and the baron. There are two pits on the map, one at the top of the river of red side, one at the bottom of the river on blue side. The rift scuttler and baron spawn at the top pit (baron pit), while drakes spawn at the bottom pit (dragon pit).

The rift herald can be killed and re-spawned in a lane to do tons of damage to towers before it’s killed. The baron provides a powerful but temporary buff that makes your minions super strong, helping them destroy towers and inhibitors. The baron replaces the herald, and once the baron spawns there will be no more heralds.

There are 6 kinds of elemental drakes: infernal (damage), cloud (haste), ocean (healing), mountain (defense), hextech (lighting + speed), and chemtech (strength with low health). The first two dragons are random, then a specific soul is decided after that. The map will change to reflect the new soul, and send a global announcement. Once a team kills 4 drakes, they’ll unlock the current soul, which gives a powerful permanent buff. There’s also the Elder Dragon, who, when killed, provides a temporary lethality buff, making all of your attacks do substantially more damage. This guy only spawns after a team has claimed the soul, and will be the only drake to spawn after that point.

Make sure to keep an eye on your CS and KDA (defined below), which is in the top right corner of your screen. You want to have more CS than your opposing laner if possible. Your team is always displayed to you as blue, and enemies are always red. The top right shows your team’s total kills vs the other team’s, your KDA, your CS, and the time the game has gone on for. Also remember to keep an eye on your map!!! You want to know as much as possible about what’s going on, so check your map often.

GENERAL TIPS-

• first of all, league games go for a MINIMUM of 15 minutes each. Most games usually go an average of 20-40 minutes. Don’t join a game unless you can commit that time to your team!

• because league is a team game, quitting mid-game or going afk isn’t tolerated, and if you do it too much you’ll get temporarily banned.

• play with a friend! it’s more fun and will help you learn way faster. (psst dm me for my username and I’d love to teach you!)

• ping by pressing control and then left clicking and holding with your mouse. you’ll get a wheel of options that are fairly self explanatory.

• emote with “t”

• lock/unlock your camera with “y”

• press tab to see the full scoreboard, with items, CS, kills, and monster camp timers

• use built in dances with ctrl + 1-4 (1 is neutral, 2 is taunt, 3 is dance, and 4 is laugh)

• don’t touch jungle camps if you aren’t a jungler!!!!!!

• once you get to level 30, ranked is available. Absolutely do not play ranked until you are confident with your preferred champs (yes plural) and can handle being bullied in chat.

CULTURE TIPS AND DEFINITIONS:

• “flaming” is part of the experience and is inevitable. We all have bad games, so don’t let it get to you.

• “ff” means to ForFeit. doing /ff starts a team vote to surrender and end the game early. This can only be done after 15 minutes.

• “feeding” or “fed” means that a character has a lot of kills and is abnormally powerful. Feeding is the act of dying a lot and basically “spoon-feeding” the kills to the opponent. Feeding is bad, avoid.

• “inting” means “intentionally feeding”. Often when inting is used as a term tho, it’s just casual way to say “throwing the game”. People don’t often intentionally feed, but the term has become synonymous with playing like shit.

• you will become synonymous with your character eventually lol. People don’t refer to people by their usernames in-game, just their character, and there’s a lot of teasing about certain character “mains” being xyz. (Mains meaning you mainly play that character)

• AP = ability power

• AD = attack damage

• AF = adaptive force

• magpen = magic penetration

• KDA = kills/deaths/assists ratio

• CS = “creep score”, the number of minions you’ve killed

• ult/ulti/ulty = ultimate ability (r)

• drag = dragon

And that’s that! Good luck out there, and please reach out with any questions! <3 -59

[booksarelife-stuff]

Gold Rush

Jily (James Potter/Lily Evans), Minor wolfstar

Word Count: 4856

Lily didn’t expect to be having these feelings for James when 7th year starts. Featuring a jealous and pining Lily. 

Read on AO3

When James caught her eye from across the Gryffindor table, she didn’t expect a fluttering feeling in her chest to blossom. 

Summer had been kind to him in ways that almost made Lily angry. He seemed to grow into his features. His cheeks had lost all the baby fat, making sharp cheekbones appear, and he had gotten new glasses that seemed to frame his face a lot better and highlight his hazel eyes. The dimple in his left cheek still made appearances when he smirked and god, his jawline was heavenly. His voice had also deepened to a nice even baritone that when Lily first heard it, it had taken a second to realize that James had spoken. 

Alarm bells started going off as he smiled at her. She quickly smiled and turned away, hiding the blush that was starting to form on her cheeks. 

She could not be thinking about James Potter like that. 

~~~

Lily hadn’t been particularly thrilled with having to share a living space with just him. It could be worse, as she had been expecting Remus and he wasn’t the tidiest. She had been in the boys’ dorm a few times and it was never messy, but Remus told her that it was because James cleaned it. 

It hadn’t been bad, besides the fluttering in her stomach when he walked in. 

Lily was reading a book on professional level charms, her legs stretched out on the sofa by the fireplace. The head dorm was nice and Lily wondered if it changed based on who were the heads that year because it resembled the Gryffindor common room closely, with more cushy furniture than necessary. 

She was about to turn the page when the bookcase that hid the entrance swung open. 

She hated the butterflies that formed in her stomach.

James stepped in, soaking from the rain. He had had Quidditch practice. 

“It’s raining horribly,” he said as a greeting. 

Lily opened her mouth to say something but nothing came out. His hair was flat for once in his life and sticking to his forehead. He had a curl plastered on his forehead. His t-shirt was clinging to him. James wasn’t buff, but he was lean and his defined muscles were nothing to laugh at. 

“I swear I almost drowned in mid-air,” he said. “Is that even a thing?”

“No, I don’t believe so,” Lily said, turning away and looking at her book. He got out his wand and started charming himself dry. 

“Practice went okay otherwise,” he said, finally getting his shoes dry. 

“How’s the new seeker?” she asked, not looking at James as he flung himself into the sofa across from her. 

“Doing good. Just need to make a few improvements on her techniques,” he said. 

Lily spared a glance and wished she didn’t. His legs were spread out and his head threw back, exposing his neck. She hoped that he didn’t see her blush.  

“Who’s the first game against?” she asked. 

“Ravenclaw,” he said. “They got a strong keeper, but I don’t think they’ll be a problem. Hufflepuff has a great line up though and it has me a bit worried.”

“It’ll be fine. Gryffindor always pulls through,” she said. James laughed a little. 

“Yeah, but doesn’t mean I can’t try to eliminate a struggle,” he said. Lily looked up and saw he was looking at her. “I like it when I can crush them with little to no problems.”

Lily rolled her eyes. 

“I think a struggle is a better show of feat,” she replied. “Shows how you work under pressure.”

“Ah, but when there’s no struggle, it shows that we don’t have any weakness,” he said. 

“Spoken like a true Gryffindor,” Lily said.  James laughed and the butterflies in Lily’s stomach started up again. 

James asked about what she was reading and she found that she forgot about the anxiety that had started to surround her when he was near. He was easy to talk to, always had been when they weren’t intent on arguing for the sake of arguing. 

~~

When Lily joined in with James at the breakfast table of trying to throw sausages into Sirius’s mouth, that’s when she knew she had a problem. 

Lily was never one for rules, especially if they were unfair. She upheld the ones she agreed to, sometimes bent them when she saw fit, but the outward display of joining in the Marauders was crossing an invisible line. 

Lily didn’t see that line until Marlene pulled her aside after History of Magic and casted a silencing charm around them. 

“So when did you realize you’re head over heels for James?” she asked. Count on Marlene to always jump straight to the point.

Lily almost dropped her books. 

“What are you talking about?” she asked. 

Marlene rolled her blue eyes at Lily.

“Come off it,” she said. “It’s obvious. The Lily that despised him fifth year would never have spent the morning trying to break his sausage-throwing record or share your notes with him.”

Lily felt angry.

“Just because I’m being friendly doesn’t mean I like him!” she hissed. Marlene was unphased by Lily’s anger. 

“Oh Lily, don’t be upset. He’s fit as fuck and a decent guy,” she said. “I would be shocked if you didn’t!”

“You know how much I hate crushes,” Lily said, fighting the urge to stomp her foot like a child. “It’s pointless!”

Marlene laughed. 

“Sometimes, you can’t fight it,” she said. She waved her wand and the silencing charm around them faded. “Let’s get to lunch.”

Lily walked beside her in silence, fuming. 

There were a few reasons why Lily hated crushes. She hated how they painted the world in rose colored glasses, obscuring truths. She thought about the crush she had had on a 7th year Ravenclaw when she was in fifth year. 

Lily didn’t remember his name, just that she had tried many times to speak to him when they were at the library at the same time. Lily felt like she was flying every time she saw him, with every word he spoke to her.

Then came the bone-crush. He kissed her one day over her charms homework and the next day she found out he had a girlfriend, a fourth year Hufflepuff. 

Lily felt disgusting and immediately told her. 

When she looked back at that experience, she felt hot anger and embarrassment. The rose colored world she had seen had blinded her from the truth. 

She should have noticed how flippant he was when she asked him questions. How once he caught on to Lily’s crush, he would find a table in the back, out of the way from passersby. Lily had thought it was because he wanted alone time, not because he was hiding from his girlfriend or anyone who might rat on her. 

She had vowed that she was never going to make an utter fool of herself again. 

Lily pushed down her anger and looked forward to have a nice peaceful lunch with her friends that she missed so dearly. Alice, Dorcas, and Mary were waiting for them at the end of the table, but as Lily’s eyes looked on, she found a sight that made her almost vomit. 

There was James, sitting across from Amelia Bones, a Hufflepuff in their year. 

He was flashing her his signature smile and laughing at something she said, running a hand through his messy hair. 

She peeled her eyes away and took her seat next to Alice, forcing herself not to stare at them. 

She picked at her food and tried hard to pay attention to her friends. 

“Hogsmeade is next week, right?” Lily asked, suddenly. 

“Sure is,” Mary said, sipping some of her juice. 

“I want to get plastered at the Three Broomsticks,” Lily said. The girls laughed. 

“It’s date,” Marlene announced. “I’ve been waiting to see you drunk since you took that shot of firewhiskey.”

Lily rolled her eyes, thinking of the time Marlene snuck a firewhiskey up to their dorm last year and Lily almost threw up after one shot. 

The girls started planning the trip. 

Despite her resolve, she shot a glance at Amelia and James, who were just getting up from the table. James met her eyes and winked at her, to which Lily rolled her eyes because it let her do something other than blush. 

~~~

Lily would be an idiot if she thought that she was the only one to notice James. That didn’t mean she had to like it though. 

James had been asked out three times in one breakfast and though she had no claim to him, it was grating on her nerves. 

“So Prongs,” Sirius started as the brave third year who just asked James this morning left. “You’re turning into quite a lady killer.”

James snorted. 

“I’m starting to think someone is cursing them,” he said. “It’s mental.”

“Face it, Prongs,” Sirius said. “You’re a hot ticket item.”

“They’re dying to have your babies,” Remus said, not looking up from his copy of the Daily Prophet. 

“They’re going to kidnap you and force you to go on a date with them,” Peter added. 

“Probably going to slip you some love potion,” Lily said. James whipped his head and looked at her. 

“I expect them to gang up on me, but you Evans? Betrayal,” he said. 

Lily smiled and bit back the green monster that was going to reel it’s head if she thought about it too hard. 

“I know what’s going on,” she said. 

“Please, be our insight into the female mind,” Sirius said, brushing a strand of dark hair behind his ear. 

Lily rolled her eyes. 

“Teenagers are horny,” she said. “James is headboy, plays Quidditch. Every fifteen year old’s dream.”

Lily kept her eyes on her tea as she took a sip. She could feel his eyes on her. What she really wanted to say is that she got it. She got why these girls were dying for James. Lily herself felt like she would die in order to have James touch or snog. 

She was trying to get that to stop. 

“And he’s fit,” Remus said. Sirius glared at his boyfriend. “Objectively speaking. Not my type, sorry James.”

“I don’t take it personally,” James grumbled, taking it personally. 

