#the enemies aren't dropping arrows

[shinjisdone]

Hey! I hope you dont mind this too much but may you write a set of hcs of s1/teen thorfinn with a fem/gn s/o who is like Amanirenas (very smart & tactical, skilled in archery, graceful & brave. You could also include how one eye was blinded too) and how he interact with her

(I’m sorry if this is strange, eygpt + sudan history is my current fixtation rn, so feel free to ignore and delete!)

A very interesting request. When it comes to readers being based on characters/figures, fictional or not, it would be very helpful to get a short description/link of them so that I know just as much as you do in that regard ¯_(´・ω・｀)_/¯ ! I looked Amanirenas a bit up but considering she was a real life person, I can't go too much into her story...basing it on your short description, hope that's okay!

S1 Thorfinn with a Reader Who Is Like Kandake Amanirenas! (Gender-neutral & female examples)

Thorfinn's stance on you depends on wheter you are part of the band or not.

If you are not, you are an enemy, no matter how skillful or brave you may be. However, considering how you mostly fight with a bow, he might not fight you one-on-one. You are probably used for defense.

Yet how useful you are. Even with just one eye, you manage to hit every single target of yours efficiently and deadly. One arrow is enough to send one tumbling down their grave.

It all seems to easy to you. Like the wind you move, light as a feather as if the very air submitted to you and your arrows, allowing you each kill.

Your tactics could leave Askeladd pondering but that is none of Thorfinn's concern. Enemy is enemy and if he ever finds you or can get a duel with the murderer of his father by getting your head, he will.

If you are, however, part of the band, you will surely stand out like a sore thumb. An archer as graceful and smart as you doesn't belong in this group full of hard-headed and foolish men. Especially if you are female.

Many might avoid you and awe at you in battle but Thorfinn wouldn't be one of them - vocally at least. He silently is impressed and approveds of your skills but it still wouldn't answer his question on what a true warrior is.

Is it bravery and tactics? Keeping on with such composure even if one eye was taken from you?

One day he might let it slip of how differently you appraoch things. Why are you here? What is such a...dandy person such as you doing here? Do you see yourself as a warrior?

Thorfinn observes you and your decisions in silence. It's how he makes his opinion of others instead of actually going up and talking to them.

If your strategy proves useful and better than Askeladd's (or when he doesn't want to listen to him), Thorfinn might follow your orders but only privately where only you two can hear them. Though he only takes your word for granted if it makes sense for him but if he does end up trusting you, he might follow any order you give him even if things aren't clear yet.

Your elegance might also confuse him. Why do you speak like that? Why do you treat him like this? You act more royal-like than the princess. He might shrug some things you do and say off or even straight up tell you to drop this 'graceful act'. We are vikings. This kind of behaviour is unneccessary and doesn't make you very popular amongst the others. Just a heads up.

Just say what you wanna say and do what you wanna do. Thorfinn doesn't have the patience for this graceful stuff.

He appreciates your skills in archery. In a way you always have his back and he admittedly feels safer this way knowing there is someone out there who literally and metaphorically has his back. He doesn't need to only look out for himself anymore.

If you are attacked directly though, he might get worried. Being an archer means being vulnerable in melee combat in his mind. Thorfinn will run back and defend you quickly and will scream at you if you initiate close combat yourself. How are you going to win with a bow when someone is this near you with their spear?! Don't be stupid! He thought you were one of the smart ones!

Though your bravery is something he commends. Again, not vocally but you can be sure he might do so when he believes you deserve it. Either by letting you know your own strength or when others doubt yours. He will do so more likely if you are female.

If you are a woman, then some might make some googly eyes at your smart and graceful person. Some may be impressed by you, hailing you as some Valkyrie or warrior queen that they'd definitely marry - if only they weren't so bad and depraved! Haha!

Thorfinn would only scoff at their behaviour. Woman or not, your outer appeareance doesn't matter to Thorfinn but he would be a bit more protective if this kind of behaviour of the other bandmates continues.

