#its grounded in dp lore so

[imsociallyanxiousgetoverit]

EFI - Existence Fulfilling Interest

“For Ghosts it’s called an Obsession, for Autistics it’s called a Special Interest, for ADHD it’s called Hyperfixation, and for anyone else it’s simply Passion. Being at the intersection between all of these means struggling with which term to use and when. Thanks to our little linguist though, we don’t have to struggle anymore.”

[terramythos]

Anyway here's my breakdown of the ffxiv jobs, my opinions on playing each, and the tier rank of how good their story was

TANKS

WARRIOR - warrior is so fucking funny why did they make it able to solo heal itself and the entire party in 90% of the content in the game. Raw Intuition/Bloodwhetting is so broken in dungeons its hilarious. And then they have like 3 additional healing skills on top of that. And they kept buffing it throughout Endwalker. So it is currently the easiest to play, does the most damage (i think...?), and has the best healing of any of the Tank jobs. 2nd fave probably.

Story Tier: C, it's ok, Curious Gorge is a good name. i have like nothing to say about it it's a generic AF story

PALADIN - I used to hate PLD but I think the partial rework they got halfway through Endwalker helped it a lot. It's much less clunky now. Probably still my least favorite Tank though Hallowed Ground is fun and it's pretty close to Gunbreaker for me.

Story Tier: F, this is the worst class storyline in the entire game. It's so stupid. The writing is so bad the writers acknowledge it makes no sense at all and I'm like. Yeah, thanks, I am experiencing this shit. Perhaps write a story that makes sense next time instead of pointing that out.

DARK KNIGHT - Unfortunately this is my favorite Tank 🫡 which is rough since it has the worst survivability out of any of them. But I love how you use MP and the silly number of OGCDs. The Blackest Night is such a fun ability and it's a crime that it's not a baseline skill you get from the start. Why do they have so many DRs that only cover magic damage. I must ask.

Story Tier: S, there's a reason it's the most popular and well regarded class storyline. It's really good, also the only questline I know of that uses the quest log text as part of the narrative. Outside maybe a few of the very late Endwalker quests. And, well... same writer lmao

GUNBREAKER: I think GNB looks cool as fuck and I like that it has 2 DPS rotations. The Gnashing Fang combo is so fun. Superbolide memes are always fun. My main issue with it is a skill issue because I am just constantly misaligning its burst windows.

Story Tier: C. It has some interesting lore but I found it pretty forgettable as a story.

HEALERS

WHITE MAGE: I hated White Mage for a while but something clicked and now I totally get it. I find it fun in dungeons cause you get to Holy spam and stun lock everything. As uh. The healer. That's fun. Once you get Afflatus heals (and then Afflatus Misery) it clicks. It's fun maximizing damage and playing chicken with the tank's HP.

Story Tier: B, you get a lot of lore around the Padjal, and I think the Stormblood story where you find a padjal living in hiding with her mother is pretty good! Also it's not technically the job storyline but there's a WHM side quest to get a unicorn mount? i guess it's technically a CNJ quest but same diff. no one else gets that shit. so that's cool

SCHOLAR: probably my least favorite of the healers... it just feels super clunky. You can tell a bunch of different design philosophies went into it over the years and none of them mesh very well. They've made it so the Fairy Gauge controls literally one spell. Why have the gauge at all? It's also a huge missed opportunity that there's no tie in or interaction with the fae in Shadowbringers. I love the idea of a battle tactician healer but I think it needs a rework.

Story Tier: B+, I liked the characters and its the main way to get backstory and lore on what happened with Nym.

ASTROLOGIAN: While I think AST has a similar issue to SCH (lots of different design philosophies over the years) I find it way more fun to play. I like the card mechanic and how it interacts with the rest of the party. AST is basically the only job that has its own like. Minigame? As part of its rotation. And I know a lot of people don't like the RNG for it but personally I find it fun. I know AST is getting a redesign in Dawntrail so hope it's good.

Story Tier: C? I think? I'll be honest I don't remember it super well but I didn't find anything objectionable about it. And I like the tarot aesthetic and lore and how it's healing based on manipulating luck.

SAGE: I think SGE is tons of fun, I'm not sure if I like it or WHM more. I love all the skills SGE has for preventing damage and the gimmick where your DPS heals someone in the party. Visually the hi-tech laser shooting healer is a lot of fun. IT HAS A GAP CLOSER. The only thing i wish was it wasn't so MP negative and that it did more damage. It's a little sad its DPS output is so low compared to the other healers (even AST when you factor in how it buffs the party). Since SGE is supposed to be a healer that heals through damage it's silly its damage kinda sucks.

Story Tier: A, I loved this storyline. Both the Endwalker job stories are very self contained and interesting. While the twist is pretty obvious it's still an interesting exploration of uh. Scientific ethics. Yeah

PHYSICAL MELEE DPS

MONK: I've probably played MNK the least of the phys melee but I like the whole adaptable combo thing. Not much else to say since I have played it so little. Might bring it back out and try again. It DID have the funniest guide in the Balance discord for a while.

Story Tier: D. I think? I remember thinking it was dumb, lmao. Sorry.

DRAGOON: MAN I wished I liked DRG more. It looks so fucking cool and I like how it interacts with the dragon lore. But I find it very punishing to play. To do good damage you have to align so many different cooldowns... and snapshot your DOT correctly... and screwing one thing up just fucks your DPS output forever. Like AST I believe this is being reworked in Dawntrail so I hope it feels better to play.

Story Tier: C+. I think it starts strong since you get to meet Estinien pre-Heavensward and it melds nicely with that story. But I found it pretty directionless post-HW which is a shame.

NINJA: I remember finding this one fun. I like that there are different combos you do that have varied finishers depending on the situation. I am just... bad at remembering which combo to use to get which finisher, lol. So I haven't played it as much. NIN gets a lot of flavor other jobs don't get with their unique run and jump animations. And you get a Bunny of Shame on your head if you fuck up a combo, which is incredible.

Story Tier: A. The Rogue story is probably the most memorable of the basic class quests. Ninja just has great characters and a fun story. What is with that one guy. Karasu? If you know you know. I also like how the Rogue characters show up later in the Ninja story. That's fun.

SAMURAI: I had a similar experience to WHM here because I initially hated it then really came around once it clicked. SAM seems very complex, it has a ton of buttons and different combos. But it is actually quite intuitive once you figure out the general pattern. And it does INSANE damage. I think it's the highest DPS output in the game? I love building the combos and then doing a huge finisher for a bajillion damage. The guaranteed crits and constant OGCD weaves make me feel unstoppable. I think this is tied with RPR for me.

Story Tier: B+. I found the exiled samurai character and his journey toward redemption very compelling. I won't spoil beyond that. However it does fall apart a little in the second half. Still fun but not as good.

REAPER: I love RPR, the teleportation is a lot of fun, and I love finally unleashing the demon form and going ham on the enemy. The weapons are the coolest looking in the game. Every scythe design hits. I probably played this the most in Endwalker. My main critique is the Death's Design mechanic. I hate having to keep a stupid debuff on the target to do damage. It's like a dot but without the optimized snapshotting. If they want to keep this idea i think it would feel better to change it into something like SGE's Kardia where you apply it to one enemy to do increased damage to it without having to worry about reapplying it. not sure how they would balance this for aoe but that's not my job. But even with that caveat I still really enjoy the job.

Story Tier: A+. While it doesn't reach the highs of DRK's story it comes close. I love the badass old lady main character. Her hunting a voidsent that possessed her grandfather would be cool enough but making her a Garlean exile in hiding who grudgingly agrees to train you just adds an extra cool factor. I really enjoyed this story. As a bonus theres a lot of incidental dialogue in the post-6.0 Endwalker story if you completed the RPR story because it ties in a lot.

PHYSICAL RANGED DPS

BARD: It's a bit clunky, its got some outdated design elements, it has one of the lowest damage outputs in the game... and i LOVE IT. this was technically the first job I ever played? totally different character like 8 years ago. and i was so so bad. I think i am actually pretty good at current BRD. the animations look cool. i like that it's a class you really need to work for and optimize to eke out that last bit of damage. and boosting everyone else's damage by existing is kinda neat.

Story Tier: B. I'll be real I barely remember this but I do remember it was gay as fuck so immediately gets an extra tier for that.

MACHINIST: MCH is really funny right now because like. It's phys ranged, right. The design behind phys ranged is you have 100% uptime cause you can freely move around and not have to worry about cast timers or melee range or anything. So the trade off is that they do less damage than other classes. Endwalker MCH did not get the memo and does insane damage anyway. My controversial opinion is that it has similar burst DPS to RPR. No i will not elaborate. I'm also bad at doing good damage on MCH which is impressive since it is easy.

Story Tier: B+. Some Ishgard noble's gay son wants to build machines instead of killing dragons the good old fashioned way and has to prove himself to get taken seriously. A tale as old as time. See I haven't done this quest in like years but I still remember it. He is a memorable character. It's just not like. knockout wowza compared to the A tier stories.

DANCER: Dancer is the second easiest DPS job in the game behind SMN. So if i am sleepy it's the one I like playing. You play simon says. you do a lot of damage when you play simon says then do almost no fucking damage otherwise. I think it's the lowest direct damage in the game? for a dps i mean. You have high stakes sexual tension with a DPS of your choice via Dance Partner. I wish other DNC players knew how Dance Partner works. YOU CAN DANCE PARTNER ANOTHER DANCER. THE BUFF STACKS. BUT YOU CANNOT DANCE PARTNER THE SAME PLAYER AS ANOTHER DANCER. THOSE BUFFS DO NOT STACK. ok i'm good. anyway

Story Tier: C. there's some shit about negative emotions and purging them? in theory i think this has some interesting implications with Endwalker lore considering Dynamis and its role in the story. Very similar mechanically to what's going on with the DNC story. but i really don't think the writers made the connection so it's like pure speculation and not the actual story. It's meh. fine i guess. i did like all the flashy dancing sequences.

MAGICAL RANGED DPS

BLACK MAGE: I am so so so so so so so bad at BLM. i pull up the guide. i read the guide. it all makes perfect sense. i go into a dungeon or trial or something. somehow i always get like Zeromus or some shit. and i drop Enochian or something and everything goes to shit and i'm yelling and i'm not even like slide casting or teleporting or anything i just run around crying. then i remember i have like 10 more buttons i haven't been pressing and oh god the dot fell off. people play this? for fun? i admire it. apparently they do a ton of damage if you can play it. could not be me.

Story Tier: B? There's some voidsent and Thirteenth lore. all the black mage characters are Lalafell because it's funny i guess. OH YEAH it has like the one named male Keeper of the Moon Miqo'te NPC in the entire game and he's fun. look at this twink:

sorry i don't have anything to say about BLM i am bad at it

SUMMONER: easiest DPS job in the entire game. they redesigned it for Endwalker so it is practically a new job. i have no idea how it played before. but it is super streamlined. maybe too streamlined? it's another one to play if you want to turn your brain off. i like that at 90 you summon The Actual Primals instead of little representations of them. and i like the way your burst phase switches between Bahamut and Phoenix. it all looks very cool. they should add Leviathan as a summon in Dawntrail.

Story Tier: C.. i don't remember a single thing about this questline except you interact with Y'shtola's half sister. i think you go to Cartenau at some point. idk

RED MAGE: RDM is one of those jobs that looks really complicated when you start then you actually play it and it is just super super easy. that being said i think it's really fun. I like balancing the white and black magic gauges. Dualcast is a great gimmick and it feels cool to lob two big spells in a row at something. Dualcast Verraising a chain of dead players is so fucking funny. it's a shame that the existence of Verraise means RDM does shit damage to compensate for its utility. It and DNC just sit at the bottom with BRD barely scratching ahead of them. i think? i don't remember LOL

Story Tier: A, I really like the story and characters. I like that you have a middle-age world weary catboy (catman) as your mentor. and i like that he canonically trained Alisaie too and you chat a little about that. it's a fun story!

BLUE MAGE: what the fuck is a blue mage

Story Tier: ???

[faeriekit]

@piedpiperart

Okay, I'm awake now!

Since I wrote a lot of DP x DC stuff, I think that, in general, Danny Phantom is more flexible than Percy Jackson is both in tone and in content. A lot of that is due to how flexible the material is, and a LOT of that is due to the fans putting in the hard work to really mold Danny Phantom (show) into a bunch of different shapes and genres and tones and atmospheres over its cancellation years, which make blending it with, like, crime shows and grim dark stuff and other sci-fi properties pretty easy. But Percy Jackson... it has a harder line between what "fits the vibes" or "doesn't fit the vibes" as far as content goes. It's a middle grade series. Sure, kids died, but not in the same sort of...uncaring tone and perspective DC uses for death and despair, you know?

I think I've read one fic where I was like "yeah, I can see this happening" with a DC x PJO crossover at its base, and that was because Annabeth was cast as a hot and upcoming villain in opposition to the main cast. Typecasting the Greek vibe worked well enough. A lot of the PJO stuff isn't super compatible with DC lore...like, at any point would Diana or other Amazons let half-god kids, like, run amok and let them fight their own wars without at least some amount of supervision? If there were world-ending divine catastrophes, wouldn't SOMEONE with a divine hotline be rung up, like capt. Marvel at least? 🤷🏽‍♀️ Saying yes to that neglect changes the empathetic feel of the DC characters, and saying no that they would know and adding them to the universe fundamentally changes how camp and such operate, and saying that they had no idea that the other existed changes the assumed competence of the adult DC characters. It's much easier to conceive that, say, no one knows what's on the other side of dimensional portals or at the bottom of an already poorly understood pit of Evil Goo Water than it is to be like "hey Batman doesn't know about the kid soldier training camp that's been around for hundreds of years and is within driving distance from his house!"

I suppose its not impossible to have a faithful DC adaptation based in PJO ground layer canon. What do I know? All I can say is, I've tried reading a few, and largely the fics change just enough of the fundamentals that the sensation of reading them is just...weird. to me. personally. I think sizing the perspective down to have one on one character interactions or individual experiences might work better than slapping the worlds on top of each other for something more comprehensive and meaningful, since the overarching stories have such vastly different perspectives. Also you should do whatever you want anyway and my opinion has no bearing on what you enjoy or seek out.

My favorite PJO crossover to this day is a Supernatural x PJO fic on FFN. Literally all it consisted of was the main two supernatural dudes interrogating why some goth kid (Nico) threw some other kid (Percy) into the lake to drown. The lying was so bad. The confusion/concern was palpable. The vibes were impeccable. 10/10.