“Just be happy you can get a date,” Peter said. “I can’t get one for the life of me!”

“How about this Pete,” James said, resting his elbows on the table. “Tell me who you fancy and I’ll ask their bestfriend out and see if I can’t get a double date?”

Here was the bone-crush. Here is where the misery came and grabbed Lily. 

“You’d do that for me?” Peter asked, his eyes wide. 

“Once,” he said. “I’m going to help you woo the pants off of this girl and hope you get a second date on your own.”

If Peter said who he fancied, it was lost on Lily. She stared at the cup of tea in front of her, watching the surface of the liquid vibrate. 

She could imagine going on a date with him, so vividly it hurts. She could practically picture walking with him down the slope, hand in hand. Sitting across from him at the Three Broomsticks and stealing his chips. And that image hurt as she watched them plan their double date.

James nudged Lily, jarring herself out her thoughts. 

“Time for Transfig,” he said. “Ready?”

Lily nodded and stood up. As she grabbed her bag, she saw Remus watching her. He gave her a small smile and she tried to return it. 

James, Sirius, and Peter were already walking ahead of them when Remus came beside her. 

“So, I take it you’re against the double date?” he asked as they started up the stairs. 

“No, why would I?” she asked quickly. 

Remus sighed deeply and just shook his head. They caught up to the other boys. 

~~~

Once Lily heard James was taking Amelia Bones to Hogsmeade, she was even more determined to get wasted at the Three Broomsticks. She was a rational person. She knew that getting wasted to forget a stupid crush was immature, but she could be immature for a night. 

She put more effort into her appearance than normally for a girls night out. Normally she would be fine with jeans and a jumper, but Mary had suggested they act like they were going to the hottest nightclub in the U.K. 

Lily didn’t have a lot of clothes appropriate for that, but Mary was her size and had tons of sparkling dresses that she was willing to let Lily borrow. 

Mary had picked a gold sequined dress that was a little shorter than Lily was used to, but she knew she could make it work. It was strapless and Lily had a slightly bigger breast than Mary, so Lily placed a sticking charm on the sweetheart neckline. 

Lily also did some beauty charms. One to make her hair have more beachy waves than her own slightly sad waves. The make-up charms turned out better than she thought as her emerald eyes looked bigger with the eyeliner charm. 

She checked the time, gave herself one final look over, and then grabbed her coat, and left her room, stepping out in the common room. She heard something fall as she closed the door. 

James was standing at his door, staring at Lily like he was deer caught in the headlights. 

He was ready for his date, a nice dark green shirt and pants that had been pressed. He looked good and Lily hated it. 

“Evans, what are you wearing?” he asked. Lily looked down at her dress. 

“A dress?”

“You look…” he started, eyeing her up and down. “Stunning.”

Lily felt her cheeks heat up. 

“Thanks. It’s for the girl’s night,” she said. The air felt awkward as the silence fell. 

James looked away, clearing his throat. 

“Where are you going? For the girl’s night,” he asked, picking up his wand that he had dropped. 

“Three Broomsticks,” Lily replied. “Where’s your date?”

“Madam Padifoots,” he replied. 

“Aw, that’s romantic,” Lily said, forcing a smile. 

“Pete picked it,” he said. “I would rather be drowning in some Butterbeer.”

Silence fell again. Lily wanted to say something, but she found it hard. James hadn’t looked at her since he picked up his wand. 

“Well, have a good time,” Lily said, making her way to the bookcase. 

“Same,” James said. 

The walk down was freezing, but once Lily sat in a booth, squished between Mary and Dorcas, she realized it was worth it. 

They started out with some food, but soon enough the drinks kept coming. Lily felt wobbly as her and Mary sang a Muggle song on the top of their lungs. She was spinning when Alice admitted her and Frank had had sex in his childhood bedroom over the summer. 

She was absolutely gone with Remus and Sirius stood at the end of the booth. 

“You lot are cut off for the rest of the night,” Remus said. Lily started giggling at his stern expression. 

“Oi! Remy,” Mary said, her words slurred. “How big is Black? We have a bet.”

“I’ll have you know I’m packing,” Sirius said, not the least bit phased. 

Lily snorted.

“He’s average,” Remus replied. All the girls started laughing. Lily felt tears in her eyes as Sirius elbowed Remus. 

“He’s joking,” Sirius said. Remus shook his head, unknown to Sirius, and the laughter started again. 

“We’re escorting back to the castle,” Remus said. 

The loud “aw” that escaped their lips was enough to make the rest of the bar turn and look at them. 

Marlene almost fell when she tried to walk and Remus ran out for a second. He came back with James. 

Normal, sober Lily would be ashamed of herself in the morning. 

“James!” she yelled. James smiled and widened his eyes. “I’m drunk!”

James ran a hand through his hair and smiled, his dimple making an appearance. 

“I can see that, Lils,” he said. 

He helped her up off the bench and caught her as she stumbled. His hand was warm on her arm and goose flesh appeared. 

“Let’s try to get you back in one piece, alright?” he said. 

“Carry me,” she said, giggling. James gave her a look she was too drunk to read into. 

“I will if I have too,” he said. 

He helped her put her coat on and then placed his arm around her in order to steady her walk. 

The rest of the group was in front of them. Mary and Dorcas, stumbling, but they were fine compared to Alice, Marlene, and Lily. Alice was Sirius’s back while Marlene was basically using Remus as a cane. 

“Where’s Peter?” Lily asked. 

“He had a pretty nice date,” James replied. “I think they’re still out.”

At the mention of the date, Lily pouted. 

“So your date was nice?” she asked. She hated that tears were forming in her eyes. 

James took a moment to answer. 

“I mean, Amelia and I just talked about our Divination project. I told her it was for Pete,” he said. “We aren’t interested in each other.”

Lily’s heart soared and her eyes dried. 

“Why’d you get all dressed up if it wasn’t a real date?” she slurred. 

“Because it was real for Pete and Ingrid,” he replied. 

“It’s a shame,” Lily said, frowning. 

“What’s a shame?”

“That Amelia could pass you up looking like that!” Lily said, stumbling into him a bit. “I mean your arse looks fantastic! Almost as good as your Quidditch pants.”

James paused for a second and Lily almost tripped but James caught her and steadied her. 

“You’re more drunk than I thought,” James said. Drunk Lily didn’t notice the tightness in her voice.

“Yes,” she said. “And it’s fantastic!”

“You won’t be saying that tomorrow,” he mumbled. 

The boys brought them all back to the head dorm, which made the girls squeal and get excited about a sleepover. James deposited Lily on the couch and quickly made his way over to the potion station in the corner of the room.

“I love the dorm!” Alice chirped, looking around. 

“These couches are ten times better than the ones in the tower,” Marlene said, curling up on the couch by Dorcas. 

“I agree,” Mary said. 

Lily’s eyes wandered to James, who was at the potion station. She was staring at him, but was jared when Sirius sat next to her. 

“How many drunk head girls do you think entered this dorm?” he said, smirking at her. 

Lily threw a pillow at him. 

“Probably all of them,” she replied. “You don’t make head girl without a dash of mischief.”

Sirius raised his eyebrows at her. 

“Lily Evans and mischief? I find that unlikely,” he said. Lily felt offended. 

“Who hexed Avery to make his voice high pitched, huh?” she said, crossing her arms. 

Sirius widened his steel blue eyes. 

“That was you?” he said. 

“Of course it was bloody me! He called me a mudblood and I just snapped!” she fired back. 

“That’s not mischief then Lils, that’s justice,” he said. Lily laughed, loudly. 

“And I’d do it again,” she said. “I also stole Snape’s potion essay once.”

“Evans!” Sirius said, clutching his chest like he was scandalized. 

“He was being a prat! He kept going on and on about he was the best in potions! So I took his essay before it was due,” she said, rather proudly. “He got detention and I found a major error in his essay. I circled it and stuffed it back into his bag.”

Laughter erupted around her, making her feel warm and proud. Alice was clutching her side.

“What else have you done, Evans?” Sirius enquired, leaning back on the cushions and crossing his legs. 

Lily hummed and thought for a second. 

“I changed James’ quidditch robes to neon pink in fifth year,” she said. 

“That was you?!” James exclaimed from across the room. “I didn’t talk to Sirius for a week!”

Sirius doubled over with laughter. 

“I remember that!” Mary said, clapping her hands. “You did it because James threw a piece of parchment at you and asked you out in the middle of the hallway!”

Lily remembered it and laughed. 

“He was such an arse!” she said. 

“Was, did you say Evans?” Sirius inquired. 

“Yes, was,” she confirmed. Sirius shot her a look. 

The conversation drifted away from Lily’s mischief to how Mary engorged Marlene’s tongue when she thought she told the school one of her secrets. Lily’s eyes drifted back to James, who was bent over a steaming cauldron. Lily, ever the potions master, decided she must know what he was making. 

She wobbled across the room and stood next to James, so close their arms bumped. 

“Whatchya making?” she asked. 

“A sober-up potion for you lot,” he said. “Then I’ll make a hangover-be-gone tomorrow for you guys.”

“I don’t want to sober up,” Lily pouted. She grabbed James’s arm and leaned her head against it. James didn’t say to protest it. 

“You’ll be thanking me in the morning,” he said with a smirk. Lily rolled her eyes. 

He was finely chopping the roots and Lily watched him, her could feel the muscles on his arms move, but she didn’t want to move and James wasn’t pushing her away. 

“Shouldn’t you dice them?” she asked. James scoffed. 

“You’re drunk and you’re still critiquing my potions,” he said. 

“I wouldn’t have to critique if you did it the right way.” James erupted in laughter. 

“Trust me, Evans. I’ve made this a few times,” he said. Lily didn’t reply, she just watched the cauldron bubble from her spot on James’s arm. 

“I’m sorry about asking you out that way in fifth,” he mumbled. 

“It’s okay,” she said. “You were just an obnoxious little boy.”

“You don’t think I'm still an obnoxious little boy?”

“Nope,” she said. “You would have never made headboy if that was the case.”

“True,” he said. He turned the potion off and stirred it until it was a clear color. Lily let go of his arm once he was ready to pour it for them. 

Lily drank hers and watched as James started handing out the rest to her friends. 

As the minutes ticked by, she realized she was going to regret a lot in the morning. 

~~~

Lily remembered everything of her drunken night clearly, which is why she was determined to put as much space as possible between her and James. 

She told him he had a nice arse! That was something she could never come back from. Ever. 

He didn’t mention it and she was grateful for it. He did get her back from making his Quidditch uniform pink and during breakfast when her black robes turned a stunning shade of pink. When she made eye contact with James down the table, twirling his wand in his fingers, she just laughed. She left them that color for the rest of the day. 

The only thing is that James started walking closer to her in the corridors when they patrolled together. His arm brushing against hers constantly. She often wondered what would happen if she just grabbed this hand. Which is why she started making the distance bigger.

Lily was spending her time in their shared common room when he was gone or at practice. She knew the time that James would be in and made sure to either be at the library, her bedroom, or in the Gryffindor Tower with the girls. 

She was packing her things up, about to move to her bedroom before James came back from practice. She wasn’t expecting the bookcase to swing open ten minutes early and reveal a sweaty James Potter. 

She fought the urge to get up and run without saying anything, but she held firm and tried to put her books away without looking like she was trying to do so as fast as she could. 

“Hey Evans,” James said, smiling a little at her. 

“Hey Potter,” Lily said as evenly as she could, darting her eyes back to her textbook. 

“I feel like I haven’t seen you in a hot minute,” James said. 

Lily glanced up to see him standing by the couch. 

“We ate breakfast together,” she pointed out. 

“You sat like, three people away from me,” he said. 

Lily took a deep breath. She was getting irate and couldn’t quite place why. 

“I talked to you in Transfiguration,” she pointed out. 

She heard James sigh. 

“I just asked to borrow a quill,” he said. 

Something in his tone made Lily look at him. He was standing at the side of the couch looking utterly frustrated, running a hand through his damp hair.  

“I don’t know what you’re getting at,” Lily said, looking back at her book before their eyes could meet. 

There was a heavy silence. 

“I don’t get you,” he said after a moment. 

“‘Get me’?” Lily asked, snapping her book shut. Lily looked up and saw that James looked frustrated. 

“One minute, I feel like we’re finally getting on and then next you act like I’m a second year who just wants to pull your hair,” James said. 

“We are getting on,” Lily said, crossing her arms. 

“Are we?” he questioned. 

Lily stood up, anger flaring in her stomach. 

“Well, we were,” she said, crossing her arms. 

James took a deep breath and turned away from Lily. 

“Can you just tell me what is going on?” he snapped. “I know I’ve done some pretty shitty things in the past. I’ve been trying to be better! Snape cursed me in the hallway and I didn’t curse him back because I knew you’d be upset!”

James opened his mouth like he was going to say more, but he quickly shut it. He just stared at her from across the room, his chest heaving slightly. Lily had seen an angry James quite a few times, but there was something in his eyes that showed Lily he was more hurt than anything. 

“It’s not your fault,” Lily said, holding his gaze. 

“What isn’t?” he asked. 

“Me being weird,” she said, throwing her hands up.

“Explain it to me. Because one second you’re telling me I have a nice arse and the next, you can’t even look at me,” he said. 

As Lily stood across from James, she realized that there was no way out of this mess besides the truth. Lily didn’t know if she was ready to throw her cards down, but God, she couldn’t take it anymore. 

“Because I can’t stop thinking about you!” she yelled. “Every bloody day, I see girls tripping over themselves to get a scrap of your attention and I feel like I’m a fool!”

James’s jaw dropped as Lily fell silent. She felt heat rise in her cheeks and wishes she could stuff the words back into her mouth. 

“What changed?” James asked. It was so low, Lily almost didn’t hear it. His eyes kept her captivated. 

“A lot of things,” she replied. “Like the fact that you weren’t an utter tosser last year and this year.”

“You told me I was one quite a few times if I remember correctly,” James said, a smirk on his face. 

Lily smiled a little, despite the feeling that she messed something up between them. 

“It was different,” she said. “You just… know how to make people laugh, even when teasing them.”

James smiled, wide and bright and Lily finally looked away, choosing to stare out the window and look at the bright blue sky and fluffy clouds that were outside. 

“I don’t want to get hurt James,” she said. 

Lily felt him walk over. 

“Why do you think I’d ever hurt you, Evans?” he whispered from beside her. 

“Because you’ll realize there are better options out there,” she said. James snorted. 

“I have nothing against the other girls in Hogwarts, but I doubt there is anyone that could ever compare to you, Lily,” he said. “Especially to me.”

James placed a hand on her shoulder and Lily turned to look at him. He was still sweaty from Quidditch, his glasses were crooked, but Merlin, she had never seen a better sight. 

“Fancy a dinner in Hogsmeade?” he asked. She smiled. 

“Hogsmeade is in two weeks,” she pointed out. 

“I’m not waiting two weeks,” he said. “We don’t have patrols tonight. I’ll be ready in twenty, if you want to go with me that is.”

Lily hesitated for a second, not because of James, but because sneaking out. James seemed to get this. 

“You said yourself, ‘what’s a head girl without a little mischief?’” he pointed out. Lily smiled and nodded. 

Lily didn’t think James’s smile could get wider but it did.

“Give me twenty minutes!” he said, moving to turn around and rush to his dorm. 

“Wait a second,” she said, causing James to pause. 

Lily threw all caution to the wind . Just cupped James’s face and brought it down to hers, capturing it in a kiss that made Lily wish she had done this sooner.

[gascon-en-exil]

Ranking Zelda Water Dungeons

@thehylianbatman asked for this, and I’ve been sitting on this idea for something like two years now so I figured it’s a good a time as any to pull it out. Water dungeons in The Legend of Zelda have collectively garnered a bad reputation, with some of them among gaming’s most standout representatives of all the annoyances that come with Down the Drain levels. Because I like to be contrary watery environmental aesthetics are typically among my favorites however I have a particular fondness for many of these dungeons, and so I’m giving them a bit of time in the limelight (while also acknowledging that some of them nonetheless really are terrible, even if they’re pretty). Also note that I have not replayed any of these games to make this list, so I’ll be going entirely from memory. While that’s hardly the most accurate way to do something like this, it’ll be helpful in gauging which dungeons leave the most lasting impressions.

First off, a list of dungeons I will be excluding from this ranking because they don’t meet my personal requirements for what constitutes a water dungeon.

Any mini-dungeon, ex. Pirate’s Fortress from Majora’s Mask or the water-based shrines in Breath of the Wild

Dungeons where the name and/or location is suggestive of a watery theme but the experience itself fails to deliver, ex. the Palace on the Sea from The Adventure of Link, Catfish’s Maw from Link’s Awakening, the Ocean Temple from Spirit Tracks

Dancing Dragon Dungeon from Oracle of Seasons, because a waterfall entrance and some short swimming segments do not a water dungeon make.

The Tower of the Gods from Wind Waker, because only the first floor is even partially water-based and it’s just the tide going in and out which is both uninteresting and rather frustrating to play around. I thought about including it, but it would be very low if I had.

Skyview Temple from Skyward Sword, as its swimming segments are also brief and come more in the odd return visit for a midgame fetch quest than for the initial run through.

Now for the ones that made the cut:

#13. Water Temple (Triforce Heroes)

This one just barely made the list, and my decision to include it in the end is mostly on account of the novelty factor. Of the three stage select-style Zelda games, Triforce Heroes is the only one with any notable water levels and even dedicates a full world to the theme. It’s too bad that I can only really count the last level in that world as a dungeon, because this Water Temple is just a knockoff of the Swamp Palace from A Link Between Worlds adjusted for three Links. There are tektites and octoroks and you play around with water levels and this game’s iteration of the hookshot before fighting a version of the OG water dungeon boss Arrghus. Much of TH feels like a quirky theme park version of a Zelda game, and unfortunately this particular example does little to elevate the concept and as a result feels uninspired. The rest of the Riverside world fares better, especially in its use of the new water rod item, but its last level is a dungeon only because it has to be.

#12. Jabu-Jabu’s Belly (Oracle of Ages)

If I had to choose one dungeon as an example of what people tend to hate about this group on the whole, it would be this one. Less infamous though it may be coming from a handheld title rather than one of the 3D games, this version of a dungeon inside a giant fish suffers precisely because it is not 3D, or more specifically not Ocarina of Time. It combines aspects of both of OoT’s water dungeons and fails at each of them because of the limitations of the game’s format; the unpleasant environs of being inside a digestive tract don’t come across well on the Game Boy Color, and raising and lowering the water level is harder to visualize in only two dimensions. Combine this with bland visuals that make it easy to get lost, a dungeon item that’s only a length upgrade of an item you already have (also like OoT’s Water Temple), a droning musical track, and the less fluid swimming controls that come with OoA’s mermaid suit “upgrade,” and there’s not much saving this one. The boss is sort of fun I suppose, but it’s a bioelectric aquatic monster...hmm, now where have I seen that before.... 

#11. Swamp Palace (A Link Between Worlds)

I did want this one higher, but it’s so short. That’s true of all but two of the Lorule dungeons really, with them being streamlined and in many cases more thematically pronounced rehashes of the Dark World dungeons from A Link to the Past, but because the original Swamp Palace is already solid (see below) this one just doesn’t have much to do. It adds some raft puzzles and marginally more complex changes to the water level, but that’s about it. The boss is also almost identical, which isn’t saying much because “monster with a single eye that is also its weak point” describes most of the bosses on this list, but here it’s just Arrghus again. I will say that I was grateful for how short this dungeon is in my single run of this game’s Hero Mode, because it holds the valuable defense-boosting Blue Mail. Imagine the developer trolling that would have been leaving it where it had been in LttP: in this game’s equivalent of the Ice Palace.

#10.  Lakebed Temple (Twilight Princess)

As the first 3D entry on this list I suspect this may be a bit surprising, but I have to say I’ve never liked Lakebed much. A big part of that is how there’s relatively little water inside the dungeon despite it being on, you know, a lake bed. It’s a shame too, because Twilight Princess has the second-best underwater controls of the 3D games and even underwater bombs. Have fun using them in maybe three rooms. It’s also an uninspired experience beyond that, with drab visuals - despite its reputation for being gritty and brown TP can do good visuals, just not here - a music track that’s more atmospheric cave music than identifiable melody, a structure that resembles what would come from welding the two tower climbs of Ocarina of Time’s Fire Temple to the central structure of its Water Temple, and a tedious backtracking segment in the middle if you want to get all the chests (and all the stamps in the HD remake) which of course I do because 100% completion. Redirecting multiple currents and using them to flood the central room is admittedly neat, but I can’t give Lakebed too much credit for what the clawshot does to distinguish itself from the standard hookshot when much of the difference here comes down to hanging from slowly rotating platforms. Whee. Morpheel is also a joke, initially a riff on OoT’s Morpha that looks genuinely impressive when its leviathan main body emerges for the second phase...and then dies in a minute while posing next to no threat to the player as it swims around aimlessly. The frog mini-boss leaves more of an impression for striking an odd balance between goofy and gross...but why is a giant frog at the (partially dry) bottom of a lake? Gah.

#9. Angler’s Tunnel (Link’s Awakening)

Easily nabs the award for best glow-up in a remake, and indeed this ranking owes itself mostly to the Switch version. The original deserves some praise for being the second water dungeon in the series while not copying too much from the first, and it’s the only one on this list where Link can’t swim at all until he acquires the dungeon item meaning for the first half he’s got to avoid water like it’s lava. Still, the remake massively ups the aquatic ambiance between the cool blue lighting and environmental pieces and the remixed music (with bits of the original Game Boy chip tune left in, as with most of the soundtrack). It also buffs the boss so it dies in thirty seconds instead of five - go marginally threatening Angler Fish! Less than half of the dungeons in Link’s Awakening have traditional themes, instead preferring such odd motifs as bottles and keys and amateur demolition, but Angler’s Tunnel is one of the few that does so I’m happy to see that the development team for the Switch version really leaned into that distinction.

#8. Divine Beast Vah Ruta (Breath of the Wild)

I struggled considerably with ranking this one, and even now I’m still not satisfied. On the one hand this ought to be easy; everyone knows that the Divine Beasts are a low point of Breath of the Wild, small and monotonous with few enemies and similar boss fights and puzzles that are only slightly beefed-up versions of those found in shrines. On the other though BotW more than any previous game blurs the definition of a dungeon with its multitudinous shrines, lengthy (or not) quests leading up to the entrance of each Divine Beast, and Hyrule Castle providing an open-world dungeon experience like no other. In this regard Ruta is easily the best of the Beasts, as the sequence of events leading up to it involve a mostly linear narrative and geographical progression (helped by Ruta drenching the area in constant rain and preventing Link from climbing over everything like usual) that organically follows from the story progression near the start of the game and concludes with a thrilling mini-game in which Link rides Sidon smashing ice blocks and shooting targets mid-air after being launched from the top of a waterfall - and also forever blessing the internet with more gay shark cocks than it could have ever needed or wanted. Ruta’s interior has a few points in its favor as well; the obligatory dungeon movement mechanism only shifts the aim of the water spraying from the elephant’s trunk which is less disorienting than the equivalent mechanics in the other Beasts, and Link has a rune (Cryonis) naturally attuned to water/ice puzzles which somewhat makes up for BotW’s bizarre lack of underwater swimming. So yeah, lots of pros and cons and Link the DP’ing fish fucker bottom, so I’ll have to settle for sticking this one just below the middle.

#7.  Jabu-Jabu’s Belly (Ocarina of Time)

It seems strange how everyone accepted it at the time, but Ocarina of Time’s initial trio of dungeons keep the training wheels firmly on. All of them are fairly short and straightforward, none of them have locked doors, and the first two are as aesthetically generic for their respective themes as it gets. Then comes Jabu-Jabu, which is still short and key-less..except you’re inside a giant fish so here that makes sense and we’re all better off not thinking about how the barred “doors” work. As I alluded to in the entry for the inferior Oracle knockoff, this dungeon sells it on the nastiness: Link’s footsteps make squelching sounds, the walls appear to pulse (and have live cows in them serving as switches in the Master Quest revamp...again, don’t ask), glowing white growths serve as slingshot targets, there are mysterious tentacles everywhere and not the sexy kind, and the boss is a swollen mass of viscera that explodes in a shower of green goo when it dies. Extremely gross all around, but then you are inside a giant fish. Funny too that Jabu-Jabu throws a hitch in the usual dungeon pattern in the form of an escort quest of all things, but thankfully Link has to carry Ruto around instead of waiting for her to follow with dodgy AI. I also have to give credit for this dungeon making extensive use of the boomerang you find in its depths, easily one of the most fun items in OoT that goes criminally underutilized since only young Link can use it and it comes right at the end of his portion of the quest.

#6. Mermaid’s Cave (Oracle of Ages)

Oracle of Ages makes up for its counterpart’s lack of water dungeons with two of its own, and Mermaid’s Cave is by far the better of the two. It stands out as the only dungeon in either Oracle title to make use of its game’s defining gimmick, which in this case means that there are past and present versions that have to be explored separately. Ocarina of Time had earlier featured a dungeon with a similar concept in its Spirit Temple, but as with time travel in OoA more generally Mermaid’s Cave takes it a step farther with major structural and environmental differences between the two versions. The water source at the base of Rolling Ridge dries up over the course of four centuries, leaving the dungeon partially flooded in the past but mostly dry and ruined in the present, and doing some things in the past Mermaid’s Cave will affect the dungeon in the present as well. Unfortunately the novelty is somewhat undone by the dungeon item, the clunky mermaid suit that I’ve previously complained about. It leads to the game’s first fully underwater segments and plays a major role in the boss fight which alternatively engages you above and below the surface, but the letdown that is this dungeon’s namesake keeps me from placing this one any higher. Well, that and the fact that you have to do two Goron trading sequences to get inside, because of course you need a key for each era. OoA loves little annoyances like that.

#5. Swamp Palace (A Link to the Past)

While you’d be hard-pressed to call it the most iconic anymore, this is without a doubt the ur-water dungeon of the series - and I don’t only mean that it’s the first one. It’s got raising and lowering the water level, swimming against currents, redirecting channels, electric enemies, the hookshot as a dungeon item, randomly unintuitive nonsense (flooding a canal in the Light World does the same in the equivalent Dark World building because...?), and a squishy boss with a giant eye. As I did when I was ranking the games I had to bump this dungeon up a few spots specifically for how important it was in inspiring future dungeons, but nevertheless I believe the Swamp Palace holds up on its own even today. It’s notable that, in the game that arguably has more dungeons than any other in the series depending on how you count them, this is one of only a handful to even have a clearly identifiable theme - and that so much of what’s on display here has been iterated upon in so many future titles. That’s some classic Zelda stuff right there...and funnily enough this isn’t among the most annoying of the Dark World dungeons. Safe to say that a certain later title was the one to acquire a bad reputation for this dungeon type...ahem.

#4. Water Temple (Ocarina of Time)

Here it is now, possibly the most frequently maligned dungeon in the entire series. For the N64 version I absolutely understand it: the layout is unituitive and forces a lot of backtracking if you don’t know exactly where you’re going (especially with that block in the central tower...you know the one), most of the rooms look similar so it’s harder to memorize the locations of each, needing to open a slow-loading menu to take the iron boots on and off repeatedly is exceptionally tedious, movement and combat options are awkward and restricted underwater making enemies more annoying than they should be, Dark Link can be a nightmare of a mini-boss if you don’t know the flaws in his AI, the dungeon item is merely an extended hookshot, Morpha can kill you very quickly if you don’t know the even bigger flaw in its arena design...it’s one big mess, and little wonder it’s about the only dungeon to actually be easier in the Master Quest. All that said however the 3DS remake fixed around half of these issues including the iron boots and some of the navigation woes, and it’s a much smoother experience overall in that version. This Water Temple still doesn’t crack the top three for me though, in large part because I view it largely as bringing the ideas of the original Swamp Palace into three dimensions rather than creating something truly unique and memorable - or memorable for the right reasons anyway. There’s also the curious aesthetic choices in this dungeon that I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone discuss before. Between the music, the pagoda in the middle, the serpentine dragon statues everywhere, and Dark Link’s room there’s a distinctive East Asian flavor to the temple that I don’t quite know what to make of. It’s nowhere near as pronounced in any of OoT’s other dungeons or major set pieces, so it all feels quite random.

#3. Temple of Droplets (The Minish Cap)

Heavy bias factor here, because ice is another favorite gaming aesthetic of mine and this is somehow the only Zelda dungeon to combine it with water (Phantom Hourglass’s Ice Temple doesn’t count for the same reason that neither DS game appears on this list: Link can’t swim in those games, so how could there be water dungeons?). That aside however the Temple of Droplets is just delightfully creative, as is typical for this game’s dungeons. It starts with predictable ice block puzzles that lead to a fake-out with the boss key, but then it opens up to a diverse blend of lily pad “boating,” diving, melting ice with sunlight, burning ice and webs and lighting dark rooms with the lantern, and still more ice block puzzles. It’s so many different elements mashed together and enhanced even further by The Minish Cap’s unique shrinking gimmick, because this is one of the two dungeons to be fully Minish-sized. The mini-boss is an electrified Chuchu, and the boss an ordinary Octorok with a weird floral growth and separate water and ice phases that make defeating it much more of an ordeal than such a basic enemy normally has any right to be. I believe I mentioned in my game ranking that TMC is one of the more underrated titles, a creative sleeper hit that still manages to pack in tons of references to earlier, better-known 3D games. That’s certainly true of this dungeon, which throws in a quick little puzzle reference to earlier 2D games’ habit of designing their dungeon maps in particular shapes. The similarly-shaped Bottle Grotto wishes it was this good.

#2. Great Bay Temple (Majora’s Mask)

Notwithstanding that it’s in my favorite game in the series, Great Bay Temple took a while to grow on me. At first I was skeptical that an anachronistic waterworks was the right fit for a dungeon in the grim and apocalyptic Majora’s Mask - I’m always leery about fantasy media injecting random bits of other genres such as this dip into (sort of) steampunk. It didn’t take long however for me to fall in love with the place, with its rapidly-paced dynamism and brightly-colored plumbing a stark contrast to the slow and plodding Water Temple of the previous game. It perfectly accentuates Zora Link’s speedy swimming, and while the ice arrows slow the second half down a touch I’m just grateful that at least they have a point in this game unlike in Ocarina of Time. The enemies are hit or miss, although I say that less about Gyorg and more about Wart, the mini-boss that thoroughly demonstrates why Arrghus is an exercise in tedium in 3D (which is even less forgivable in a game where you’re always on the clock). Still, that doesn’t detract from how fun it can be exploring while redirecting water currents and getting all of the colored pipes flowing, and this isn’t even too frustrating with the water pushing you through the areas you need to be in sequentially. What does detract from all this somewhat is the 3DS remake; Zora Link’s infamous swimming nerf isn’t so bad in the dungeon’s narrow corridors and I can live with the more restricted ice arrows (creating icebergs in random places isn’t my idea of fun, so I don’t feel like anything was lost), but the changes to the Gyorg fight make it longer and more RNG-dependent than it should be. It’s not the only boss in the remake to become worse apparently out a desire by the developers to waste more of your limited time with them *glares at Twinmold*, but Gyorg hits worse in my minimal cycles runs on account of where Great Bay Temple falls in my scheduling.

#1. Ancient Cistern (Skyward Sword)

I didn’t want this to be #1 - it’s just not fair. The Ancient Cistern is more or less the only entry on this list that escapes the water dungeon stigma, and in fact gets consistently ranked as the best dungeon in all of Skyward Sword. Everyone loves this place, and it’s easy to see why. The aesthetics are gorgeous, it’s decently challenging but not labyrinthine, the whip is fun to use, Koloktos is awesome and unique and mildly disturbing, and the whole thing is wrapped in an explicit allusion to a Buddhist fable that comes across in the environmental details and in the dungeon structure alike. I wouldn’t call this a perfect experience, but my objections feel like nitpicks. The underwater swimming controls in SS suck...but you’re not underwater much, and there’s a much more infamous section for that later in the game. The dungeon is only half water-themed, with the basement being more of a shadow dungeon and (unlike with the Temple of Droplets) little being done to blend the two...but that plays into the fable reference and at a key point the feeling of ascending a thread from death/hell into enlightenment. The Buddhist trappings are extremely overt particularly with the shape of the boss key and the giant statue that is the dungeon’s central structure...but if the presence of that in the Zelda universe isn’t immersion-breaking to the developers for whom Buddhism is a present cultural reality then it would be petty of me to consider it more than a curiosity. None of that was enough for me to place Great Bay Temple over it, especially in light of the mild downgrade that dungeon got in its remake. Here’s to hoping that when/if SS ever gets a port or updated rerelease that the Cistern will be as good or even better than it is now. They can take the motion controls off swimming, for starters....

[creativerogues]

Making Cool Magic Items For A Barbarian...

After my last post about making some cool magic items, I started coming up with ideas for making magic items specific to each class.

Like when you see “Requires Attunement by a Cleric or Paladin” on a Magic Item...

Now these are just ideas, so interpret them as you may, but I’ve added my own little notes on the side to walk you through why I think the idea could be a cool thing for a magic item to have...

...Be it a random property for some legendary item or artifact, or just a new property or feature your Barbarian discovers through whatever story elements you put them through...

Anyways... ENJOY!

Barbarian

You can rage while in heavy armor.

Not entirely useful considering most Barbarians are going butt naked 99.999% of the time, but still useful if your Barbarian somehow has a low Armor Class.

1 Additional Use of Barbarian Rage per Rest

Great for low or even mid level barbarians...

Rage Damage increases by +1. 

For example, a Level 20 Barbarian would now have a Rage Damage Bonus of +5 instead of +4, it’s a very small bonus, but it makes a character feel so much more powerful...

Your Rage Feature now applies to weapon attacks that use Dexterity.

I see this so often, homebrew subclasses or feats or something just so a Barbarian can use a Bow. I mean when your Barbarian is level 20 and has killed dragons with their bare hands, you just try to give a good reason why they can’t angrily operate a crossbow...

Your Rage now lasts 10 minutes instead of 1 minute.

Again, not entirely useful for higher level barbarians, but definitely useful in those low to mid levels of play. And besides, it’s not like combat is going to last more than 10 minutes anyways, but reading “I CAN RAGE 10 TIMES LONGER THAN BEFORE!” makes the character seem more powerful without actually ever being more powerful...

As a Reaction when Initiative is rolled, you can enter a Rage.

Another thing I see so very often is the Barbarian using their first turn to go into a Rage and charge into combat. This neat little magical property lets the Barbarian actually use their bonus action on their first turn of combat for something other than flying into a bloodthirsty rage...

You have advantage on all constitution saving throws while raging.

Again, I like to make my Players think they’re more power than any normal person, and while advantage on Con Saves could be seen as overpowered, the amount of times Con Saves are used outside of making a save against a spell and maybe the odd Barbarian Class Feature isn’t much... 

If you are able to cast spells, you can now cast them while raging.

If you’re allowing your Barbarian to cast spells while Raging, I suggest something like “If you cast a spell that requires concentration while raging, you have disadvantage on any concentration checks related to that spell”. Just so that the Barbarian isn’t casting super powerful buffs on themselves...

Instead of your Rage only ending early if you are knocked unconscious, your Rage only ends early if you fail 2 Death Saving Throws.

Yes, while the concept of a raging unconscious body may seem hilarious to you, this is also a common thing I see in combat. The Barbarian takes a bunch of damage, goes unconscious, and their rage ends, but then they get all healed up and spend their next bonus action or even their entire next turn to rage again and get back up and close to the enemy. 

So maybe a raging unconscious barbarian may not sound great, but if you don’t like this idea, don’t use it, it’s fine with me, I won’t be offended... much...

When using your Reckless Attack Feature, doing so does not cause attack rolls against you to be rolled with advantage.

Now hold on there! Yes, this is an EXTREMELY powerful ability to give to a Barbarian and almost certainly guarantees that they’ll be attacking recklessly whenever they get the chance, but maybe you want to put a restriction on this feature, maybe only enemies within a certain range of the Barbarian no longer gain advantage, allowing the Barbarian to get the upper hand on melee attackers but struggle with ranged enemies.

Or maybe this only works for attacks made with weapons, leaving the Barbarian open to spellcasters. Or maybe only attacks made with non-magical weapons no longer gain advantage...

Whatever way you want to flavor this, just remember that this is a powerful property to give a Barbarian, so don’t be afraid to hide it away from them until they reach those higher levels of play...

Your Movement Speed increases by +10ft.

Again, Barbarians like to charge in, and when they kill that first Goblin, they’ll want to move onto the next one, then the next one, then the next one and so on. So giving them that teeny little boost to speed helps, even if its only an extra +5ft to movement instead of +10ft. (Yes I know about Fast Movement for the Barbarian but sometimes you just wanna run 100+ feet a round okay?!)

You gain 1 additional Brutal Critical Die.

So at level 20, you can roll not 3, but 4 additional weapon damage die when determining the extra damage for a critical hit with a melee attack, because of course your Barbarian needs even more unnecessary damage to dish out...

When you use your Relentless Rage, you drop to 5 hit points instead of 1 when you succeed on your constitution saving throw.

This is another problem, the barbarian drops to 1 hit point, but it turns out the creature has multi-attack and then the 2nd hit still knocks the Barbarian unconscious. 

With this property (and assuming your Barbarian is raging, because why wouldn’t they be?), then that enemy has to deal at least 10 points of damage with a weapon attack...

Now a few of you may say that dropping to 5 HP instead of 1 is still not enough, in which case I’d say flavor it to your Player or Character, maybe it’s 10 HP, maybe its 1d6 + your Barbarian’s Constitution Modifier. Whatever suits you!

Path of the Ancestral Guardian

When the target of your Ancestral Protectors hits a creature other than you with an attack, you can use your reaction to grant that creature immunity (instead of resistance) to the damage dealt by the attack.

You don’t see immunities to damage come up very much in 5e, so the chance to say “Haha! NOPE!” to all that damage from something like a critical hit on the healer is a lot of fun to use... 

The Die of your Spirit Shield feature become d8′s instead of d6′s.

Not too much of a boost, but yet again, just enough to tip the Barbarian over the edge and make the Barbarian feel just a little bit more powerful.

When you use your Spirit Shield to reduce the damage of an attack, the attacker takes an amount of force damage equal to twice the damage that your Spirit Shield prevents.

Getting to double the damage of something isn’t uncommon when it comes to certain magic items, but when it comes to it in combat, those few extra points of damage can be crucial. Plus it’s a chance for the Barbarian to deal even more damage on their turn... so...

Path of the Battlerager

When you use Reckless Attack while raging, you also gain temporary hit points equal to twice your Constitution modifier (minimum of 2).

This is pretty much the only thing I could think of that could help a Battlerager, and I didn’t want to leave it out of the list, so here ya go battleragers, enjoy it!

Path of the Berserker

When you end a Frenzied Rage, you no longer gain a level of exhaustion.

As if I need to explain this one, I mean you could take this one property and turn it into a Legendary Item and no Berserker would ever complain...

You can't be charmed, frightened, grappled, poisoned or knocked prone while raging. If you are charmed, frightened or poisoned when you enter your rage, the effect is suspended for the duration of the rage. If you are grappled when you enter your rage, you can immediately attempt to break the grapple.

This effect could even expand into the ability to never be Blinded, Deafened, Paralyzed, Petrified, Stunned and more, feel free to change, edit or add to this to suit your Barbarian.

When using your Intimidating Presence Feature, if the creature succeeds on its saving throw, you can't use this feature on that creature again for 8 hours instead of 24 hours.

Again, a Feature that makes a Barbarian feel powerful, but in terms of game mechanics there’s no real visible difference, unless you’re fighting the big bad again exactly 8 hours and 1 second after you last fought them...

When you critically hit a creature with an attack using your Retaliation feature, you regain the use of your Reaction at the end of your turn. 

ATTACK OF OPPORTUNITY!!!!! But seriously though, this is another feature that basically just allows them to make a single melee attack against a creature for free, which in game terms isn’t a sizable difference in damage when the condition they have to meet in the first place is scoring a crit, but if you think this is still too powerful, just change it to suit your game!

Path of the Storm Herald

Your Storm Aura extends by +5ft, to 15 feet.

Your Storm Aura now extends to 30 feet from you in every direction.

Your Storm Aura now goes through total cover.

I’m just gonna wrap these three features into 1 little note. Storm Aura is the main thing a Storm Herald has, so increasing its range, even if it only increases from 10 feet to 15 feet, or increasing it all the way from 10 feet to 30 feet, still doesn’t really make it overpowered when you’re dealing (or healing) a very little number of points.

Also the idea of your storm aura not passing through total cover seemed really weird to me. Wind, Cold and Heat can all go around corners... right? And yes, an enemy may be hidden inside a house or behind a wall, but with these kind of powers, who would dare try to escape the storm’s wrath...?

You can change your environment choice for your storm aura whenever you finish a long rest.

Ok, I’m willing to admit something here, I kinda based this off the Blessing of Corellon from Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes (wow, I hope I’m spelling that right...)

But I’ve seen it so many now, a storm herald decides “you know what, now that I’ve leveled up, I’ll change my storm aura” and then they immediately regret changing it, but now they’re stuck with it until they level up again, which could be in just a few sessions or months...

This little property makes it easier for the storm herald to change and shift states, you know, like an actual storm...

If your aura's effects require a saving throw, the DC now equals 10 + your proficiency bonus + your Constitution modifier.

Hey look! It’s basically a +2 to a spell save DC! Wow!

Each creature of your choice gains immunity (instead of resistance) to the damage type you gained from the Storm Soul feature while the creature is in your Storm Aura.

Again, a storm herald’s bread and butter is their storm aura, if you want to make them feel more powerful, then upgrade their storm aura just a little bit.

Plus this property is great for a tundra storm barbarian or a desert storm barbarian, since tundra storm barbarians are very much about protecting their allies, and for the desert storm barbarian, who can do damage to all creatures in their aura, this stops them from accidentally damaging allies in their storm aura...

Your Storm Soul Feature now grants you immunity (instead of resistance) to the damage type described.

For example, at Level 6, a Desert Storm Herald gains Fire Resistance, but with this magical property on a magic item, they gain immunity to Fire Damage instead!

Path of the Totem Warrior

Once per day, you can cast Polymorph. You can target only yourself and transform into the beast you chose as your Totem Spirit.

For example, once per day a Bear Totem Barbarian can polymorph into a bear (which type of bear will probably be up to the DM). 

And yes, you can still rage while in this form, since you’ll still retain the benefit of any features from your class and can use them so long as your new form is physically capable of going into a rage.

Bear: While raging, once per seven days, you can choose to have immunity to all damage except psychic damage.  When the rage ends you gain one level of exhaustion.

Eagle: While raging, you gain a permanent flying speed of 10 feet, as spectral giant eagle wings carry your weight across the battlefield.

Wolf: While you're raging, your friends have advantage on melee attack rolls against any creature within 10 feet of you that is hostile to you.

Elk: While raging, when you knock a creature prone, you can immediately use your reaction to make a single melee weapon attack against the prone creature.

Tiger: While raging, if you move at least 10 feet in a straight line toward a Huge or Smaller target right before making a melee weapon attack against it, you can use a bonus action to make an additional melee weapon attack against it.

As a note, if you don’t like these ideas, simply increase the size category for the target from size large or smaller to size huge or smaller. That way things like the Wolf Totem, Elk Totem and Tiger Totem feel just a little bit better than what they used to be... Plus body-slamming a giant is cool... 

Path of the Zealot

Divine Fury Upgrade: While raging, the first creature you hit on each of your turns with a weapon attack takes extra damage equal to 1d8 + your barbarian level, instead of 1d6 + half your barbarian level.

Fanatical Focus Upgrade: If you fail a saving throw while you're raging, you can reroll it, and you choose which of the results is used for the saving throw.

Think of it as a sorta okay Lucky Feat... Except with more anger and blood...

As a reaction to failing a saving throw against death, you can choose to automatically succeed the saving throw instead. Once you use this feature, you can't use it again until you finish a long rest.

This essentially lets the Zealot survive 4 death save fails before they finally die, which I think is a cool mechanic and is very reminiscent of the barbarian features of older editions of D&D where you would just... you know... never die... ever!

While unconscious, attack rolls against you do not have advantage unless the attacker is within 5 feet of you.

Again, mostly fluff for your Barbarian to make them sound cool, because we all know that as soon as that Barbarian drops to 0 HP, that horde of enemies is gonna close in fast!

If you are critically hit by a hostile creature’s weapon attack while unconscious, you fail only one saving throw against death, instead of two.

This one is simply to stop the Barbarian from immediately dying, because creatures within 5 feet already score a critical hit against you if you’re unconscious, which in normal terms means you immediately fail 2 death saves. 

And so if that creature is within 5 feet of your unconscious body and ALSO has extra attack or multi-attack, then you’re almost definitely saying goodbye to your little Barbarian friend. This magical property here, this stops that from happening...

[heros-hour-trainer-um]

Hero’s Hour Cheats, Cheat Codes, Hints and Walkthroughs for PC

💾 ►►► DOWNLOAD FILE 🔥🔥🔥 So there seem to be two camps when it comes to the assessment of the difficulty of Hero's Hour. Camp 1 is the folks who are struggling. Bouncing hard off of it, getting to week 4 or 5 and then coming across a giant enemy stack that just kicks their teeth in. Most the rest of the guides here seem to fall into that second group but it doesn't really feel like how the game is supposed to be played. Not a dig at the exploiters. It's a thing of beauty to see Mercurials rolling around behind a talking panda, just not how I typically like playing games. Introduction So, fundamentally Hero's Hour is a numbers game. You want to be increasing your numbers while expanding your territory. This is the basic principal, and any strategy that does not account for that is going to struggle. Before I go further though I need to be clear that this timeline is really only meant for Tiny and Small maps. Medium and larger will take more time, simply because the zones are larger. With that in mind though, on a smaller map, if you just barely manage to scrape together an army that can break you out of your starting area on week 4 you are going to be in for a rough ride. The goal should be to leverage your starting hero and the limited assets that you have access to in order to clear most of your starting area over the course of week 1 and break out with the re-enforcements you get at the start of week 2. With that in mind, the basis of the strategy revolves around using a might hero with a focus on buffing their faction's tier 1 troops. Most factions have one and in my case I'm going to be playing as the Horde faction and using Tobruni. You can adapt this strategy for most factions though. You can explore the others yourself and I can't claim to have played them all so as to vouch for their effectiveness. The only real exceptions are Pyre, Tide and Wild But Wild doesn't need the help plus their tier 1's are weird and the consensus seems to be that the hero's for Pyre and Tide are just kinda in a bad spot generally. Anyhow this hero archtype all combine skills like Legion this is key , Bloodlust, Offence, Swarming and Warding among others. The real key skill though is mastery of their faction's tier one unit since this skill will buff them up, and give a significant number of freespawn. He also gets Offence, Armourer and Swarming, though the latter is locked behind Bodyguard which is useless for him. Furthermore he gets Bloodwarping, Healing and even Dragonking and Devour which can be very potent in a longer game. He lacks Warding, which is an extremely useful skill for this build, but that's OK. For our purposes we'll be focusing almost entirely on Legion and Goblin Mastery and relying very hard on the Goblins or more specifically their upgrades Voodoos. The goal will be to use his skills along with huge numbers of goblins to just overwhelm fights. Now the effectiveness of this build does start to drop off in the mid to late game on big maps. Even by the end of this playthrough I start shifting away from Goblins and into high tier units like Bloodletters simply because they take fewer casualties and require less re-enforcement. Not a big deal on a little map, but when you are deep in enemy territory two zones away from your nearest infirmary, not needing to do a hero chain to get new troops to the front is certainly helpful. I still think it is worthwhile considering this hero archtype as your starting hero on a larger map, you'll just need to make sure you pivot to a mage, or a hero with Champion and the Mastery skill for higher tier units at some point. Episode 1: Week 1 Clearing your starting zone So clearing your starting zone is the first thing you are going to be doing in any playthrough and it is critical that you do it as quickly and with as few casualties as possible. You really want to be prioritizing troop numbers. It's going to take time to figure out what sort of fights you can take, and if you eat a big loss or a pyrrhic victory on like turn three in order to take your ore mine it'll probably set you back enough that the game will be very difficult to succeed at going forward. You'll notice I recruit 2 hero's on turn 1. I talk about this in the video but the TLDW version is that I think the boost in troops, scouting ability, and ability to pick up unguarded resources and save the movement points of your primary hero is very valuable. Even on larger maps they remain useful as troop ferries and mine boosters so I think it is worth the early game expense. This also means I delay the early building of the Champion Statue until Week 2. This is controversial and there are some good arguments to be made for waiting in order to get bodyguard up and running ASAP. I just think that being able to get those early fights under your belt is very valuable. You can also do this on turn 2 if your tavern is locked behind a creature dwelling or other structure. It isn't ideal though. On the over-world I prioritize getting anything that will get me more troops. That said, the Sawmill, Ore Mine and Obelisk typically have very weak guards so they are good targets for day 1 or day 2 in order to get XP on your hero. Taking out the neutral hero can be a significant boost in week 1 since they will usually net you some valuable artifacts, but it is a high risk fight since hero skills, attributes and spells can really swing a fight. Assessing what fights you can take is a bit more nuanced. The Easy, Medium, Challenging, Near Impossible and Impossible ratings are a good guide, but remember the goal is to take as few casualties as possible, not just win fights. The first fight I took in this was listed as challenging and I think I took 3 or 4 casualties total because I knew that my harpies would be a hard counter to the otherwise quite threatening Cannoneers. Without the harpies to flank they would have shredded my gobbos with their big explosive boom sticks. On the flip side though, fighting a big horde of flying units is a great way to loose a bunch of goblins, even if it says the fight is easy since flyers can pick up models and drop them which will result in a 1 hit KO on low tier troops. Other high threat enemies are ones with the Wide Attack tag or AoE attacks. Over time you'll learn to recognize the general strengths and weakness' of different troops that you'll commonly encounter but until then the reload button is your friend. The other big tip is to not overlook the tactical combat end of things. Don't just blob you troops up, hit start battle and hope for the best. I almost always default to using the defend order at the start of combat. Make use of terrain to force the enemy formation to break apart using choke points, use your hero as a distraction so they can keep part of the enemy army occupied while your troops take them down piecemeal, and use fast units to flank around and take out ranged units. Always remember, the goal is to minimize losses. Episode 2: Expanding into the Neutral Zone So by the time week 2 rolls around you should try and make sure you clear up any remaining key structures in your starting zone and try to crack the guard post, portal, or passage into the underworld in order to start exploiting a neutral area. You might struggle with the fights you find there so feel free just to explore and pick up anything that isn't guarded. On larger maps in particular you may want to send one of your secondaries out there ideally a bodyguard secondary in order to explore while your main hero continues to take the fights that get you the 'nice to have' structures in your starting zone since it will be basically impossible to clear everything you want during week 1 or 2. One real key thing is to make sure to build a mage guild before you take your primary hero out of the starting zone. Being able to teleport back home is essential. You can only do it once every 7 days, but having an enemy hero roll in and capture your town is a real easy way to lose. Other than that though there isn't too much else to say in this video. If you are playing a faction other than Horde this is likely when you will want to start looking at upgrading your dwellings in town. Apply the same principals to picking your fights and start prioritizing getting higher tier troops. If you can assume solid control over a neutral territory while continuing to minimize losses then you should be well on your way to having an army that is fully capable of taking on an AI hero. Episode 3: Go for the Eyes Boo! Go for the Eyeeees! So over the course of this video I clean up the neutral zone and get myself into a position where I can take the fight to the enemy and reliably kill him. When you invade the AI it is really important to be as aggressive as possible. Remember, his infirmary is much closer to the front lines than yours will be so getting into his town is a big priority. It wasn't necessary in this playthrough because the AI was so outclassed by the time we actually ran into each other, but on larger maps against more established opponents it is important to use your secondary hero's to run around and snag resource and troop generating structures from within the enemy zone. Maybe at some point I'll do a strategy guide on how to win on bigger maps with more reliance on secondary hero's and the like but I think I accomplished my goals for this. Thanks for putting up with me during my ramblings. Hopefully some of you find them useful. While fight is a huge part of the game, you do not wish to go hurtling into battle as quickly as you can. Among the very best things to do is to make certain that you have infirmaries and health centers constructed, what these can do is respawn a specific portion of the units that have actually passed away in battle, the much better the building, the much better the portion of units to respawn. Make sure that your towns have the suitable casualty structures and your armies will go a lot even more. Make certain to choose the right battles In spite of the reality that lots of players, including yourself, can be well versed in the battle of the game, it is suggested that for the very first part of the game, you should just choose battles that are categorized as "easy". The battles that are above easy, while still possible to win, might show a little difficult for some people and might set you back rather a long time if you were to lose the majority of your army. Some heroes can assist with these battles, however you will need to pay attention to the spells that they provide. Use your hero Spells The hero that you select plays a huge function in how your skirmishes and battles end up. Make certain to make and practice use of the spells that your hero needs to provide, these spells can be the distinction in between triumph and defeat. The spells that are on deal can allow you to eliminate enemies or skirmishes that appear somewhat beyond your capability for the minute, however just if you pay attention to how the spells work and use them in the appropriate way. Position your army to fit your Heroes abilities This tip combined with the last one can make your army unstoppable, some Heroes use capabilities that will make your other units more powerful. The Legion ability will make little units more powerful, so it might be helpful to you to make sure that you have enough little units in your army when you use that hero. Sending your army with uncomfortable heroes can be the reason for a lot of aggravation on your own, so find and do some research study out which heroes are best to use with which units and you can be the very best of the very best. Concentrate on those unit structures Among the very best methods in the game is to make certain that you have the capability to spawn as lots of units as you can. In the early game, focus on gathering resources and building the structures that can produce units for you. What you are intending to do is to overwhelm your challengers with numbers while you do not have the capability to do it with more powerful units Gather all that you can and spam those unit structures. Use free units There are various mechanics in the game that provide free units to the player, particular heroes can use units to you at no charge. Use the units provided to you to protect the units you have really spent for, let the free units be meat guards for your paid units. Picking a Hero that can spawn melee units, for instance, can be very beneficial if you are to make a lineup of varied units to combat with. The units that the hero generates will then be the line of defense in between your varied units and their melee ones. Do some research study and find those heroes and capabilities that offer you free units and use them as much as you can. You can find those earned achievements in your Game-Main menu or you can view them if you signup at one of the Steam communities. If you know cheat codes, secrets, hints, glitches or other level guides for this game that can help others leveling up, then please Submit your Cheats and share your insights and experience with other gamers. Stuck in this game? Ask a question below and let other gamers answer your question or view answers to previously asked questions. If you think you are an expert then please try to help others with their questions. The power of a strong start and Tier 1 Units So there seem to be two camps when it comes to the assessment of the difficulty of Hero's Hour. Walkthrough PC. Walkthrough Playlist 2 PC. Need Help? Ask A Question Here! View Complete List ».

[rainbow-cobra-blog]

Star Wars: Battlefront 2 - Release

There's an Ideal way to play Star Wars Battlefront 2's 40-player Galactic Assault mode. I haven't mastered it, but it is about maximizing the point value of every life and spending these points in the perfect way at the ideal time. "Man, I want more things to unlock Yoda" is something someone could say on TV to signify they're a gamer. I have said that multiple times. I am a mockery. However, I do enjoy it. I do need those points. If the effort's narrative were improved and the development system not so irritating, I might have liked Battlefront 2.

I am Mostly speaking about Battle Points, which are earned and spent mid-match to spawn as X-wings, AT-STs, leap troopers, Wookiees, and all sorts of other Star Wars combatants, including heroes and villains such as Yoda, Rey, and Kylo Ren. Your primary goal in any multiplayer mode isn't your team's objective, whether that is blowing up a giant transportation tank at Theed or stealing an AT-AT on Endor. It is earning those things so you can do some real harm.

When I have too few things to spawn as anything trendy, the race Playing as a regular trooper feels like being an extra in the movies, as you're likely to get smushed by walkers and also have your courage cauterized by lightsabers close to the conclusion of a match. It's fun to be a part of the spectacle, but the next time Darth Maul murders you that the pleasure wears off. Conversely, once I have spent things to spawn as a particular droid or a man on a speeder bike or Rey herself, my entire life becomes precious, and I become attentive--personalities are dominant, but not unkillable.

Every small Killstreak: more points! Every goal play: more things! I'm excited, sometimes frustrated, as I work to make a strong character, and then I get there, and I feel like a god who only found out he is mortal and so is extremely pissed off about it--scared to perish, but eager to crush stuff.Most of my time is invested as a regular trooper, however, and the primary shooting is more enjoyable in the effort, where the attention is all on spectacle (since it certainly wasn't about the narrative). There, many enemies are weak enough to kill in 1 headshot, while in multiplayer shields can take a beating, so making most kills feel nostalgic: my shot occurred to connect with someone whose shields were already at 20 percent. Along with the map layout, though beautiful, can result in some dull struggles. In the confined spaces most maps finally push both groups into-- room to defend, like the Mos Eisley Cantina--it's a lot of reckless charges and grenade spamming, or piling up on walls and playing peek-a-boo.

Every class has three special abilities, which Change in utility and fun. The Officer course can drop an auto-turret, but it is a puny small machine which makes very little difference--it feels pointless. The whistling sound impact loop that plays while it is equipped is sound adrenaline, and its lethality makes it much more entertaining than the stock blasters.

The most peculiar thing about the Battle Points mill is its impact on teamwork. Building a cautious approach as a squad isn't a reasonable thing to do in Battlefront like it is in the Rising Storm and Battlefield series. It is a race for points, and also in a race that you operate, usually directly in the objective (a jog that takes too long on many Galactic Assault maps) to lob a grenade and attempt to score some frantic kills before dying. From the Starfighter Assault area dogfighting manner, I find that players also tend to focus on player eliminations before objectives, which include fleets of AI controlled ships to assault and mines to ruin.

DICE creates an Effort to fix this: when you respawn, you are automatically placed into a squad, and playing near your squadmates makes you double Battle Points. But usually, my squadmates break off and do their things anyhow, or perish too quickly to help. They're hungry for those points, but it is a personal pursuit. I'm annoyed when someone catches an Ion Cannon before I could to burst the MTT on Theed because playing the goal earns points, and these points should've been mine. It doesn't make for cohesive groups.

Unlocking Luke

You will find even more points, known as Credits, a non-cash currency you Earn by playing matches and attaining milestones--the better you represent, the more Credits you receive.

Star Cards are a Largely dull method to produce your classes, ships, ground vehicles, and heroes more powerful (I'll refer to all these things as 'classes' from here on to make it simpler). They're like Call of Duty's perks, except you can equip three in a time each class so long as you have sufficiently leveled up that category, and lots of them are direct buffs. More wellness. Abilities recharge quicker. Increased primary weapon harm.

I Do not enjoy it, and I doubt I will no matter how much EA tweaks that the speed I get Credits or the expense of unlocking heroes such as Luke Skywalker. I don't want to quit matches to visit the 'career' page to gradually redeem Credits for each small milestone. I don't want to fight somebody whose TIE-fighter is numerically more potent than my ship.

A number of the Star Cards are trade-offs--exchange your sanity for a missile That locks on to vehicles, for example--and I don't have an issue with those. I also don't mind that new firearms and attachments require earning kills with a class, although it sure takes a long time. But I don't wish to poke through a hundred menu displays (not an exaggeration) equipping little upgrades which make my weapons cooldown quicker, and I do not wish to fight a participant who has.

It is a system that instills doubt, and They probably did, but how do I know their updated Star Cards weren't the difference maker? Did I mention you can update them? Sometimes you'll get Crafting Parts in loot boxes that can be used to make specific Star Cards you need, and upgrade current ones to make them stronger. It's too much.

When the premium currency was still accessible (microtransactions were temporarily eliminated On November 16), I did not feel much pressure to buy anything, because I earned those orbits I don't want at a good enough pace (I could unlock Luke when I need) and, frankly, I probably wasn't really becoming crushed because I'd like fewer Star Cards than more-skilled competitions. However, my difficulty isn't only that gamers could purchase electricity, though that's frustrating. It is that, to facilitate micro-transactions, development is slow, over-complicated, and unfun. I am skeptical that it will get more interesting and less problematic before the premium currency comes back unless it is overhauled and the returning micro-transactions use only for makeup.

The Effort

Outside of multiplayer and all that progression nonsense, the Four-to-five hour campaign is a pretty good time. The story is bland but well-acted and there are some amusing lines and entertaining cameos.

You primarily play as There is one special smash cut meant to demonstrate that Versio made a moral decision which I thought was a bug at first, because of how little persuasive she needed. It feels like a comic book that was drawn before it had been composed. Every other page includes an exquisitely-inked conflict we have to reach, so in between a few speech bubbles are full of to explain why our personalities are involved in it.

After a few missions, the characters all do precisely what they say They are going to do, and all agree with each other all the time. Their significant choices are made whimsically, and they mostly grow off-screen as we leap between the galaxy's famed battles. The dialogue itself can be amusing and smart, but the larger story is inconsistent as if large chunks were cut--except in one specific mission that slows down things.

Utilizing The Force using a lightsaber is suitably simple, and I awakened how it made me worry more about defeating a military with style than perishing. As a fanatic of this galaxy, it wouldn't make sense for a Stormtrooper to even scratch me, and there is a fun game to trying to create my playthrough canon, mixing up cool skills the way I think the character would. Holding down the perfect mouse button to auto-parry the same blaster fire I'd been hiding from in the preceding mission feels badass.

In assignments without space magical, However, Battlefront 2 is not too hard. In the singleplayer and multiplayer, the speedy fighter ships are trying to maneuver but get close enough, and my primary weapon will soft-lock on an enemy--so that I feel skilled at dogfighting. However, I'm not likely to do it with no targeting computer.

On the floor, I'm neither pinned to cover nor allowed to run around where I want. Just a couple of enemy types are spongy, and the remainder often goes flying through the air using a single grenade or headshot, which makes for proper-looking Star Wars battles. It strikes a pleasure balance between fragility and power, letting me perform with enough bravado to experiment, but not too much that I do not need to eye my shield meter and retreat to cover when sprinkled.

The major annoyance is that the checkpointed saves, particularly in the distance. Slightly too slow at destroying all the bombers because you moved off to explore before the prompt showed up? Do the entire segment over. Did a great job with the bombers but accidentally trimmed some debris? Start over. And as there's no ammo to discover on the ground--firearms generate heat which must be dissipated--there's disappointingly little to research the main route. In the first assignment's light stealth section, for example, corridors I was not supposed to return only led to closed doors.

I've encountered a few bugs, as well. The most Egregious was when I defended my grounded boat from endless waves of Enemies for many minutes--I wasn't counting--before realizing something Must be erroneous. A ramp was designed to fall a couple of moments in so that I could escape. At Least it occurred on the next attempt.

[redbladereviewing]

Breath of the Wild VS Twilight Princess: Open World or Guided Goals?

Open World Action Adventure games. They’re all over the market and there’s likely no chance of them going away. It’s pretty easy to think that these games take no effort, but designing a gigantic map with different landscapes, biomes, towns, and proper enemy spawn locations takes a lot of time, money and manpower to create. And The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is one of those games that certainly took a lot of time to make. Originally planned for Nintendo’s best dust collecting device, the Wii U, the game was met with a multitude of delays from 2014 to 2017, and even being released onto their newest console, the Nintendo Switch, with Shigeru Miyamoto famously saying “A delayed game is eventually good, a bad game is forever bad”. While this quote would later be mocked with the heavily delayed release of Mighty No. 9 later in 2017, Miyamoto was right. Breath of the Wild, despite its delays, was met with universal critical acclaim, winning Game of the Year at the annual Game Awards 2017, and even having a direct sequel announced and in development at E3 2019. But as time went on, as it always does, opinions towards Breath of the Wild started to sour. With people presenting complaints for its barren open world, brittle weapon durability, and complete lack of character from our main protagonist, that people were starting to cast doubt upon whether it was even good in the first place. Now this is nothing new. Game franchises that have been around for decades are likely to have people question the quality of some installments. Just ask Sonic the Hedgehog fans today what they think of Colors compared to Black Knight then when those games came out. But Zelda fans are a bit different. The Zelda franchise has had a set formula for almost about a decade since Ocarina of Time was released in 1998. A simple dungeon full of puzzles to solve, some monsters to deal with, and a special weapon that helps with defeating the boss of said dungeon. It’s a formula that worked for a long time, and only was Breath of the Wild released itself from that cycle its forefathers created. However, while some cycles should be broken, the one that Zelda was in wasn’t really in need of a change. People will say that you often have to change up a series’ gameplay to keep it fresh, but I don’t think that’s true. Call of Duty has been keeping people invested in its games for decades, and it doesn’t change much outside of minor additions, for better and for worse. But the core of the gameplay stays the same. Twilight Princess, in my own humble opinion, was the game that took the most advantages it could with the set Zelda gameplay formula. With the best dungeons in the series, and a story that had a lot more depth than most other entries before and after it. Meanwhile, Breath of the Wild went so far away from the set formula you’d be mistaken for thinking it was a completely different game. So between a massive open world and a set structure of events, which of the two is a better direction for the Hero of Hyrule to go down?

Breath of the Wild has itself set on breaking its formula from the very start. You aren’t a village child or a farmhand; you’re a random dude in his undies waking up from a century long slumber in a water bed, and being given an alien looking smartphone. Complete with a map, camera, and telescope to help you explore this massive world. Even as you enter into the open world, you’re situated atop a plateau, complete with everything you’ll need to learn about how this world works. From weather climate, to resource gathering, to even cooking meals and sneaking past fights you can’t win. It’s quite the departure from what we’ve come to expect. That is, if you’ve only played major Zelda games after 1998. In interviews, the developers said they wanted to go back to the roots of how this series started. With a big world that you don’t really know how it works, but steadily guide you towards what you can do, what you need to do, and how to do things. It certainly has that feel, with the entire intro of the game setting up everything that you’ll be doing in the game. From dealing with enemy camps that hold helpful resources, to climbing towers on loan from one of Ubisoft’s old open world games, to going through Shiekah Shrines to learn the basic abilities your smartphone can use. Such as freezing objects in place, picking up metal boxes, and blowing stuff up with two types of bombs. It’s a lot of stuff to learn that’s steadily leading to you learning more about the state of this version of Hyrule. In this version, Ganon has technically won. The world is in ruins, the people are isolated, there’s monsters running around everywhere, and Zelda is keeping Ganon locked away inside the castle as best she can. It creates a serene, but almost horrifying apocalypse where giant spider bots are roaming the world and blasting people to ashes. It’s quite a daunting adventure ahead, and the gameplay reflects this. Weapons are incredibly brittle, almost as if they haven’t been maintained for a century. Even the most legendary of Royal Guard armaments break after constant use despite looking so expertly constructed. From a narrative perspective, it makes sense. The world is in ruins and you have to find what you can to get an edge against the monsters that roam the world. But from a gameplay perspective, it creates the unfortunate result of collecting a lot of powerful weapons that you will never use because you wanna save them for when you need them. Except you never really will need them because you can run past most enemies in the game and they’ll give up chasing you, especially when fighting enemies into the mid-game doesn’t give you rewards that feel worth it. Oh wow, a shiny rock. I’m glad I used up my Soldier’s Greatsword on those Bokoblins to get it. I’m sure that’ll be worth something to someone. Turns out, it might be, but only to upgrade your armor with pieces of junk you collect from the open world to make yourself tankier. Combat in open world games often has to exist to give the player something to easily do when they start up the game, or create some kind of challenge. But when you can literally go anywhere, even to the final boss right away and fight them with only the weapons you can carry and whatever you found in the castle, it makes the combat in Breath of the Wild not all that worth it. Even when many high skilled players discover new ways of breaking the games physics and mechanics to get themselves some massive combat advantages, it doesn’t really feel satisfying when the rewards aren’t worth it. While its certainly worthy of praise that Nintendo have made an extremely open world with all kinds of directions you can go, it’s not nearly as satisfying to beat a game when the challenge keeps going down and down, and there’s not enough story motivation to get character invested players to keep going. Combat has to have enough of a satisfying reward for players to seek it out. It can be anything from a sense of character progression, to just the satisfying feeling of combat itself. Breath of the Wild struggles with these two things so often simply because combat has no direct changes outside of dodge, flurry attack, repeat, that all those special methods of combat feel like too much effort. Dominant Strategy dictates that players will always use the most effective method of overcoming obstacles in a game, and Breath of the Wild’s Dominant Strategy is basically playing Dark Souls for little kiddies. Stat buff meals and potions don’t mean anything if the combat doesn’t have a satisfying feel to it that makes it worth seeking out, or rewards that encourage facing greater threats.

By contrast, Twilight Princess is so much of a Zelda game it’s dripping with Ocarina of Time’s Happy Ending massage aftermath. The game starts out with Link living in a small rural forest village with his horse, working as a farmhand who herds goats, and even enjoys spending time with the village children, indulging in their praise of his super cool sword and slingshot skills. Twilight Princess does a good job of setting up a status quo. Almost too good of a job. A common criticism of the game is the entire intro before the first dungeon. It goes to great lengths to establish what your home was like before the twilight began to spread, and it even has a few dumb story moments. Like your village crush Ilia taking your horse away because of a minor injury it took from jumping over a fence. Despite Epona not even being her horse. Then there’s Link giving his training sword to a child just to get your horse back. Would’ve been helpful to fight back against those invading Bulbins if I had that glorified stick. Thanks, Talo, you little twerp. All that ends up happening to you and your friends is entirely your fault. The giant wall of Twilight that cuts off the forest? Well, I can’t blame a child for encroaching darkness. That would be too far. However, that same darkness is also where another criticism of this game comes up. “Oh no! Link’s been turned into a furry! Guess this game is responsible for my diaperfur fetish.” Obvious joke against a community that the internet has yet to accept as just another part of itself aside, Wolf Link’s gameplay is not really all that well utilized. It’s fairly simply exploration in an animal form that will be responsible for a number of young folk’s sexual discovery. It has you exploring the segments you’ll later explore as your normal form so that you can get some idea of the state of that region. After getting the Master Sword, the wolf form becomes something that you can use for easy fast travel through the portals you’ve unlocked, and going through areas that would be too difficult for your normal form to travel through. There is, however, one big thing that Wolf Link helps you unlock. Before you enter the first dungeon, you have a run-in with a golden wolf that lunges at you and sends into a foggy void where a Stalfos named Shade teaches you a number of combat abilities. While they appear to be situational to some extent, they do a lot to spice up the combat and give you more available options when fighting monsters. And the only way to get these special combat moves is to find special Triforce Wind Stones around the map where you howl along to old classic songs from the previous Zelda games. With these moves, you’ll have much more combat options when fighting enemies like the Darknut, who acts as the mini-boss of the Temple of Time dungeon, but becomes a common enemy in the final dungeon where they appear in almost every room one after another. It’s a great escalation of challenge while giving the player the skills that they have to find for themselves without making the fights easier, as the Darknuts are tanky fights that you can’t so easily cheese like the toughest of enemies in Breath of the Wild.

Which reminds me. I haven’t actually talked about the dungeons in Breath of the Wild. Though honestly, the dungeons themselves don’t have a lot to talk about. It’s basically running around a giant mech and activating four panels before fighting the boss of it which can be easily cheesed with enough bomb arrows and rushdown attacks. As well as making use of the dungeon’s special environment controls to change one thing about the environment. While it’s likely they made the dungeons all follow the same rhythm to give players the option to explore each dungeon in a different order of their choice, it doesn’t really help these dungeons not feel like a bit of an afterthought compared to the real meat and potatoes of BotW. The Shrines. These suckers are all over Hyrule and each reward you with a Spirit Orb. Said Orb can be used to get either Heart Containers or Stamina Boosts when you give four of them to any Goddess Shrine in the world. These Shrines can have you solving a physics puzzle, going through an obstacle course, solving a memory puzzle, or just straight up fighting an enemy of specific difficulty. While these can be fun little challenges, the major reward you get from them can become extremely predictable and somewhat tiresome. Early game, I was finding shrines to help level up my health so I can better face the enemy, but about halfway through the game I grew tired of doing the shrines because they just weren’t worth it when I already had a lot of health and stamina. Yet if you want to get the classic iconic tunic that Link has always worn without having to search through amiibo scalpers for Legend of Zelda amiibos that give you Links tunic, you have to go through all 120 Shrines to get it. So while you will be jacked as all get out when you get all the shrines and you’ll have a classic tunic for when you fight Calamity Ganon, the final boss fight itself ends up being way easier than most other challenges you’ve faced up to that point, so the effort of leveling yourself up and getting all these big upgrades doesn’t feel like it’s being used against a foe that really deserves the kind of punishment you can dish out.

Despite all my negativities surrounding Breath of the Wild, I do think it’s a good game and an admirable product. The scale of the world is impressive, with so many moments when I just stopped moving and took in all the beautiful scenery. It’s a good game and a good Zelda game. I just feel that the difficulty balance, the lack of protagonist characterization, and very basic dungeon design keep it from being my favorite of the series. As for Twilight Princess, it will always be my personal favorite of the franchise. From its characters, to its dungeons, to its sword combat, to just the whole experience as a whole, it’s what I immediately think of when I think of Legend of Zelda. And if you feel the same way about Breath of the Wild, I think that’s great. I just wanted to share what personal issues I had with BotW now that it’s been three years since it came out.

[puclpodcast]

Pokemon of the Week #46 – Lanturn

Glub Glub PUCL readers, do you see that light in the distance, that haunting yet beautiful glow Illuminating the darkness of the ocean. If you get close enough you might see one of the most adorable Pokemon known to man but it might also be the last thing you ever see. Its a Lanturn and it happens to be my favourite Pokemon. It is another Generation 2 Pokemon with the perfect cross between simplicity and creativity in its design, and it has some interesting back story to boot. Before we jump into this article I want to shout out or Discord where I learned many of our members share a love of Lanturn and we had some great discussions.

National Dex #745 – Lanturn

Description: The Light Pokemon Type: Water/Electric Abilities: Volt Absorb/Illuminate Hidden Ability: Water Absorb Competitive: [Smogon PU] [Smogon NU] [Smogon RU] [Chinchou Smogon LC] Evolution: Chinchou -> Level 27 -> Lanturn

Origin: Lanturn’s name is a play on “lantern”. Since it learns Volt Switch I have linked the “turn” part to the Volt-Turn strategy. However, since that came out after Gold and Silver I’m sure the initial reason behind the spelling is that Lanturn “turns” all frowns upside down with its adorable, goofy appearance. Lanturn is based on an anglerfish and though its appearance is much friendlier, its Pokedex entries often speak of it luring prey using its light exactly how an anglerfish would. Original Appearance: Pokemon Gold and Silver Dex Entry [Day: Sun]: Should you peer into the ocean at night and see a light shining like the stars, that is Lanturn. TCG:

Sun & Moon

Shiny:

Analysis:

Lanturn in my opinion is what happens when you cross an anglerfish with a dolphin. It has the cuteness of a dolphin with the uniqueness of the anglerfish. I have always described it as derpy, floating through the ocean doing its own thing with a big smile on its face.

Lanturn comes equipped with Illuminate, the best ability in the game for anyone scared of the Dark or hunting in the ocean. For everyone else there is Volt Absorb and Water Absorb. There are few Pokemon with two different immunity abilities, Bronzong is sort of one and I actually can’t think of any others right now. Either way though it forces the opponent into a guessing game, do you have Volt Absorb or Water Absorb. With Lanturn you almost always choose Volt Absorb since you already resist Water but I remember back in ORAS RU I ran a Water Absorb Lanturn + Camerupt core that was a lot of fun. On the stats side, Lanturn is very PU looking. Its strongest feature is its large 125HP with decent SpDef and SpAtt. Its Speed is mediocre and its Physical stats are poor.

SumtimesIFly’s sister’s homemade present to him

  Lanturn’s attacking moves are well defined. The standard Water and Electric STAB moves like Hydro Pump, Scald, Thunderbolt, and Volt Switch are there plus it has Ice Beam, Dazzling Gleam, and Signal Beam for coverage. I even thought of running Watmel Berry and Natural Gift to lure in Ferrothorn or Magearna which were huge threats to one of my teams. Its utility goes on forever and all of the moves offer interesting sets. Ion Deluge, Heal Bell, Eerie Impulse, Whirlpool, Icy Wind, Agility, Aqua Ring, Amnesia to name a few. My favourite is Amnesia/Aqua Ring/Heal Bell because I have dreams where no Physical Pokemon exist and Leftovers Lanturn sits there in its ring of water as Pokemon try to bother it but it doesn’t feel a thing. Unfortunately, that never works as planned but its cute thought. As with every new game I hope that in Ultra Sun and Moon Lanturn get access to Tail Glow. I know it isn’t technically a tail but it fits so well and would be a huge buff.

There are a few sets on Smogon that I’ll cover here. The first is Choice Specs. It turns out that in PU Lanturn’s speed isn’t the worst around and it can actually be run as an Choice Specs user with really any combination of moves you desire. Volt Switch, Thunderbolt, Hydro Pump, Ice Beam, Signal Beam, Dazzling Gleam, or HP Fire. I haven’t played much PU so I don’t know how effective it would be but it sounds like a reasonable threat. A much more interesting set that relies on Lanturn’s strengths is that of a cleric. It runs Leftovers for recovery, Heal Bell for clericing…, Volt Switch, Scald, and Toxic. Some sets run Protect over Toxic to get more recovery but I think it needs Toxic to prevent it from being free set up fodder. In lower tiers, status is very common and having a cleric can be game winning and single handedly counter some teams that rely on status as a win condition. Lanturn has free switch ins on almost all Electric, Steel, and Water types giving it plenty of opportunity to use Heal Bell, throw off a Toxic, or pivot out with Volt Switch. You’ll notice throughout all of these sets that Volt Switch is present. I think that Lanturns #1 best use is as a pivot since it is bulky enough to absorb a hit and then pivot out gaining you momentum. For this reason it is important your team has answers to Ground types because they will prevent this strategy from really taking off.

For the past week I have been playing all sorts of Lanturn teams that I’ve made. I would have done PU where it finds itself currently ranked but I received some challenges to show off Lanturn’s true potential! That being said it is hard to make Lanturn the core of a team due to its poor offenses so you will see that I use it as more of a support Pokemon to help set the stage for other threats. Here is my team for RU. This was my first foray into SM RU meaning I won’t recommend this team. There is plenty of room for improvement once I understand the threats and counters present in the tier but it can be a starting point. I initially tried the Aqua Ring strategy I mentioned earlier but that never had enough impact and I switched it up. Welcome the Heatran of RU PUCL. With Whirlpool it can trap an opponent’s Pokemon that would cause your team trouble or if you are lucky that you counter completely. Something like Galvantula, Blastoise, or Diancie. Once it has fallen into your trap you throw off a Toxic and Protect every other turn until they are toast. Since Lanturn is typically too slow for Substitute, which Heatran runs, I replaced it with Heal Bell to prevent the trapped Pokemon from Toxic-ing you back. When not trapping this set can still act as a cleric, throw off Toxic, or gain momentum because whirlpooled opponents can’t switch giving you an easy prediction. Here are some replays i have of it in action! (ignore my Zoroark lapse in game 2 please, it was kind of late)

http://bit.ly/2gBeHIe http://bit.ly/2eEY9Ce

Alright now for the real test of Lanturn’s merit, OU. I have been climbing the suspect test ladder up to #148 (1332 ELO) with this set. It has been a lot of fun too and I am much more confident in this team than the RU one so I encourage you to try it out. My goal was to pair Lanturn with an Electric weak team because it is not only immune to Electric types it walls the common sets completely. Tapu Koko, Manetric, not Xircuitry because of Energy Ball, and most Magearna sets. For this reason you see Gyarados and Celesteela present. The key thing about Lanturn is that it is Ground weak so it needs good Ground switch ins surrounding it. Both Celesteela and Landorus-T fit that category, plus Mew is there for Zygarde and Garchomp. Landorus is Scarfed to deal with Volcarona as well. Finally, I needed another threat to round out my mostly defensive team which is why I chose Magearna. With Fairy/Electric coverage it hits most of the things that the rest of my team can’t deal with. It can also switch in easily on moves that threaten the rest of the squad, Will-o-Wisp, Knock Off, and Toxic, then proceed to set up. Enough about the team lets talk about the star. I wanted Lanturn to be a slow pivot and that was it. I wanted it to take a hit then Volt Switch out into a counter. Therefore it is max HP and SpDef with a snazzy Assualt Vest. For moves it ran Scald to avoid being a free switch in by Physical attackers, Ice Beam and Dazzling Gleam for coverage. With a lack of threatening Ground and Grass type Special Attackers there isn’t a Special move out there that can put a dent in this sharp dressed fish. It is a great teammate to have when fighting Tapu Koko rain teams as well because it counters Pelliper, Koko, and Greninja. I actually found my set was too fast and that I was outspeeding things like Clefable. If I were making this team again I might run even less Speed because being a slow pivot is that important. It lets you get in your Gyarados or Magearna to set up and win in the late game or Landorus to put on pressure mid game. One more change I would make is to run enough SpAtt to KO Landorus with Ice Beam. Ground types are a serious threat to this strategy so luring it in with your bright Electric type light before demolishing it with an Ice Beam offers game winning potential. My final comment is that Dazzling Gleam may not be that important. The only Pokemon I really needed it for was Kyurem but I far more frequently struggled with Ferrothorn and Scizor so it might be a good idea to use that lure on your head one more time and learn HP Fire. I added some replays below of it doing its thing in OU!

http://bit.ly/2eFit6p http://bit.ly/2gANqFU

xRainxWhenxIxDiex

This article is super long, but I find it fitting for my favourite Pokemon. Lanturn’s little brother Chinchou may not have its cuteness but it does have much better recognition in its tier. I won’t get too into the details but both the Berry Juice and Choice Scarf sets can be very effective in Little Cup. Even in VGC, if you are looking to play some goofy games, you can run Soak Lanturn with Tapu Bulu/Koko to get some surprise KO’s. There is plenty of room for trying new things with Lanturn which brings us to the theory crafting of the week. Ion Deluge Lanturn. Ion Deluge is a unique move that Lanturn learns with +1 priority. It transforms all normal type attacks this turn into Electric type allowing it to not only eliminate the damage but to heal thanks to Volt Absorb. By adding Toxic onto this set you can wear down threats in your tier, such as CurseLax or Swellow in RU, while they futilely try to attack you, only being able to heal you instead. I haven’t tried it but it is next on my list of Lanturn sets for sure.

Kezrek (my phone background for the past several years)

  In the icy depths the sea churns, lost Pokemon can’t find their way, until by the soft glow of Lanturns, they are guided back to light of day. I hope this article didn’t drag on too long and that it helped fuel PUCL’s Lanturn love. Let me know your favourite Lanturn/Chinchou sets or facts either here or in the Discord! Until next time, SumtimesIFly

from Pokemon of the Week #46 – Lanturn