#my character legit took maybe 2 damage in the entire event

[lightandwinged]

So I saw The Movie. Spoilers--good, bad (or neutral), and ugly--below. Spoiler-free: not as good as the first Avengers, but better by far than AoU. 

The Good

This film made me even more furious with Joss Whedon, solely because it proves that the problems in AoU were of his own making, namely his inability to handle too many characters and therefore incompetence when it comes to a film of this type. The Russo brothers took a very smart approach to this, in that they knew they couldn’t take the time to give all of the good guys the characterization they’d have gotten in a film with a smaller cast, so they basically made Thanos the main character, which is really what should’ve happened with Ultron but inexplicably did not happen. 

And man, what a joy Thanos is as a character. So many superhero villains are so kind of... one dimensional, tbh. Or not one dimensional, but rather, they seem to have an understanding that what they’re doing is evil or, if they don’t have that understanding, a lack of real conviction. They’re nascent Sith, in a sense, running on either the sheer joy of being cruel or on a heightened desire for vengeance. They can be a lot of fun, don’t get me wrong, but they seem, for lack of a better word, like cartoon villains. 

They’re fun, like I said, and the world is full of people who are just... evil for the sake of being evil (as we’ve found out in the last ~2+ years more than a lot of us realized, I think), but they get tired when they’re the villain of everything. Chaotic Evil, in other words, gets less compelling when it’s all you see. It becomes the same person with a different mask, 9/10 times, which I’m sure contributes a lot to superhero movie fatigue. 

Thanos, though, I enjoyed because he was 100% convinced that what he was doing was for the good of the universe. Ultron was trying to go there, I think, but Whedon handled it with about as much delicacy as a bull in a china shop (Ultron is mostly redeemed by his being played by James Spader, who is a delight at all times, but that also ends up being his downfall because you get the feeling that he’s winking at the audience the entire time... “I’m saying this with conviction, but here’s a quip to show that I know I’m evil.”). Thanos actually felt real. He felt like he believed everything he was saying, like he truly thought he was doing the universe a mercy, that he was the good guy. 

And that doesn’t redeem him by any means (incoming people screeching about how I’m downplaying genocide or stanning because dude’s evil, y’all), but it makes him infinitely more compelling, and GOD, that is refreshing. It’s the same way that Killmonger was refreshing because, even though you don’t agree with it, you see his point. I mean, who among us that’s worked retail hasn’t wanted to snap our fingers and make half of humanity vanish? It’s been more than a decade since my last retail position, and I still have those days.

On a different level, it’s that garbage that gets pushed by freshman level philosophy students who are like “people should stop having babies” because that, not a mismanagement of resources by the wealthy and powerful, is why there’s scarcity. It’s rubbish, absolute rubbish (and it doesn’t work because science tells us that the universe, that all of existence, is infinite... and fuck, the movie’s science tells us that as well--Bananabread Cabletelevision had his little moment of hunting for spoilers and only got through about 1.4 million of the unending possibilities that exist BUT I DIGRESS), but at first blush, you ask yourself, “Wait, does he have a point?” No, he does not.

A rundown of other Goods:

Look, Thor in lightning form is the sexiest creature in existence. I’m sorry, I don’t make the rules. 

Also I appreciated him getting another smushface. And then the immediately following Battle of the Chrises (all I’m saying is that if there’s not a threeway Chris standoff in Part Deux, I’ll be very sad. Also, someone please cast Chris Pine in Captain Marvel, he needs to spend the rest of eternity watching powerful women heroes in awe).

The people who were allowed gave fantastic performances. RDJ will be sorely missed as Iron Man (because if y’all think he’s living past the next film, I’m sorry for your loss), and of the good guys, I felt like he came the closest to being the main character here. Which has been true of the other Avengers films as well, so that’s nice to see. Ultimately, these first three phases of the MCU were Tony Stark’s story, and that finale will be really... well, painful. 

Other great performances: Tom Holland (darling baby child, I wept for you), Mark Ruffalo (good at constipation), Bagels Cucumbers (that hurts to admit, he’s the Worst, but damn if he isn’t a good actor), Zoe Saldana (you’d better come back), Chris Hemsworth (as always), Paul Bettany (NOOO), and Elizabeth Olsen (poor darling). 

The humor was nicely balanced, not fourth-wall breaking like you get in the Whedon Avengerses, but logical. It was kind of like exhaling: inhale the action and serious stakes, exhale the humor. It allowed breathing room in all the intensity, so that was great.

Also how can I have missed Wakanda that much if it’s only been like... not even two months since I saw Black Panther?

Look, if the next movie involves just one scene--just one!--of Okoye, Nat, and Wanda fighting together, my ticket will have been worth its price.

Related, Proxima Midnight is (a) literally the coolest name for anyone ever, and (b) my wife now.

The Neutral-Bad

Or, really, more the expected. 

In any ensemble movie, you’re going to have a lot of characters whose purpose is just to step on scene, state their name and allegiance, and then fade into the background. This ended up being the case with pretty much all of Team Cap, and it was to their detriment. They had their shining moments (”Earth just lost her greatest defender” made me ship things like FedEx), but as opposed to the group above, they didn’t really have a lot to do? Or even really much in the way of reactions? They just sort of... came and saw and fought and that was it. 

It felt a lot like nobody knew what to do with those characters, which is fair enough, but it also felt like they were wasted, and they shouldn’t have been. If I had to guess, I’d guess that the writers had to pick and choose which good guys they wanted to focus on and which new Avengers and old Avengers would get the attention. Tony because these films have been basically a huge Iron Man series. Thor because I think? the plot requires him to be Important, as per comic books. But as much as I adore Thor, I wish there had been a focus on Steve more. With Tony, you’ve got the plot of “oh my god Thanos, the thing I’ve been afraid of since 2008″ but maybe Steve could’ve had more of a reluctant plot, like he’s been heroing all this time but all he’s gotten for it is locked up and exiled and shit? I don’t know, point is that if Captain America is going to be so prominent in the MCU logo, he should get a bigger slice of the plot pie.

Also I’m annoyed with Gamora’s passing, though I wouldn’t call it a complete fridging because it wasn’t just for mangst. It was just mostly for mangst. Either way, though, I think that’s the death (besides the end ones) that bothered me the most. It didn’t feel unnecessary and was probably the most shocking, when you look at it objectively (more on that in a second), but... I don’t know, it bothered me, but I can’t 100% put my finger on why/how. I do appreciate, though, that it gave Gamora a decent arc in the film. 

Anyway, to the deaths. The presumable permadeaths (Heimdall, Loki, and Gamora) were, for the most part, unsurprising. The Thor trilogy is over, so Heimdall and Loki end up being kind of extra weight, the former because he doesn’t have a lot to do that’s not in a role filled by another character, and the latter because the only other way he could’ve worked in this film was as an eleventh hour heroic sacrifice, and that feels almost too woobie-ish, like beyond Zuko levels of woobie. 

The Great Dust Rapture at the end was also fairly unsurprising, mostly because there’s no way a good chunk of those characters aren’t coming back. At least two have sequels literally named after them coming out sometime in the next couple of years; as I also pointed out to Kyle, “Look, Gamora may be dead forever, but if the rest of the Guardians remain dust, GotG3 will just be The Adventures of Rocket Raccoon Being Very Sad.” The non-dusted bunch are the OG Avengers, plus or minus a few friends; the stakes for the next film are, therefore, a LOT higher, since all the OG Avengers have finished their trilogies and, should they survive, will probably only ever show up again in cameos. We know T’Challa and Peter Parker and the Guardians of the Galaxy and probably Dr. Strange and everyone still have Things To Do. 

But the OG Avengers do not, and they couldn’t really kill off the main characters of the franchise with one film to go, so...

(also, calling it now: the next film is going to be The Avengers: Rebirth. I will put money on it)

The Ugly

But HNNGH. Okay.

I 100% understand the choices they made with the dustinatings, but like... there’s no suspense whatsoever. If Marvel didn’t release their film titles 6000 years in advance, maybe the stakes would’ve been stakier, but as it stands, it’s like... come on people. 

You know what would’ve worked way better and made for stakier stakes? Don’t kill off the main characters from franchises that still have sequels coming out. Kill off sidekicks. T’Challa doesn’t die, but maybe M’baku or Okoye does. Spare at least three of the Guardians of the Galaxy. Leave Peter Parker’s fate uncertain (though his death scene was literally the only one that made me tear up because TOM HOLLAND IS JUST THAT GOOD, DARLING FROG-IN-MOUTH BOY). Bucky, Sam, Nick Fury, Maria Hill--they can remain dusted. But if you want to keep the stakes for the second film while actually letting us believe that there won’t be any resurrections this time, maybe don’t kill people who we know will be back in various MCU films at future dates. 

It’s like I keep thinking when I watch trailers for Solo or literally any prequel anything: the problem with 99% of prequels is that we know who lives and who doesn’t, so giving us trailer shots of Chewbacca in danger, for example, is like trying to play peek-a-boo with an adult. We have object permanence, it’s not surprising when you pull your hands away and your face is still there. It’s not surprising that Chewbacca isn’t going to get his face bashed away by a rock. It’s not surprising that somehow, in Avengers Four: You Asked For More, all the dusted people with eponymous films coming up will be back. 

Another big plot hole: why didn’t Dr. Strange go and do his future vision the second a giant green man fell into his living room? Bruce, as Bruce, tells him “Thanos is coming for the macguffins” and then he goes and spends the next 5 minutes going through possibilities and then figures out the very easy way to solve the thing. 

That easy way? Just have Wanda destroy the time stone. Now we’re not panicking about taking out Vision’s brain as fast as we can (point: that scene was unrealistic, Shuri would’ve actually had it done in about 13 seconds flat) and Thanos has lost and maybe he goes around killing people manually but at least he can’t rewind time if things don’t go his way. 

The movie didn’t do this, obviously, but it’s one of those things where it’s like “if your audience can figure out a better way of doing things before the credits even fucking roll, maybe revise your script.”

(if Carrie Fisher had been alive to script doctor this shit, we wouldn’t have this problem, universe)

Other big frustration: does every Avengers film really need Thor to go on an epic quest away from everyone else for half the film? Don’t get me wrong, it was pretty cool to see him jumpstart a sun and see Peter Dinklage being huge (all I’m saying is that if Disney ever acquires the rights to the X-Men, things are going to get very confusing) and see a new Mjolnir-like-object, but oh. my. god. Every time those scenes were happening, I felt like it was a bathroom break. Like legit, that fucking ax had better cleave Thanos in half in the next movie because otherwise, that was so much wasted time that could’ve been devoted to literally anything else. 

Final Miscellaneous Thoughts

Maybe this means that GotG3 will be about Peter Quill actually growing up and dealing with his issues. I hope it does. 

Also, Nebula/Tony Stark road trip back to earth? I’m all about it. 

Wonder Woman would’ve ended this all in about 30 seconds flat, which is why Captain Marvel can’t show up until the next film. 

The next film is literally going to be at least 90 minutes of Thanos refusing to interact with anyone trying to kill him because he’s on vacation and fuck you. 

Literally why does anyone still live in NYC in the MCU? The first movie would’ve been enough to convince me to move to a cornfield in Nebraska and just stay there for eternity. 

“Thanos will return.” Along with literally everyone else SERIOUSLY THIS IS NOT SUSPENSEFUL MARVEL AAAAAAUGH.

[stephicness]

Final Fantasy XV Favorites :: Tag Game

THIS IS ANCIENT AND I THOUGHT I LOST THIS WHEN I WAS WORKING ON IT. BUT I FOUND IT AGAIN, SO LET ME FINISH IT!

I was tagged by @chocobro-hijinks, @julezrulezzz​, and @ffxvwrites​. Thanks for the tag, my friends!

Favorite Chocobro

Maaaaan, you’re asking me such a hard question off the bat? How come you’re doing this to me? Well, I think I can give you a different answer for different reasons.

Gameplay-wise in terms of combat mechanics, Ignis is by far my favorite to have played with. His combat was just so fluid, even in comparison to Noctis’s fluid armiger system he had going for him. And the incorporation with the elemental spelldaggers? That was super dope!

Relation-wise, I find myself being drawn to Noctis compared to the others in our group of protagonists. The idea of duty coming before oneself and the isolation leading to such a personality (and really sad sense of underlaying depression too), he’s a really relatable character because he’s got such realistic feelings behind it all.

Favorite Guest Party Member (including Ravus and Libertus from DLC)

PSSH. If any of you follow my blog, you’d probably know right off that bat that it’d be Ravus Nox Fleuret. Not because of my personal bias and obsession with High Commander Asshole over here, but because out of all of the other fighting styles, he was by-far the most in-sync with Ignis when he was featured in Episode Ignis as the companion. Not to mention his kit for combat is really cool! Lightning damage, high agility, and a devastating AOE attack? Oooh man, what a badass!

And he helps Iggy kick Onion Boy’s butt. c,: I think that’s really sweet of him.

Favorite Minor Character(s)

Why, Ravus again, of course! I feel like out of all of the characters -- sans the main four -- Ravus has by far the most interesting tale. At least, one that was actually got legitimate context on. It’s also really amusing, considering that Ravus, I think, got the most content add-ons compared to any other minor character in the game. He got Verse 2, he got Episode Ignis, he gets a facial model in Comrades. And he faced more crisis points in his story, which ultimately makes him one of the most well-rounded characters in the series. I adore him~

Favorite Villain

Oh, Ardyn for sure. It’s kinda weird to ask that because alot of the others characters in the story, I feel, were not really villains. Okay, maybe Verstael and Glauca were, but Ardyn seems to weed his way into their stories, and I think he’s what ultimately made these characters so evil to begin with. I mean, perhaps you could even argue that Verstael isn’t too bad either. He was once a really well-known and well-respected general and researching, and it wasn’t until Ardyn weaseled in that Verstael was twisted with a need for power. Heck, I think the Wiki even said that Verstael didn’t want to use humans for such a horrible project, but Ardyn convinced him otherwise.

Ardyn’s a monster. But the fact that he did such a good job at being a monster gives him a thumbs up from me in the villain book.

Favorite Kingsglaive Character

Hm... Not gonna lie, but I never really got too heavily invested in Kingsglaive -- it’s why I sometimes stay clear of writing much on it because I never found the characters to be too appealing, as they didn’t get much background or a chance to really grow on screen -- sans for Nyx, since he’s our protagonist.

I did really like Crowe alot though. She deserved better.

Favorite Astral/Divine Being

Probably Ramuh. Every time he appears, I have to shout ‘IT’S GRANDPA!’ He’s the best grandpa. c,:

Though I also really do like Bahamut alot -- even if he is kind of a dick. There was a reason why I threw in that Dragon Daddy Bahamut card to FFXV CAH, after all. ;D

Favorite Character Overall

I really like Ravus. Like, alot. So much that it’s probably unhealthy. Please call for a doctor. 

Favorite Weapon

I’m a warpstriking whore, so I always have the Ragnarok sword equip whenever I play Noctis. Sometimes I forget that I could just attack and I end up warpstriking so much that I fall into Statis and go ‘WHY CAN’T I ATTACK?’ You have other moves, Steph. Use them. >:I

Favorite Location

I really like Lestallum alot for some reason. It’s a humble city, not too big, not too small, busy enough to always have something going down. I find myself in Lestallum more than anywhere else -- sans Altissia, but that’s because I need that x3 Leville there. v.v

Favorite Quest/Questline/Hunt

I really enjoyed that Legendary weapon questline that you get post-game. Forgot the name of it entirely, but those bossfights were super fun to take on! Though the last one was a bit too easy because I got pissed off and one-shot it with the Ring of Lucii. THOSE LASERS WERE JUST SO FRUSTRATING. But then again, it was my fault for trying to kill a level 99 enemy at level 60.

The Dread Behemoth timed hunt was pretty fun to do too! Fought him before the ring was buffed, and so it took me a solid hour or two to wail on him. Ran out of potions, ran out of teammates, but for some reason, Gladio was still standing enough to help keep me alive? Now that’s a good shield!

Favorite Boss

In terms of the story, I thought the Ravus boss battle was the most fun -- especially when I was screaming/crying the entire time. ‘What the fuck, Ravus?!’ ‘Ardyn, what did you do?!’ ‘DON’T GETSUGA TENSHO ME, YOU BASTARD.’ Yup, that was a fun fight. c,:

Favorite Monster/Monster Family/etc

I think my favorite monster... Is probably that Dread Behemoth again. In terms of boss-fights, that is. It’s one of the more challenging ones I’ve had, but it still has a nice little place in my heart~ In terms of design though, I really like the Chadarnook. So pretty, and the rotting wood motifs to highlight that ‘nature is beautiful, woman is beautiful, but so is death’ vibe? Aaaye~ Now that’s an example of a great design!

Favorite Songs

Somnus is probably my favorite track out of the soundtrack. Like, you know how each FF game has that signature sound that really just gets your eyes welling up for one reason or another? For me, Somnus really does that for me whenever I listen to it. Similar to To Zanarkand or Aerith’s Theme, the moment you hear those first notes it just gets you so immersed in the emotion all over again.

Favorite Boss Theme

Hm... I’m really torn... Perhaps in terms of legitimate boss theme, it’s Ravus Aeterna for sure. I mean, the composition of this song just is so chilling and reflects just how horrible the fight is the entire time, the dread and the torture that is to basically suffer and then be forced to put down a twisted and corrupted man who didn’t deserve such a fate. That, and when the song is basically called Eternal Ravus, it just makes you even more sad because RAVUS WAS PULLED BACK TO THIS SHIT. GIVE HIM A BREAK, PLEASE!

Veiled in Black is also a really nice battle song too, though it’s not for bosses really. c:

Favorite Non-Episode DLC/Update/Event

Dude, the Character Swap Update is, like, the sexiest thing they’ve done in the game, not gonna lie. Like, I didn’t think too much of it at first, but then I played as Prompto taking on the Grove dungeon, and I was screaming. It’s so cool and so useful...! Just wish you can legit run around as a different boy instead of just swapping back to Noctis.

Favorite Episode DLC

I feel like it’s almost unfair to compare. Episode Ignis is by far one of the best DLCs in my eyes -- especially when they took so much attention and care into that DLC over the others, I feel. That, and it made the most sense in the story plot, I feel, than the other DLCs.

That and, you know, Ravus.

Other Favorites of Note: 

Everything.

Except for Chapter 9.

Fuck Chapter 9.

[xaeneron]

On Path of Fire

I haven’t done one of these in a while (or rather I wrote them and then forgot to post them lel), so maybe I’ll actually post this one for the new GW2 expansion after spending the week running around.

Overall, I found the expansion to be pretty solid; the maps are beautiful, the mounts are hilarious and well-implemented, the story was interesting and decently paced, and I’m still experimenting with the new elite specs.  Massive spoilers below the cut!

Questions on anything I wrote, thoughts of your own?  Feel free to boop me; I know I wrote a lot.  

But really, don’t say I didn’t warn you.  There are a LOT of bullet points beneath that cut.  xD

On the maps

Obligatory: they are huge.  It’s fitting since they were designed against HoT’s verticality and more geared towards the use of mounts, so it’s more of an observation, less of a complaint.  There’s a lot of detail and a lot of little things here and there, and it’s incredibly fun to see what you can get away with using mounts to get around the terrain.

That being said I do miss the verticality of HoT maps.  Maybe a combination of both pls? :3

I kind of wish there were more large obvious meta events, but I haven’t gotten to see all of the sort of meta events that go on in the PoF zones. I do think the large metas add replay value, but again a balance is a good thing.

We spur-of-the-moment yolo’ed the Ruptured Heart meta with 11 people.  It was actually pretty fun.  Also so many cannonades ;-;

Hearts feel like they take just a little bit too long.  Some of them are amusing, but when trekking through zones doing map comp (or redoing hearts to get collection items) they drag on a bit.  Guild chatter about hearts was fantastic though:

“These nobles are useless.  What should I do with the chamber pot, throw it off the side or throw it at one of them?”

“I’m throwing flowers at people and making them happy?”

“Matchmaker heart best heart.”

Bounties are hilariously fun?  Sometimes you get unfortunate bullshit combinations of modifiers (anti-stacking fleas + pls stack in the bubble to actually be able to hit the boss mob, I’m looking at you), but overall they’re quite fun.  We spent a good few hours trekking through all five zones murdering things and getting murdered.

These actually look super promising for replayability; our goal/challenge as a group has always been to optimize and work together, so it should be fun to go track down bounties and see what kind of dumb shenanigans we can get up to.

I actually find these really fun in small groups of 5-10.  Zergs sound...unfun.  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The caffeinated skritt is...kind of annoying.  Mostly because it doesn’t operate like the treasure mushroom in HoT and you have to be on the class you want the collection item on, and the maps are so large someone could trigger a chest and no one would be the wiser.

A tip though for people wanting to complete multiple collections: you only need to loot the last bag it drops.  If you’re wandering around with friends and they’re nice enough to chill at the bag, you can reload with other characters and grab the bag again for another collection item (until it despawns).  I have no idea if this was intended, but I burned a few TP to friends on this for the lulz.

I had a lot of GW1 feels running through these maps, especially going down to the Desolation and Vabbi.  I appreciate that these places still exist but have changed with the years, and it’s nice to see what happened.  

Although Vabbi is one weird-ass place now.

BUUUUUUT Zomoros’ lair was hilarious.

I haven’t explored for the sake of exploring in a very long time and it was really, really nice.

CHOYA PINATA.

On the elite specializations

I haven’t actually gotten to try all of them yet, but I’m also not super enthused about all of them (Spellbreaker, I’m looking at you).  Also a gentle reminder that my opinions are mainly based on my background as a PvE player and moreso as a raider.  Also they’re just initial opinions.  Opinions change.  

I started with thief (duh), and proceeded to do the entire story with Daredevil.  I’m not particularly a fan of Deadeye; I appreciate the archetype but I don’t really see rifle having a place with a game designed more around active response in combat.  Also as someone who still can’t shake the seaweed salad dance, rifle just feels really static and dull to me.  But we’ll see.  Maybe I’ll have to make the Predator hue. D/D Deadeye also felt strange, so idk.  But we’ll keep fiddling with it.

Mirage still feels kind of odd but I need to get poor Naois the spec since he’s actually specced for condi, unlike Eet.  It seems like an upgrade to condi mesmer, and the triple blink is hilarious.

I really hope Scourge ends up with some sort of place.  Initial benchmarks look hilarious (but then, so did Soulbeast/Weaver/Firebrand ones), but I took out Richter again for Scourge and I’m actually really happy to play him again.  It’s been so long ;-;

My brother told me, “do yourself a favor and put down a sand shade near some enemies, then press F4.”  I tried it.  I laughed pretty hard.

Weaver is so much button-pressing but it’s really fun?  I’m still getting the hang of it but I do like it a lot.  At least it’s more challenging than condi tempest. *grumbles eternally*

Soulbeast looks promising, although I hope it doesn’t lead to another “let’s use condi ranger/thief on absolutely everything” situation again.  The new pets are also...interesting.  

Although when it comes to ranger I’m a druid at heart, so we’ll see.  Not that I’m usually conscripted for DPS roles anyway

Firebrand looks silly.  And broken.  I’m all for alternative sources of quickness (and alacrity in the case of other specs), but I don’t really want to see raid meta go to 2x PS 2x druid 2x chrono 2x firebrand (or something like that) with only 2 flex spots.  That doesn’t sound fun at all.

Also I’m guessing Firebrand will be the first to get the nerfbat.  The damage numbers people are getting are bonkers.

And hey look, they got the nerfbat.  Down to 33-35k.  At least that’s better than 50k? Ugh.

Renegade feels pretty decent.  Revenant has always been in a weird “built around elite specs” class, and that hasn’t changed.  I’m not sure how I feel about condi rev being more of a thing and less of a meme, but ayyy

Holosmith seems like it would be a lot more relevant if the transform wasn’t currently borked.  Scaling damage to a level 76 fine weapon is...sad.  If it’s fixed power Holosmith could be something legit?  Maybe?  Overall though I like the theme and look of it.  Also lol lightsaber.

Spellbreaker I...idk.  Thematically I like it a lot; I was a big fan of mesmer and shut down mechanics in GW1 and I like the idea of Spellbreaker, but from a mostly PvE perspective, it’s just kind of...eh? WvW and PvP I see it being incredibly useful but with limited boons to nom in PvE it doesn’t really look particularly great (especially with condi berserker getting tuned through the roof).

On mounts

I keep dyeing them funny colors.  Yes Quill’s are all some shade of yellow.

I honestly think they were well done.  I was never a supporter of adding them to the game (not against, but not for them either), but now that they’re here, I’m pretty okay with them.  

I like that each mount is useful in some specific capacity - raptor for flat open stretches, springer for verticality, skimmer for no touchy floor, jackal for portals and evasion through high mob density areas, and griffon for the absolute lulz of flying.  

I keep getting the “mount doesn’t render so your character model is riding away sunk in the ground while your camera remains in place” bug (I think it’s attached to trying to mount up before things are completely loaded), and while it’s funny, it’s kind of frustrating.

Mount swapping is a bit awkward, although binding each mount to its own key helps a lot.

I appreciate that the starting mount (the raptor) is still relevant even when you pick up the other three (four), as it’s definitely the fastest mount on flat ground and it’s improved leap is hilariously long.

Also it’s a giant scaly puppy so I have no problems with this.

The springer is hilarious.  And super terrain-breaking.  High cliff?  No problem, bunny hop.  Core and HoT map comp probably just got much, much simpler.  Also JPs that don’t have mount restrictions.

The skimmer is adorable, and riding it around is strangely...calming?  idk.  Also as one of my guildies put it: “maybe this is Anet’s answer to underwater combat: glide right over it.”  rip.

Of the four core mounts I think the jackal (blink doge) is my favorite.  It has a gorgeous design and the blink/portals are super cool.  Although the blink can get a bit titchy if you’re trigger happy with the jump button.

Of course I have the griffon.

IT’S SO FLUFFY.

I think it handles a little strangely (esp when you can’t dismount quickly, although you can divebomb), but it’s pretty solid.  And adorable.

250g was entirely worth it.

Also that Tahlkora cameo hit me right in the feels.

On the story

I’d get here eventually!  Eventually...;-;

All salad-shaped biases aside, the male sylvari VO is still my favorite and no one can convince me otherwise.  There was a good amount of sass, seriousness, and everything inbetween.  Ive is one to take everything with a “hahahaha you’re kidding what am I doing here help,” so overall the voice acting and dialogue fit him fairly well.

I’m a little disappointed by the lack of race-specific dialogue.  Humans don’t seem to have any special dialogue with or concerning Balthazar, and everyone else doesn’t really have a chance to comment as an outsider.  I know it’s more work and I still enjoyed the story as is, but it would have been a nice touch.

Like Ive would literally not give a shit about half of the things brought up.  Not because he doesn’t care about others, but because he has no clue what anyone is talking about.

This was particularly funny with Joko in the Domain of the Lost, because his whole tirade about the PC not knowing who he is could quickly be shut down with “I’m a salad, I have no idea who the fuck you are.”

The “decisions” were interesting, although unsurprisingly they had very little impact on the game as a whole (maybe in the future?  Doubt it).  I did appreciate that depending on the order the “decide on Amnoon’s independence” steps are done in, the dialogue changes.

I admit that I’ve gotten a little less partial to Taimi as she’s edged closer to Deus Ex Machina territory, but her dialogue and conversations (both with the PC and with others like Phlunt later on) are quite funny.

I wish there were more Vlast/Gleam before he died.  It’s sad that he showed up and just...died, but I can understand why they chose that path as well.  

Although some of that was my own fault; the chapter with the Exalted and Vlast’s upbringing I got supremely distracted by the jumping puzzle and spinning around on my new skimmer.

Still.  More Vlast!

RYTLOCK.  RYTLOCK WHY.  Nice job breaking it hero.  Surely you would know better than to accept help in the Mists from a random shackled man who CONVENIENTLY knows how to relight your magic sword.  Sigh.

I thought a lot about the Herald of Balthazar after finding the notes in Night of Fires.  I went back to it after talking to my brother and came to a very similar conclusion as a theorizer on the GW2 subreddit.  If that theory is true, that makes me very sad.

Pls say it’s true I like gut-punch feels.

Speaking of gut-punch feels, The Departing was amazing.  It was super disorienting not having access to the inventory or the minimap, but it was a very well-done instance and I enjoyed it immensely.  I appreciated that they stuck to the “you lost your name and purpose” thing to the point of replacing your character name (including in the hero panel) with Lost Spirit.

Balthazar murdering the PC was pretty neat. 

Also Aurene showing up exactly on time was both cliche and NO BALTHAZAR BAD STAY AWAY FROM BABY DRAGON. 

This, like a few other story missions later on, is super awkward to do as a group.  It’s supposed to be rather personal, and so the not-instance owners are reduced to buffing wisps (like later on in the thrall party instance, not-instance owners are just awakened thralls), and idk I was lucky I was instance owner but that seems rather :|

Ive had a lot of feels hearing everyone’s voices again.  Also the feels of him not exactly remembering everything and having to follow his purpose through his own memories and not quite remembering everything.  Including Trahearne.  

Also tfw the story mission is essentially Full Circle (as a sub-section of Closure) with a bit of bonus Balthazar.

Joko is being very obviously set up as a “you left me in a cage I swear vengeance rahhhhhh” villain.  Or Anet is going to pull a fast one and he will never show up again, which would be hilarious.

Bonus feels for everyone else surviving and Ive being the only one dead (think Eet).

Backtracking slightly, I’ve never liked Kormir.  I still don’t like Kormir.  And the human gods are miserably terrible people.  At this point there’s not much questioning as to whether or not they exist, but with the extent of their influence, their decision to just kind of peace is...rather appropriately god-like, for better or for worse.

Seriously though, gods pls.  I can see some of the logic of “world will be destroyed anyway if god attempts to fight god,” but surely there are other things that need be maintained.  

Also I like how Kormir notes that Balthazar had been stripped of his powers, and yet he still curbstomps the PC (unless it was entirely the imprisonment in the Mists that just locked his powers away, but Kormir’s dialogue suggests otherwise).

I would kill for a library like that.  Seriously.  So jelly.

The “let’s disguise ourselves as the Archon and go and convince Palawa Joko’s army to fight for us” part was so incredibly stupid that of course it worked.  We spent the entire time laughing at how incredulous it was.

The battle at Kodash Bazaar was actually kind of awesome?  There was stuff everywhere and my only inclination for the first part of the instance was “go hit things.”  

It was incredibly weird to just have Sohothin for the entire instance.  Yes I’m aware I could have dropped it.  But it was hilarious in a Caladbolg sort of way.  With less idiotic knockback, and more 300s cooldown skills.  

AURENE.  Balthazar stop hurting my dragon >:(

Also because he just yolo killed her other brother before she had a chance to meet him in person?  rip.

Although now that I think about it, how would that meeting even go?  Talking to the Exalted indicates that Vlast was isolated and not well-acclimated to the world around him, so by the time they realized he should be interacting with other races it was too late for him to form any empathy for anyone.  His dialogue seems to imply that his motivation was simply the fulfillment of a goal; he seemed far more interested in fulfilling his legacy as Glint’s son than the reason why she needed him and Aurene to do anything in particular.  He doesn’t really have a reason for what he’s doing, he just does.

Aurene is implied to have an empathic link with Vlast similar to her connection to the PC, but idk, it just seems like any actual meeting between the two of them would just be incredibly awkward.

I very much enjoyed both the penultimate and ultimate fight against Balthazar.  Also because if you turned around, you could see Kralkatorrik’s massive face just chilling in the sky because oh shit angry elder dragon.  It was...quite something.

I understand the PC’s current caution about killing elder dragons because of magic imbalance, and I also understand the need to stop Balthazar from being a total moron.  I also understand that there’s not much you can do to stop a mad god besides killing him (since those with the means to imprison him decided to float on).  But uh.  I’m not sure what anyone expected would happen if you kill the god who absorbed two dragons’ worth of magic with another dragon just chilling nearby.  Surely Kralkatorrik absorbing everything and flying off into the sunset while extending the Brand wasn’t a surprise.  

Seriously though what did you think was going to happen.

Baby dragon absorb magik and is not quite so baby anymore.  Aurene come back I miss you already ;-;

I commend you if you actually read all of that.  xD

Overall, a solid expansion with quite a bit of content.  We’ll see how replayable it ends up being as time goes on, but I am still quite amused by it and have plenty to do as it stands.  The story was fairly solid (although sometimes strange with questionable logic, as always), and I’m looking forward to where they take it with LWS4.  

[rockiesturnrose]

D&D Diaries-October 17

So last night’s D&D session was an Event, the kind of Event that will be forever referenced, and a reminder of just how amazing this game can be?

Since we’re essentially a drop-in campaign (though with 5 constant party members), we occasionally get new blood. This week, it was a baby!Rogue, arcane trickster specialization. Turned out to be a bit of a jerk, but he was also a full elf. Not unexpected, alas.

The other thing? Our healer was missing this week, again. I suspect it’s because he owes Keth money and doesn’t want to pay up. So we’re again relying on potions and just plain not dying.

So, it starts like this: our motley assortment of adventurers was tasked with transporting a mysterious package overseas. We had to take said package from guild HQ down to the docks to actually start the adventure. Doesn’t seem difficult, right? Well, the tanks didn’t think so.

See, our ranger put the package in her bag of holding to keep it safe. And our fighter thought ‘out of sight, out of mind! Package is safe, this will be a breeze!’ So he challenged the barbarian to a race down to the docks. And the barbarian, missing the Voice of Reason that is the healer, readily agreed to the fun. The two took off at high speed, leaving the rest of us (2 rogues, a wizard and a ranger) all alone.

Yeah, they broke the cardinal rule of D&D: DON’T SPLIT THE PARTY.

And that’s not the worst thing they did. No. They tore through a busy market, causing a bit of an uproar there. And then the fighter crashed into a produce stand, causing a huge disturbance. It involved the guards, we’ll get back to it because it is important.

More importantly: us squishies, meandering along at a slower pace, couldn’t get through the square because of the throng of people yelling at something we couldn’t see. So in order to get to the docks before our ship left, we took a side alley.

Turns out, some baddies were waiting for us to leave the crowd so they could steal the package. They dropped some boxes at the entrance of the alleyway, cutting us off. I’m a rogue, I need stealth and surprise. I had neither of these things.

The gnome wizard tried to intimidate the thugs, telling them that if ‘they wanted his package, they’d have to buy him dinner first.’ His charisma is 8—the thugs did not take kindly to him. In fact, they hit him first.

Fun thing about wizards? They aren’t frontline fighters. They aren’t meant to take hits. (To be fair, he was only near the front because he was trying to convince Keth that they should open this mysterious package.)

The wizard tried to hold his own, aiming a fireball at the crotch of the head thug (who was conveniently placed so it would hit all the other dudes too). All the baddies succeeded their saving throws, so they took a grand total of 8 damage. Yeah, the wizard rolled 8d6 and only got 16/48 possible damage. He rolled a lot of ones. It was sad.

So he got knocked out almost instantly. Someone healed him, he got up and tried to cast Hold Person, he failed, he got instantly knocked out again.

(all the while, I was glaring at the two tanks who were either staring at this farce in shock, or doubled over laughing. If the wizard got hit, I’d toss them a middle finger. Keth’s fury is righteous and long lived. I had words for the tanks.)

Wizard rolls a death saving throw, fails. Not good, but not terrible yet. He has two more. We could let him lie there for a bit. Few more rounds of combat, take out a mook or two

The next fun thing to happen? The wizard rolled a Nat 1 on his second death saving throw. The DM looked at him, completely mindboggled. “Okay. If someone heals you like, immediately, you won’t die.”

Thankfully, I went next. Not so thankfully, I had been set up perfectly for flanking and possibly ending this fight. But now I had to heal the wizard or we would legit lose him. Keth sees the wizard spasm and make some terrible sounds, so she decides she needs to heal this small dude she’s fond of. So I used my action to give him a greater healing potion. You know, pretty expensive, 4d4 plus 4 healing? I figured I’d give him at least a fighting chance. 

I rolled 4 1s.

The entire table had a moment of stunned silence, then burst into laughter. The DM stopped the game to take a picture of this spectacular fail.

Whenever someone rolls spectacularly good or bad, the DM gives you a bonus or a penalty (like last campaign, our sorcerer had advantage on this climbing check and rolled 2 nat 20s. So now he can basically spider climb without having to roll). This photo-worthy dice fail deserved something. My permanent new bonus when healing? Everyone I administer a healing potion to gets an extra +1 HP. “That’s…not what I was expecting, but okay,” says I, starting to jot it down.

The DM smiles his terrible smirk. “There’s more,” he says. “Whenever you heal the tanks, they get -2 to whatever you roll.”

Cue more laughter from the table. Keth is so mad at these idiots, and probably will be for a while, that whenever she tries to heal them her absolute fury and loathing is felt in what is supposed to be a life giving substance. And even when she does cool down and they redeem themselves, there will always be that small part of her subconscious that’s still keenly aware that their foolishness almost got their wizard killed three times.

So the wizard gets healed. But by this point he’s just pissed off the head thug so much that the dude instantly attacks him. He’s unconscious again.

(That’s 3 times in 30 seconds, more or less. He wasn’t having a good morning)

Keth originally had plans to keep this last guy alive to ask what’s so important about this package, so I was just going to roll non-lethal damage. Turns out, sneak attack damage isn’t like…the most subtle of damages. Especially when you roll 17/18 possible sneak attack damage. Keth was a combination of very panicked and super pissed off that her assassin training took over and she just wasted the guy. “Oh, oops, meant to have my dagger pointing the other way. Oh, well.”

To top it off, these guys were so nondescript that we couldn’t even tell who sent them. So that was useless.

When the battle was finally over, the fighter’s player looked at us and was like ‘Hey, no, it’s good we’re not there! This would’ve been tougher!!’ The DM just looked at him and shook his head. Apparently, this battle was supposed to be super easy for our entire team. All it was supposed to do was let us know this package was so important that people were after it. He kind of expected the tanks to take care of the big guy while the rest of us picked off the tiny mooks. A 5 minute combat, tops. Not 30 minutes with our wizard getting knocked out three times.

Also, the barbarian, out of character, tried to mitigate my anger by pointing out he had given Keth 100 gold from selling some treasure no one knew he had, and that that should have garnered him some goodwill. Then there was an incredulous ‘you think the wizard’s life is worth 100 gold???’ followed by the squishies pointing out that the value of health potions poured down his throat was more than the 100 gold. The barbarian was thus shamed.

There was also a slightly hilarious moment when we looked at our poor wizard and decided maybe someone should carry him? Except Keth and the ranger are both weak as shit (8), so we looked at the other rogue, who has a whopping 12 points in strength. We labelled him the strongest among us and gave the gnome to him. The tanks only tuned in at the mention of ‘strongest’ and asked what number value that was. Then both started laughing because they’re at 18 and 19.

So how did the footrace turn out? Well, as mentioned, the fighter careened into a vegetable stall and got covered in tomatoes. He attempted to push the stall away and continue, but the town guard was instantly there. Somehow, amazingly, despite a 5 to a persuasion check, he convinced the guards to let him go if he just paid the fine (they crit failed against the persuasion). The merchant demanded 50 gold and made the fighter count it out one piece at a time. He was in such a rush he dropped the 49th piece and had to start again. If the guard hadn’t been there watching, he would not have payed such an exorbitant amount.

The DM’s original plan was for the disturbance that made us take a side alley be a planned thing, something the thugs had started when we left the guild. But because of the fighter’s shitty rolling, the disturbance ended up being caused by him. He was the reason we had to take an alley, and he was the reason we got ambushed. The thugs just took advantage of this handy distraction.

Of course, we squishies didn’t know that until we finally got the docks. The wizard, poor thing, was covered in blood. The fighter was covered in tomatoes. When he tried to ask what happened, Keth scooped up some of the tomatoes and shoved them in his mouth. She did this three times, every time he tried to talk, before storming away. She contemplated slapping the barbarian or kneeing him in the groin, before deciding he wasn’t even worth the effort.

Meanwhile, the ranger (who has the calmest head, apparently) told them what happened to us. The fighter put the pieces together and was like “Oh shit. Oh shit, you guys, I’m so sorry that was totally my fault.”

The wizard, battered, bloody and pissed off, heard this and whirled on the fighter. He cast firebolt at him and crit succeeded on the roll. The fighter, now smelling like burnt tomatoes and missing his beard and mustache, was left with 3 HP and much shame. Their strange détente is…I’m not sure where it is now. The fighter won’t doubt the wizard’s ability to start fires now, at least? The wizard might stay pissed off for a while.

So on the plus side, the idiots have gained some awareness. They have realized that we squishies require someone big with us at all times because none of us are good at sustained close quarters combat. We can’t take the same hits, we will die. We rely on being far away from the combat, or only being close for a maximum of 2 seconds. The barbarian, at least, was suddenly much more attentive of us. It remains to be seen if the fighter will be.

Also Keth learned that the barbarian considers cities ‘safe for adventurers.’ He bases this off the fact that civilians could do little damage to him, while he could do lots of damage to them. Keth was furious and pointed out that she’s an adventurer, more skilled than he is (level 5 vs his level 4 so you know), was raised in this city, and still doesn’t go traipsing about because cities aren’t safe for anyone. Who’s to say the person attacking you isn’t an adventurer themselves?

And then she stopped talking to both of them.

So we finally got on the ship, which was…an experience. The wizard and other rogue were both puking their guts out. The barbarian actually followed through on his awareness by gluing himself to their sides. Keth still glared at the both of them, though only the barbarian really noticed her ire.

Second day into a week long journey, and of course we get attacked. Same nondescript band of assorted humanoids, all after the package. This battle wasn’t necessarily as hilarious as the last one. We had both our tanks actually performing their jobs (the fighter got knocked out and kept asking me if that was redeeming enough. I just responded that he might want someone else to heal him). The wizard took no damage this time, to his relief. I put uncanny dodge to wonderful use. We managed to make short work of the entire pirate crew except one annoying gnome.

Actually there was one beautiful moment, where a guy attempted to stab the ranger, lost grip on his sword, and sent it flying through the air. As the ranger is watching it go by, he stabs her for laughing at him.  

Keth also learned that when jumping fifteen feet down, she needs to be a bit more graceful or she’ll take some damage. She’s blaming it on preparing for the boat to suddenly rock and it staying pretty still. Being over prepared can sometimes hurt.

So there we all were, moving in for the disabling blow on the gnome pirate when a fucking ballista caught him in the stomach and sent him flying over the side of the ship. Cue all of us, staring in surprise, convinced that these guys were so well-organized they didn’t want any of their own taken alive. As the DM revealed, they nat 1ed hitting the barbarian and hit their own guy instead. It was painful.

Then the wizard noticed that the bad guy’s ship was trying to get away, so he sent a fireball at them. It took out everyone on the deck in a glorious blaze of fire. He got a bunch of XP for one shotting seven NPCs.

The tanks boarded the second ship to see if there was anything worth stealing. While headed down into the lower reaches, the fighter kept his halberd at the ready…and ended up spearing a crew member hiding down there. Spearing him so hard, in fact, the halberd got imbedded in the wall. And then he couldn’t dislodge the weapon. The barbarian, meanwhile, found a second guy and attempted to tackle him. Except he kept rolling really badly, and the guy managed to teleport away.

Meanwhile the newbie rogue demanded our crew give us payment for saving their lives. They tied a rope around his waist and dropped him off the side of the boat until he stopped being a jerk. Full elves, you know. 

And then we ended the night standing around in -10 weather discussing concussions?? I love this group so much. I had reservations joining a drop-in group, but we all mesh so well together, everyone’s pretty reasonable, and everyone’s pretty consistent about showing up. It’s great. Even if not every week has an event worth writing about, it never fails to put me in a good mood.