[lilisette]

bit of a roster update since its almost the end of the year! my roster has changed a lot since and many characters have come and gone. hopefully next year i will actually make up my mind and really finalize my main 6 🫠

from top to bottom, left to right:

Aurelian (Paladin) | Selaena (Souleater)

Endymion (Berserker) | Inaenna (Slayer)

Calibourne (Paladin) | Celestina (Bard)

rip arcana, summoner, artist, destroyer, sorceress and so many other classes i deleted/benched... i will come back to you one day...

also main 6 roster evolution for this year, watch me change again with breaker under the cut 👀

i wanted to do a 5 support 1 dps gold roster at the start of the year but yeah. artist came and nuked that idea to the ground lmao. those few months were truly hell to pug on a support

this was i think a few weeks before elgacia? i had an artist prior to this screenshot actually, but she never made it to the main 6 because i didn't like her sprinkle skill and no space to take DR skill. but with the new changes coming on january i might give artist a shot again.

oh destroyer. hes so much fun to play but way too slow for me. i still do guardians on him though and hitting perfect swing is truly chefs kiss

theres a 5 month gap between this screenshot and the second one. summoner on paper is great but playing her was pure SUFFERING. idk not even the massive january buff + season 3 bozos jar can change my mind now, she felt way waaaaay too slow on MS and i dont like CO so... rip 1540 summoner i might come back to you if smilegate reworks the class again..

ngl i made a random dps just to do t3 tower cause there was nooooo way i was gonna do it on a support. originally i wanted to make a pistoleer but then i saw i need to use cursed doll and i HATE cursed doll, so i picked berserker instead. mayehm zerk is pretty fun actually and very consistent despite the negative sentiment around him.

ooh boy souleater. i dropped my first ever character (sorceress) for her and she did NOT disappoint! they were not joking when they said souleater is just a better igniter. sorceress is still nice to play dont get me wrong but souleater numbers man... its getting to me...

and heres the most recent one. rip arcana and my MC for so many of my fics... arcana is also amazing and i pull my own weight on raids dont get me wrong, its just that i have no hands to play her to the best of her ability lmao. plus the damage numbers on souleater is really getting to me, hence slayer. still not sure which engraving i want to do on her, i might actually buy 2 sets of accessories for her so i can switch whenever.

this will be my main 6 roster until maybe breaker? also not sure if want to make him yet. but definitely until smilegate announces a male mage/male delain/female paladin. also a sage class would be cool, be it dps or support. the voldis sages are great and i hope theres more lore/content about them yes i want to see mariu again dont judge me

[leg-made-a-thing]

Kamen Rider Chaleon Splax

Here they are! After months of blood, sweat, and tears, I’ve finally finished Chaleon’s new form, or more accurately, forms. Based on Kid Chameleon’s Maniaxe and, by proxy, Rick Taylor from the Splatterhouse games, it’s my pleasure to present Chaleon Splax, in both his Ghoul and Lich forms!

Now, explaining this form is gonna be a bit of a challenge, and not just because it’s actually two forms… although to be fair that isn’t making it much easier. No, the main problem is that I think this is single-handedly the Chaleon form with the most lore. Allow me to explain.

For some background, Chaleon’s powers come from Diamonds, floating gemstones that come in various colors, that are collected and turned into Diamond Power by his Driver. Diamond Power, in turn, powers Chaleon’s abilities, attacks, and in some cases, even his Forms themselves. In-universe, it’s not exactly known where Diamonds come from, at least at first. Eventually, though, they’re revealed to be Earth’s energy in a crystalline form. And because the Earth is a living being, Diamonds also carry a tiny bit of life within them… which they can sometimes transfer to other, non-living things.

Because Chaleon’s Driver comes into contact with so many Diamonds, and also processes them into pure energy, it slowly starts to become sentient, and by the time Chaleon’s current user (a concept I’ll touch on in its own post) starts using it, it’s able to think, reason, and most importantly, form opinions on its users.

Prior to the current user, all previous Chaleon users were all the typical, stoic, uncaring soldier-type, and would treat the Driver as little more than another piece of equipment that could be used and then forgotten without any real consequence.

Chaleon’s current user, on the other hand, treats the Driver and, more broadly, the Chaleon system/set of powers as more of an ally or partner, something that the rapidly-growing mind of the belt is unfamiliar with, but begins to appreciate and cherish, soon growing attached to its wearer. This attachment eventually comes to a head in an altercation with the main villain, where Chaleon is fatally wounded and left to succumb to his injuries in a swamp. As he sinks lifelessly into the murky water, his Driver uses all the Diamond Power it can muster to more or less hijack its user’s body temporarily and creates a new form, influenced by its wearer’s thoughts of his seemingly impending demise, rising out of the swamp as Chaleon Splax Ghoul form!

This form is easily Chaleon’s weakest, as its only intended use was getting Chaleon to someone who could help him in his condition. Because of this, it lacks any Diamond Power attacks, instead using any absorbed Diamonds to keep its wearer alive.

Later, after its user is fully healed, he’s able to access a stronger, more combat-focused version of Splax, this being Lich form.

In Lich form, Splax is predominantly controlled by its human operator, like all of Chaleon’s other forms. However, unlike other forms, Splax is also partially controlled by Chaleon’s Driver, allowing it to act on its own. Though it has the power to easily fight on its own, it mainly uses it to assist its user by dodging and countering enemy attacks that its user can’t or doesn’t see.

Unlike Ghoul form, Lich form is able to use the following Diamond Power attacks:

10 DP - Dusk Tomahawk, an axe-shaped projectile launched at the enemy. One use gives the user 10 Dusk Tomahawk projectiles, with each use granting an additional 10.

25 DP - Shade Chopper, a large broadaxe/battle axe able to be summoned by Splax for use in combat. When summoned, the axe is pulled out of the ground below, and can be wielded with either one or both hands. Two axes can be summoned at the same time, so long as Chaleon has at least 50 DP.

50 DP - Axecution Kick, a Rider Kick and Splax’s finisher. When activated, another Splax emerges from the ground, this one in Ghoul form and hereby referred to as such. The original, whom I’ll call Lich for simplicity’s sake, takes a few steps back, then runs at Ghoul, who intercepts and tosses Lich high into the air. Lich then plummets towards the opponent in a typical Rider Kick, surrounded by an aura of darkness. The second Splax disappears soon after.

~~~~~~

Now then, on the topic of this form’s real life design, concept, creation… whatever you wanna call it. It was hell. Plain and simple.

For the longest time after finishing Chaleon Shatter, I struggled to come up with a form for Maniaxe that captured the essence of the original while also making it fit in with the other Chaleon forms. Believe it or not, I’ve actually already designed the next form I have in mind for Chaleon, since this one was so difficult to come up with ideas for.

In terms of design, he’s heavily influenced by Rick Taylor, the main character of the Splatterhouse series of games, right down to the “living inanimate object gives regular human superpowers”. Rick Taylor has his mask, Chaleon’s got his Driver. Unlike Rick Taylor, though, Chaleon’s Driver doesn’t drive its user into a violent berzerker rage whenever it’s worn.

The clothing theme this time is… hard to describe, honestly. I wanted to go with a sort of mechanic suit and trenchcoat hybrid, since Maniaxe wears a mechanic suit in-game, but as was a theme with the rest of his design, getting the suit right was a pain in the ass, so eventually I went with something inspired by The Undertaker from the WWE and Shang Tsung from Mortal Kombat.

His first form is meant to look like a horror movie monster that’s laid dormant at the bottom of a lake for ages, hence the rust on his boots, gloves, chains, and other metal parts.

The Wolverine claws were a holdover from an early design, and I think they might have originated from one of Maniaxe’s instruction manual illustrations but I’m not 100% certain on that.

Also, one detail I’m rather fond of is the damaged battery on Ghoul form’s Driver. It’s supposed to look like the energy normally contained inside the batteries is leaking out after the glass/plastic was cracked somehow.

Last but not least, the name “Splax” is just a combination of “Splatter”, referring to the heavy Splatterhouse influence on both Maniaxe and this form, and “Axe”, since Maniaxe is best known for throwing axes.

Oh, and lastly for real: going off my minimal research, I think the closest thing to what Ghoul form is supposed to be is a zombie, but tbh there’s already enough zombies in Kamen Rider as-is, so Ghoul it is.

But yeah, that’s about it. Tell me what you think. Or don’t, I won’t force you. Might’ve said this already but the next form’s already done and screencapped, all I need to do is gather them and write up a bio and powers and then it’ll be done. I’ve got some other updates on the overall project, but I’ll make a separate post for that. This one’s already long enough.

[sleepy-moron]

The main party but I give them Genshin style visions and move sets bc I’m bored and I really like how visions work in that universe and I wanna ramble….is this set in the st universe? No idea yet we just vibing:

Mike (Anemo vision): I think a lot of people would be tempted to give Mike pyro or cryo but I actually think anemo suits him the best. There’s a paradox where anemo is the element of freedom but most of the playable wielders perform a duty out of a sense of obligation which suits Mike being a leader but also not liking authority at all. Anemo is focused around elemental reactions and aoe/crowd control skills. Personally I think he probably awakens to his vision after losing El/Will (another anemo trend) but he can’t use its full potential until he accepts himself as he is. Weapon wise I see him using a one handed sword or a polearm but despite that I think he has more of catalyst like way of fighting.

Mike’s skill (for lore purposes not actual in game skills I’m just calling it that for simplicity) is he makes wind drills/lances that can either yeet things or tear things apart depending on if he wants to kill the thing or not. His burst would be a big shield that swirls elements off of him/whoever he casts it on and also buffing their attacks. This is lore based so he can do way more things with his vision but these are unique skills to him.

Lucas (Dendro vision): Dendro is the element of wisdom, and it’s the element we have the least playable characters to go off of. Lucas has the most common sense and is the most grounded party member but that’s not what geo is about so I think Dendro is probably the best fit for him. Dendro skills have a lot of aoe damage and remote bombs that detonate after a certain point of time and I think that suits him quite well. He definitely uses a bow and I think there are a few points I can see him getting a vision, any point of learning and personal growth works really

Skill time! His skill gives him a projectile that stuns enemies in a small radius while also inflicting dot in a larger area. His burst lets him place a large barrage of projectiles that explode upon contact and also leave a dot zone with a higher damage multiplier than his skill. All of the characters can do stuff with their powers outside of this but these are more like signature moves

Dustin (Geo vision): Geo is about contracts and agreements, and Dustin is usually the one to bring up the party rules and try to bring people together to solve a problem. Geo also is the most construct heavy and defensive element in the game and Dustin builds things like cerebro and is a little bit of a proud little shit when it comes to his theories and that’s also pretty typical of the element. I don’t know when he would actually get his vision but I do know he would be a non traditional catalyst user for a weapon of choice.

Skills! Dustin fights using a skill that creates some geo arms that hit the monsters for him (sorta like oz or a razor burst) and his burst places down a geo construct that buffs allies in a certain radius and makes the next attack to hit a nearby enemy act like it hit the monsters weak point doing extra damage and stunning them.

Max (Cryo vision): We don’t know what ideal the cryo archon represents yet but it’s heavily theorized to be love and I really think this suits Max bc despite the fact that she tries to be cold and closed off sometimes she is someone who deeply cares about the people around her. Cryo can freeze enemies solid and also has some speed oriented skills so it suits her desire to zoom as well. It’s also one of the best dps elements and is very common for offensive teams to run. She gets her vision after coming to terms with how she feels about Billy’s death…however that happens in this au. She also uses a polearm bc it has the fastest attack speed!

Skill time…I want to say her skill gives her an ice skateboard so bad but realistically I think that’s more of a unique sprint. So her actual skill would probably be a short range teleport that sorta leaves a trail of ice spikes that damage enemies behind it for a second. Her burst would be a big damage aoe that triggers shatter damage and does more if one of her ice trails is in the blast radius.

Will (Electro vision/ heretical teachings from the abyss): Electro is the element of eternity and I think that suits Will struggling to put his trauma behind him while also not being ready to let go of being a kid and wanting things to stay the way they were before. Most electro users stand out from the crowd and they tend to be very dedicated and highly skilled people. He gets his vision during the week he goes missing and he would use a catalyst to fight. He also totally goes to the abyss for a week and learns to do fucked up abyss control shit in this au so do with that what you will.

His normal attacks would just be beams of lightning and his skill would be a giant electro hyper beam that can lock on to multiple targets at a time but only deals damage. His ult is a heal zone that converts physical damage into electro damage and boosts electro damage while in its radius.

El (heretical abyss powers/ Hydro vision): El is just born with her weird abyss powers and she doesn’t get her vision until she sacrifices herself to save Will against the demogorgon. Hydro is the element of justice but the main reason why I picked it for El is the bonus for having multiple hydro users in your party is a healing boost. Since El’s whole character arc is around healing what happened to her in the lab via genuine connections with other people I thought it would be cool. El would be a melee catalyst user who mixes in her abyss powers with her cool telekinetic water punches!

Her skill would be the fucking bubble thing since she does levitate things pretty often and the hydro mage bubble attack is one of the most annoying things to exist and she deserves to be a menace. Her burst also traps an enemy in a bubble but does a bunch of damage and then smashes the enemy into the floor so she can punch it again!

Note: as I was finishing writing this up @andiwriteordie started writing an atla au with the kids and so I offer you a very different elemental power system with the party if that sort of thing is appealing to you (also I’m sorry if half the things in this thread aren’t well defined this games lore is very complex and it would take way too long to explain everything)

[patxhwrk]

could i ask for some reversed au for scaramouche, childe, kaeya & albedo? 👀 i love ur writing its so good

Hey! Thank you so much! This is my first time doing a reversed AU, and I wasnt there during the first part of Genshin (i started around the first Lantern Rite), so Scara's and Albedo's may be a bit shitty, but I hope you like it!

-ˋˏ✄— Reversed AU !

ɴᴏᴡ ᴘʟᴀʏɪɴɢ: Reversed AU ! You are the character, they are the player !

Characters: Albedo, Kaeya Alberich, Scaramouche, Tartaglia

Pronouns: they/them

.navigation. // .genshin impact masterlist.

˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳ Albedo | Kreideprinz

He started playing the game at the very beginning

It was intriguing, how could he not?

The beginning was normal, fun, exciting

Then they mentioned a chief alchemist somewhere along the way and his reaction was something like:

"Oh? A person of alchemy? This would be intriguing..."

He likes alchemy, after all

A few days — or had it been months? — had passed, and the new 1.2 update had been released, alongside a new area in Mondstadt called 'Dragonspine'

Lo and behold, the chief Alchemist of the Knights of Favonius had turned out to be the new 5 star character, Y/n!

He wasn't smitten at first, only interested

They had many similarities to him

They came home the first 30 pulls on their banner, and Albedo was elated!

After a while of doing the event (getting a bit mad at Reckless Pallad for being a damn idiot), he started enjoying and (though unknowingly) liking Y/n

You bet he finished the event just to get the sword to r5

He farmed their artifacts well and made them the best support ever, occasionally using them as a DPS too

The moment your sibling had been introduced, the first thing he thought of was how she was so similar to Klee, and how your relationship with her was similar to his and Klee's

Haha he wished for them too, got around 70 pity though

Talks to Klee about you and your sibling, and to no surprise, she likes you and your sibling too!

A bit sad about the death flags around your character, but he knows he can't do anything about it just yet

He smiles so fondly whenever you do the idle animation with the twig

When he found out you were an artist, he wss even more elated!

Hey, when did his social media accounts turn into a Y/n fanart page?

˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳ Kaeya Alberich | Frostwind Swordsman

Probably didn't start playing when the game was released, but somewhere near the beginning

The first part was nice, he thought

The little drunkard bard reminded him of one of his drunkard musician friends, and the brunette with the red bunny reminded him of one of his coworkers

Got to the point where you fly over Mondstadt chasing after Dvalin, and then he gets back to the ground and—

Oh? Who's this? Why do they make Kaeya's heart do the badump badump?

Swoons at your voice like holy shit

Was very happy you were a free character, but got very pissed that it meant you were not in any other banner, was so rare to get, and disliked being used by others in domain

Ok so what if Y/n is a free character? They deal 10k+ normal atk damage piss off >:/

Gives you the best build ever, for every type too

Pysical dmg dealer? 10k dmg. Cryo DPS? 20k DMG with a 60k crit.

When the Serenetea pot was released, he made an altar for you and put you in his bedroom :)

Insults your sibling

Why does your sibling remind him of Diluc?

Reads your lore, cries, disses on your sibling and Diluc, repeat

Doesn't matter who's in the team, he will find a way to add you in

Defends you so much on co-op like "just because they're a f2p 4 star character doesn't mean they're shittier than your 5 star whaled character >:/"

˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳ Scaramouche | Baladeer

Honestly I don't know what possessed him to play the game when it was released

Boredom? Curiosity? Was he being held at gunpoint?

Either way, he just skimmed through the beggining, boredly reading dialogue until the very first event happened

Wasn't very interested at first, didn't like the astrologist and was a bit annoyed by — how was her name spelled again?

You showed up a bit after, standing over a guy on the ground

The character seemed a bit normal at first, polite (which kind if irked him) so he completely ignored them

Yada, yada, yada, they're talking about astrology and the meteors and—

"Hi!"

There you are again.

"Sounds interesting... Mind if I join you?"

The astrologist quickly took the screen once again, brining the traveller and the princess away in a ball of hydro

Oh? How interesting...

As soon as they were gone, your façade dropped, revealing to him your true intentions

Oh, he was intrigued

Then their introduction was revealed

Y/n, huh? The 6th Fatui Harbinger?

Then your agents showed up, one of them stepped a bit out of line, declaring how they would make haste of a mission unassigned to them and—

"...Are you deaf or just stupid?"

That hit straight onto Scaramouche's heart

After the event, Scara just kept waiting for another reveal, but months and months past and you were no where in sight

Until the 2.0 update, at least

Inazuma, your nation of origin

Maybe he'd get lore about you

Purely plays the game for you now, waiting and waiting

When you finally show up in the quest, he's weak in the knees

Calls you his favourite menace to society

Always wonders, are you shorter than him?

Legends has it he's still waiting for your banner till this day

˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳ Tartaglia | Childe

I'm not entirely sure when he'd start playing, but it's before your first banner

Played the game because he found out Scaramouche liked a characer in it and wanted to diss on that character

He was a bit too late for their first appearance, but that's fine

He'll keep playing either way

He finally reached Liyue, where he arrives and there's alot of people around this lady

Aaaand there's the Geo Archon, falling from the sky, presumably dead

His mission was to sneak away, so he did just that, very skillfully

Finally reaching a cutscene, he stretched his limbs and watched

"Hey buddy— hold still."

Huh? Who was that? A new character?

They jumped up from the back of the stairway, hydro blades casting a rainbow effect to the screen as it met sun rays

They fought off the guards and holy shit—

That was— You were—

He's speechless

Continues the quest, and when Paimon mentiones something about doting on you, he's all like "YES"

You're rich? Ok, he would spoil you rotten, doesn't matter

His heart skips a beat at your laugh because it's so adorable like—

When your banner came out, he may or may not have whaled haha

Gives you the best artifacts, triple crowns you, you're always his main DPS

Y/n profile, Y/n namecard, "Hey buddy— hold still" signature, you name it

Cries at your deathflags because he won't let his skrunkly, his scrimblo, his lil bufoon die

"Mihoyo Hoyoverse let me into the game, I'll protect them!"

You're a family person? He's a family person!

Adores your little sibling, reminds him so much of Teucer

"You have many siblings? I have many siblings! We both have so much in common we should just get married alrea—"

Calls you his favourite piece of shit

Or, his full nickname for you, "my favourite piece of shit haha /hj I love you what's your ring size—"

—PATCHWRK !

[the-big-nope]

While I’m certainly nowhere near ready for the story of the Mighty Nein to come to an end, I am also a D&D nerd and there’s a new sourcebook coming out soon with a bunch of new subclasses in it. By the time Campaign 3 of Critical Role gets underway, that book will be published, leaving a wealth of new options for the cast members to choose from, so why not entertain myself by making barely justified predictions of what the cast is most likely to pick for their next characters! (Disclaimer: Some of the new subclasses have been confirmed and some haven’t, so for a few of these picks I’m just going off of what I think is going to be in the book).

Travis

Cleric (Tempest Domain): Travis has been playing lowkey EMT since campaign one, and Laura’s already confirmed that Travis almost went cleric for campaign two. Between Grog with his barb-boosted movement speed to get around the battlefield so he could shove healing potions into his squishier teammates, and Fjord multiclassing into paladin and lovingly tapping his friends with single hit points to get them back up, it would be delightful to see him fully jump in and embrace the classical healer role. Of course, this is Travis, so I don’t see him picking a cleric domain that doesn’t allow for at least some whoop-ass, and Tempest Domain brings plenty of it. You get proficiency with all armor and weapons, Divine Strike at level 8 for boosted melee damage, you can use a reaction to inflict lightning or thunder damage against any enemy within melee range that’s hit you. And if you climb up high enough in levels, you gain a flying speed equal to your walking one whenever you’re outdoors. Pretty nifty, and makes for a fitting subclass for a guy that’s voiced Thor on multiple occasions.

Blood Hunter (Order of the Lycan): I mean, come on. The only reason it isn’t number one is that it was already widely assumed this would be Travis’s pick for campaign two, and I wouldn’t put it past him to surprise us again. But still, we saw him get a taste in Liam’s one shot and he was clearly having the time of his life. Besides, we lost Molly far too early to really see the blood hunter’s potential come to life; it would be damn cool to see someone else take a crack at it, and Travis is enough of a D&D gambler to not shy away from the class’s riskier features.

Artificer (Armorer): Speaking of Marvel connections, if Travis doesn’t lean toward fantasy Thor, then fantasy Iron Man might catch his attention instead. Artificer is an official class now, and since it’ll be reprinted in TCoE by the time campaign 3 gets underway, it’ll be a lot more visible as an option. The Armorer sits in almost a perfect middle ground of what Travis has done before: tanky and a frontliner, but also still has spells and tricks to help the party. Plus, you get a badass suit of power armor out of it. What’s not to like?

Marisha

Bard (College of Creation): After Hazel Copperpot, we all saw the pure magic that was Marisha Ray playing a bard. I know she implied that Hazel was supposed to be her campaign two backup character, but I hope this doesn’t discourage her from making another one. There are quite a few bard subclasses, a number of which I could see her being drawn to (Lore, Glamour, maybe even Swords), but I really vibe with the idea of Creation. I can’t exactly say why; maybe the idea of the ‘dancing object’ feature in Marisha’s hands is very funny to me (remember Keyleth’s adorable “Be Our Guest” moment? That, but this time it’s a walking wardrobe beating the shit out of the enemy).

Paladin (Oath of Vengeance/Conquest): As of yet, no one on Critical Role has ever played a paladin from the start, only multiclassed later down the line. I think this would be a cool departure for Marisha. Both campaigns she’s played characters that were either suspicious or at least indifferent to faith and the gods. Paladins are typically associated with deities, but they’re not tied quite so closely to them as clerics are. It would be fascinating to see what she did with it. As for the subclass, I just think Marisha’s earned her turn on the Goth Character Carousel, and while I know Conquest paladin is very unlikely given its moral grayness by default which might cause undue conflict and that Vengeance is a much more likely and acceptable pick, I just think it would be a sexy character choice. 

Wizard (Bladesinger/Graviturgist): This is a much more pie-in-the-sky, wishful thinking pick on my end, but not impossible imo. Marisha has experience with heavy spellcasting already, so she probably wouldn’t shy away from a wizard, but like Travis I suspect she likes a bit of oomph to her characters, and probably wouldn’t play as support heavy as Caleb does. To that end, Bladesingers get a bit more survivability and some modicum of physical prowess alongside their spells, while Graviturgists are definitely on the more aggressive side of the spectrum for wizard subclasses, with unique dunamancy spells to boot. I’m not sure how restrictive Matt would be about Xhorhassian characters in the next campaign if it takes place on another continent, but hey, you never know. Plus, she picked one of Matt’s homebrew subclasses for the current campaign; it would be cute if it happened again.

Liam

Druid (Circle of the Shepherd): At some point before Critical Role comes to end (hopefully far in the future), I know Liam’s gonna play a druid, I can feel it in my bones. He's too big of a Kiki fan not to. However, while Circle of the Moon might feel obvious given the potential for homage and how much he likes turning into animals, I feel like he might regard it as getting too close to old territory (also, I don’t know if Circle of the Moon is like an exclusive thing to the Ashari tribes, and if it is that would be rather restrictive for building a backstory). If that’s the case, Circle of the Shepherd feels like the next best bet. It has some great support options via the totems you can put down, and rather than becoming badass animals, you instead just get really good at summoning a fuck ton of them. It’s like Frumpkin, but ten of him. And they’re bears. (Honorable mention: If Circle of the Moon would feel like treading old territory then I’m certain Circle of Wildfire would too, but I’d bet my dice collection it would at least be tempting). 

Cleric (Unity Domain): Listen. The pure sap potential that would be at Mr. O’Brien’s fingertips with this subclass is incredible. The domain all about strengthening and protecting the bonds between friends and loved ones?? The domain with the Channel Divinity that can spread damage taken by one creature across the party however the cleric chooses to distribute it to lessen the blow to the individual??? The domain that used to be called the Love Domain???? I’m practically gagging on the soft moments and unspoken devotion conveyed through spellcasting already.

Fighter (Rune Knight/Psi Knight): Liam has yet to play a tank in a long-term campaign, and while I’m more enamored with the potential of the above classes, it would be novel to see him play a character with an actually respectable amount of hit points. However, I feel like if he was gonna commit to a straight frontliner, he’d probably want something a little more unique than a Champion or Battle Master (especially since he’s played those already for one-shots). Rune Knight has some fun options and built-in flavor, and with Psi Knight you can basically be a Jedi. Not bad options at all if you ask me.

Taliesin

Warlock (Fiend): Yeah, it might be expected, or Percy might have been too close to warlock anyway to feel like there’s new ground to cover, but hear me out. Both Percy (who, let’s face it, was a warlock multiclass in all but the actual mechanics) and Fjord were the classic reluctants. They got in over their heads without really knowing what was going on, and once they did they wanted out, cutting ties with their patrons and getting clear with only the scars remaining. I want to see Taliesin commit to a warlock in a way I imagine only he could manage to pull off. How fun would that balancing act be, to have a character that has no intentions of breaking their pact, who’s here for the powers, and is willing to work that delicate balancing act between keeping what he’s got and not letting his contract holder get the better of him? Give it to meeeeee.

Sorcerer (Psionic Soul): Psionic Soul has a bit of that eldritch flavor that vibes with Taliesin so much, with the added interest of introducing a brand new feature to 5E, the Psi Die (with this subclass, using them can do things like letting a sorcerer learn a spell they don’t already know for a few hours, allow you to cast spells without needing verbal, somatic, or material components, and can give you telepathy). Taking both Percy and Molly into account, it seems Tal likes to lean into those unique additional mechanics, and while Psi Die aren’t as risk-heavy as Gunslinger or Bloodhunter, they do add a layer of variability and unpredictability that seems to match his style.

Rogue (Swashbuckler): We only got a little bit of time with Molly, and so missed out on the opportunity to see Tal play a more cavalier character this time around. If he feels like leaning away from spells next time and back toward martial, I think a high-charisma, high-swinging swashbuckler from Tal would be a delight to watch.

Laura

Barbarian (Path of the Ancestral Guardian): Laura deserves to hit things, okay? Yes, spellcasting is great and comes in clutch frequently and Jester’s amazing, but you can tell Laura misses doing fat stacks of damage to the enemy in a single round. I personally think it would be amazing to watch her just cut loose and go full rage machine. As for the subclass, I’m not glued to the idea, but Ancestral Guardians are pretty kickass, have decent support capabilities for a barb without detracting from their DPS at all, and it doesn’t tread on any previous characters’ toes or their aesthetics.

Rogue (Scout/Soulknife): Laura deserves to play her favorite class at last, okay? She’s been class poached two campaigns in a row, and though that resulted in both Vex and Jester and I wouldn’t trade them for the world, Laura has earned first pick. Seeing as she already dipped into Assassin as Vex and Sam took Arcane Trickster, I could see Scout being a viable subclass choice. It’s in the classic sneaky vein, relatively simple in concept, but comes with features that grant easy-to-understand benefits that you can never turn your nose up at (boosts to movement, advantage on initiative, giving advantage against a target to everyone else in the party, etc.). If she’s looking for something a bit flashier, Soulknife has the benefit of retroactively dunking on Vax by taking the basic knife-rogue and making it better, with psionic knives that you can manifest with a thought, that can teleport you around Whisper style, and cranking up that stealth to ridiculous levels by just being able to turn invisible for ten minutes, no concentration or spell needed. The psionic die mechanics are a little funky of course, but I don’t imagine it’s any trickier than learning to manage all those cleric spells.

Monk (Way of the Open Hand): Between Beau just being super cool and her brief stint as Farriwen Breeze, monk wouldn’t be a surprising pick from Laura. An Open Hand monk might be the definitive version everyone knows, but you can’t deny it’s a solid subclass, and between previous overlap and the concepts of the other subclasses just not seeming to fit, I could see the classic being what she went with. But hey, it’s Laura Bailey. She could surprise us with Way of the Drunken Master or something.

Sam

Ranger (Monster Slayer): Let’s be real, I don’t think this would be his actual first pick for a Campaign 3 character, but the amount of shit-stirring he could achieve by making a character with the aim of pissing off Laura Bailey specifically would be hilarious (and since Matt isn’t completely opposed to UA and acknowledges that PHB ranger has a lot of issues, I wouldn’t be surprised if they went Revised Ranger this time).

Warlock (Genie): Actual first pick here, Pact of the Genie Warlock is confirmed by now, and the potential of a warlock in the hands of Sam Riegel is pretty vast (for some reason I’m imagining he would go the ‘spoiled sugar baby’ route). The subclass doesn’t matter as much, but the Genie one is nice in that, depending on the type of genie patron you pick, you can get a wide variety of extra spells, you get a container like a classic lamp or lantern that you can bamf into for short rests, and you get a limited Wish ability for your capstone, all features I feel like would especially appeal to Sam.

Barbarian (Path of the Wild Soul): I want to see Sam play a fairy barbarian. ‘Nough said.

Ashley

Fighter (Eldritch/Echo Knight): Ashley really seems to vibe with the crushing power of martial classes (she does love her brutal kill descriptions), so I could see her sticking with it rather than going back to full caster. However, I do see her picking one of the magical subclasses for some variety after Yasha. Eldritch Knight is a classic and reasonably easy to manage, but tbh I’d LOVE for it to be Echo Knight. And think, if my wishful thinking came true, with Ashley picking an Echo Knight and Marisha playing a Graviturgist wizard, they could link up their backstories and be a traveling Kryn battle duo that left their homeland behind to explore the world!

Sorcerer (Draconic): If she does want to go back to full-time casting, Sorcerer doesn’t require near as much bookkeeping as a cleric, druid, or wizard while still having decent variety, and the Draconic subclass is a bit beefier than the other subclasses. Also, it would be the third campaign in a row where Ashley Johnson’s character eventually got wings, soooo...

And tbh I have no idea what a third pick might be for Ashley, so I’m just gonna throw a dart or two at the board and say either College of Whispers Bard or Way of Mercy Monk *Shrug* We can only wait and see!

[dlamp-dictator]

Allen X Rambles about Chapter 7

“I hope Episode 7 is focused on only 2 or three characters with little distraction... Amiya maybe finding out that Ch’en is slowly becoming Infected and helping her come to terms with that. Ch’en revealing her past to Amiya and the two connecting over losing so many close to them due to Oripathy. The two standing up to the political corruption of Lungmen, shoulder to shoulder, as women that refuse to see another life lost due to the indifference of a city’s politics.”

-Allen X, October 2nd, 2020, Rambling about Chapter 6

Man... I’m starting to believe it when they say Arknight’s story mode is longer than the Harry Potter series. Things are getting crazy in Chapter 7 and crazy-long to in terms of length. This chapter really had me on the edge of my seat as I read through it and as I played through because 7-16 and 7-18 were a bitch to get through that require some of the most precise timing I’ve seen in this game yet. That aside, I enjoyed a lot what I read and experienced.

And I wanted to talk about it a bit.

But first, as always, a synopsis.

Coming off the heels of Frostnova’s death and the realization of Wei Yenwu’s purging of the Lungmen slums, tensions are high and trust has been fractured between Rhodes Island and Lungmen. However, in the midst of Ch’en hot temper and Amiya’s cool head, Reunion is plans to send the Russian Ursusian   city of Chernobog on a collision course with Hong Kong Lungmen, giving Ursus a cause to make war against Lungmen and its great region of Tawain China Yen. However, through some rather amazing political maneuvering and passionate words by Wei Yenwu’s wife Fumizuki, Rhodes Island agrees to mobilize in order to save Lungmen, the Infected, and the beloved daughter of Lungmen, Ch’en. But beyond Chernobog lies Patriot, Reunions greatest commander next to Talulah herself, who’s rage toward his daughter’s death is only matched by his disciplined mind and even more disciplined soldiers. It’s a fight to the center of the Chernobog to save as many lives as possible, even at the cost of this great general’s life.

An Addendum to 7-18

So between my venting about 7-18 when I talked about some fun Arknight’s lore a handful of people wanted to give me some advice on how to conquer that stage. Admittedly that venting was said out of anger and was much more acidic in tone than my usual essays and opinion pieces. I have since beaten that stage and I can give some of my thoughts on this advice. Some of it was helpful... some of it.

“AmIyA cAn TaNk PaTrIoT’s SpEaR tOsS!”

This is technically true and I was technically wrong. When Amiya’s S3 is active she gained increased Max HP and can in fact survive with a sliver of health. However, Amiya’s S3 takes quite a long time to charge even with her talent, and unless someone is actively blocking Patriot her can honestly spam his spear through for how long it takes Amiya to get prepped for her S3. This is more of an issue of Amiya’s balancing than with the game, but I’ll talk about that later.

“jUsT sTaLl PaTrIoT tO kEeP hIm FrOm UsInG tHe SpEaR tOsS!”

This would be pretty viable advice if Patriot didn’t one-shot my units. Yes, defenders like Cuora, Nian, Hoshigumi, and even tankier vanguards like Zima and Siege can tank at least one hit from Patriot without dying, meaning a squad of healers can just focus-fire on them while they do chip damage to Patriot and stall him out. However, Patriot’s phase 2 has him do constant damage to nearby units with his aura ability, so if he can get lucky enough, he take someone down to a sliver and let his poison damage finish off your staller before they get a chance to be healed. That strategy needs luck and some damn smart unit placement. Neither of which I honestly have.

“uSe SpEcTeR aNd DeBuFfErS!”

Again, this is also a pretty good strategy. Specter’s S2 makes her immortal for a limited time and pairing that with healers like Breeze and Celycon who reduce stun damage isn’t a bad idea. Characters that ignore or lower defense like Pramanix, Shamare, and Meteor are also good. This doesn’t work for me however since I only have Pram and the other debuffers are way too underleveled and not on my priority at the moment, and E2-ing units this late in the game just to take out one boss feels like madness.

“f12 CaN dOdGe ThE sPeAr ToSs!”

F12, W, Jessica, and FEater have a dodge chance. Their dodges are not guarantees. Yes, Patriot will target the ranged operator furthest from him and there are range tiles pretty close to his spawn point for that purpose. However, some of those operators have some pretty damn expensive DP costs and waste that on a chance to survive isn’t worth.And feeding Patriot ranged units that take over 30 seconds to redeploy is a waste of DP in general. And those either dodge chances aren’t viable. Them surviving isn’t a strategy, it’s a fluke, and you can’t depend on flukes in auto-deployment.

“Allen, you’re being kind of an asshole to what’s actually sound advice.”

Yes, I am. 

I don’t care. 

7-18 does things to a person, man. That stage breaks people. I lost sanity IRL just doing that stage or 20 times with a guide... dear lord this stage.

Anyway, moving on.

Story Notes

My, this story sure was thick, wasn’t it? It’s been while since I’ve been on a ride that wild. And this time around I don’t have any small issues to bring up. All the characters felt in character without breaking my suspension of disbelief. There weren’t multiple character arcs going on at once. And I even tolerated Kal’tsit berating the Doctor for reasons beyond his understand since she wasn’t discussing too many things that were above my head as the player.

No... I only have big issues. 

But before that, I wanted to hit on some actual important notes that were very good and smartly written.

Rosmontis and Child Soldiers

This was probably the biggest takeaway for me. I know the Arknights community likes to poke a lot of fun about the child soldier thing and how Kal’tsit is harboring slave children, but... man, it makes so much since now.

These kids aren’t just kids, they’re all infected people with some rather scary abilities. Popukar has a history of mental instability coupled with monstrous strength. Ifrit has powers she can just barely keep under control and could set Rhodes Island ablaze at any point. Frostleaf and GreyThroat are deeply traumatized from their past. The Ursus Self Government are full of kids with hatred, resentment, and fear of both the world and themselves. The list goes on, but the fact is that these kids all either have abilities that would be a danger to themselves and others if they aren’t trained, or have emotional hang-ups that might very well have them lash out at innocent people if not put on a leash. Wouldn’t it be better to at least give them some training and let them hack and blast away at the actual bad guys? Wouldn’t it be better to at least make them a weapon for some kind of greater good? And would anyone else really treat these broken, powerful children as anything but weapons and warriors anyway?

I know this is about chapter 7, but I remember in Children of Ursus Rosa asked Zima why she fought, and Zima casually answered that she just liked fighting. It’d be far better to have someone with that mindset working for an organization like Rhodes Island than ending up in Ursus’s fold and blindly hacking at something she shouldn’t. 

And I think it’s important to remind everyone that Amiya is the head of Rhodes Island and not Kal’tsit. She’s a big part of the organization, but it’s the bunny in charge. And the bunny that is herself close to a living nuke and is also has empathetic superpowers understands this probably better than anyone else, which is why she okays it. 

Patriot and Reunion

As much as I despise, and I do mean despise, how cagey this series can be with it’s portrayal of Reunion’s morality I can understand why a lot of its members can see the group as being just. Patriot is a warrior of such renown and praise, and Talulah has so much charisma and power that I can see the group overlooking characters like Mephisto and W when the other two do so much for their members and general people. The Guerillas under Patriot behave like soldiers. They don’t rampage, loot, pillage, or harm everyone in sight, only those that halt, stagnant, and harm the infect. Talulah has a charisma about her and attracts people, and seems to come from some sort of royal/noble line to match. And while Faust wasn’t mentioned much in this chapter, he was a soldier that started at the bottom, worked his way to the top, and made sure to play by rules that kept his moral high ground. Mephisto seems to be the only outliner here for some baffling reason.

But... there are some major issues with this story. I hint at them every time I talk about Arknights’ story, but I’ll go into depth here. And I’ll present these two issues I have in the form of a two question:

Who is the Doctor?

I don’t mean this the sense of the story, but what is his function as a character? Is he a self-insert for the player, or his own character to be explored and examined?

And either answer, to me, is wrong. 

The Doctor Isn’t a Self-Insert

It’s straight up impossible for the Doctor to be a self-insert character. Most self-inserts are blank enough to let us place our own personality onto them and the situations their in the choices they make are meant to be more or less choices we’d make or at least a general audience could make barring some specifics. Their personalities tend to be blank or at least bland to let us, the players, live through them and project our personalities onto them.

The Doctor isn’t this. 

There are too many moment where our choices are clearly pointing to one conclusion and most choices, though varied, give a clear idea that the Doctor is someone that care about the operators’ wellbeing deeply and hates seeing them used, abused, or manipulated. They are strategist and commander, but they have enough humanity to not see people as tools. They are passionate when they see other operators and especially Amiya in harms way and tries to come up with strategies to minimize lost and causalities. Awhile we, the player, feel the same in this regard the Doctor has dialogue that feels more conversational and toward specific directions than what a player would likely want and gives us some bits and piece about what they’re actually like. 

The Doctor hates Kal’tsit and wants little to do with her, only tolerating her presence as much as she is with the Doctor. The Doctor is a bit of a bleeding heart that doesn’t fully grasp that they are constantly in a warzone despite their strategic competency. The Doctor has an extremely weird diet and eating style, devouring live animals and ingesting foods that would probably need to be probably mixed and brewed before consumption. The Doctor still sees Amiya as a child despite her mature nature. 

The list goes on, but there’s enough there for me to say the Doctor is more like Hakuno Kishinami of the Fate/Extra series, a character that seems like a self-insert but has a number of traits and character tics that keep them from fulfill that role. However Fate/Extra, for all I have against it, makes Hakuno work by giving them their own internal thoughts outside of the player’s actions that explain their dialogue choices and actions outside of the player’s control. The Doctor doesn’t, so them being a self-insert feels really weak and irritating when the dots stop connecting.

But despite this...

The Doctor Isn’t Their Own Character

Too much of what the Doctor does is passive. For a clear as their personality is, at least to me, they don’t have much agency in the plot. Not enough for me to call them their own character at least. They commander the battlefield, but they don’t have a place on it. They don’t have much reason to interact with characters like Patriot and Talulah unless its on the metaphorical and literal chessboard we’re playing on. 

Every time the Doctor says something that advances the plot in some way I feel like it could be said by another character and work better. Amiya trying talk down Patriot and explain that Frostnova fought bravely did not need the Doctor’s interjections, especially when Patriot shoots them down in the same manner. In chapter 6, being trap with Frostnova would had worked much better with Amiya since that chapter was giving them parallels anyway. The only thing that really works is the Doctor trying to call out Kal’tsit for her treatment of Rosmontis as a soldier despite her age, as that’s only something that someone who didn’t have the full context could do. 

But... Jessica, Frostleaf, Frostnova, Melantha and several other Operators are young teenagers and even children. Specter and Lappland are clearly just as mentally damaged and still going into battles. The Doctor knows the kinds of people that fight for Rhodes Island, so isn’t this just another young fighter like Popukar and Suzuran? Hell, in chapter 6 we canonically had Beagle and Fang in a stage where they had to fight and tank Faust, why is the Doctor so surprised that someone like Rosmontis exist and works for Rhodes Island?

See? 

See how trying to give this character separation from being a self-insert and actively slot them in the active story does more harm than good? 

I think games like Girls Frontline and Honkai Impact 3rd do this better, where the player character is clearly more behind the scenes and is only a passing influence, if any.

But that leads me to my next question, which is...

Who is Amiya?

Amiya falls into the trope of being a cute anime girl with a mysterious past and dangerous powers. More accurately, she has a mysterious past and powers to the player, but everyone in Amiya’s inner circle seems to have a clue about it. I don’t mind this being a mystery, but... when our main character’s plot revolves around things the player doesn’t know, it’s curious at best, and infuriating at worse. 

Folks, I’m not someone that looks to theory-crafting. I’m not someone that reads every scrap of dialogue in this game to find out more about its lore. The lore, to me, is just fun and interesting. I honestly do not have the time and energy to spend on making theories and predictions that could be wrong and a waste of mental energy. However, with all this stuff about the King of Fiends just feels like a waste of time, or at least a last minute addition to something I could had been added properly in Chapter 8.

A lot of it feels like you had to know about the Darknight Memoir side story to really get a feel for what’s going on. The Sarkaz civil war, Theresa, W’s role back when Rhodes Island was Babel, a lot of things that don’t come up in the main storyline. Especially with that bombshell about the Doctor maybe killing Theresa. 

I don’t like it when a story expects me to have read the spinoff to understand the mainline story. This is why I don’t like the Dragon Age series and I’m really getting annoyed with Arknights right now.

This bombshell of the King of Fiends also kind of sours a bit of Amiya’s character as this young child who rose through the ranks of Rhodes Island as a charismatic leader being able to steel optimism with the reality of war to forge ahead as a proper leader through her abilities as both a commander and an empath. Instead it’s beginning to come across that her skills as a leader comes from something more supernatural, or at least something more forced than "small child is a good leader and can lead an army,” which is surprisingly more believable and nuanced given how seriously the series takes Amiya’s character. 

That said, I recognize this criticism is more my wish of what was rather than an issue of what is. I completely understand that essentially wishing for my own fanfic and limited fan theories to come true isn’t a sound criticism, but it's a criticism I have regardless.

But moving on, there’s one more issue that bugs me.

W’s Importance

I’ll keep this brief since I already discussed my bigger issues of the story and this is an admittedly small portion of the story:

W wasn’t utilized much in this story despite being a main feature of it in the promotional material. She has a pretty lengthy intro, disappears from the story for most of it, then reappears at the last bits of chapter 7 to make mean looks at Kal’tsit and the Doctor before being literally shoved offscreen again. I’ve already discussed my issues with the Doctor’s agency so I won’t bother here.

W’s banner should had been during Darknight Memoir, it just makes more sense given she was the feature character of it and her high physical damage would had been a goodsend among all the arts-resistant Sarkaz units of that series of chokepoint-heavy maps, similar to Weedy’s inclusion her is helpful as a lot of these maps could use a good pusher, especially 7-16.

Speaking of, Weedy, the other operator on this limited banner, has no presence in the story at all. Need I remind you in the last limited banner Aak and Hung at least had cameo-esque appearances in the Ancient Forge event. Weedy’s inclusion feels like an afterthought because they didn’t want the limited 6-Star to have a good chance to be pulled for the whales.

Anyway, I believe those are all the big issues I had with this story, so...

In the Future

As I always tend to say, I don’t like the idea of trying to fix something that has already been made and has already passed. It’s too late to change the past, but I see nothing wrong with asking for things to happen in the future as a way of giving feedback. 

To that end, I still have hope that Chapter 8 will have a focus on Amiya and Ch’en tackling Talulah together. From my understanding of some spoilers this is more or less what is going to happen. I also hope that we’ll have a more detailed idea on this whole King of Fiends thing is about. As much as I personally don’t care for it, it’s already be discussed in the story so I at least hope we get the full idea on what’s going on with that plotline. 

I also hope the Doctor either plays less a role or becomes their own character outright away from any player influence. Us speaking through a character that already has a personality feels weird to me and I’d rather not have it at all.

Anyway, that’s it for me folks. Next time... maybe I’ll talk about anime or something, who knows.

[sundayswiththeilluminati]

exotics make the noise, boys, but legendaries do the work.

After so many posts celebrating Destiny’s exotics I feel compelled to pay tribute to the other, far larger portion of the weapon pool: the legendary gear that pulls its weight all day every day. These are my top five all-arounders, the weapons I infuse up first, the ones I go to when I don’t know what I’m going up against. These are:

Blast Furnace / Hammerhead

Type: Pulse Rifle / Machine Gun

Slot: Kinetic / Heavy (Void)

Perks: Outlaw+Rampage / Dynamic Sway Reduction+Rampage

Kills: 16827 / 8697

Two of the Black Armory’s pieces, the Blast Furnace pulse rifle (shown here with the Verdigris shader) and Hammerhead machine gun (Amethyst Veil shader) still pull their weight a year after their introduction. Falling squarely on the scifi end of Destiny's scifi-fantasy spectrum, Black Armory weapons are easily recognized by their sleek-but-practical look, not flashy but new and designed and manufactured with great care. They have open straight-edged cowlings with visible internals and usually show traces of the Black Armory’s signature moiré-pattern animation.

Blast Furnace superseded Forsaken’s Go Figure pulse rifle (another of my go-to kinetics) with better stats in pretty much every column. The pulse rifle archetype is already one of Destiny’s best and Blast Furnace’s great stats, great perk pool, good chatter, and friendly sights - not to mention the ease of farming for the roll you want by completing Black Armory weapon frames instead of hoping for a random drop - plant it squarely in most Guardians’ top 10 if not 5. My chosen roll is Outlaw (reload much faster immediately after a precision kill) and Rampage (damage increases with each kill, stacks up to 3x), a classic top-tier perk set.

Hammerhead was one of the first non-exotic machine guns introduced and its decent range (here extended by Ricochet Rounds), 59-round clip, and fast-but-not-too-fast 450 RPM fire rate put it right at the sweet spot where it performs well against both large numbers of weaker enemies or a handful of powerful ones. It also fares well in PvP where heavy ammo is very rare and Hammerhead’s ability to put paid to a Guardian in 5 or 6 solid hits means you get more effective bang for your heavy ammo crate buck. My Hammerhead features Rampage and Dynamic Sway Reduction (holding down the trigger boosts accuracy over time) which doesn't come up much when firing short bursts but helps a lot when pouring an entire clip into a boss’ crit spot. Whenever I’m running an Energy-slot exotic or if I just don’t want to think too hard about my loadout, it’s a good bet I’ll throw on one or both of these weapons.

Subtle Calamity

Type: Bow

Slot: Energy (Void element)

Perk: Dragonfly/Archer’s Tempo

Kills: 11806

Subtle Calamity (Clouds At Sea shader) has no great lore or storied manufacturer behind it; it’s a general world loot drop added in Forsaken. And it’s great. I was already pumped for the addition of bows and Subtle Calamity ended up hitting the sweet spot for daily use. With bows the key stat is draw time; longer draw times equal more power but also, well, longer draw times. Hence why I went for the perk Archer's Tempo, which decreases draw time as you land precision hits. It also has the Dragonfly perk, a flashy ability I like probably more than it deserves, which causes enemies killed with precision hits to explode into AoE elemental damage. Bows are a lot of fun, occupying the middle ground between Auto Rifles and Sniper Rifles that Scout Rifles were supposed to fill, and given how lousy I am with snipers if I need to land precision hits I'll usually go for a bow instead.

In-universe, what's the explanation for Guardians suddenly getting into bows? It's because of the events of Forsaken and the Guardian push into the Tangled Shore and Dreaming City i.e. into more regular contact with the Awoken, for whom it's a culturally-significant weapon - something like a claymore to a Scot or a katana to the Japanese. More pragmatically when the Awoken first returned to our solar system and settled in the lashed-together space derelict habitats of the Reef they faced the problem of using weapons inside said space habitats as well as launching cables and small satellites. Their solution was bows: strong enough to fly far, carry payloads, and deal damage, but unlikely to pierce a hull and far easier to manufacture than firearms. Awoken Corsairs still use bows as near-silent precision weapons in actual combat, relying on technologically-advanced payloads to deal the real damage. Or not so advanced - Sjur Eido puts a broadhead arrow through an inch of Guardian plate armor with little more than determination, skill, and the properties of whatever magical material Wish-Ender is made from.

Tigerspite / Age-Old Bond

Type: Auto Rifle / Auto Rifle

Slot: Kinetic / Energy (Void)

Perks: Outlaw+Kill Clip / Rampage+Fourth Time's The Charm

Kills: 14623 / 11863

Though they come from different sources in-game, I’ve grouped these two together because they’re both Awoken weapons. Age-Old Bond (Circadian Chill shader) drops from the first encounter of the Last Wish raid while Tigerspite (Night’s Chill shader) comes from activities in the Dreaming City. I love both of these weapons and use them all the time even when they’re not ideal for the situation at hand. Tigerspite, like the rest of the Dreaming City weapon set, has an elven high-fantasy style featuring cloth wrappings (?) and long, sinuous curves. The Last Wish raid set has a similar aesthetic but goes for a combination of carved-bone paneling and animated celestial diagrams that recall Awoken tech displays.

Fun lore note: Tigerspite is one of the few non-exotics to be mentioned by name in the lore. Sjur Eido selects a Tigerspite for one round of her duel with Uldren Sov back in the Distributary. It gets referenced again as a standard Awoken weapon after their return to our solar system, so it’s had quite the service life. Tigerspite’s stats were superseded a while ago by newer auto rifles but I love its sights and feel and keep using it anyway. Outlaw (faster reload on precision kill) and Kill Clip (increased damage immediately after reloading after a kill) are a classic weapon perk combo that’s always in season. Also I’m pretty sure a cat gave me this gun. Not a cat-cat, a Dreaming Kitty, one of the nine adorable stone cat statues hidden in the Dreaming City. While doing Dreaming City activities you’ll sometimes pick up an item called “A Small Gift,” a dish of something that “smells faintly of mint.” Since catnip is a member of the mint family, that’s your hint to bring that gift to your nearest Dreaming Kitty. Doing so rewards a weapon and causes the chosen statue to disappear. I’m pretty sure the first or second kitty I ever found gave me this specific gun, which just seems appropriate given its name.

Age-Old Bond is a special weapon to me. It comes from the first fight of the Last Wish raid, an encounter with the Taken Techeun Kalli, the Corrupted, and was the first fight I ever completed with my informal raid crew named “World’s Worst Fireteam.” Last Wish released at 550-590 light at a time when most Guardians were still trying to crack 530 and thus could barely handle redbars on raid day one. We were like most Guardians. But we were unlike most Guardians in being stupid and stubborn, and so we went into the raid anyway, because if we couldn’t get World First, we could still get World’s Worst. We never had a chance at the full raid, but after great struggle and great teamwork we finally managed to bring down Kalli and net ourselves our first Last Wish raid drops. For me that drop was this specific auto rifle - which is not just sentimental, but actually special. Some legendary weapons in Destiny have “curated” rolls, perk and stat combinations chosen by Bungie to be top-tier if not the best possible. Anytime you get a weapon drop you have the chance to get a curated drop instead, which comes fully-masterworked with those chosen perks. Age-Old Bond’s curated roll was the only one at the time with the new Fourth Time’s The Charm perk; when you land four rapid precision hits (they don't have to be sequential) it refunds two rounds directly back to the magazine. This does more than you might think for the weapon’s versatility, since if you’re pouring fire into a single target’s crit spot (i.e. a boss) it effectively gives the weapon 50% more clip i.e. a solid 48 rounds before you have to reload. It won’t replace a Heavy or high-DPS weapon anytime soon, but it’s pretty handy in a tight spot. The other perks on the curated roll max out Age-Old Bond’s range stat compared to other auto rifles, one of the dump stats of that archetype, and with a Counterbalance Stock mod to reduce recoil it’s practically a trace rifle.

I do favor these five weapons, but I also try to mix it up - I picked these five based on my top kill counts, but that biases it towards Y2 guns that have been in service longer. Plenty of newer weapons routinely turn up in my loadout these days: the pleasant chatter and Demolitionist perks of Outlast, Full Court/Field Prep Love and Death, the delightful new kinetic bow Accrued Redemption, Shaxx's broke-ass Crucible pinnacle weapon The Recluse, last season's snappy Patron of Lost Causes, the 600 RPM bullet-hose Arc Logic, and of course the reliable, venerable Y1 IKELOS shotgun. But in the end the only wrong loadout is one you don't enjoy, and the best choice is whatever you find the most fun.

[kuipernebula]

I know it’s 1:55 AM here but I did finish Pass 2 of my Geomancer concept for FFXIV

It’s a Caster DPS that, as you expect, wears Casting Gear. (I do now know why the FUCK people think it’d be a healer. It’s never been a healer, and nothing in the FFXIV lore implies it’d be otherwise? If you want Healing Geomancer play Conjurer or pre-5.0 White Mage) They do, however, double as a Support Job, owing to their FFXI incarnation.

The basic idea is they have a “Spell Combo” - based around a series of buffs called [Element’s] Embrace. Spells do more damage when cast with the previous Embrace in the cycle - the cycle being Earth>Water>Wind. Their Single-Target spells are Tremor>Torrent>Wind Slash (the former 2 are from Tactics Geomancer, the latter is a recurring Geomancer spell) and their AoE spells are Quake>Flood>Tornado (Recurring AoE spells for those elements) (These are circle AoE’s around the caster, kinda like their -ra spells in FFXI)

These embraces are used for a few things, which is why they also have 2 instant-cast spells with similar (but slightly less) potency - Chime (Single-Target) and Dragon Line (Line AoE). These grant a random Embrace when used without one, and if used with one reset its countdown. The embraces double as the Combo Countdown, so this is used for both movement and for using oGCD’s.

Their major form of DPS, however, is their Terrain spells. They share a spot on the hotbar using the ability Terrain - it changes to one of 3 Terrains based on your current Embrace. (It doesn’t do anything on its own) Quicksand with Earth, Whirlpool with Water, and Galeforce with Wind. These act like Slipstream, Doton, Salted Earth, or the now-deleted skill Shadowflare - they are ground-target DoT’s. They are your main source of damage as a Geomancer for obvious reasons. They can’t stack with eachother, but even though they all share a hotbar slot, they don’t share a recast - so you’ll spend any fight rotating between them. The oGCD’s Stalactite (single-target) and Sinkhole (AoE) deal more damage to enemies inside a terrain, so when one is up, you use it on cooldown. (Kinda like Fester?) (Those 2 share a cooldown)

Every tick of a Terrain DoT also has a chance to proc Omen, an instant-cast GCD that deals more damage than Chime - making it very useful for keeping up oGCD’s and movement, if necessary.

As a support, they primarily make use of Luopans, similar to their FFXI incarnation. Luopans are also ground-target, but they buff any party members (or yourself) if they’re inside it while its active. There are 2 Luopans - the short-recast Blessed Luopan and the long-recast Divine Luopan, which also provides a bigger buff. They can’t stack with eachother, so you use Divine Luopan on cooldown and keep Blessed back if their cooldowns have overlapped. When a Luopan is about to run out of time, you can use the skill Full Circle to detonate it, damaging enemies inside it. You also have the skill Aura of Life to extend the range of a Loupan Buff to include the area around your person - meaning while you have Aura of Life up, you always have your own Luopan buff, and buff any allies near you as well as near the Luopan. (Useful for movement-heavy phases!)

Similar to a Dancer’s Finishes, Luopans also grant the Geomancer resource in the form of Harmony. Unlike Dancer, this just requires allies to be in range of the Luopan - you don’t have to attack while under it. (Subject to change) If you accumulate enough Harmony, you can use the GCD spell Sealing Circle, which places a debuff on the enemy. When this debuff expires, the enemy takes the full damage of the spell. This effect can be stacked, so you needn’t worry about overflowing Harmony.

(For the sake of Multiple-Geomancer parties in Duty Finder, Luopans from different sources probably don’t stack effects but do provide both with Harmony - similar to Dancer’s Technical Finish. Meaning if you want optimal play, you would find ways to time Luopans to not overlap, or at least have one to cover ranged if the other covers melee. In practice, this means they’ll overlap more often than not, but it doesn’t have much of an effect on the overall state of play.)

They also have their own form of Meditate/Anatman/Improvisation in the form of Incantation, which refreshes MP and resets and halts the Embrace timer. (The only reason it doesn’t provide Harmony is I don’t want it to be TOO similar to Dancer, despite Esprit being direct inspiration for the Harmony system)

Their other oGCD’s include a single-target attack (Northern Sea), a DoT (Southern Wind), an AoE regen (Eastern Heaven), an AoE defense buff (Western Mountain), and a ground-target warp like Shukuchi or Loom (Center Point).

[djgamek1ng]

FFXIV Tank Ramble

Welp, I’m feeling a bit tired and I’m thinking about all of FFXIV’s tanks so I’ll just type some stuff on here for a bit. TL;DR: scared for the tanking balance. Main tank/off tank balance scares the crap out of me. Gunbreaker is looking really damn cool. Might switch to either it or DRK for my main job if they feel good in ShB

Let’s start with tanking balance. The balance for the tanks has always been rocky. Apparently in 2.0, double PLD was the preferred “meta” comp because of WAR being weird and pretty bad. Then in 2.1 they fixed WAR. Then double WAR become the comp with PLD being left in the dust. Then 3.x came around with DRK being added. Simply put: WAR went Super Saiyan, DRK was good because of mostly magic damage fights and PLD was... bad. Having Royal Authority combo off Savage Blade made it impossible for PLD to be the off tank and it didn’t bring enough to the table to be the main tank. With the end Heavensward (3.x), came Stormblood (4.x) and ooooooooh boy. WAR was kind of messed up, PLD went Super Saiyan and poor DRK. Of all the tanks, DRK definitely had it the roughest. This lasted until 4.2 where WAR got fixed and therefore became the best tank (mostly best main tank). DRK got fixed with 4.3 in which got the role of either main or off tank depending on your co-tank (with a WAR in the party, DRK would 100% be the off tank. With a PLD, DRK would 100% be the main tank). Also PLD got nerfed a bit because it was doing too much damage... party poopers.

So as we can see from that the tanking balance hasn’t always been the greatest and 5.0 makes me worried. Gunbreaker being a thing, which btw until we get official the short version revealed, Gunbreaker is GBR on here, is one thing. Nomura’s statement after EU Fan Festa about them considering the whole 2 main tanks and 2 off tanks thing makes me more worried. Apparently there is supposed to be a job adjustment patch before Shadowbringers about which my guess, if that it is true, is to give us at least a month or 2 to prepare before Shadowbringers with certain properties on skills or maybe even entirely new skills given.

Anyway, back on topic. Why? Why does it make me worried? Because this can potentially be HW PLD all over again, but then for 2 tanks. It also makes me worried because what the HFIL determines a main tank and what the HFIL determines an off tank? Currently the “main” tank is the one that can generate the most aggro very quickly and off tanks are essentially your 5th DPS that isn’t as good as a DPS, but they are disgustingly tanky and bring utility to the party, though tank swaps are a thing that exist. If they want to keep tank swaps as a thing, main tanks can’t be too bad at doing whatever the off tank needs to do and same goes for the vice versa scenario. Plus how will you explain in-game or through official means (like the job guide) what a main tank and off tank actually means? So my question again is why? Like, I get needing some base to actually balance them off from but I feel like main tank/off tank will only cause more pain then anything. I felt like balancing them on utility vs damage (more utility = less damage, more damage = less utility) is the better way to go about it. Well, not like this will matter in 3ish months when we actually get the 5.0 patch.

Also speaking about GBR... holy hell man. I’m hyped. While I will forever love the classic sword and board (even though I don’t really like many of the sword and boards in FFXIV, I’m sorry ;-;) in PLD, GBR and DRK depending on how they turn out could make me switch mains to be honest. DRK already tempts me a lot because of its lore actually existing (PLD’s really is shallow outside of “here, these are techniques I can teach you. Also this is what the Sultansworn do. You are a Free Paladin however. What do those do? Protect people and land. Neat huh?”) and because the gameplay is a lot of fun. I’m not fully committed to switching from PLD yet though, since I love PLD. I just hope the story for PLD is good this time around. Hell, make it a plot dump about how Free Paladins get their powers and why we should care about Ul’dah to begin with. I know, that is where we start but seriously... the whole point of the Free Paladins is that they AREN’T restricted by a master (in this case, the Sultana of Ul’dah), so why do we care about Ul’dah so much at this point? Why wouldn’t we move to Gridania and help people there? Or Limsa Lominsa? Ishgard? Ala Mhigo? Doma?

Anyway, rant aside, GBR is looking great from the 30 or so seconds of gameplay that we got. I'm hoping its lore is good and that it will play well. Honestly, ideally for me it would find a middle ground between SB PLD and SB DRK. If it does, I will probably main it, though that goes for any of the tanks tbh. Whether it is PLD, WAR, DRK or GBR, if it finds a sort of middle ground between SB PLD and SB DRK, I will main it. GBR is just the most likely since out of all of the tanks it isn't quite as expected to be covered in heavy plate armor from head to toe and I like that (especially in FFXIV where I honestly think most heavy armor doesn't look thay good).

Anyway, tank ramble over. I'm gonna go sleep. Bye!

[kokomity]

CONGRATS ON GETTING SUCROSE SHE WAS MY FIRST 4 STAR <33

YOU KNOW I GOT THIS IDEA WHEN I WAS IN LIYUE HARBOR BY THAT UNFINISHED BOAT

stoic, sassy and bold reader. I love those readers. But they are buff as hell too. Probably because they have been making boats all their life, gathering materials for the boats all by themselfs and a lot of their boats are probably made only by them because they dont trust other people to make good and beautiful quality boats.

They think that boats can only be made with someone with true passion for the skill. They do not want anyone around them when they are building the boats. They also are very scarred but still very attractive.

As i said before they collect the materials themselfs, so we dont know everything about the chasm yet but what if reader ocasionally went there to collect materials. The lore would be amazing, and it would give reader lore too.

They are very well known around Liyue and probably around he whole of teyvat with stories about them. They dont seem to interact that much with people and mostly seem bored and disgusted when interacting with people.

But yes your right, lets make reader short. It's way better, them just being small but buff as hell. Them carrying huge materials like its a feather. Reader probably often times wrestles arms with people, like Beidou and the alchor crew. And they always win.

Another thing is that they dont find people worthy much. Only a few people do they truly respect. They think that people have to show their worth with actions. They dont nessecarily think that people should be extremely strong but they think someone being worthy is when someone isnt selfish and actually should have good morals. They dont think someone is worthy when they life for their own being, justice is what they think is good. It is obvious that they have strong morals.

I have often mentioned Beidou so i have confirmed that reader made the alchor. The alchor is readers most prized boat, they put their heart and soul into the boat. They worked all alone for months on the alchor. And thats why they are greatly associated with Beidou and the crew, they are very close with each other (love interest moment).

There are few people they greatly respect like Beidou, Kazuha, Xingqui, Chongyun and Ningguang. All for various reasons but all quite the same at the same time.

Reader is also a little bit of a perfectionist, they hate it when things dont go their way. Thry get stressed and highly emotional (what people dont expect because of the way they act) when stuff dont go the way it was planned. They are also quite scared to talk with people, they dont want to hurt people or want to get hurt. They know they can get quite blunt so they try and work all alone and keep to themselves, so they are often seen sitting all alone or working hard.

They love the sea and absolutely love the water another reason for their vision. The probably know a lot more than the average human about the sea. Sea animals also seem to gravitate towards them a lot.

Rarity - ★★★★★

Element/vision - Hydro

Weapon - Claymore

Focus - Main dps

Home Region - Liyue

Affiliation: Boat maker(?)

Charachter interactions/ reader has voice lines about these charachters: Beidou, Xingqiu, Chongyun, Kazuha, Ningguang, Keqing.

Passive talants:

Passive Talent 1: Displays the location of nearby resources unique to Liyue on the mini-map.

Passive Talent 2: When reader crafts Weapon Ascension Materials, there is a 25% chance to receive double the product.

Passive Talent 3: Decreases all party members' swimming Stamina consumption by 35%.

Talents:

Name: ?

Type: Normal attack

-> Reader performs up to 5 consecutive strikes.

-> Charged Attack

Drains Stamina over time to perform continuous slashes.

At the end of the sequence, perform a more powerful slash.

->Plunging Attack

Plunges from mid-air to strike the ground, damaging opponents along the path and dealing AoE DMG upon impact.

Name: ?

Type: elemental skill

-> Reader swings their claymore at enemies and a wave of hydro comes out and delivers continous dmg. (?)

Name: Ocean's wrath

type: elemental burst

->Reader slams claymore into the ground and summons a long and horizontal wall of hydro. The wall cuts through enemies and shoots out tendrils of water at enemies.

NOW GO GIMME UR OPINION BOO

HOW ARW YOU GUYS GETTING SUCROSE AS UR FIRST 4 STAR 😭 I GOT KAEYA AS MY FIRST 4 STAR ☹️⁉️ I DONT MEAN LIKE THE FREE KAEYA 💪 I MEANT AS IN LIKE WISHING SYSTEM KAEYA 🙁

OKOK SO I HAVENT USED CLAYMORE CHARACTERS ALL THAT MUCH BECAUSE I HAVE A HARD TIME USING THEM BECAUSE I SUCK FOR SOME REASON?? BUT OH MY GOSH ITS SO OBVIOUS IN THEIR PLAY STYLE THAT A CLAYMORE IS HEAVY 😦

I LIKE TK IMAGINE READER HANGS OUT WITH BEIDOU AND THE CREW A WHOLE LOT 🤔 AND BY DOING SO READER PROBABLY HAS A BIT OF BEIDOUS PLAY STYLE SYNCHED INTO HER OWNS ⁉️⁉️⁉️

[shieldoflegend]

Primal Instincts

A bit of context for this; Logan was always supposed to start learning Dragoon at some point during 3.0, after Cherise, giving him a DPS class I thought would work for him, instead of just being a Paladin. But when we read the lore entry for Blood of the Dragon, we thought it would be neat if he had some difficulty with it. On top of that I saw an opportunity to use his fear of/connection to Bahamut I’ve used a couple times to help make things even worse. I’ve been sitting on this for literal months trying to figure out a way to make it feel the way I wanted it to, and I’m super happy I finally get to share it.

Cherise and Aiko belong to @awoken-zodiac Akio belongs to @edgiestshadow

“Try it again,” Cherise said.

Logan gripped his Lance, closed his eyes, and tried to find the power of the Eye flowing from his crystal. He tried to find that draconic power. He could see it, but whenever he tried to reach for it, it slid away. Like it was scared of him. Or maybe he was scared of it.

Logan inhaled sharply and his eyes snapped open. He looked at Cherise who shook her head.

“Nothing.”

He sighed and planted his lance on the ground with more force than necessary. “What am I doing wrong? I can see it, I know what I'm supposed to do, but it's not working! The crystal even showed me!”

Beside his sister stood Akio, one of the Wanderers’ other Dragoons, one who had been at this longer than either of them. The three stood together in a training area for Ishgardian knights, graciously offered to them by Aymeric, as long as they followed the same rules and scheduled their time like every other training group.

The towering Au Ra turned Cherise aside for a moment, the two talking low enough that Logan couldn't overhear much.

“...Only way…”

“No… to him…”

“Cherise…”

“...Don't like…”

They paused, and Cherise sighed and turned back to Logan. “I'm going to ask you to do something you're not going to like.”

Logan frowned. “What?”

She seemed pained to respond. “We think you need to tap into your connection with Bahamut. Whatever happened to you during the Calamity, and later when we found him in Dalamud’s ruins…”

“We think you have a connection stronger to him than Nidhogg’s eye,” Akio finished, as Cherise trailed off. “The crystal shows you only a connection to the Eye, but you might need something else. Try it.”

Logan looked from Akio to Cherise. His sister wouldn't look at him. He had been a lot better around dragons since they'd faced Bahamut, that was true. He'd faced off against Nidhogg, and argued with Hraesvalgr, become a linchpin in the Dragonsong War. But he was still afraid. Maybe that was why he couldn't reach the power. It wasn't moving away from him, maybe he was moving away from it.

“Okay,” he said finally, taking a deep breath. “I'll try it.”

Cherise finally looked up at him and they shared a glance. She didn't really want him to, he didn't have to. He assured her it was fine, he wanted to try, he wanted this to work. She relented. All in a glance. Having a twin sister had its perks sometimes.

He closed his eyes again, lance gripped tight and held at the ready. Once again he could see the power, but he largely ignored it. Instead he looked around for something else, for that fear he'd felt when he first laid eyes on Bahamut. He found it, circling above, as if waiting for him to notice. He reached for it, but it snapped at him, and Logan drew back. He could see it now though, he was the one retreating, not the power, he was scared, afraid of this primal essence and of letting it in. This was far more than facing a foe on the battlefield.

But… had he not determined to stop letting fear sway him from moving forward? No, he had to do this. Logan reached out again, and when Bahamut struck out at him, Logan found a spear in his hand and struck back. Bahamut melted into a glowing essence that overtook his spear, then his arm, then flowed over him completely.

Logan's eyes snapped open. He could feel the new energy swirling around him, and he looked over at Cherise and Akio. Their eyes were wide, surprised.

“What?” Logan asked.

“You did it!” Akio said with a grin.

“I can't believe that worked…” Cherise breathed. She then took a moment to compose herself and spoke louder. “Okay, now try to focus all that into a jump on a target. You should find that you can hit it much-”

Before she could even finish, Logan leapt into the air, then came flying back down, his spear ripping through the practice dummy on the other side of the training ground. He leapt back and landed smoothly, took a moment to ensure everything felt okay, then looked back at his dragoon mentors.

“Like that? That definitely felt stronger!” He said excitedly.

“Yes!” Akio exclaimed, and seemed overjoyed that Logan had managed to progress.

Cherise looked more unsure however. “Yeah, pretty much that. There's more to it, but keep practicing that. The crystal will show you more when you're ready for it. For now, go take a break.”

Logan blinked. A break? But he just- “Wait, what time is it?” He asked suddenly.

“Why? I mean…” Cherise looked into the sky. “Not far past noon?”

“Ooh, I gotta go!” Logan said, running past both of them, practically tossing his spear to Cherise on his way past. “Meeting thing they wanted me at, Warrior of Light stuff!”

“Logan, wait a second!” Cherise called after him, but he just gave her a wave and ran out of the practice yard. “What does he think I am, his personal assistant!? ...And what was that golden glow…?” She muttered that last bit under her breath.

Akio gave her a careful look. “I... could take it if you don't-”

She gave him a punch on his arm, and stormed off the field herself. “He's going to get himself into trouble, isn't he…”

Hours later and Logan found himself slumped back into his chair half-listening to the most boring meeting he could’ve imagined. The new group of Ishgardian leaders were sitting around the table chatting away about various politics. More changes or policies that had to be thought of following the end of the war, or something like that. Logan had stopped paying attention mere minutes into the meeting.

He knew the others often complained about how much the Warriors of Light were abused for menial tasks, but he'd never thought it was that bad. Not until now, anyway. He wanted to do something. Not sit around, he wanted a fight. That's what he was good at, right? He was, after all, a Warrior of Light. He needed to take something on, head to head, fight it, win. Like that Ishgardian knight at the door. He could beat him. He could rip him apart. Into shreds, literally, sink his blade into him and watch him-

“Logan!?”

Aymeric’s startled voice snapped Logan back to attention, and he found he was leaning far over the table, fists clenched, staring at the knight at the door, who, even with his helmet on, looked terrified.

“Wh... what?” Logan stuttered, leaning back in his chair, wondering what had just happened. “What were we talking about?”

There was a brief pause before Aymeric slowly continued. “We were just talking about how it might do some good for you to make an appearance at-”

“An appearance!?” Logan snapped back, jumping to his feet and slamming his hands down on the table. “I sat here for hours just so you could announce that I'm to be paraded around again!?”

His anger leapt back to a boiling point, and a part of him wondered why he was so angry, but most of him didn't care. He was so tired of being looked at, shown off, doing menial tasks. He was a hero! Not a trophy!

“I… I simply thought-” Aymeric tried to respond, but Logan cut him off.

“Yeah, I bet you did. Forget it, I'm going home.”

And with that, Logan spun and left the room, giving one more terrifying glare to the knight at the door, who visibly recoiled. Logan's laugh echoed through the room as the door swing shut behind him.

Aymeric turned to Lucia. “See if you can track down the Wanderers. Something is not right here.”

The trusted knight nodded and she quickly hurried off through the door as well, while Aymeric began to try and smooth things over with the others.

“He did what!?” Cherise exclaimed.

“I know, that’s why I came looking for you,” Lucia confirmed with a solemn nod. “I thought you might be able to, er, handle him.”

Cherise stormed past the taller woman. “I’m gonna punch his brains out! What an idiot! What was he thinking!?” She stopped suddenly and spun around. “Wait, where did he say he was going?”

Lucia blinked, unsure how to handle the raging redhead. “Um. ‘Home’ I believe is what he said.”

Cherise didn’t move for a moment, thoughts racing, and then she spun on her heel and ran off again. “Oh hells, this might be bad.” As an afterthought, she looked over her shoulder back at Lucia. “Oh, and thanks!”

Lucia sighed and began walking back to the meeting room. “Siblings,” she muttered with a small shake of her head and just the slightest hint of a smile.

“Hello?” Cherise called into the currently empty house belonging to Awoken Wanderers.

Their headquarters in the Mist had been somewhat abandoned after the events in Ul’dah, and with the Dragonsong War going on in Ishgard they hadn’t had time to reassemble everyone and get it up and running again. A few of them still lived here however, though they often spent most of their time away. But if Logan was headed “home”, this is where Cherise believed he’d end up.

No one answered her call however, so she opened the door leading to the private rooms, found Logan’s, and knocked. “Logan, are you in there?”

The door opened and Aiko stood in the doorway, holding a bedsheet up to her otherwise naked body. “Oh!” Cherise immediately took a step back and looked at the ceiling.

“Yeeees?” The Miqo’te asked, her voice a bit airy.

Cherise cleared her throat but continued, avoiding looking forward. “Um. Did, uh, Logan come here?” The answer seemed obvious, but she asked anyway.

“Yes. He. Did,” Aiko answered, as if answering an entirely different question.

“Ooookay, nope, oh gods, no, no,” Cherise shook her head and stepped away from the doorway, pointing past Aiko and into the room. “No, go put clothes on, I need to talk to you and this isn’t working, or happening, just. Oh Twelve, no.”

Aiko laughed a little as Cherise made a few gagging noises, but did indeed go back inside and shut the door.

“List of things I did not need to see or hear or imagine, ugh…” Cherise muttered to herself, rubbing her forehead as if it may remove the memory from her mind as she walked back to the main room of the house.

A few moments later Aiko reappeared looking back to her full senses, and fully clothed, much to Cherise’s relief. “Alright Cherise, what’s wrong?” She asked.

The Hyur crossed her arms and scowled. “Well you saw Logan didn’t you? Isn’t there something wrong with him? Acting oddly?”

“Well I was a bit distracted,” Aiko said, the slightest hint of a purr in her voice bringing out another gag from Cherise. “Though I do have to admit there did seem something a bit odd about him. And familiar, too, actually… I can’t place it though… What's going on with him anyway?”

“He…” Cherise hesitated, unsure of how much to say. “He used a technique called Blood of the Dragon, which usually uses power from Nidhogg’s eye. But he never interacted with them, not enough. So… he used Bahamut’s aether instead.”

Aiko’s eyes widened. “That's what felt familiar! He was practically drowning in Bahamut's aether! Cherise that could be incredibly dangerous!”

“No shit!” Cherise flung out her arms. “What do you think I'm doing!? Now did he say where he was going when he left?

Aiko hummed, tapping a finger against her lips. “Mmm… No… I think he mentioned he was hungry though?”

“Oh boy…” Cherise groaned. “There’s only one place in all La Noscea he’ll go if he’s hungry.”

“The Drowning Wench,” they said together.

Cherise and Aiko weren’t even halfway up the stairs to the second level of Limsa Lominsa when they heard the fighting. They didn’t even trade a glance before charging up the stairs. When they turned the corner the Drowning Wench was living up to its namesake, ale covered the floor, at least three men were unconscious, a pair of barmaids were hiding behind their serving trays, and Baderon came up from behind the bar to spot the two women.

Right in the center of the brawl, which consisted of at least ten men and a few women, was Logan. He was unarmoured and unarmed, but attacking anyone who came too close like a rabid, cornered animal.

“You two!” Baderon called out, gesturing to the pair. “Ge’ o’er here!”

Without hesitation Cherise and Aiko slipped along the wall and jumped the bar, crouching down next to Baderon.

“Wha’ in th’ seven ‘ells is goin’ on wit’ yer brother?” Baderon demanded of Cherise.

“Long story,” she answered. “What happened?”

“No idea. One momen’ e’ry thing was fine, an’ then bam! Chaos like I 'aven’t seen since th’ Calamity!”

“Okay, well stay down, we'll handle him.”

“Gladly!”

Aiko turned to Cherise. “How do we even stop… whatever this is?”

Cherise paused. “I’m… not sure. Usually it takes some effort to keep it up, and I never told him how. I’m not sure how he’s kept it going so long…”

“I could be the first to tell you that if he’s channeling Bahamut he could be going for awhile,” Aiko explained, pulling out her tome and flipping through some pages.

“Great, so what, just tie him down until he calms down?” Cherise asked as she heard a heavy thud that must've been a combatant dropping unconscious.

“Mmm, as much as I might like that-”

“Do not.”

“-I think I might be able to put him in a trance and possibly siphon it off.” Aiko pointed to a page of her tome, but Cherise didn't understand a thing on it. “But you will still need to knock him down. I'll need time.”

“Knocking down I can do,” Cherise nodded, punching a fist into her palm. “Get ready.”

With that, Cherise jumped up on the bar and shouted. “Hey! Logan! You want a fight, I'm right here!”

The fight paused and Cherise got a closer look at her brother. There was a faint glow of orange and gold, the effects of Bahamut's aether. But worse was the savage look in Logan's eyes, a look that did not belong to him. It hurt to see, but only steeled her resolve. The other fighters broke off, sensing a battle they shouldn't be a part of, and Logan stared down Cherise. A calm silence came over the tavern as everyone waited to see what would happen.

Then both of them dashed forward. Cherise slammed into Logan, but he caught her by the shoulders and simply slid back, growling and then tossing her across the rest of the room. She skittered to a halt on all fours, wiping her hands of the ale on her jacket. He shouted wordlessly and charged at her again, but she sidestepped him, grabbed his shoulder, and threw him into the wall. He smashed into it, bounced off of it, turned with a snarl, and took a fist to the face. Just like that Logan was laid down flat on the floor.

“Aiko, now!” Cherise shouted.

Aiko leapt over the bar, held out one hand, and muttered incantations from the book she held in the other. The golden-orange glow representing Bahamut’s aether flowed from Logan and into Aiko’s outstretched palm. She squeezed it shut and the aether dissipated.

Cherise kneeled down by her brother and checked his breathing. “Did it work?” It was even, he seemed okay.

“I think so,” Aiko said, sounding unsure. “I mean, it did what it was supposed to do, but whether it worked to keep him from being… whatever that was, we won’t know until he wakes up.”

Cherise sighed and nodded. “Well, help me get him back home then. We wouldn’t want him to break out of the inn rooms and terrorize the bar patrons again.”

Baderon, now back on his feet and turning tables back upright looked up at Cherise and nodded. “Aye, get ‘im ‘ome, I can take care o’ things ‘ere. Twelve knows ‘e’s done loads for us, a messy bar ain’t nothin’.”

Logan stirred and sat up. His head felt like paste, that his brain was flopping about inside his skull. What had happened anyway? Last thing he remembered was storming out of the meeting in Ishgard.

“He’s awake!” Aiko’s voice called, though Logan refused to open his eyes just yet.

“How is he?” Cherise’s voice called back from somewhere further away.

“Stop yelling…” Logan complained, attempting to wave his hand at them but finding lifting his arm to be somewhat difficult.

The next thing he felt was Aiko’s cool hand stroke the side of his face. “Are you feeling okay?” She asked softly.

“No… What hit me…?” Logan mumbled.

“That was Cherise,” Aiko said with a hint of laughter to her voice. “But you’re okay? You don’t feel um… Like you want to pick a fight or anything?”

“What? No, the thought of that just makes my head hurt more…” Logan groaned.

Lips touched his forehead. “Good. Then lay here and rest.”

“But what happened? I don’t remember anything after the meeting…” Logan insisted.

He heard someone enter the room, and Cherise’s voice was heard again, much closer. “I think it was the blood of the dragon skill… I think Bahamut’s aether took you over or something. The ability is supposed to give you extra power and combat instincts, but it does mean giving a bit of yourself over to the primal instincts of the dragon. I guess in your case it was just too much…”

Logan felt the bed sink a little as Cherise must’ve sat down next to him. “So… so what… happened…?” He almost didn’t want to know, and felt his stomach sinking.

“Well…” Cherise started. “You stormed out of the meeting in Ishgard enough to scare half the people in the room and insult the other half.” Logan groaned. “Then you came here and, uh…”

There was an awkward pause and Logan swore he felt the bed shake a little.

“You spent some time with me,” Aiko said simply, her tone pleased, though Logan felt immense disapproval from Cherise, even without seeing her.

Cherise cleared her throat. “Then you went to the Drowning Wench where you, apparently, ate more than Baderon’s seen a man eat, save for a 'starving bilgerat’, then no one’s quite sure what happened, but a fight broke out, you knocked four people unconscious - yes, they’ll be fine - and I had to smash your head into a wall to knock you out and let Aiko pull some of Bahamut’s aether off of you.”

Logan swallowed deeply. “I… did all that?” He started to shake his head but thought better of it immediately. “Just because of that dragoon ability?”

“I…” Cherise started.

“It seems so,” Aiko confirmed. “As someone with experience, Bahamut’s aether is not to be taken lightly. You just weren’t prepared. I can help you with it, if you want.”

“...Sure…” Logan said, not sounding sure at all.

There was a brief silence. “Get some rest,” Cherise said softly, and Logan felt her fingers brush his hair.

“We’ll be nearby if you need anything,” Aiko confirmed, planting her lips upon his forehead once more.

“Okay.”

Logan listened to them leave. He’d be impressed at their ability to work together, but he was far too distracted by his missing memories and the story Cherise had just told him. He’d spent so much time rebuilding their reputation after Ul’dah, and now this. Could he even truly manage the power of the dragoon if this was a possible result? Was it responsible of him to even try? He’d been so scared of Bahamut both in the past and present, even if he had overcome much of his fear. Despite his insistence to no longer act out of fear, maybe this was one act of caution he should heed.

Maybe he should just give up on becoming a dragoon.

[rumikothefox]

Favorite Monster Hunter Monsters, Elder Dragon Edition

Alright, so here is the list of my favorite Elder Dragons. Once again, this is in no particular order. 

Please keep in mind that Elder Dragons are usually hidden or story-based monsters. There are bound to be spoilers for these games due to the nature of these monsters. If that concerns you, best to skip this list.

Let’s get this show on the road!

Ceadeus

As far as Elder Dragons go, let’s start with my first love. Ceadeus was my first Elder Dragon, before I even really understood the classification in reference to the series. He was epicly huge, really powerful, and honestly didn’t give a crap about me until I started being more than a mild annoyance to him and broke his beard. Fighting him was surprisingly fun for an underwater fight, albeit a bit frustrating at times, but I think it was the story aspect that really sold me on him. The beautiful music, the lead up to his fight (including the Lagiacrus fakeout), and the fact that this village’s future is riding on you at least driving this Ceadeus off, if not slaying it outright. It just made it feel ridiculously grand. The Goldbeard Ceadeus was kind of awesome too, but it didn’t have the same impact as fighting Ceadeus in the village quests did.

Oroshi Kirin

When I try to figure out if I like a monster or not, it usually comes down to the fact that monsters both frustrate me and enthrall me. So in which ones does the second happen more than the first? Kirin and Oroshi Kirin ride that fine line where it was hard to say. Both are frustrating as all hell, but they are such amazing monsters that it’s hard to stay mad at them. Oroshi in particular has an awesome-looking coat and I’ve always been partial to ice elements in RPGs. 

Kirin and Oroshi are fast and have really tough hides. They were the type of fights that made me glad I was a gunner mostly in MH4U, because bouncing is never a fun time. I sat back and let loose the pew pew right on that horn of his. To be honest, I initially kind of thought of Kirin as a joke. What is this tiny little horse monster gonna do to me, right? Theeen the carting began and I realized this horse got the title Elder Dragon for a reason. Despite the frustration though, I just felt more compelled to take him down.

Plus... I mean... you know... the armor?

Yeah... >.>

Gogmazios

Gog was our hidden Elder in MH4U. There wasn’t really a lot to him lore-wise, just a balls-hard fight. This is a monster covered in a very sticky, very flammable oil. So sticky, in fact, that this monster starts with a portable dragonator stuck in its back. If you can manage to dislodge it, you can use it against him in addition to the dragonator already in the arena.

Gog is surprisingly mobile for his size. Some of his movements remind me a little of Fatalis and he shares that annoyingly long tail trait. Gog fires explosive fire beams from his mouth that will burn you if you’re too close to the initial fire and, if you hang around the contact point too long, it will explode and send you flying with a ton of damage. He is also capable of flight, despite his size, and he occasionally goes into an enrage phase that involves him flying around the area firing his beam of death indiscriminately in every direction. If you can’t use the binders to bring him to the ground, you generally have to leave the battleground until he’s done rampaging.

My favorite part of him was mounting. I spent half my time in MH4U gunning and the other half with an insect glaive in my hand. And this guy was super easy to mount. It wasn’t uncommon to get a multiplayer room with at least two glaive users in the fight because most people knew that was his weak point. Mount him, bring him down, everyone does damage. Rinse and repeat. It turned a monster that was almost too hard to consider farming despite his amazing-looking weapons into a monster that was tough but fun. 

Lunastra/Teostra

Okay, so, I’ve only fought a Teostra, but I just love how the Lunastra looks and I had to include her with her hubby at least for that and the fact that in their original game, they fought almost the same way.

I love this lion-like, chimera look to them. Lunastra’s coloration speaks to me more, but I do love Teostra’s firey appearance. They look very regal in how they hold themselves.

In fourth gen, they added blast to Teostra and it is both awesome and sucks. In combat, you can get blasted around a ton and you practically have to have an enrage timer handy in a browser to time when he’s going to do his supernova move, because if you’re in melee range when that goes off, it’s gonna hurt. His blast weapons are some of the best in the game though, so I got used to fighting him pretty quick since we farmed him for weapons a lot. They tend to have less top-end than, say, Brachy’s weapons, but they have such an obscene amount of blast on them that with a quick enough weapon and enough hunters, you can just kind of chain explode a monster and cause them to flinch their ass off.

Edit: As of Monster Hunter World, I have now fought a Lunastra. I still love her, but that first unlock quest... well... I could have gone without that entire experience. lol

Hallowed Jhen Mohran

Jhen is yet another Elder that I fought early on and got that special sort of place in my heart. Monsters had always, until that point, been a toe-to-toe fight with the monster in question. Toe-to-claw? Anyway, it hadn’t even occurred to me that a monster this large could exist in this game. So when the villagers were like, “Hey, we wanna take on this monster, but we need to ready a ship to fight it with, can you get us some mats?” I was kind of perplexed but went with it anyway. The result was a ridiculously epic fight that involved firing cannons and ballista at a giant sand whale, climbing on his back to break parts of his spines, and a showdown with the monster creeping ever closer to the boat with only me between them. Having the MH main theme kick in when you use the dragonator on him during the showdown was also an amazing touch. It makes you feel like “omg yes!! I can do this!! LET’S GO GENTS!!!” I didn’t always get all my carves, but it was a fun ride.

Hallowed Jhen was definitely tougher, but god he’s pretty. Jhen has just this sandy, rocky look to him that is cool, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not all that fancy either. Then out struts Hallowed Jhen in G Rank, looking like some swaggering geode that says “Yeah, just try it.” I didn’t fight him often other than when I specifically needed mats, mostly due to his difficulty and also due to the fact that the epicness of the fight sort of starts to wear on you when you have to do it over and over for certain parts, but it was definitely amazing when we did fight him.

Akantor

Okay, first thing is first. Akantor is a Flying Wyvern. Yes, technically this monster isn’t an Elder Dragon. He USED to be classified as one, according to lore. You fight him alone in a volcano arena. He’s ridiculously powerful. His weapons are Elder Dragon levels of powerful. He’s an Elder Dragon, I don’t care what classifications say. :P

Akantor is like if you took a Tigrex and made him spiky and fire-based. He has most of Tigrex’s basic moveset when he moves and attacks. He has the added ability, though, to burrow into the ground and pop up elsewhere. Thankfully this is usually done rather slowly, so you aren’t likely to get too caught off guard unless you are just not paying attention. Which is bad news because if you’re not watching, you can end up with Akantor pulling himself out of the ground behind you and firing a beam that will absolutely devastate you. I guess I just have a thing sometimes for these big, slow, but intensely powerful monsters. He just looks like something you definitely don’t wanna mess with and, really, he isn’t. But he’s a fun fight. Certainly a lot more fun, imo, than his rival, Ukanlos. Shovelface can take a hike.

Alatreon

Ugh, okay, it pains me to break combo like this. I’ve been using the backgroundless renders of all the monsters so far, but I couldn’t do it this time.  I couldn’t find a proper render of him that didn’t either make him look much darker than he actually is, or make him look like he came straight out of a “brown game”. So you get this screenshot from the wiki instead.

Alatreon is a headache to fight. I hate fighting him. But he has some cool lore and his weapons look amazing. Sadly, I didn’t fight enough of him to be able to make his weapons in MH3U. They all have this theme of being black with glowy purple accents with some pretty cool shapes.

The idea behind this Elder is that he can use FOUR of the five elements. That’s Dragon, Ice, Thunder, and Fire. The only one missing is water. The problem is this makes him highly unstable. Monsters aren’t meant to have that many affinities, I guess. He uses all four against you in some capacity, though he can only use one at a time. The arena has a ballista binder, which is good because sometimes he will go into a flying phase where bringing him down is the better option to letting him fly around and have his way with you. In some ways he resembles the body shape of Kushala Daora and even has some of his moveset if I recall.

Chameleos

Okay, so you have that endgame set you really like, right? Got it all nice and gemmed up the way you like it with optimal dps skills? Yeah? Okay, cool. Now open five of those slots up, shove some anti-theft decorations in those slots, and suck it up. No, I said suck it up. Stop crying, you can have your skills back later.

Your enjoyment of Chameleos can be inversely proportional to how many of your items he’s stolen with that long tongue of his, as well as how rare those items are. The more he’s stolen, the more you want to cry and possibly throw something. You will not be getting those items back. R.I.P.

That being said, as a whole, I highly enjoy Cham. Maybe it has to do with the fact that I had to farm him excessively, both for my status blademaster set and for several of his top tier poison weapons. But I got pretty used to his antics. A dedicated anti-theft set specifically made for fighting him helped. I still had to contend with his poison stupidity, but it’s a small price to pay.

I think Cham may be one of the only goofy-looking Elder Dragons. He just has this expression that makes you wanna laugh. Like Kirin, he’s one of those monsters that if you don’t take him seriously from the outset, he will surprise you with the amount of ass kicking he gives you.

My favorite part of fighting him was his mist. He creates mist in the area that he can vanish into unless you’ve broken his horn (at which point he’s very visible when he THINKS he’s invisible). When the mist kicks in, it does this awesome effect where his battle music become muffled, like the mist is blocking your hearing somewhat.  I liked the effect a lot and it kind of added to that immersion, like you were surrounded rather than your hunter character. His music is also ridiculously awesome imo. 

Dalamadur

I’m not sure if I’d put Dally as my absolute favorite, but he’s very much up high on the list for me. Dalamadur is the largest monster in the series so far. As far as I’m aware, anyway. He sits at 44039.7cm (1444.8 feet) long and is fought with his body wrapped around a mountain. At any given time, you can only reach a couple of his claws, his tail, and his chest. You can hit his head if you’re ranged or an insect glaive user. He occasionally will move in such a way that you can hit his body for a minute or two.

This guy is so big and powerful that his movements can shape the landscape. When you find him, he’s covered in this layer of stone, just kind of sleeping wrapped around a mountain peak. He wakes up, cracks the layer off himself, and comes down after you. I love his roar in particular, it just adds to this whole idea of his monster so much bigger than you. It reverbs around the whole area.

Initially, I hated this guy.  There is a lot to remember when fighting him and if you’re unfamiliar with the fight, expect wipes. Our group watched videos about how to fight him before we took him on (WoW raiding habit) and we still got toasted a lot early on.  Once you learn his phases and tells, though, he becomes manageable and kind of fun.  You definitely want to be working on different things than other people. Have someone break his tail while someone else goes after a claw. A third person can be breaking his chest, while someone else could be trying to get on his head and set bombs up there. Learning to Superman dive through his beam of death helps as well.

He’s a difficult one to carve because his body takes a long time to settle during its death throes and you could end up somewhere where his body isn’t actually landing.  That takes practice as well.  Still, taking him out is extremely satisfying.

Honorable Mentions

There are some Elder Dragons that didn’t make it on this list, but I feel like deserve a special mention, or at least an explanation as to why they didn’t make my list.

Fatalis: Fatty just never appealed to me much. I mean, he’s a large dragon and kinda cool looking, but he doesn’t stand out to me. It might be partially because I never played the original game and don’t have that nostalgia for him. I also played MH3U first and so Fatalis feels more like a more plain clone of Dire Miralis, even though I know Fatalis is the one that came first. Crim and White are too frustrating to even consider.  I don’t really have fun fighting any of these three and only really fight them when one of my friends (or myself) needs his parts.

Dire Miralis: Speaking of this guy, he almost made the list, purely based off him being the first hidden Elder I ever came across, but... he was just too aggravating for me to actually like him. There were underwater parts for no real reason other than I guess he needed to cool off his body? He also seemed to home in on you with his projectiles, even when you were doing your best to avoid them. I don’t know, I guess he just leaned too heavily on the frustrating part of things for me to love him all that much. Still, he looks pretty awesome.

Kushala Daora: This was an odd one. I juggled the idea of adding him to the list, especially with his rival Teostra making the list. But I guess rather than anything being bad about him, it was just that he didn’t stand out for me quite enough. I love Daora, don’t get me wrong, but he is a metallic, regular-ass dragon model. He uses ice and wind and his methods of using them are pretty awesome. I also like that he’s one of the Elders that has part of his mechanic crippled by poison. But in the end, I felt like I didn’t want this to be a mile-long list like the normal monsters were and in a lineup of standouts, he just didn’t stand out as much for me? Sorry Daora, I still love you. Rusted can go to hell though.

Amatsumagatsuchi: Amatsu looks fantastic and I love how his armor looks. But... while I’ve played Portable 3rd, I never actually finished it.  I never even got far enough to actually fight an Amatsu myself. So, as much as I would have liked to include him, the fact is that I haven’t fought him and also know very little about him as a monster.

Nergigante: Very similar to Amatsu.  I’ve tangled with Nergy a few times, but it’s only really been in the beta or in a few quests I don’t want to speak of where he invades for a short time and you drive him off. I have yet to get a quest to actually take him out, nor do I know anything about his lore. I feel like Nergy might become a monster I truly love once I get to know him, but for now, he’s just too much of an unknown factor to include on this list.

And that’s the end of my posts on my favorite monsters. If any of the Monster Hunter World monsters really stand out to me, I may make separate posts for them later to gush about them a bit. 

I am still considering a favorite music post, but there’s a lot I need to consider and re-listen to before I make a decision on that. Thanks for reading!

[terryblount]

Borderlands 3 – Review

Borderlands arguably kicked off the looter-shooter genre. And in the current console generation, there’s plenty of those to go by. Now five years (or three if you count The Pre-Sequel) since its latest outing, Borderlands 3 is here.

With smart changes, upping the content load, and retaining most of the core gameplay almost to a T, Borderlands 3 is like what you’d expect: more Borderlands. Though saying only that is underselling it how great it is still.

Presentation

Borderlands 3 carries the same signature cel-shaded-ish design it is so famous for. The colourful characters and the drab wastelands do get some nice pop with all the black outlines and dashes on them. Yet, the game still suffers the same issue of textures loading too slowly.

The UI is tidier and with a nice font choice. If only there’s a way to increase the small font size.

The guns overall look even better. The different gun manufacturers have even more pronounced styles based on what brand it is. And it still lends a nice surprise seeing from a super angular Hyperion to the old-school Wild West-style of a Jakobs gun in your very frequent loot drops.

Not only do the guns look distinct, so are the sounds. You can hear the sci-fi-ness of the Maliwan guns spooling before it wreaks havoc. Some Tediore models deteriorate into an 8-bit gun noise as the magazine empties. The explosive sticky pellets from a Torgue shotgun pops in a satisfying crackle.

While you’ll be hearing the guns blazing through the speakers most of the time, the soundtrack that hums diligently in the background of Borderlands 3 is sublime. Each planet you’ll travel to has a different vibe, genre and composer. Which results in some nice variety in the soundtrack. I particularly adore the ambiance in the high-tech Promethea, where it feels a dash of cyberpunk and a swathe of synthwave being used lavishly.

Not to mention, the song on the main menu is so good I spent way too long idling on it.

Gameplay

In Borderlands 3, you play as one of four Vault Hunters. Your goal is to open the Vaults before the Calypso Twins. The villains are bratty streamers that have amassed a literal cult following and aspiring to be gods. The story takes place after Tales From The Borderlands, with characters from Telltale’s adventure game being part of the plot here.

The writing is, depending on how you look at it, is as good or as bad as the previous games. It follows a bit too formulaic to Borderlands 2 with its plot points. The early 10 hours feeling rather weak. But it does come together nicely into its own near the end.

The jokes, which still involves contemporary meme and references that may or may not age well in the next few years, are as what you would expect. I don’t know if it’s good or bad that the in-game characters (and possibly, the writers) are self-aware of how crude the “jokes” can be.

They are a few good ones, including one where resident punching bag Claptrap was not the butt of a joke. Though you must really love low-brow humour to be laughing out loud throughout the game.

Loot And Shoot

Borderlands 3 is all about two things- the looting and the shooting. And those two core pillars of the gameplay loop remain stalwart as ever.

You may notice the word ‘mayhem’ is being thrown out of a lot in the game’s marketing, and they were not kidding. Each fight and combat encounter feels more intense and hectic than past titles. The areas are bigger with a lot of cover spots and vantage points. There are more elemental hazards other than just barrels, including puddles you can electrify.

Enemies flinch when you shoot them, and even flop off and go ragdoll on bigger blasts like from a shotgun. They can also gib and explode in a pool of gore, adding more visceral-ness to the already chaotic combat.

You can now slide after sprinting and mantle on objects but so are the AI enemies. The enemies will scuttle around to flank you, throw grenades to flush you out of cover, and more often than not carry similarly zany weapons as you are. At times it is utter chaos where you cannot even discern where the enemies are because too many effects are popping off left right and center.

At its best, you don’t feel the enemies being extravagant bullet sponges as you control the chaos being unfolded with your guns and skills, exploiting the environment to your advantage.

This is most evident in the improved boss fights. Named boss fights with big health bars on top will have phases where they attack differently. On normal difficulty, it’s still a case of circle-strafing and dealing consistent DPS to beat them, and the patterns are not as wild or difficult. Yet it beats the boring bullet-sponges of the previous games, so a good step forward.

Glorious Guns

The bazillion of guns you get as loot gets some nice overhaul across the board. Each weapon manufacturer brings even more pronounced characteristics than ever and it’s really fun to experiment with. Maliwan weapons now have wind-ups but it’s satisfying to see it splurge in sci-fi bullets, for example. The alt-fire addition brings new wrinkles to gunplay, and makes the already huge pool of procedurally-generated guns even more diverse.

And it goes without saying that each of those guns overall just feels good to shoot.

As per tradition, each new Borderlands comes with a new set of four Vault Hunters, the playable characters. Borderlands 3 tweaked a bit on how the action skill works and make each character plays even more differently. Zane gets to equip two action skills instead of one, while Moze’s two equippable action skill determines what guns her Iron Bear mech has. Other than that, most of the passives divided into three skill trees are as expected. It seems straightforward at first but there are some wicked synergies and potential for interesting builds.

Also, Gearbox improved the car handling, and made you care more of those Catch-A-Ride vehicles with custom parts to find and unlock.

(Questionable) Quality Of Life

With five years and a bunch of looter-shooters on the market these days, Borderlands 3 brought a lot of quality of life changes. you now have a one-number gear score for quick comparisons of gear stats. The map is so, so useful now that it is in 3D that shows elevation. Ammo, health and cash pickups automatically after opening boxes. If you are in the range of a collectible, an icon pops up to show you it’s there. No need to worry if you and your mates have the right character level as there is an option to enable level scaling to the party leader, and have loot instanced for each player so no loot stealing. You can fast travel from anywhere now. Ally AI sometimes will accompany you in fights and will help revive you.

Though it could still do more. The UI when bringing up the ECHOCast (the player menu) is horrendously slow to load. With the map being so huge why isn’t there an option to highlight each of the markers immediately so you don’t spend minutes trying to find where your objective is at?

On that note, Borderlands 3 really needed another pass on polish. While I personally don’t find framerate to be an issue during the hectic combats, reports of performance issues from all platforms, especially in split-screen, are pretty much true. I also found the AI getting stuck at geometry, and some side missions not spawning the enemies (the one about a ratch in Promethea, in particular). And the player menu sometimes just give up loading the skill trees when you load it straight after a level up.

Content

Borderlands 3 is amazingly girthy in content. It is still designed to be a full-packaged game with a campaign to beat. Not a games-as-a-service like other looter-shooters. And that campaign can take you more than 30 hours. I finished my first playthrough at 40, doing as much side missions and exploring the map as much as I can.

There are plenty of these side missions, and as you’d expect most of the questionable humour and references come from here. These take place in parts not seen in the critical path so at least it’s worth seeing the areas where you wouldn’t stumble upon naturally.

The collectibles this time are much more gratifying to collect. The three Typhon DeLeon audio logs on most maps not only give some good lore, but a great reward in the form of a loot cache, with a bigger chance to spawn rare loot. It’s worth going for them.

Circle Of Slaughter, the series’ Horde mode, returns again. And there’s a new mode called Proving Grounds where you push through a few combat areas and then face a boss, which plays closer to the usual gunplay in the story. Both of these are available normally within the story. But now it has separate matchmaking so you can play these as if they are an entirely different game mode.

After finishing the story, you will then get access to True Vault Hunter mode, the New Game+. On top of that is the Mayhem Mode modifier that adds wacky status effects and make the game even tougher. These two modes offer better loot drops, so that’s a good incentive to go back for another round. And of course, going through the game as another Vault Hunter and try out different builds is always on the cards.

Guardian Ranks (previously Badass Ranks) will now only unlock after beating the game. So all the extra passives are strictly for your next playthrough. Again, more reason to keep going after the 40-hour mark.

Gearbox has promised an event for all players and there is already a season pass of DLCs. If it follows what the previous titles did, expect a long tail of content, free and paid.

With Borderlands 3, the game dabbles a bit more on cosmetics. The skin variants don’t have palette swaps, colours can be customised separately. On top of the skins and head variants, you can now add emotes and also put on skins and trinkets on weapons. Honestly, it’s not that compelling and this feels like the game is playing catch-up with its genre peers. But it doesn’t hurt anyone, there’s no micro-transactions of sorts. Hopefully it will continue that way.

The Twitch integration is excellent. Not only can viewers of Borderlands 3 streams peruse the streamer’s inventory and skill trees, but there are also cool events that can show up, with opportunities to mess them up by buffing badass enemies or reward them with goodies. Plus, you can nab a piece of loot from the red chests they open for yourselves too.

Personal Enjoyment

When the first Borderlands arrived, I was already a fan of Gearbox’s output from the Brothers In Arms days. So I have a personal bias of loving this franchise from the start.

Borderlands 3 is the Double Down burger of video games I feel. It’s excessive and loud. It’s indulgently good. The ultimate comfort food if you, like me, love crispy greasy chicken patties. But it’s not just one burger, playing through Borderlands 3 is munching through a platter of these Double Downs non-stop. Instead of meat on meat on meat, it’s guns on guns on guns.

But boy, I am not gonna lie, it can be a bit overwhelming. During the early 10 hours, I feel like there were too many excessive combat sections. And with not much of a strong plot thread for me to cling on to.

Proper stakes in the story do get set up after that initial hump. And the pacing gets better with heavy combat sections sparsed out a bit. The shooting shines and getting rare loot, even if it is just minor variations of a gun archetype you’ve seen before, is rewarding.

And the soundtrack has synthwave. So, big points for that.

That said, those quality of life issues does affect my enjoyment. I didn’t spend time comparing weapon stats as much and hated the times I need to sort my backpack because of the chugging menu. Those need to be snappy and I hope it’s one of the things to be rectified, alongside the performance issues.

I have a feeling that once these issues are sorted in the months to come, it would make an already great experience even better.

Verdict

With more chaotic gunplay and many small improvements, Borderlands 3 proves that the pioneering looter-shooter series still has a place in 2019.Though it still carries the same low-brow writing and the performance issues cannot stand as is.

That said, if you’ve used to the series, Borderlands 3 is like grabbing a huge platter of your favourite comfort food. Clear some time, get your mates if you can and sit down. It’s time to dig in and get those orange drops.

Review based on version 1.01 played on the regular PS4. Review copy purchased by the reviewer

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