If he feels comfortable enough, he might ask you about your eye. Wondering how it is you can still see so well.

[holedaemon]

Ass Respect 2

Saturday, myself and Ari (@freakpatrol) finished up Mass Effect 2, after less than a week of playing. We played for idk, a little bit.

My friend Dylan put it well: Mass Effect 1 is one of those games you'd see in a "learn to make video games at DeVry University" commercial. It's clunky, inaccessible, and a slog.

Mass Effect 2 is smooth, accessible, and fun. Genuinely one of my favorite games ever.

THE GOOD PART 1: GAME MECHANICS

So far, Mass Effect is iterative. Each game takes the last and builds upon it. I don't know the history of development, but it's clear that Bioware saw the issues in the first game and went "hey, let's make this better." For instance,

The game is more accessible. Menus are easier to navigate and much more comprehensive. Shit makes sense. Things are actually explained to you, you aren't just left to guess how things work, or where you're supposed to go.

Following the theme of iteration, stuff that was lacking in 1, has been improved upon:

In the first game, there was only one minigame that was used for everything. It was basically just frogger; get your little arrow to the center of a circle, avoiding the obstacles that send you back to the start. It got to be annoying after the 1,400th time you did it. In 2, there are two distinct minigames mostly used for hacking/accessing technology and areas. The first is a match-the-symbols game, pretty self explanatory, the second is a code-matching game, where you match blocks of text with what's shown in the legend. They're not perfect but they're SOOOOO much better than what we had before.

Next: the star map. The galaxy is a big, expansive place. Before, you kinda just clicked on a system, went there, scanned a couple of planets for collection quests/resource gathering, then went to whatever planet your mission was at. Now, you actually have to travel to different systems manually. You pilot your ship between systems, using up fuel to do so. I wasn't super keen about it at first, but it grew on me. The overview of the galaxy also shows you your active quests, which is super nice.

In the same vein, the resource gathering is much more in depth. Before you could click on planets and sometimes would have the option to scan them for stuff. It was very shallow. In the sequel, you can scan pretty much every planet; it's a minigame in itself. Right-click and drag along the globe to find pockets of resources, then click to send a probe down to collect them. You can find element zero, palladium, iridium, and platinum. Each can be used for different kinds of research, which is used to upgrade you, your gear, your squadmates, their gear, and the Normandy. It's much more fleshed out and actually pretty fun. To Ari's dismay, I would sit and suck those planets dry looking for shit.

Also extremely important to mention: the side missions. They're SO much better now. Rather than going to some prefab & shooting enemies, each one is actually fleshed out and substantial. THEY ALSO GOT RID OF THE MAKO!!!! NO MORE OF THAT STUPID ASS CAR!!!! NO MORE TRYING TO SHIMMY YOUR WAY UP A MOUNTAIN FOR 20 MINUTES!!! IT'S GREAT!!!!

One minor thing I appreciate is that you don't loot inventories for items anymore. You mostly just pick up credits, resources, and ammo, which is much preferable. The inventories full of crap back in 1 were jarring and really took you out of the game.

That reminds me: ammo. Before, you had infinite ammo, your gun would just heat up with each shot, and if you filled the meter, it would have to cool down. Well, they ditched that in favor of ammo pickups. Enemies drop ammo, or the pickups will just be placed around the map. Apparently this was a controversial change, but I like it a lot more than before, it introduces a new challenge.

Along with ammo are your powers. They really made biotics a viable thing here. They're fun, they're powerful, they can really kick some ass if you use them correctly. I didn't make much use of them, but I appreciate the work that was put into improving them.

Just a few more things. I promise I'm almost done.

Overall, the game felt a lot more difficult. I felt substantially weaker; shit would tear through my shields like they were nothing. Bioware also did away with medi-gel, kinda. You still have it, but it's exclusively for your teammates if they go down. To regain health, you have to take cover. This made it a lot more challenging, I couldn't just spam heal in the middle of a battle, I actually had to strategize and hold positions. I like it.

The last major improvement they made was to the squad AI. It was actually worth a damn now. Squadmates would actually get kills and it was glorious. It didn't leave me feeling like I was totally on my own like before.

Also they got rid of omni-gel, but I don't think anyone cared.

THE GOOD PART 2: THE WORLD

Ohhhhh my god the world. It really hit me just how much better the atmosphere and level design was when we got to Omega. It's in the terminus systems, which are systems that are ungoverned by the citadel and the council. Omega is basically the citadel for crime lords; it's a dirty, slummy neighborhood on an asteroid. If you know me, you know I'm a sucker for settings like that (read: see Dorohedoro), so I LOVED Omega. Anyways: the world. It's so much more alive!!! When you touch down on a new location, everything really hits you all at once. There's people to talk to, places to go, things to see, it was great. The ambience was so much more potent; there's always some conversation going on in the background. The levels themselves were much less linear feeling, you could really explore & go anywhere. It wasn't like the citadel in the first game, which was so annoying to traverse.

The most important part of any world is its characters and Mass Effect 2 did not disappoint. In terms of races, it was mostly the same with a few newcomers: like the Vorcha. They're cool gremlin-looking dudes that slum around Omega & work in merc groups. There's a lot of prejudice towards them unfortunately. They're regarded as dumb vermin by pretty much every other race. People hate them more than they hate Batarians. It sucks cause they're actually pretty cool!

Speaking of Batarians, we got to see them a lot more, too. Unfortunately not in better conditions than the previous game; still mostly depicted as mercs, terrorists, and slavers.

There was also the Drell: anthropomorphic lizard guys. We only saw.... 2? Your squadmate, Thane, and his son. They're apparently near extinction. :( Their home world was destroyed, somehow, and they were taken in by the Hanar. Their relationship with the Hanar was symbiotic, the Drell lived on their planet and in return, as put by Ari, they do anything for the Hanar that "required having bones."

Another cool race we saw ONLY ONE OF, were the Yahg. The only one we saw happened to be the Shadow Broker. He was cool & tough, not much to say about him, but I liked him a lot.

I also wanna briefly touch on the enemies in the game.

The big bads were the Collectors. A race of bug-like aliens that were very elusive. In reality, they're actually Protheans that've been cultivated and genetically modified by the Reapers. Much like the Keepers on the citadel. Cool dudes.

Besides the Collectors, you were blasting mercs, which I loved. There's three distinct groups: the Blood Pack, the Eclipse, and the Blue Suns. Each group comprised of different species, with their own gimmicks.

The Collectors also had some new creatures in their ranks. Among the Husk, there were Scions. Scions are cool, grotesque Husk-like abominations. I like them a lot, but don't get me wrong: they SUCK. I died SO MUCH TO THEM. They have this long-range shockwave attack that's nigh impossible to dodge. Absolute bastards.

As for your teammates, a lot of newcomers, but some friendly faces too. Most notably Garrus. I love Garrus, he's my boy. We fucked. Tali also came back, I'll talk about her more in a bit.

Anyway, among the ranks were:

Miranda - total cunt. The Ashley of Mass Effect 2. Absolutely miserable to be around. I didn't speak to her unless I had to.

Jacob - Polite soldier type. He was cool but I didn't really care about him.

Mordin - MY PROBLEMATIC FAVE. He's a crazy, fast-talking, oldhead Salarian. We found him on Omega working on a cure for a plague that was going around. First and foremost, he's a genius scientist, but he also has combat training & can hold his own. At one point he sang a Salarian sea shanty, and then another time he was like "hey Shepard I saw that you moved your eyes in a funny way, btw I don't wanna fuck." Totally awesome dude. The thing that makes him problematic is he, well, modified the Genophage to be more effective. He quite literally sterilized the Krogan further and committed genocide. As the story progresses, he shows some remorse for his actions. I LOVE LOVE LOVE Mordin.

Thane - the aforementioned Drell that you encounter. He's a master assassin- really cool dude. Very calm & collected; prays to different deities before every kill, I dig it. He's also dying, that sucks. Love my boy Thane.

Samara - an Asari Justicar, which are highly esteemed warriors in their culture. Almost like ninja monks. They pretty much have immunity from any legal repercussions. They live by the code, an ancient set of scriptures that basically tell them to kill anyone that sucks or tries to hurt them. Samara is, as Ari put it, "the most autistic woman in the galaxy." She's awesome, has a really tragic backstory. We killed her daughter.

Jack - Oh Jack. She's a high level biotic that was experimented on as a child by the terrorist group Cerberus. Tortured for most of her early life in a facility you go back to and blow up with her. She's a volatile bottle rocket of anger & angst, ready to explode at a moment's notice, and also the hottest woman in the galaxy. You can't romance her as fem Shepard, which is a fucking TRAVESTY. I love Jack so much.

Zaeed & Kasumi - not even worth talking about.

GRUNT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! - MY BOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He is your Krogan squadmate for the game. Bred in a tank by the late Dr. Okeer. He's grumpy and ready to kill anything that moves. He was born literally yesterday & I would die for him. For his loyalty mission you take him to TUCHANKA!!!! THE KROGAN HOME WORLD!!! It's a fucking disaster of a planet, it looks like every level from a late aughts military shooter. But guess who you can fucking see there??? WREX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If you chose to save him on Virmire, he has since returned home & become the leader of his own clan: the Urdnot. The Urdnot are the dominant clan on Tuchanka and are trying to reunify the planet and its clans. My boy Wrex is delighted to see you. He's really thrived on Tuchanka, becoming a very stoic leader, but very visibly happy.

A lot of the Krogan you encounter on Tuchanka are mean to Grunt because he was tank-born. But not Wrex, the old merc sees right past this & welcomes Grunt to try his might in the rite: the ritual that Krogan perform as they enter adulthood. The rite is basically just a tower defense game, culminating in fighting a Thresher Maw. If you succeed, Grunt is welcomed into clan Urdnot. Grunt still chooses to tag along with you in your mission, as you are his Battlemaster. He really comes to respect you over the course of the game, I love to see it.

Tali'Zorah - It's Tali, baby. She's back. She's finished her Pilgrimage & is working for the Quarian fleet. I specifically wanted to mention her because her loyalty mission is actually really cool. After her recruitment, Tali is called back to the Quarian fleet, having been accused of treason. You see, after her mission on one of the former Quarian colony worlds (where you save and recruit her), she sends deactivated Geth parts back to the fleet for her father to do research on. Due to the research being done, this backfires, the Geth are reactivated, and kill the entire ship, including Tali's father. We learn this during the hearing, and everyone is shocked. As a way to clear her name, Tali & Shepard go to the ship the Geth are on and clear it out. I really like this mission because it adds a lot of depth to the Quarians & their culture. I loved seeing the Flotilla; the architecture of the old, second-hand ships they travel the galaxy with. Meeting more Quarians was a delight too. Easily one of my favorite races in the series; their conflict with the Geth is complicated & tragic, and I'm eager to see how it plays out.

AND FINALLY....

LAST BUT NOT LEAST....

THE MAN OF THE HOUR....

MY ABSOLUTE FAVORITE COMPANION...

LEGION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! - PERHAPS THE COOLEST COMPANION EVER, BESIDES WREX..... I didn't know of his existence until he was introduced. Ari was very careful not to tell me about him, and I'm thankful for it. I love him so much. Legion is a Geth. A true Geth. One that is not following the Reapers. It turns out, the Geth we've been fighting for the last few years are actually a faction of "heretics" that broke off from the main group. The main group are still peaceful & reclusive. I really, really, really love this twist because it adds so much more depth to the Geth. It gives them reason to be, more than just a fodder enemy for the Reapers. It makes them more complicated. The Geth are vilified across the galaxy & the reason AI have become illegal, but they're really just misunderstood. During Legion's loyalty mission, you are tasked with destroying the heretics. Except you have a choice; you can destroy them, or save them & rewrite the code that's made them submit to the Reapers. It's a morally ambiguous mission- I took the latter route, opting to save them and rewrite them. It feels wrong to do that, but it's better than genocide... Anyway, yeah, Legion: absolute favorite part about Mass Effect 2. Everyone is hesitant to have him aboard the Normandy, but he rocks & I would die for him.

THE BAD

That was a lot, if you've gotten this far, thanks. I have a lot less to say about the game from here on out, as it's a really fun and good experience. But as with anything, there's always some bad.

These aren't even necessarily super bad things, just stuff that irked me. Primarily:

Stability - the game's a lil buggy. There were weird animation errors & at one point I crashed entirely. Ari was also unable to play in windowed mode for some reason, which made watching me stream a pain, since they had to watch on their phone. They're gonna get a second monitor here soon, though. 👁️

UI & Controls - extremely nitpicky, but, a few times, dialogue options and weapons in my wheel would switch around. I don't really know why, but it got me a few times. The bigger thing was the controls on the galaxy map: if you pressed escape, it would kick you out of the map entirely. Very annoying.

The DLC - I'm not really sure what all was DLC, because it was included in the legendary edition of the games. But the DLC characters, Zaeed and Kasumi, were fucking nothing. Just empty husks of characters, lacking all depth & interesting story. I did their missions for completion's sake but they were fucking stupid.

The final boss - SUPER SUPER COOL CONCEPT!!! It's a fucking Reaper shaped like a skeletal human, it was so awesome looking, but the fight itself was underwhelming and lacking. I did it in a single try. Literally I had more trouble getting to it than fighting it. You basically just shot its weak spots until it died.

Weapon mods - they got rid of them!! I thought that was a bummer, I liked the customization they offered in the first game.

All in all...

Mass Effect 2 is a fantastic game. Easily a contender for one of my favorite of all time. The world, the characters, the story, it's all fantastic. It really took the basis the first game left & expanded upon it in such a cool way. We've since started 3, and I'm already thinking "oh this is not nearly as good as 2."

Thanks again to Ari for playing it w/ me. It's nice to actually experience and enjoy games again. Having a partner to go through it with has made it 10 times more enjoyable.

The one last thing I have to say about the game is that I really enjoy how everybody calls you Shepard exclusively. At one point, during a conversation with Liara, I thought to myself, "wait, what's Shepard's first name?" That's when I remembered, I named her Obama. Obama Shepard. Ari laughed at me.

Again, if you read this far, I appreciate it. I'm sure once we've finished 3, I'll have even more to say.

With Love,

Obama Shepard

[darudedogestorm]

under the cut: undersiders as what plant i think they would main/be in pvz garden warfare 1 (+ dressup)

disclaimer i've literally never touched gw2 so if there's a better fit in that game i wouldn't know it.. just gw1 for now..

Decisions are made based more on gameplay than on physical appearance but I tried to take both into account.. however as a sunflower main maybe I'm biased on some account so fellow garden warfare heads feel free to suggest better fits for them

Reading over all these I'm now realizing I kept mixing up what I think they would main vs what plant they would specifically be, which is a little confusing...

TAYLOR

A Peashooter variant feels a very obvious choice for her, since she's pretty much always on the frontlines. Its hyper ability would allow her to jump to higher up places to retain the "watching from afar with bugs" thing

I chose Law Pea more for the justice bit in its stickerbook description (where there is injustice you will find it etc etc) and less for the law bit (though she does have a code of law it's incomprehensible to anyone but herself). It felt more fitting for her because well she does try to work for what she feels is the greater good.

For dressup we're pretty limited here, both because there's not many bug themed accessories and also because I just don't have that many accessories :( I gave her the "heart and arrow + Mom" tattoo, and the visors. Fuuuck now i'm realizing i could have given her actual glasses... Wait no nevermind I'm not sure I have plain glasses. Well anyway those are her glasses.

LISA

She mains boss mode which I feel doesn't require very much explanation

For those unfamiliar: In boss mode you play as Crazy Dave (or Dr. Zomboss), generally out of the heat of the battle but still able to participate with your various abilities. It's mostly a support role, but you can still attack (cherry bomb drops), heal and revive (sunflower + revive drops), and help your team track the locations of the enemy (coconut spotting machine). You aren't invulnerable as the opposing team can shoot down your ship.

For dressup purposes she's the Shadow Flower because of the mask :3 I gave her a razor grin and some purple crystals. Adding a hat felt like too much but maybe I would have gone with the chaffeur hat.

I'm now realizing Shadow Flower would just be a good plant choice for her in general.

Sunflower life bonds are normally reserved for other sunflowers but she can have one with Taylor I think. Well ok not a true life bond because that requires the ability for mutual healing but it's more accurate this way because honestly chasing down someone across the entire map who will easily die if you aren't constantly healing them is just kind of the sunflower experience

BRIAN

Again, peashooter feels like a given, though unfortunately there's no equivalent ability for his darkness emission...

Plasma Pea because the colors are closest to black out of the peashooters. The Plasma Pea can charge up shots to increase their damage and radius of impact.

I didn't have any skull-based accessories so I just went with what felt cool and what he might use in an actual game of GW1... so basically just the intimidation factor

While we're here though if I was doing zombies he'd 100% be some sort of Foot Soldier. The Zombie Stink Cloud is 1:1 for his darkness ability. I guess since Peashooter and Foot Soldier are kind of parallels in terms of game play this works out well. (Seriously though every Peashooter main I know also mains Foot Soldier. Please I know you are good at video games just stop sniping me from across the map for 10 seconds 😭)

RACHEL

A chomper is a kind of dogy to be honest <---my logic when I was 10

Went back and forth between normal Chomper, Count Chompula, and Fire Chomper. Settled on fire chomper because I was thinking of that scene where she talks about her power burning away heartworm in her dogs, and also because orange. However I think normal Chomper would fit her just as well.

For dressup I was going more for what I envisioned her dogs looking like while reading worm. Additional chompers are there to represent her many doggies. Tentacle is there to be scary and monster esque. Metal brace jaw is there because honestly I think it looks really cool, plus I already had it equipped anyway

AISHA

Originally I was going to go with Chomper because ourple, and I still think it would fit her. However Future Cactus is also ourple. And also I think Future Cactus is so cool

My reasoning was that her stealth would translate well into cacti gameplay since with cacti you mostly need to just find a really good vantage point where no one else can see you, allowing you to snipe people well. But I'm now realizing the Future Cactus is like... a lot more visible bc of its chargeup. Oh well

Aw wait I just realized she matches with her brother cause they both have chargeups.. thats adorable i think

Dressup gives her silly googly eyes ("zombie disguise) and purple markings (they're hard to see but they're there

ALEC

I'm now realizing that in terms of gameplay probably one of the peashooters would have fit him better because well he does play shooter games. And peashooters are The main plant for guys who are so good at shooter games. But we have too many peashooters on this team so Sunflower it is

Originally was going with the Alien Flower because I thought its ornateness might fit him. But I don't have Alien Flower and it's more Aisha styled anyway (ourple and silly) so he gets the Power Flower.

Hey wait I used to main this thing too. Yay <---switched to Fire Flower though. But yeah as a sunflower I don't generally go out into the thick of things unless I have like 3 other guys with me, I mostly just stay behind at the garden and heal whoever needs it (garden ops or gardens and graveyards)

Honestly now I'm thinking I mostly chose this one for the appearance rather than gameplay. Actually wait the electricity theme fits with his tazer. