#great post work out cooldown

[thankssteveditko]

Sony's PlayStation 5 Presents Insomniac's Marvel's Spider-Man 2 (the third game in the series)

I beat the main story and have enjoyed my time with the game overall! I want to talk about spoilers and things that I liked and disliked in the story, so here's a post with some scattered thoughts.

(Hello! I haven't forgotten that this blog exists! Like I said, no update schedule, I will read more of the Lee/Ditko comics whenever I make time for it. I've actually been sitting on a mostly-complete version of this post since I beat the game in October, thinking that I'd finish the rest of the side quests so I could throw in thoughts on those. But... eh, I'll do that whenever the inevitable DLC rolls around. I just wanna get these thoughts posted.)

Spider-Cop No More

First off: they downplayed the cop shit!!! This was the first thing that really struck me about the game, and I'm stunned that they actually listened to criticism on this. I thought we'd just be stuck with it forever.

It'll never be completely gone, of course. Spider-Man is always going to leave criminals webbed up for the police to take to prison, hoping that they'll do their time and come out the other side as Productive Members of Society. That's just a thing I begrudgingly accept as part of the genre that will probably never go away. But Spider-Man is no longer repairing police surveillance networks. You're no longer beating the shit out of random drug dealers. Gangs of escaped convicts still wearing their orange jumpsuits are no longer terrorizing the streets of New York.

Instead, Peter and Miles are played more as firefighters. Sometimes very literally! They work with firefighters, they rescue people from collapsing buildings, they rush injured people to the hospital. In general there's a huge increase in the number of random onlookers present during the big action setpieces, and the Spider-Men frequently have to save them from harm. One of the major side quest lines is even literally about a cult of arsonists, and you'll routinely find burning fuel tanker trucks you have to extinguish with your webs. It's great! Love this for them.

I also generally liked the side missions in this. There's a lot of good stuff with the Spider-Men being neighborhood heroes willing to help out anyone in need, no matter the problem. Some of them can get corny, sure, but that street level stuff has always been the real heart of Spider-Man to me.

Gameplay

The gameplay's as fun as ever. That probably goes without saying. I will not be spending a thousand words explaining that swinging is fun.

In particular, I really liked the changes to the Focus mechanic. I never loved the way Miles' game made you choose between healing and doing your special attacks, but here your four specials have their own cooldowns, and the Focus meter is spent on either healing or finishers. It still offers that risk/reward element, but those vicious cycles where you can't do any real damage because you keep needing to heal aren't nearly as bad as they were before.

Personally I didn't turn off the swing assist or turn on fall damage, because the streamlined swinging never bothered me in these games, but I'm glad the options are there for people who want them.

Kraven

I liked Kraven in this! I liked the way they leaned into his Hunters being this weird death cult, and him wanting to go down in a blaze of glory against a worthy foe, to the point that he's actually disappointed anytime a foe can't kill him. It riffs on things people liked in Kraven's Last Hunt without being the exact same story. I like that Kraven's gang is renting out this manor or whatever and just being a complete terror to the wait staff. I liked the way Kraven hunting Peter's rogues' gallery clashed with Peter's belief in giving his villains second chances. I liked that they were willing to have Kraven kill off a couple of the minor villains from the first game to sell how dangerous he is. (I know some people hated this, but like, come on. We already fought the Sinister Six. They don't need to do that again.) I like the way Kraven pushed Peter to the absolute brink, turning him more and more aggressive with the Black Suit. Good stuff all around, even if the Hunter enemy types did wear out their welcome a little bit by the end.

The Black Suit arc

I think I liked the way Insomniac handled Peter's Black Suit arc overall, but there's a tradeoff here.

They REALLY lean into the body horror tentacle stuff, with Black Suit Peter basically just being a skinny Venom by the end. The sequence where you play as Mary Jane while the symbiote puppets an unconscious Peter's body around and goes on a rampage against the Hunters was REALLY great at selling how scary Peter is becoming, and it made me completely change my tune on the inclusion of the MJ stealth missions in the sequel. Having to beat an out-of-control Peter as Miles immediately after Peter beats Kraven was also really good. This is all cool!

BUT, the thing is... with the symbiote powers being so freaky from the start, it really pushes my suspension of disbelief when Peter and co. take so long to become wary of it. I guess when you've been bitten by a radioactive spider and given superpowers, and when you live in the same universe as the Avengers and the X-Men, your perception of what's "normal" is going to be pretty warped. But they buy the whole "organic exosuit created to treat Harry's illness" story WAY too easily lmao. How do the self-aware slime tentacles help with his illness, exactly?

And I'm not sure how I feel about giving Peter Anti-Venom powers in the last act. It feels like it's primarily a concession so that they can give players that branch of their skill tree back, but honestly, the designer in me thinks it would be really cool (if risky) to just permanently lock players out of Peter's most powerful skills past a certain point. Yeah, it'd definitely piss people off, but it drives home the idea that Peter's given up greater power because it's the right thing to do. It'd put you in his shoes! Instead he just gets the symbiote powers back, but it's fine because the Venom voice in his head is gone and also the slime tendrils that explode out of his body are white now, which means they're good.

I have to say it. I'm sorry. The glistening white goo... they turned Peter into the Amazing Cum-Man. I changed back to the Classic Suit after rolling the credits and forgot I still had the Anti-Venom skills equipped, so I just saw regular old Spider-Man exploding his white goo everywhere. Terrible.

Assuming Peter is just stepping into more of a supporting role to Miles and not fully retiring after the events of this game, I really hope the Anti-Venom stuff is gone. I get that he needed it to counter Venom, but that's not what I want for Peter Parker.

Miles

Miles is good in this, and I really like his arc where he struggles with whether or not he should avenge his dad by killing Martin Li. I like how all that plays out. Unfortunately, they don't quite stick the landing when it comes to making him and Peter feel like equals in terms of narrative focus. His arc is definitely the B-plot to Peter's for the middle chunk of the story, which I guess was kind of inevitable since they decided to do the Black Suit arc. But Miles does at least get a lot of moments to shine, and by the end he's very much taking the lead as the main Spider-Man.

Becoming the main Spider-Man also gets Miles a new, wholly original suit that ended up being super controversial, and honestly... I kinda like it? Or at least I like what it's going for, even if the actual design could still use some work. It's something totally unique for Miles, and I like spandex/streetwear combo suits like what the Spider-Verse movies have popularized. But showing his hair is really pushing the limits of his secret identity. He hangs around Brooklyn Visions WAY too much for his classmates to not recognize his voice and haircut. And I understand why people would be wary about it becoming his "canon" look moving forward. But I think it's got potential.

On the subject of Miles, though, I will say that while I liked Miles' side missions, it feels like he's often saddled with the game's broad, kinda touristy, kinda token attempts at Showcasing The Diversity Of New York, in a way that Peter isn't.

I like that Miles has a deaf graffiti artist girlfriend that he and Ganke sign with, and I like that there's a series of side missions that explore some local jazz history, and I like that there's a mission where Miles helps a gay classmate ask his crush to prom. I like all these things! I like Spider-Man being involved with his community, and that said community includes such a wide variety of people! I like that this game slows down to savor these types of moments instead of just being all action all the time! But when I step back, I notice some patterns.

Hailey doesn't have a big role in the main plot, especially when compared to MJ, but Miles gets a side mission where you briefly play as her with muffled audio to teach you what being deaf is like. There are no major queer characters in the story - unless you count Felicia showing up for exactly one mission to mention she has an unseen, unnamed girlfriend in Paris now - but you get a side mission where Miles helps out a gay couple at his school, who then never come up again. To put it very uncharitably, they can feel like Very Special Episode missions. It's like the devs going: we're going to give Miles a Gay Mission, and an Impaired Hearing Mission, and a Cultural History Mission, so that we can say we touched on these things, but we're gonna make them all optional and keep them far away from the full-blown Superhero Stuff like fighting costumed villains. Those flavors cannot mix. Meanwhile, Peter gets to have a whole elaborate subplot about teaming up with Wraith to track down fucking Cletus Kasady. There's an imbalance here, and I think it's part of the reason why Peter still feels like the "main" Spider-Man for so much of the story.

I think this was all written with admirable intentions, but as others have pointed out, you can kinda tell that this game was mainly written by some white guys based in California. These attempts at depicting various marginalized groups can feel kind of detached in the same way that Insomniac's map of New York doesn't quite line up with the real thing. But I dunno. I'm not really the one to dig deep into some of this stuff as a white woman from Florida. I would be curious to read others' takes on this.

Maybe I'm just being overly cynical about the writers' well-meaning but corny and kinda out of touch liberal politics because of the podcasts.

The podcasters

I wish Jameson was in this more! They psyched us out by giving him a full character model for, like, two scenes. I like him being MJ's boss, but I wish we saw inside the Daily Bugle offices to get more Jameson.

At least his podcasts are better than the ones in the Miles game, though. Him completely trusting in Roxxon was just too much for me. Here he condemns Oscorp for the symbiote shit, and he also gets some moments where he takes the ongoing crises seriously and isn't just ranting about the Spider-Men. He isn't just a conspiracy theorist crackpot here. Shit like his "fuck Spider-Man, we have a justice system for a reason" speech makes him feel more like a human being with a point of view, rather than just a caricature. Definitely an improvement.

Unfortunately, I still find The Danikast grating. I'm sorry, Ashly Burch. It's not your fault. The quirky heckin' wholesome millennial podcaster lady who catches you up on current events and then reminds you to drink 64 ounces of water a day in the same breath is just too much for me. At least she doesn't have any lines as bad as her throwing in a "damn" and then going (direct quote here) "That's right - no censoring! That's how REAL I'm being right now!" like in Miles' game. Instead they give her this, like, almost psychic insight into the main plot to try and make her the angel on Peter's shoulder. The second Peter gets the symbiote she's like "Wow, y'all. Have you seen Spider-Man's new black suit? Something's different about him. He's been giving me such bad vibes lately. #NotMySpiderMan" Also she's supposed to be this, like, underdog independent podcaster who started her show on a whim and has become the voice of the people... but she's got billboards plastered all over the fucking city. Which makes her feel like an industry plant lmao

Again, there's a detachment with the writing. This is, like, some middle aged white liberal game dev guys' idea of what a modern leftist teenager would think is a Cool Activism Podcast. Unfortunately, because Insomniac thinks Danika's a hero, Mary Jane's triumphant ending is that she quits her job at the Bugle to become a podcaster, too, delivering a thinly veiled monologue about the pandemic to kick off her new podcast literally titled "The New Normal." She's going to save the world with podcasting, because that's the highest form of activism, I guess.

Venom

So! Venom! Venom was... okay.

Surprising no one, Harry Osborn is Venom. Harry's okay both as himself and as Venom, but I'm not sure his arc is a smooth one. He starts out as Peter's comically perfect best friend who returns to reminisce about the good ol' days and hand him his dream job on a silver platter, and then later he becomes a little ball of rage over the fact that Peter gets his symbiote and can't/won't give it back. I'm not sure that pivot is handled the most convincingly. You kind of have to write it off as the symbiote messing with their heads, I guess.

When he actually becomes Venom, I'm... mixed on the execution. On the one hand, the cool factor is absolutely there. He's a very cool big monster, and Tony Todd is great in the role. But he also wants to take over the world and make everyone a symbiote, and aside from any lingering resentment towards Peter, that's really all there is to him. It makes for a good video game to have a bunch of symbiote enemies and creepy symbiote nests and symbiote tentacles climbing up the sides of buildings in the last act... but is that really what I want out of Venom? Probably not. But he sure does look cool as a big monster guy to fight, and I was happy he was briefly playable.

Suits

Part of me feels like there's something lacking about the suit selection here, but almost every suit I liked in the previous games is back, and also I'm the type of person to give Peter the Classic Suit the second I unlock it and use that for most of the game. So does it really matter for me?

Peter's selection feels dominated by the various live action movie suits, but I get that those are going to be some of the suits people want to wear the most. I wish he had the Peter B. Parker skin to go with Miles' Spider-Verse alts, though. No idea why it's missing. Really I think I mainly just want more of the Spider-Verse designs.

Also I've complained about how most of the original suits designed for these games make Peter and Miles look like they were bitten by radioactive Alienware products, but I can just, you know. Wear other suits.

Misc thoughts

Everyone's already made this joke, but it's extremely funny that the Avengers didn't help with the symbiote invasion. Took one look at that and decided it wasn't their problem

On the subject of other superheroes, I do wish these games would acknowledge the Fantastic Four more. Peter's close relationship with that team feels woefully underutilized in his various adaptations

I like the trope of a boss fight that's a heightened version of a personal conflict between two people who are close, where throughout the fight the boss is airing out their grievances while the hero tries to get through to them emotionally. That especially works for Spider-Man! But WOW has Insomniac played that card a lot of times by the end of Spider-Man 2 lol

They're teasing the addition of Silk, I guess? I'm gonna be honest, I don't know shit about Silk, but I guess it was inevitable that they'd give us some form of Spider-Woman at some point. Gotta work all those costumes in somehow, and they're not brave enough to let one of the boys cosplay as Spider-Gwen.

They WERE, however, brave enough to let Harry say he loves Peter. I liked that little moment. They presumably meant it platonically, but clearly ol' Yaoi Lowenthal knows what's up

Post-leak addendum

So, obviously, by the time I got around to finishing this post the big Insomniac leak happened. I wish the game industry wasn't so secretive that it took a massive, dangerous data breach just to get our hands on some very basic info that would be public knowledge if Insomniac was a film studio, but here we are.

We now know that Insomniac spent somewhere around $315 million making Spider-Man 2 - triple what the first Spider-Man game cost to make. A quote about this from a leaked presentation has been stuck in my head ever since I first saw it on Twitter. “Is 3x the investment in [Spider-Man 2] evident to anyone who plays the game?”

To be honest, I'm not sure it is.

I liked Spider-Man 2, but I'd probably say that overall I liked it about as much as the first game. It's certainly a somewhat bigger game, with marginally more realistic looking graphics thanks to the power of the PS5. But I think I could do without ray tracing and more realistic hair rendering and whatnot if it meant that these games didn't take like five years and hundreds of millions of dollars to make. I could not give less of a shit if the swinging animations were recycled between games. I'd be fine with them being shorter, too.

I like these games, but as we look at that leaked project lineup and realize that Insomniac is turning into The Marvel Game Studio, I think about how many smaller, more original games that those resources could go towards if they scaled back the Marvel stuff just a bit. How many Ape Escapes or Patapons or Gravity Rushes could get made for the budget of just one of these massive AAA tentpole games of Sony's, which are apparently barely even breaking even? How many could be made for the budget of the "smaller, cheaper" Miles Morales game, which somehow cost $156 million to make despite using an updated version of the same Manhattan map from the first game? Hell, how many smaller games could have been made with the $39 million that went into remastering the first Spider-Man game for PS5 a mere two years after launch? How many people will lose their jobs if any one of Insomniac's upcoming Marvel games underperforms - which, in this case, could mean selling "only" 5 million copies? And would hardcore PlayStation fans even accept those smaller games at this point, now that they've been trained to only appreciate mega-budget Prestige Games with cutting edge graphics and treat everything else with disdain? How much worse will this get as the graphical arms race continues?

I think I just miss Japan Studio. Fuck Sony. Uhh but anyway the Spider-Man game this post was supposed to be about was good, some writing complaints aside. 8/10

[rapifessor]

Have another post from this Chiori-obsessed blog:

I've been looking into some of the criticisms people have of this character, since I'd been hearing things and I wanted to know if those concerns were really valid. Long story short: they are.

People are understandably upset about the nerfs she's been receiving. It's pretty frustrating when we get characters like Neuvillette who are insane monsters, but then the devs turn around and relentlessly scrutinize and tweak others, like Chiori.

Chiori was nowhere near as strong as Neuvillette is currently and she's seemingly getting hit with nerf after nerf. It really makes you wonder if HoYo is even trying to balance the game, or if they're just playing favorites. Which, needless to say, would be incredibly unfair. Or maybe they really are just that stupid and have no idea what they're doing. Hard to say.

Anyway, this is not a doompost; rather, it's an attempt at a rational analysis of what Chiori's shortcomings are and what they mean for her success as a unit. As I said, I find most criticisms of her kit to be valid, but that doesn't mean Chiori is weak. Far from it.

The general consensus is that Chiori is a stronger version of Albedo. She has pretty much the exact same role, but she deals more damage than Albedo does, and doesn't have to deal with the cringe of her primary source of damage being killed by bosses all the time. In this sense, Chiori is a perfectly good unit who has a place in the meta.

The primary complaint isn't Chiori's power level, it's her lack of flexibility and the fact that she's essentially a rehash of an existing character. People dislike that Albedo is being powercrept, and that Chiori wasn't given a more unique design that doesn't limit her to mono Geo teams. That's all very understandable.

Now for the actual nerfs: removal of DEF snapshotting for Chiori's dolls, and of course the decrease in the burst multiplier. Plus the changes made to her Constellation in earlier beta versions. Personally I don't think these nerfs change much, although removing Chiori's ability to snapshot was cringe and the burst damage nerf seems unwarranted. 30% reduction in damage dealt is a bit much if all they wanted to do was reduce her Energy needs and make C2 better.

HoYo going out of their way to nerf the output of Chiori, when her only real strength is being able to deal a lot of damage, feels a bit like a slap in the face. Especially when they're doing that instead of addressing some of Chiori's key issues, like the lack of AoE on her dolls' attacks, or the fact that she can't reposition them because of her skill's relatively long cooldown. Not to mention, once again, her team restrictions.

What this all means is that Chiori is not a particularly good pull if you're looking to add value to your account or just trying to 36-star the Abyssal Spire for the first time. She can be pretty strong for new players, due to her raw damage that will help you breeze through early-game content, but for the average invested F2P, she's not great.

But also: if you're willing to do what it takes to make her good, Chiori will be good. It's a matter of playing her in the right team and giving her enough investment to put in work for you. If, like me, you're undeterred by Chiori's blandness and limitations, don't worry about all the doomposting. You'll be able to make her work, she's not a bad character by any means.

[oltammefru]

The newly introduced IS3 collectible Glory Pack is insane for like so many entirely different reasons:

First, let's talk about what it does in IS3. Its effect reads "When an operator is defeated, it will stun all enemies in the 4 adjacent tiles for 6 seconds."

This is a very misleading description because:

It actually stuns within a small radius (1.25 tiles), not just the 4 adjacent tiles.

It works with many non-operator units, not just operators. These include (but are not limited to): summoner summons, stuff like pozyomka's typewriter and skalter's seaborn, exploding THRM-EXes, even things like Ebenholz S2 shadows and W mines work.

(It's also nice enough to hit air units, which makes it incredibly useful against the floating manta rays).

This effect is so ridiculously broken. Even if you don't go out of your way to abuse its effects by picking fast redeploys, summoners, and units with entities that trigger its effect, it is still incredibly strong. If you do anything at all to utilize its effect, it's gamebreakingly good. With two fast-redeploys, you can keep most stun-vulnerable enemies, including bosses, occupied basically permanently, with just an E2 deepcolor, you have effectively 7 stun bombs on a short cooldown etc.

Perhaps the coolest thing you can do with it is that if you place down skalter/pozyomka/a tactician and then their seaborn/typewriter/summon, you can retreat skalter/pozy/the tactician and this will cause their seaborn/typewriter/summon to trigger the glory pack effect. It's generally pretty impractical but when you can get it to work it's so incredibly satisfying to pull off. (Note: it doesn't work with summoners and their associated summons. The summons just disappear without exploding

The most ridiculous part about it is that it somehow manages to be a common collectible. Sure, Old Fan is about as broke, but at least that one is Super Rare.

Second, its animation is so funny. The fact that after dying, your operators just fucking explode. It works I guess??

Third, if you look at its place in the IS3 collectibles viewer, you'll see that it's in the "important lore artifacts" section and the contrast between Glory Pack and all the other artifacts is great.

In this section, you have:

The crown of the Sarkaz King, destined to bring about the end of days.

The very flames the Inquisition uses to incinerate the Seaborn themselves.

An emanation of a vengeful God's wrath.

End of Times, which itself I'm convinced has some really deep lore that I could write an entire post about (and maybe I will do this at some point)

And then also Glory Pack, whose flavor text reveals that it apparently gets used for making bets at sporting events in nightmare dystopian capitalist hellscape Poland. Very Cool.

[delicatesoundofthunderr]

Lock-up ~ Chapter 4

{Charles Leclerc x Reader}

chapter 3 ^

•••

Present - Post Monza GP

Y/N POV

" That's P1 Y/N, P1!" your engineer screams in your ears as you pass the finish line, chequered flag waving above your car.

" YES. YES! FINALLY! You guys were insane this weekend. Thank you. Bring the champagne directly to me please." I half-joked.

Chris chuckled and congratulated me.

" Beautiful race Y/N, your determination really paid off. Enjoy the festivities now."

I jumped out of my car and threw my fists up in the air. The crowd was buzzing, thrilled to finally have an Italian take the win in Monza. My first win. What better way to have it here, in my paternal country.

Max found me and lifted me off my feet with his arms around my waist.

" I'm so, so proud of you!" Max says, bringing his lips to my cheek and hugging me tightly.

I laughed and thanked him as he put me down.

Then, I ran to my team and jumped into the crowd they had formed near the fences. I close my eyes, feeling their warm embrace all around me that equaled to a welcoming blanket that made me feel so, so proud of myself.

I open my eyes to see my dad with his arms crossed and a slight smile on his face.

" My teaching finally paid off, huh?" he says proudly.

" I never could've done it without you, dad."

And you truly believed that. You kept reminding yourself it was all your dad's work paying off.

•••

I made my way to the driver's cooldown room with Max and Leclerc, and I instantly started speaking with Max, well aware of Leclerc's cold stare on the both of us.

" Wait I have to check something..." Max said, as if suddenly remembering something.

He quickly sat up from his seat and made his way to the door.

" Great race out there Charles." He said passing Leclerc.

" Thanks mate." Charles smiled at him.

It was a bit awkward alone with him, but I contented myself with drinking water and watching the replays on the screen. Instead of my mistakes and crashes, it was my overtakes' and defending's turn to be on the big screen.

Hushed voices could suddenly be heard outside the room.

" Yeah, Max definitely gave her the win cuz he's in love with her." A man declared, sure of his theory.

" Right... We could almost see him slow down for her!" another laughed.

Both of them continued to call my win worthless, undeserved, rigged...

After all the work I had put in that race... after keeping Russell behind, overtaking both Leclerc and Max and defending perfectly, people still had something to say. Still, it got me seriously thinking about the bigger picture. Was it all in Max's little game to make people think we're dating? That was one of my best races, but now I wasn't so sure.

" Can you guys shut up? We've both worked very hard and now we're exhausted, but we just can't seem to relax with your annoying voices in the background." Charles tells the now embarrassed men, before slamming the door close.

I hadn't noticed him getting up. He went back to his seat as if nothing happened, stealing a quick glance at me.

" Thank you." I say, meaning it.

He shrugged.

" I know how it feels." he says simply.

I was taken aback. He was one of the most adored drivers on the grid.

" Do you? Nobody says a word when you win. Only cheers are heard." I mutter.

" Maybe publicly. Privately, Ferrari are constantly- nevermind. I don't know why I would tell you that." He said.

I stayed silent.

Suddenly, I was called to the post-race interview in front of everyone. An uproar of yells and whistles just for me could be heard.

" Are those cheers I hear?" Charles says, with a sarcastic shocked face.

I rolled my eyes and smiled a bit.

" Not everyone is out to get you, Y/N. You just have to open those eyes of yours." he said, with a surprising seriousness in his voice and eyes.

I looked back at him but no words formed.

I hated to admit it, but he was right. When I came out, every person in the grandstands was standing up and cheering for me. I couldn't help it. I don't cry often but this was too many emotions.

Tears left my eyes as I smiled and waved at everyone.

" Y/N, L/N. How does it feel to have your first win here in Monza?" the reporter asked.

" I was waiting for this win, and what better place to have it here in my half home. Although, today, I must admit it feels like my forever home." I smiled.

There was a couple of "Aww"s in the crowd.

The podium went well, and the champagne tasted of victory and bitterness. I had heard more people talk about the theory that Max let me past. To my dismay, I followed Leclerc's advice and observed around me. My team was at my feet, with proud smiles on. I smiled widely and continued to spray the champagne.

•••

ppl are so annoying

hope yall enjoyed 💞

[prismatic-glow]

who to pick in 4.4 || genshin character selector guide

hello everyone, i'm back!! in today's post, i'll be going through all of the characters available for free in 4.4 and talking about who will be the best choice for you.

note: I will not be ranking or saying the "best" character to choose. Instead, i'll go over their strengths and weaknesses along with why they might be a good choice

let's begin!

ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ Yao Yao Yao Yao is a Dendro Polearm user. Her main roles are healing and Dendro application. Yao Yao is a very good character and is one of the best of the never four stars. She can work great as a secondary (or sometimes the sole) Dendro character in a team. Her skill deals damage, heals, and applies Dendro from off-field which is very useful. Her burst is able to quickly heal your entire team which allows her to work quite well with Furina. If you're F2P and especially if you don't have Nahida, Yao Yao is an amazing choice. constellations ・❥・works perfectly fine at C0. Cons lower her energy needs and give her a bit more healing, along with some more Dendro application. Her cons helps her most in Aggravate/Spread teams and Nilou Bloom teams

ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ Yanfei Yanfei is a Pyro Catalyst user. Her main role is being a DPS but at C4, she can also work as a shielder. Yanfei has decent AoE and is very easy but satisfying to play. She works very well for early game players. Yanfei is a decent choice if you need a DPS but if you already have a strong DPS and don't especially like Yanfei, she isn't that useful. constellations ・❥・works fine at C0. Cons increase her damage. At C4, her burst creates a shield that is quite strong. If you're Yanfei is C4+, she can function as a shielder in some teams

ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ Yun Jin Yao Yao is a Geo Polearm user. She works as a buffer for normal attack damage. Because there aren't DPS characters who focus soley/primarily on normal attack damage, she is a bit of a niche choice. If you use a normal attack DPS like Yoimiya and want to further increase her damage, Yun Jin can be a great choice constellations ・❥・Functions fine at C0. Cons mainly increase her buffing capability. Her C6 grants normal attack speed which is a rare buff and can make gameplay a lot more fun.

ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ Xinyan Xinyan is a Pyro Claymore user. She can occupy a number of different roles such as Physical DPS, Shielder, Burst Support, or Physical Support, but doesn't excel in any of these roles. I would really only reccomend choosing Xinyan if you don't need any of the other characters and if you like her/want to play her constellations ・❥・Doesn't require cons but they are a nice upgrade. C4 allows her to be a Physical support and the rest of her cons increase her own damage. Her C2 is incredibly unique and is the only talent in the game that guarantees a crit hit!

ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ Chongyun Chongyun is a Cryo Claymore user. He can function as a DPS or a support. His skill is very unqiue, it creates a field that infuses your Claymore/Poelarm/Swork characters with Cryo! This allows him to infuse himself to act as a DPS or to enable some fun combos with other characters! If you like Chongyun or want to try out some fun teams with his infusion, go for it! Otherwise, I wouldn't reccomend choosing him constellations ・❥・works perfectly fine at C0. All of help increase his own damage. His C2 decreases the skill/burst cooldown of abilities cast inside his skill's field. This is a very unique effect and can be useful in some situations

ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ Xingqiu Xingqiu is a Hydro Sword user. Honestly, i'm just gonna go out and say it: Xingqiu is incredibly broken and every account should have at least one copy of him. If you don't already have him, he is almost 100% the best choice. Anyways, Xingqiu functions as an off-field Hydro applier with some defensive capability. His burst allows your characters to apply Hydro with their normal attacks. Xingqiu is able to enable a ton of reactions and works in SO. MANY. TEAMS. Hydro has some of the strongest reactions so being able to trigger them easily with good damage and defensive capability makes Xingqiu one of the best options. If you don't have him already or don't want any of the other characters, please choose Xingqiu. constellations ・❥・insanely strong at C0 but all of his cons are very very useful and great to have.

ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ Beidou Beidou is an Electro Claymore character. Her main role is to be an off-field DPS but she can also function onfield. She has very strong damage and Electro application. Her burst also grants interruption resist which is very useful. Her C2 is super super super amazing so if you are at C1 and don't desperately need another of the characters, she's a great pick. And if you don't have her, she's also a really amazing option constellations ・❥・works perfectly fine at C0. C2 is a massive damage increase and makes her a lot better in AoE. C1 grants a shield while her burst is active which is nice but the sheild isn't particularly tanky. Her other cons grant her more damage

ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ Xiangling Xiangling is a Pyro Polearm user. She is considered one of the strongest characters in Genshin. Xiangling has INSANE off-field damage and perfect synergy with Bennett who is also one of the best characters. She is given for free in Abyss but her cons are very very strong. Unless you need another of the characters, Xiangling is a safe pick constellations ・❥・broken at C0 and even more broken with cons. C4 is by far her best con. C6 works really nicely in mono-pyro teams or teams with another Pyro DPS

ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ Gaming Note: he literally just came out so I don't have as much info on him Gaming is a Pyro Claymore user. He is a DPS character who uses Plunging attacks enabled by his skill. From what i've seen/heard, Gaming is one of the strongest 4 star DPS characters whose damage at C6 is comparable to some C0 five stars. He's new and a very likable + strong character so if you want to choose him, he's an awesome choice!! personally, i'll be going for him constellations ・❥・great at C0. C6 is a ton more damage

and that's all for today!! I hope you find this guide useful. Who will you be choosing in 4.4?

Good luck with your pulls!!

[brandingtim]

Taste the Victory: How Peloton Can Use Sensory Branding to Fuel Member Engagement

Have you ever been to an Equinox? How does it make you feel? What do you remember about your experience—do you remember the workout you had or the eucalyptus-scented towels and Kiehl's products in the changing rooms?

The best products I can think of (i.e., Equinox, Apple, Coke, old-growth wines, etc.) are just as much about the sensory experience as they are about the product itself. If I consider great, low-friction products to be table stakes to become a successful company these days, then creating sensory experiences along with those products is how to differentiate the good from the great companies.

Now if you know me then you know that I have had my fair share of sports injuries over the years and that has led me down the path of low-impact, “retiree-style” workouts to stay active. One of my favorite workouts these days is riding on a Peloton. Below I have brainstormed three ideas that Peloton could take to enhance its brand and drive stronger membership growth, engagement, and/or retention.

Post-ride snacks: one of my favorite things about Peloton is the fact that I know that I will be completely gassed at the end of my workout and I know exactly how long my ride will take. If I only have 45min to work out, I know that I can do a 5min warmup ride, 30min HIIT workout, 5min cooldown ride, and be off the bike in exactly 45min. However, I’m always starving when I finish my rides and I don’t always have enough time to make a healthy meal before I need to shower and get on with my day.

What if Peloton partnered with healthy merchants and food delivery apps such as UberEats or Doordash to have healthy snacks or meals delivered right to your door at the end of your workouts. The company could start with a limited number of options to (e.g., smoothies & acai bowls), but this could lay the groundwork for cognitive associations between the workout class and that delicious smoothie that is delivered to your door at the end of the workout. Peloton could even gamify the process by allowing members to earn credits towards their favorite snacks based on rides completed.

2. Workout fan/filter: every time I ride a Peloton I look like I just got out of the swimming pool. One of the challenging things about indoor cycling is that it never gives you the sensory feel of riding outside with the wind in your hair.

Peloton has (essentially) mastered the audio/video elements of workout classes, but the classes are still only three-dimensional. I believe there’s an opportunity to add a fourth dimension to the bikes by adding a Dyson-style fan and air purifier to the bike. This fourth dimension will help cool down riders, give them the sensory experience of riding outdoors, and could even be enhanced with an optional Peloton signature scent. This could be something similar to the eucalyptus-scented towels in Equinox gyms. This scent could be released from the fan after the rides and be a calming fragrance that riders could learn to associate with Peloton.

3. AR Experience: I don’t believe we are there yet, but once AR headsets gain traction Peloton could tap into the immersive experience. Imagine wearing Meta/RayBan glasses and being able to see your friend next to you riding in a Peloton class. I think VR headsets are likely too immersive to wear during a workout class (would likely result in people falling off their bikes or feeling nauseous but AR seems like a much more feasible entry point.

Overall, similar to how sensory-inducing wine labels impacted not just taste but also consumption, a more sensory riding experience on Peloton bikes could create a “halo-effect” to revive the sputtering performance of the company post-pandemic.

[lilyblackdrawside]

Inam - 6-Star Lord Guard

Elite 2, Level 90 Stats

2650 HP 701 Atk 380 Def 10 Res 70s Redeploy Time 20 DP Cost 2 Block 1.3s Attack Interval

Trust Boni

+400 Hp +70 Atk

Potential Boni

2 Deployment Cost -1 3 Redeployment Cooldown -4s 4 +200 HP 5 +27 Def 6 Deployment Cost -1

Talent 1 Maximize Available Assets When deployed, increases the SP recovery rate of all Vanguards by +0.2~0.4/second (only the highest effect of this type takes place) and all Vanguard Operators’ Def +10%~20%

Talent 2 Acquire Knowledge Gains +3% HP for each Vanguard, Guard, Defender and Sniper in the squad and +3 Res for each Caster, Medic, Supporter and Specialist in the squad

Rank 7/Mastery 3

Skill 1

Wicked Chop On-Attack Charge, Auto 3 SP, 0 Initial SP

The next melee attack deals 400/460% atk pure damage over 4s to the target.

Skill 2

Great Chief’s Show of Artistry On-Attack Charge, Manual 20/15 SP, 7/10 Initial SP, 16s Duration

Gain +50/80%Atk, Attack interval halved. Attacks leave a stacking mark on the target that inflicts -3/4% movement speed and -3/4 aspd per stack. One second before skill ends, the mark is removed and deals 80/110% atk physical damage per stack to the target.

Skill 3

Power of Money Automatic Charge, Manual

35/30 SP, 0 Initial SP

Consume all currently held DP to gain permanent, stacking buffs to Atk, ASPD and Phys/Arts damage reduction. +7/10% Atk, +7/10 aspd, +1/1.25% Phys/Arts damage reduction per 20 DP. If used at >=99 DP, refunds 50% SP.

Base Skill 1 Great Chief’s Coordination When stationed in a Trading Post, sets order acquisition efficiency of other Sargon operators, Gavial and Gavial the Invincible to 0 and then increases it to +35%.

Base Skill 2 Lead by Example Gains +10% order acquisition efficiency per other Sargon Operator stationed in trading posts, up to +50%.

The theme here is being a Lord Guard who doesn't do any Arts damage that she would have above average basic tankiness just through her stats. She's still not tanky-tanky, but within her subclass she's quite sturdy. She can then leverage her defensive bases by using her very strong S1 or with S3 (I'll go more into S3 in a bit). I also worked her background into the whole thing a bit.

Initially I had S1 modular with it letting her ranged attacks ricochet if she uses it not in melee, but I think this is better. It's more interesting and could incentivize different positioning. I made the dot pure damage because that's funny.

S2 is more for ranged play and designed to take down elites and bosses. It's very straightforward to use, even if it might look a bit complicated. Activate it and she goes nuts on whoever is the closest in her range and when it's about to time out her target is vaporized. I made the stats up with around 20 attacks within 15 seconds in mind. With just the halved attack delay she actually manages just above 24, but the slowing effects shouldn't be too harsh, since by the time they're stacked that high, the skill is about to expire anyway. Would be mildly busted in Integrated Strategies if you get enough aspd and stack -100% move and aspd onto an enemy, but that's okay. Don't worry about it.

Okay, S3. So that's the meme skill. It's the one you make funny videos with. Yes, she can reach 100% Phys and Arts resist. It costs 1600 DP, up to 2000 if you also go for the SP discounts. At that point she also has +800% ATK and +800 ASPD. (7 attacks/s) The earliest you could get this, going just by pure SP is after five and a half minutes. Of course you also need to generate the required 2000 DP + however much you need to deploy your operators within that time. Stages don't tend to last that long, but if you want, you can also give her some form of SP charge and go for it. Something like Ptilopsis, Warfarin, Inam, Myrtle, Elysium, Saileach and the next six best DP generators. Probably a bunch of Pioneers, I don't know. Might be problematic in Annihilation I guess, but nobody's looking.

Anyway, this was fun. I was going to do a full fake operator sheet but Krita krashed and I lost Kritacal progress so this is what I got.

[greaterbalrogcat]

Would it be cool if we got a Bora unit review?

UNIT REVIEW: BORA/BAZIBASTRA

stats are at level 50 because i have decided that using stats at level 60 was kinda cringe of me, y'all ain't spending 15 dark eyes on catman lmao

bazibastra, henceforth referred to as bora (due to first form being named bora and i hate typing out bazibastra), is an alien nuker and part of the nature's guardians elemental pixies uber banner, commonly referred to as elemental pixies or just pixies. this is one of the most straightforwardly good units in the game.

bora's 8k dps (66.9k dph) and 85.6k health outside of its target trait are decent enough to survive in mixed stages, and against aliens, these quadruple and quintuple respectively to 33341.08 dps (267840 dph) and 427950 health. it also has 100% barrier breaker, as is consistent across all elemental pixies (as of 13.0) and warp immune, both to make it viable against starred aliens. its three knockbacks are standard, giving it decent survivability without sacrificing too much durability, and 390 range allows it to outrange a solid amount of aliens while being able to tank anything it can't outrange. speed and cost are roughly average, with cost being slightly lower than the typical uber but about standard for a pixie, and cooldown is decently low, giving it very solid mobility.

bora, as with most pixies, is at its best in into the future (itf) and cats of the cosmos (cotc). both itf's common aliens (hyppoh, maawth, helmut krabbe, lemurr, mistress celeboodle) and major threats (cyberhorn, imperator sael, ursamajor, nimoy bore, bun bun symbiote, all three moon bosses) will either get outranged or tanked by bora and then murdered. cotc's aliens tend to have warp or barrier, both of which bora nullifies, and the threatening itf enemies brought back to cotc continue to get crushed. cotc's high pushing power and reliance on CC to stall big threats don't exactly help bora, but its low cooldown helps a lot with getting another out after the first goes down, and the only real issue with bora in cotc is the rare non-alien threat and restrictions that deny you the use of bora.

bora's relevance continues into UL and advent stages, where its high stats make it more useful in a less CC-based meta. while alien threats are much rarer than they were in the alien-based story chapters (obviously), starred aliens tend to have much higher stats than the average enemy (increased to counteract cotc treasures), and the high stat fast pushers of star peng and mesocosmocyclone can be countered by bora fairly easily, as long as you meatshield them enough. the occasional overbuffed cyberhorn or nimoy bore will go through the same. advent bosses such as wanwan, queen b, and puffsley are made much easier by bora, and some advent stages (such as wahwah revenge and zonel) have use for bora despite the boss not being an alien, due to problematic alien peons. ZL consistently bringing back advents may lead to bora seeing increased use in endgame as well.

bora is arguably the best elemental pixie. in a set where only two or three ubers can be considered "bad" (aer, bliza, tekachi (the new pixie that's fat and turns into a thwomp, posted a video of him here)), this is pretty damn impressive. the only three units that can challenge this title are lumina, the legend rare, gravi, an incredible tank with great waving ability, and voli, a 100% freeze anti-alien with solid uptime and low cooldown. thing's busted

tl;dr: great anti-alien nuker, good compatibility, will carry through itf and cotc, keeps working even into lategame

[infestedslime]

@natahposting I’m gonna start on the wasp and flower warframes soon and I’m making this post as a way to both get down all the ideas I had, as well as get any feedback/suggestions/ideas for them before I start. Anyone else who would like to leave suggestions/help out (mostly with the ability kit since I’m not great at those) is greatly appreciated. I’m gonna put this under a readmore since it’ll be pretty long

I’ll start off with name suggestions.

• the most obvious would be vespid for the wasp frame since it’s a cool word and something like marigold or eucalyptus for the flower frame since they work as names and are plants that wasps enjoy. However I feel like these the simplest names I could come up with and I’d like to do something more specific

• one with paper wasp influences could be called something similar sounding to polistinae, with the flower frame being called sedum or any of the aforementioned plants all of which paper wasps seem to like

• a tarantula hawk could be cool aesthetically but their scientific name, Pepsini, doesn’t really feel right to me. It would also be weird to base the frames off of desert flora and fauna given tau ceti f is meant to be pretty lush, or at least the part we would see is, so I don’t think it would match tonally

• velvet ants, or mutillidae would be another cool one. I couldn’t find any plants that they like but my search on them specifically mentioned they like big open sunny areal like cemeteries so maybe the plant frame could be based on a flower associated with graveyards or something? It’d be a little weird but it could be cool

• the cuckoo wasp, or chrysididae is another cool one, they’re a shiny blue green and like sunflowers, which means we could make the plant frame’s name something similar to helianthus. Worth noting I don’t think any of the scientific names here would make great names on their own but they’re good jumping off points to base a name on.

• normally id look to mythology or folklore for name ideas since that’s where warframe draws a lot of its names from, but I couldn’t really find amything. I’m sure there’s some stuff out there though so if anyone has suggestions I’d be happy to hear them!

The next thing I’d like to bring up is the ability kits. I’m not very good at writing abilities and I’m definitely not very good at balancing so I’m just gonna put some barebones suggestions for stuff here.

Flower frame

• ability 1 is an exalted arm canon that envelops their arm and launches sticky nectar, applying some sort of status and slowing enemies

• ability 2 causes a flower to bloom on an enemy, reducing their damage and healing any frame that kills them. Blooms have a chance to spread to nearby enemies, with a higher chance to spread to status affected enemies

• ability 3 places down small fields of flowers (up to 3) that heal allies over time and choke enemies with pollen (modified status similar to gas that causes enemies to stop and try to get it off, and which will exacerbate status effects already on enemies). Holding the ability will create one large area of flowers and revive all nearby downed allies, but will also put the ability on a long cooldown

• ability 4 is a big explosion of growth, with flowers attaching to allies giving health and damage bonuses and flowers attaching to enemies putting them to sleep, with enemies affected by status providing energy to nearby tenno based on how many status types they are affected by

•passive is taking less damage from crowd controlled enemies

Wasp frame

• ability 1 is an exalted fist weapon in the form of large stingers that deals mostly puncture and toxin with very high status and a unique stance designed to hit many enemies at once. deals extra damage for every enemy hit in one attack

•ability 2 initiates a grab attack on enemies who are then injected with high amounts of corrosive damage and are paralyzed in place

• ability 3 summons a swarm of technocyte wasps (which appear as indistinct clouds like the kiva on siphon missions) that hover around the player, coordinating with their attacks and adding puncture and viral damage. Enemies affected by cc get lingering clouds of insects that deal damage over time and count towards the first abilities enemies hit bonus

• ability 4 is a furious rush forward (closer to gauss’ mach rush than Excalibur’s slash dash), impaling all enemies in your way. For every enemy hit you will gain a damage bonus as well as an extension to said bonus after exiting the ability. Enemies affected by cc give twice the bonus and if the ability is activated with the exalted weapon active it lasts twice as long.

• passive gives a very small damage bonus for every stack of a status an enemy has

Again these are just quickly thought up ability sets and if anyone has suggestions for improvement, stats for the abilities, or even just an entirely different ability set they come up with please feel free to add them, these ones aren’t meant to be final, just some ideas for kits

The last thing, and the most important for me since I’ll be drawing them, is aesthetics. @natahposting this section is mainly aimed at you.

I’ll start with what has been mentioned thus far:

• plant frame is organic looking but still visibly sentient, and they also look like the more dangerous of the two. I’ve got a couple ideas for designs, but I probably won’t settle on anything until I know what plant to base them on.

•the wasp frame is a much more orokin looking frame, and looks more heavily armored. In one of the tags I think I saw possible mention of basing them off a samurai, which I think would be cool

• this is the main reason I made this post (although it doesn’t seem like it since I put more into the other sections than I originally intended to) and I basically just wanna know if there are any other elements I should integrate into the designs or specific aesthetic bits that would be cool

• also any ideas for signature weapon designs?

[anothersimlishtragedy]

Good evening all! 

I am trying my hand at modding after being inspired by all the fantastic modders out there in the community. I don’t know about you, but I’ll be playing my history challenge (or building or cc-shopping or just existing) and think, this would make a great mod: For example,  I wondered if there was a way that I could tweak the pregnancy system to allow a “cooldown” for 2-3 sim days after sims give birth to echo more realistic pregnancy experiences. Does it exist already? Possibly! But there is SO much out there and the history challenge is heavily story based - which means things can get really specific! Another example: a bedrest function for expecting or chronically ill sims. Again, it may already exist and it also may be so niche and (pointless) that no one else cares but maybe, just maybe, it scratches your historic itch as well! 

Help me use this post as a running sticky note of helpful resources and if you’d be so kind, share in the comments a mod suggestion that you’d love to see enhance your historic gameplay, the “niche-ier” the better. 

Please reblog if you’re a historical simblr and let’s get nostalgic.

I’ll be working on beefing up my resources page in the meantime so I can give credit to all you amazing folks as well as make wishlists <3 

[macgyvertape]

D2 Lightfall campaign thoughts

gameplay discussion above, campaign and post campaign story below cut:

New UI looks good, just wish they made the element mods color coded.

Immediately went to go craft a bunch of weapons before starting the campaign, I’m glad they made the change to crafting materials

Thinking back to when you used to have to spend ascendant shards to change the armor affinity of a masterwork piece, I’m so glad the game has progressed to no elemental armor since that will save me a lot of vault space.

Once again 9 or 10 resilience is incredibly noticeable in survivability vs lower resilience

The redo of the mod system from a dev standpoint probably makes designing the challenge level a lot easier since the elemental well mods had a lot of extremely powerful outlier combos. However, doing fun and varied buildcrafting was a big engagement point for me for the last 6 months so I hope there’s more creative options than at first glance.

huh Bungie is introducing destroyable cover, that showed up in the mars battleground last season. Very curious about the design process for that

Fighting tormenters feels like Dark Souls where you position around telegraphed wind up attack and a lot of dodging. Especially when you damage them enough and they “go full sicko mode” and charge you for the kill grab. Blinding grenades or chill clip to stun, or Arc Speedboost with witherhoard/anarchy for damage over time and kiting them around seem to be the winning strats. 

Checkpoint system in the campaign right before the rally flag is great for when something isn’t working in your loadout. I really appreciate the ability to change loadouts mid mission for a different final boss loadout

Basically every fight involves something that will force you to keep repositioning and a lot involve infinite ads. I've found witherhoard to be the most effective gun. Honestly most of my deaths are when the game forces me to run around with no cover then the ads shoot me. 

Overall I really liked the difficulty and challenge of legendary and enjoyed playing it mostly solo. Replaying missions helping a friend and its interesting how even though enemy health and damage is increased some parts are easier with enemy targeting AI.

The game was a lot more generous with giving me increased power level gear so I was never underleveled for any mission. Really appreciated it as both BL and WQ I had to take a break from the story to go farm blue gear

I used Necrotic grips and Osteo Striga for a lot of the campaign and it goes really well with Strand

Strand grapple vs a damage grenade, there’s not a lot of times where I want to grapple into a bunch of enemies, and there are times where it just swings me off a platform because of momentum. I’ve only unlocked Warlock so far but the cooldown on the Strand Grenade is so slow vs campaign that it takes some of the enjoyment out of it. I’m sure like stasis which was also underwhelming at first, that I’ll like it after some patches.

New updates to the Tower are cool but more importantly menu times seem to have improved. 

Glad the Terminal Overload public event will matchmake you with others directly, considering you need to finish the event to complete bounties to get an item if you want a pinnacle from the Partition missions.

Campaign:

New intro is great actually for explaining the story so far to new and returning players

Then the space battle cutscene was fucking great. The witness looks cool and less of a meme smoke-Megamind lookalike

If I had a nickel for every time an unknowable alien force sliced a bunch of things apart and gave me chills I’d have 2 nickels. (The Expanse protomolecule rising scene). That poor ghost where it had that moment of eye contact before falling apart just like the samurai sword slash trope 

I wiped 3 times against Mr Grabby hands, the fact that it's such an enclosed area didn’t help. Icarus Dash and Witherhoard and kiting the boss around were my winning strategy

When I first saw the cloudstrider armor design from the trailers I thought the metal bits looked really awkward but it looks so much better in game

Glad the cabal have moved beyond the need of pressure suits so Calus can have all this drip

Osiris’ criticisms feel a lot bitchier than I hope the writers intended because he makes so many of them. “Stop wasting time” as we go literally as fast as we can and I get my ass handed to me by tormentors. I get what they’re trying to do with his character arc but I wish the writing would trust I remember what he said 5 minutes or the last mission ago vs have him keep repeating the same thing. 

Second mission boss was a pushover

Oh no ghost but yay we get to talk

When ghost says “they have it locked down tight” lmao yeah that like 6 gunships and 4 tanks

Caiatl shows up to rescue us, I love her so much. Then we get a vehicle escape segment which is a lot of fun with Always On Time

The fresco style cutscene is beautiful, not new info to repeat players but a good exposition to new/returning 

Awww its Saint calling Osiris. Like Osiris’ terse commentary is clearly coming from a place of grief and frustration because he’s so used to doing stuff himself with Sagira as a moderating force and now he literally can’t. Him forgetting Sagira was dead for a brief moment was really touching. 

The need to use Strand to get around the suppression fields is a much better setup of why you have to use this darkness power vs needing stasis to open a few locked doors

“Information wants to be free” as Nimbus gives us a tank, I’m pretty fond of them

RIP Rohan, it was pretty obvious from foreshadowing he was going to die defending Neomuna and Nimbus the rookie would have to step up, he didn’t get enough screentime for me to get attached 

I like how the game clearly tells you when there are interlude dialogue

The tormented called “imprint of Nazerac”, Neomunda citizens having nightmares that feature Nezarec i hope this plays out somehow

Lmao immediately after listening to the radio messages I did the strike where Nezarec is on coms. Got to say he has the sexy monster voice, and I’m glad that a lore character who was built up so much gets to play a bigger role than Nezcafe drink. I can’t wait to see his physical design when we eventually fight him and very interesting since his corpse was dismembered for the reliquaries. I thought Rhulk was cool as fuck and hope Nezarec is equally as hype

I really I liked the speed racer section of the strike but wow that section will feel very different in GM

Nimbus is very cheerful and upbeat referencing Rohan’s death, they’ve been characterized as a jokester throughout but I figured there would have a more serious moment here and it would be a break from comedic relief to let the story breathe. The campaign story so far has really been pingponging from dark and serious vs cheesy quips, but it's landing too much on the side of cheesy that it makes me wonder why I should take the threat seriously.

The training montage with Osiris’ voice over about letting go of grief and persevering handled that line of comedy/seriousness with the tone a lot better 

The music that played during the Headstrong mission right after the training montage made me go “wow this is a lot of 80s action movie vibes” which apparently there are interviews where they said they were looking at blockbuster action movies to set the tone. 

It also made me realize in the style of a blockbuster action movie there’s been no explanation of the mcguffin of “The Veil”  and the other mcguffin of the “Mast” and how it plays into the Witness’ lager goal just that The Witness getting it would be bad, but no specific of how exactly. 

In the final mission it took me way longer than it should have to realize I was supposed to fight all those cabal strand empowered. Caiatl’s speech was badass and I loved the moment of fighting alongside her

Final fight was the one part I didn’t do solo just because of how many times I died from falling off the platforms. 3 people made the second phase easy because Calus could only chase 1 person at a time. I did like the final fight being in an ancient Istar lab that was the founding of the city.

Good on the Witness for the Xanatos gambit, it got what it wanted either way things played out. 

Once again another cliffhanger teaser where it throws something new at us that we have no context for. Big The Expanse ring gate vibes.

I don’t understand why Zalavala and everyone were just standing there the entire time, since it seems like the campaign takes days but the way they’re standing there implies they haven’t moved and it's been hours. 

Zavala has a really somber and well done speech after the campaign, and once again it's that tonal whiplash from the cheesiness of the campaign

I thought there would be a lot more exploration of the themes of mortality: Calus’ fear of death lead him to ally with the Witness, Guardians are brought back to life and basically immortal until they die in combat, Cloudstriders sacrifice a long lifespan for 10 years, and Osiris sort of in the middle with only the rest of his lifespan to live out. But there's not really any of that in the story

I thought the soundtrack was really mid except for the track that plays during the first tank scene and the track when you’re exploring the veil. Its not just that I expected it to be more synthwave to match the 80s tone but there wasn’t anything really stand out. 

Post Campaign:

Disappointed how there was no dialogue about how Neomuna has known about the Last City for all these years and any explanation of why they didn’t help out during the Dark Ages or The Red War even if only in a humanitarian way. I assume it was a resources issue, but I hope there’s at least some written lore for this

I think its cool how a lot of the bounties are Neomuna citizens, and that you can see them standing around as virtual avatars. Funnily enough I’ve seen more named Neomuna citizens than Awoken citizens (it’s all troops in the Dreaming City) and the Last City (there’s Eva and Hawthorne)

Neomuna has a LOT of bars around it, seems like citizens had a pretty fun time with all the art, arcades, and party setups

Really like how the Unfinished Business exotic quest reused the Garden Raid, a raid I think is beautiful but hate to run. The writing with Nimbus where they make jokes but have heartfelt moments with the players was what I wanted from them in the campaign. Also great closure for Osiris

Lmao at the reporter trying to interview Ghost, “Mr. Ghost can you hear me?”

Between Asher alive in the Vex network (he’s viewable in Partition) and Nezarec being in the Vex network I’m looking forward to how this plays out in the next Vex storyline. I was hearing ominous whispers just playing randomly at times around Neomuna, but with Nezarec’s sin the message is audible

[purplekoop]

Forgot I had like. Perfectly good art of a little wizard robot to share already.

This is Sorsier, an eclectic bot that harnesses a unique energy source to casts what other bots can only seem to describe as magic.

Not a full breakdown for them either, once again because I don't have a great kit in mind for them right now. To explain why, I'll indulge myself by divulging some extra info about how characters and their kits work in this game.

Sorsier is part of the "Utility" class of characters in War Bots. In total there's 5 classes: Damage, Control, Tank, Utility, and Support. If you're familiar with Overwatch you should know how most of these work: Damage bots are generally the best dedicated fighters, Tanks can take hits, apply pressure, and protect allies, and Supports are the dedicated healers who generally prioritize keeping teammates alive. The other two aren't hard to explain either. Control bots are better at fighting groups or otherwise keeping enemies in check, either with higher AOE damage or specifically control sections of the map. "Utility" should also be easy enough to understand, these bots have lesser or no healing capability than Supports, but have more powerful benefits of their own.

Sorsier slots into this role by being one of the most flexible characters in the game, capable of providing all manner of different utility, from healing to damage buffs to defensive abilities, and can customize their role on the team dramatically using the game's Loadout system, more profoundly than any other character in the cast.

This loadout system is divided into three slots: Weapon, Body, and Accessory. Weapon determines the bot's main means of attack, with their primary and secondary fire being determined by this choice. Body determines another ability of the bot, usually coming from their unique construction or some other innate technique. This is typically a movement ability, think close to what Overwatch tends to do with the "Ability 1" (Lshift) slot. Accessory determines an additional item the bot carries with them, generally some kind of throwable on a semi-long cooldown. Again, very similar to Overwatch's "Ability 2" (E key) slot.

Note the lack of an Ultimate equivalent. This is deliberate for a couple reasons. One is simple, I suck at coming up with Ults, even just in the context of hypothetical Overwatch characters, let alone for a completely new game with a new "meta" to consider. The other main reason is that I intend War Bots to have more players per team than Overwatch, currently running with 10v10 as my ideal number. As such, having a universal system where each player has the access to a massive game-changing ability at some point in the match feels way too potentially chaotic for matches of that scale.

Back to Sorsier, the reason I bring all this up with them is that I did have a kit in mind for them, but it was using an older version of the loadout system, with the concept I just described being a fairly recent development. It wasn't even an exciting or very fun-sounding kit: slow flying rapid-fire projectile primary fire, lock-on beam secondary fire with a slowing effect, ability 1 being a chargeable AOE shockwave that launches away nearby enemies, and ability 2 being a targetable basic minor heal+cleanse to a single target. Not only does this kit not sound very fun, or do anything interesting with the potential capabilities of basically magic, but it doesn't work with the new loadout system. Everything would be channeled through the staff, which doesn't work under the Weapon/Body/Accessory system, where each ability has to come from a different interchangeable component. So, making a new kit would fix all these problems with one solution. That solution being uh. One I... still need to figure out. I'll get to it sooner or later.

Anyways, rambling post, but I kept thinking of other stuff to bring up. Enjoy the funny little wizard. shadow wizard money gang.

[superb-fox]

Alright so after some thinking about it the end of wano was... just bad. Just really bad. Let’s not talk about some of the rushed fights in the raid or how certain deaths were shit, the ending as in after the raid and peace has reigned was just GARBAGE. The ending wrap up chapters in the first place were just... way too short. We got 5 chapters. FIVE. An arc that spanned 4 years and a month gave us 5 chapters to conclude loose ends. For context Post Enis Lobby was 11 chapters, The Post War arc was 17. And a part of those FIVE chapters was literally Shanks showing up for a movie tie in (Yes Oda admited that). There was absolutely no sense of relaxation and chill after such a chaotic time, it was just go go go! We gotta wrap up!! Like how many loose ends are left now? The smile victims? Couldn’t we have the three doctors on the island look into that? Or at least Chopper? Just gonna sweep that under the rug? What about the beast pirate remnants? Sure Greenbull attacked SOME but are they still on Wano? Did he kill ALL of them?? Are they prisoners? Is Yamato keeping them in line? We’re just never gonna talk about the once largest pirate crew in the world ever again? Okay... What about Marco? Surely he wasn’t just there to literally drop off Cat Viper and stall for time right? Oh he was? He didn’t even talk to the Straw Hats after the raid? Cool cool, glad he served such an important role... Now don’t get me wrong, there was some hype stuff like the road poneglyph and underwater old Wano and Pluton being there but like... That’s all? That’s all we get from the biggest arc to date? Think about all the revelations in the old post-major arc cooldown chapters, all the hype all the EVERYTHING that Wano just doesn’t have...  Oh but Kid mentioned a vague person who could help him with the poneglyph etchings... Cool... That’s definitely up there with the reveal of Garp. Now all this isn’t even to mention the absolute CHARACTER ARC ASSASSINATIONS Carrot and Yamato got. Carrot was basically an unnamed background character this whole arc. What did she do? She was there I guess. She lost to Perospero... Great. And what does she get at the end? “Oh you’re the new leader of Zou now... It’s because of Pedro’s will” NO IT FUCKING ISN’T!!! For one that is NOT what Pedro wanted at all! You can’t just say it’s Pedro’s will and have that justify anything! Carrot didn’t even WANT the leadership role, she argued against it! She’s not qualified to lead, she’s not the strongest, she is all wrong for the role! Hell, it’s almost like she’s being PUNISHED for chasing her dreams with the Straw Hats! Like shes being told to sit down and not bother. Just stay at home where it’s safe little bunny. Garbage... And Yamato? The person who the ENTIRE TIME he’s been on screen has told us “I wanna go out to sea!” just... says on Wano now. Literally a chapter before he decided to explore Wano he was talking about leaving but nope! Fooled you! What the HELL. And this isn’t the Yamato fanboy in me either, his ENTIRE ARC was about LEAVING. He couldn’t with Ace, he was chained and his freedom stolen, and now he finally gets his chance after 20 YEARS and “Nope. I gotta do what Oden did and explore Wano first.” Bitch WHAT??? The why were you talking about joining the crew so much? Why did you demand it of Luffy and say it in front of the crew? What CHANGED Yamato??? This is another character just feeling like he was shoved away and punished. And you know what? Oda could have made it work!! If he wasn’t rushing at LIGHTNING SPEED to end Wano we could have had time with Yamato figuring out he needed to stay. He could have seen a small bit of Wano, saw all the different regions, saw their varying climates, discovered he knew FAR LESS about Wano than he thought! He could have organically come to the conclusion he wasn’t ready to leave yet! There was so much to explore RIGHT HERE! That would still have been a bit of a slap in the face, but it would have been more natural than just randomly changing his mind. I don’t know what this was. Normally Oda doesn’t feel the need to rush like this, he takes his time to tell a story properly no matter how long it takes. He is not concerned with time, but in Wano’s case it was different. I don’t know if it was Film Red that did it, editorial interference (don’t quote me on this but I think he got new editors during Wano), or just plain burnout but this was just so subpar for Oda... It really leaves a bad taste in my mouth for Wano, a damn shame.

[wainwrightjakobshammerlock]

OC SKILLTREE INFODUMP UPDATED VERSION. THIS IS GOING TO BE VERY LONG. ALSO IF THIS GETS ENOUGH NOTES IM GOING TO POST IT TO R*DDIT TOO BECAUSE I THINK MY IDEAS ARE COOL.

Lazarus as the Prodigy

(full name: Lazarus Jakobs)

The heir to the Jakobs corporation and a thoroughly strange kid, Lazarus takes after both of zir fathers, but puts a unique spin on both of their fighting styles.

Action Skills: Only one, called Sheer Focus. It temporarily increases your FoV and zoom while also boosting your crit damage out the wazoo. Basically, it's Showdown but not shamelessly busted.

The Trees

Legacy. The sniping tree, basically, but with a specific "hunter" flavor. Boosts against badasses, bosses, overleveled enemies, and anything with a huge healthbar.

Tradition. The tree that Wainwright would be most proud of. Tons of various buffs, but almost solely to non-elemental weapons. Perhaps some kind of bonus against full-health enemies and some kind of overkill effect, so you can chain those oneshots.

The New Path. The status effect tree, non-elemental flavor. Specifically, this tree focuses on bleed (if you've ever played Athena, you'll know) and stun. Stun is a new status effect, basically a long stagger, though it doesn't work on bosses, it is a great tool against badasses and the like. This tree does have some skills which benefit ALL status effects, but they are few and far between.

Notes: I just want a playable Wainlock fankid, okay.

What would be strong on this VH? Jakobs, duh. Also weapons that are, on paper, non elemental but have some kind of hidden elemental property (like the Love Drill, Dead Chamber, Dakota, etc.) so you can abuse The New Path tree to insane levels. Also also, tanky shields, because Lazarus is kind of a glass cannon to balance zir great bossing and mobbing potential. Don't need defense if one shot is all you need, right?

Class Mod Names: Heir, Princex, Entomologist, Aristocrat, Duelist, Monster Hunter

Bartholomew as the Butler

An old, malfunctioning butlerbot with berserk tendencies who still, above all else, wishes to serve.

Action Skills: Overclock (gun damage/melee damage/fire rate buff for a period of time), All-Out Attack (a punch dash with high damage that has multiple charges and can be chained or used several times on the same enemy) and Gearshift (full heal and automatic weapon reload with a temporary bonus to weapon swap speed and movement speed that applies to the whole party). All have long cooldowns except for All-Out Attack.

The Trees

Unstoppable Rage (All-Out Attack): The melee tree. Fairly bog-standard as far as melee trees go, but this one specifically encourages taking damage and spamming that melee button (with a high-damage low cooldown override).

Servitude (Gearshift): Support tree, self-harm edition. Servitude has several buffs and bonuses that activate upon certain conditions (like you reloading, or breaking your shield, etc) that apply to you AND your entire co-op party. The catch is, upon any of these buffs activating, Bartholomew will lose some health. Which brings me to...

Restraint (Overclock): ...this tree, which is all about STACKS. A Restraint stack is gained upon losing a set percentage of health, and said stacks activate bonuses like health regeneration, reload speed, and more. You can already see the synergy here.

Notes: I liked Nisha's Law and Order mechanics, so why can't we have that back? Also a self-sacrificial support is a very interesting concept to me.

What would be strong on this VH? The Rough Rider, because damn I wish that shield was good again. Gun-wise, Moxxi weapons (ESPECIALLY at endgame) and the Kyb's Worth, since this character focuses on health so much. Also, bring your friends.

Class Mod Names: Servant, Glitch, Exploit, Protector, Barbarian, Processor

Scylla as the Siren

(full name: Scylla von Perun)

A mysterious old hermit with the seemingly prophetic power of phasesight... and an interest in Bunkers and Badasses. Scylla uses her electrifying powers to dazzle and disorient the enemy.

Action Skills: Phasemagy (a quick shock bolt with high damage), Phaseurgy (a spread of three weak shock missiles that home into enemies and deal splash damage) and Phasemancy (a debuff cast onto an enemy that causes them to take increased damage from the next thing that damages them, especially if it's a critical hit). All have short cooldowns. Scylla can, just like Zane, forgo using a grenade in order to equip 2 action skills at once - but unlike Zane, she has no way to use her grenades in other ways.

The Trees

Storm Terror (Phasemagy): The going fast tree. Rewards things like jumping and sliding around a lot with things like amp shots, shield regeneration and of course even more movement speed. Plus the obligatory "you can shoot while sprinting" skill.

Clairvoyance (Phasemancy): Mind control, baby! Basically it's the crowd control tree, but in order to even start on it you have to take a skill that gives you a chance to turn enemies to your side when you crit them. Also, a little bit of crit bonuses so you get more damage for predicting where the enemies go.

Wizardry (Phaseurgy): Have you ever wanted to play a Spellshot in a mainline Borderlands game? Wonder no further, this tree focuses on mindlessly spamming what is essentially magic all over your enemies. Also some bonuses to status effect duration (yes, the mind control from the Clairvoyance tree counts as a status).

Notes: You like spells. I like spells. We all like spells. Also, if every single siren so far has been referred to as a witch, we deserve a wizard siren too.

What would be strong on this VH? I would say Guardian 4N631 but tbh I think that gun is so busted it will not return ever. If anyone has any suggestions for any other gear that would improve such an action skill focused character I'm listening.

Class Mod Names: Spellcaster, Archmage, Diviner, Prophet, Kraken, Hermit

Samuel the Primordial

(full name: Samuel Hawking)

An unlucky former Tediore employee who strayed too close to a Vault that was being opened... and fused with the energy of a Vault Monster that was inside. Now, he seeks to hunt the Vault to find out more about the monster he has become.

Action Skills: Just like Lazarus, only has one: Transform, which normally is just a temporary but massive damage reduction. However, he can equip two augments, as well as a Mutation. Mutations are essentially more powerful augments that restrict what he can do while transformed. For example, "Aetherium Talons" locks him into melee but allows him to dash at enemies and rip them apart, "Reactive Glands" makes him spam free grenades but make him unable to use melee and guns, etc.

The Trees

Eldritch Potential: The elemental damage tree, this time in radiation flavor. There is a focus on splash damage and chaining kills, but otherwise this tree is fairly standard.

Perseverance: The survivability tree, featuring things like decreased self damage, status effect immunity, and resistance to elemental damage. This tree has the unique quirk of being more effective the closer to death you are, even in FFYL where it increases your damage.

Resourcefulness: Regenerate health. Regenerate ammo. Regenerate grenades. Regenerate shields. Regenerate everything with this simple trick: using this tree. Of course most of it is conditional (like triggering on reload, kill, or second wind) but it's quite powerful.

Notes: I wish the game addressed the canonical fact that some Vault Monsters are actual lovecraftian entities that can merge with humans (cough cough, Gythian, cough cough).

What would be strong on this VH? Anything radiation, anything splash, anything with high ammo consumption. If you thought Anarchy, congratulations, this guy isn't a former Tediore employee for nothing. Launchers like the Yellowcake or the ION CANNON would be good on him too. Also, the Front Loader, since it lowers your health, and in this case if would enable some insane survivability.

Class Mod Names: Old One, Abomination, Nucleus, Roach, Neutron, Mutant

Val the Fanatic

(full name unknown, but we do know that Val is short for Valor)

A former member of the CoV, Val believes the Vaults are the key to spiritual enlightenment. Although they are half blind (ritualistic, self inflicted) and mute (vow of silence enforced by them sewing their own vocal chords together. they speak through a drone that follows them around), they are still extremely dangerous, no small part thanks to their zeal.

Action Skills: Dodge Roll (exactly what it sounds like, gives some immunity frames) and Battle Roar (a team-wide damage buff that is small but applies to all damage sources). Both aren't strong, but have long cooldowns. To compensate, Val's third skill Deep Pockets is simply the ability to equip and use two different grenade mods at once in a similar manner to a Spellshot's Ambihextrous.

The Trees

Conscience (Dodge Roll): Survivability... technically speaking. Instead of giving more health or shields like most survivability trees, this one focuses on more esoteric means of not dying, like ignoring bullets, immunity frames, more FFYL time, or just a straight up chance to not die and instead be reduced to 1 health. After all, this is a bandit mook we are talking about, those aren't technically supposed to be damage sponges.

Faith (Battle Roar): Insane fire rate! Mag sizes that would make Moze weep! Melee damage! All for the low low price of your enemies' lives and all of your accuracy! No Seein' Red for this one, though, you better keep up that killstreak or you'll lose it all.

Piety (Deep Pockets): Insert a reference to the Holy Hand Grenade here, because it's the splash damage/grenade spam tree. Unlike Samuel, for this one, splash is the focus - especially radius. Ever wanted to throw so many Hexes the screen goes white? Steer clear and be careful, because you have no way to protect yourself.

Notes: Honestly I just want a character whose motivation for hunting Vaults is spiritual in nature. I feel like that would make for a really compelling story.

What would be strong on this VH? Most good grenades and high fire rate weapons would probably work. Hell, with a proper build, you could use the BL3 Fastball and anything automatic.

Class Mod Names: Herald, Evangelist, Zealot, Seeker, Cardinal, Pastor

Alkimia the Trooper

(real name unknown, but it seems like Alkimia is a pseudonym)

A mysterious, brooding cyborg woman who defected from the upper echelons of the Maliwan army upon witnessing the atrocities they committed. Most of her speech seems to be vaguely poetic.

Action Skills: Only one - Reaction Globule, a big ball of corrosion that explodes on contact with an enemy or the ground. However, she can equip different elements onto it (radiation, cryo, or incendiary) and mix and match various augments. Does the ball bounce? Does it stick to enemies? Does Alkimia throw three balls with lowered damage? Maybe it does some combination of these things.

The Trees

Adaptation: Passive bonuses, with a catch - at first, they will cycle through in a semi-random pattern, similarly to Claptrap's subroutines. However, unlike his subroutines, over time they will slowly adapt to the manufacturers, weapon types, and elements you are actually using.

Evolution: Cybernetic augmentations, similar to Wilhelm's blue tree, but this time they actually adapt to the enemies you fight and your current situation. A constant aura around you that deals the most effective elemental damage? Sure. A damage buff that scales the more health an enemy has? Yep. A melee override which heals health or shields, depending on which you have less of? Absolutely.

Catalyst: Status effect tree, stacking edition! Ever wanted to have a boss be corroded, AND frozen, AND on fire? Now with this tree, you can - and you'll even get more damage for it (obviously, by slapping a damage debuff on your enemies). You can even apply them with non-elemental weapons if you have the capstone!Also, if you want weapon swap speed, this tree will give you all the weapon swap speed.

Notes: Ah yes, the obligatory former corporate military character. I mean, they are in every game, so why not make one of them a weird funky cyborg?

What would be strong on this VH? Maliwan, obviously, but anything with high status chance and/or fire rate will work. Alkimia is kind of a jack of all trades with some elemental spice thrown in, though, so you can probably use almost anything.

Class Mod Names: Chemist, Maverick, Solution, Avatar, Thaumaturgist, Philosopher

[junior-len001]

This is an oc. His name is sheriff and the other woman is Janet basically they are from a place called I've made "sink-ground." A place where all the souls die. No one really knows it. It's like there soul is consumed. But there spirit are still here so they go to that place. All of the spirit are here. And what's sheriff job? A protector. He's making it safe from other evil people. And so Janet is the main one who shows the other spirit how this place works. That's all.

Information about sheriff.-

He's eyes doesn't have pupils and it's very normal he have black sockets eyes. But in some very fighting situation he's right eye glows green. It's not like shaped round like the other sanses. it's triangle instead! And that little crown that floating around him? It's like colorful goop but like stuck in his head. It represents some emotions that Sherrif can't feel. It changes it shape to like this "?" And this "!" Sometimes but yeah!

Powers))

Nice shot!.: Basically he just shoots a orange bullet in the air or the wall. A portal will appear. It's like teleporting! But he need to focus on the place he's thinking to go in. Or he will end up in the Wrong one.

Blast em up : a gaster blaster. It's really like bigger like very big from the other gaster blasters. It's yellow. And it shoots faster but the blaster is a bit slow so it's only good at aiming or protection.. But eventually after 40 minutes. The gaster blaster will disappear. It has a cooldown. It will re appear. After 20 minutes.

Chasing time: so like he gets a boost. A really great one. It gives you energy and some strong strength. Over time. It will come off after 30 seconds. And Sheriff can also give a boost to his teammates! Maximum of the team giving boost is only 4 people. And he only uses it when it's an emergency.

Main weapons.))

Perfect gun.: He uses his two magical guns! They are fast yet hard to control like your holding a two heavy houses like seriously but he's the only one who can pick the guns out. He shoots all different bullets. Each one has an effect.

(slow-on bullet.) Makes you slower when the bullets hits you so better doge em. The time you will be slow for about : 5 seconds. If you got hitted alot maximum time you'd be slow for. 10 seconds.

(suffer. Bullet.) There not gonna change anything about you. But the bullets are. There gonna be more faster and stronger and harder every hit you take. So be careful.

(gotta black em out. Bullet.) The effect is like if you get hit by one- It will only make you really dizzy and sudden really hurting headache. You'd see the world spinning in your head. And so it's like a back up for sheriff to escape. The effect only lasts for you 10 seconds.

Special sweet. Attack.)

He fuses his both guns into a mega-gun. Or should I call the "omega fuse." It's a version with both gun fused. Into a bigger one. They blast out a really big bullets. There really fast it has no limits inf ammo. But it will drain sheriff energy towards time. If he kept fouces he will still have the guns. But if he lose conscious the guns will be both sperated immediately. The only ability he can use in his omega fuse gun is

The ultimate guide.) It means it will transform into a big a really big one gun. Sheriff can use his magic to move the big gun. Also it's a sized as a tall building. He can only shoots once if needed. That can wipe out an enemy In a combo. The maximum time use ,*20 minutes.*

Anndddd I will post his story later! See y'all!

[crystalelemental]

Unit Teambuilding - Sygna Suit Hilda

Remember when Reddit made all those speculation pairs, and kept putting Nate with Victini?  Did anyone else always have the feeling this would be the outcome?  Like, it's battle princess Hilda, man.  Of course she gets the god of victory.

General Overview At this risk of pointing out my own hypocrisy, remember when SST Red dropped, and it's like wow, what do you offer to the man who has everything, this is so boring?  It's like that but slightly less ridiculous.  She doesn't get gauge acceleration, passive healing per action, guaranteed defense drops, and a two-bar spam that's AoE and bypasses damage reduction.  Instead, she has to settle for capping every stat and having Rising Tide, with a 200BP move to back it up as DPS.

SS Hilda is nothing short of a perfect unit.  On entry she caps attack, and a single use of trainer move gives capped special attack and crit.  +15 in one action.  Cap for Rising Tide is 18.  So you use V-Create once, and thanks to Downside Up, which I thought was going to be a Steven-specific ability but I guess just goes to everyone nowadays, and you get +18.  In two actions.  If you can fast-ramp with your teammates, she wins.  Congrats.

Hilda has other moves, in Searing Shot and Confusion for...some reason. They're useless.  All they accomplish is burn and confusion, if you put the energy in on grid.  It's to check Gauntlets.   She's SS Serena tier, in that her backup stuff is just for show and preventing her from getting walled.  Oh and in case anyone was expecting lower stats, I think this is the new cap at like base 520.  Victini's insane.

So why don't I love this?  Honestly, it's because Emboar.  SS Kris may have been the same type twice, but Suicune was a support to Ferligatr's striker.  Lyra had a similar deal.  Elesa’s got two supports, a Tech debuffer, and a damage dealer.  Usually, when you keep to a similar type, you at least alter up their battle role.  Hilda does not do that.  This is the equivalent of dropping your starter for the major legend in post-game.  Hilda's Emboar has exactly no reason to exist now, not even by Hilda metrics, and I doubt grid expansion will save it.  It is worse in every meaningful way, and that bothers me so much.  I'm not saying I wanted her to have Genesect, but I am saying we could've done better here.

Move Level and EX? EX on a striker is great for CS stuff, but honestly 1/5 no EX is probably fine just given the absurd DPS of V-Create.  Legitimately consider this: it's better DPS than Leon's Charizard and Inferno.  It's that good.   Hilda wants for nothing in her grid, unless you desperately need that sync nuke from EX to be at maximum value.  But trust me, it's overkill. Her DPS gets things done just fine.

I will make a note that 5/5 actually does have at least some value.  4/5 gives guaranteed burn, and accuracy buffs each successful attack to respond to something like Latias or Cresselia.  Not super worth it.  But 5/5 can debuff both defenses when attacking a burned foe, which is...something.  You can also get Propulsion, which...no.  Not super worth it.

Team 1: SS Hilda, Anni Raihan/SS May, literally who cares it's not like she needs anything Fast ramping!  Anyone who watches Zinfogel's channel knows the deal: Anni Raihan at 3/5 has Propulsion on Sandstorm and can fast-ramp with Head Start 1 lucky skill.  Really any combination that results in -3 cooldown works.  In fact, another immaculate combo is SS May.  That's two people and I can pretty much promise success.  All you want is any support that can't die in one move, and congrats, you got turn-2 sync, and I cannot image a stage surviving Hilda.

Team 2: SS Hilda, Blaine/Tech Ninetales/Kukui, Skyla SS Hilda's interesting, in that her only real hiccup is gauges early on.   In a CS context, this means she needs some help with it.  But an F2P budget isn't just possible, it's dominant.  Blaine or Tech Ninetales sets Sun, Skyla buffs speed as well as some defense and healing support, and Hilda just goes.  But honestly, if you don’t want to use Sun because it’s optional, defense debuffs will do just fine.

Team 3: SS Hilda, Flannery, Support Seadra Anti-Cobalion.  SS Hilda is more than capable of blitzing Cobalion’s fight, and truth be told, Flannery’s here just because 4/5 Hilda isn’t going to be a common thing.  But you can still take risks with Searing Shot to get the burn by herself.  Seadra buffs speed.  I am making the assumption this is preferred, though if not, Support Weezing is another good option for defense buffs.

Team 4: SS Hilda, Summer Hilda, Hilda Next update will let us do this, and Hilda's one of a few that actually has a good combo.  Summer Hilda covers defense and is a solid tank, keeping the team alive, and also being able to debuff defense of the foe at 3/5.  Base Hilda is here to help gain speed for gauges, but also kicks off theme skill multipliers with matched Fire to Victini, who is the real damage dealer here.  This is a thing we can reasonably do soon.

Final Thoughts SS Hilda's outrageous.  Even with other possibilities, I feel like it's just slight variation on what's already present.  SS Hilda gets her buff game in just two turns, and can explode stages like nobody's business thanks to four sync damage nodes and Rising Tide alone.  She's a striker, so CS is dead, and most Gauntlet stages can't handle her raw DPS either, with Burn and Confusion being fairly decent answers to gimmicks.  Hilda...really doesn't have a clear flaw.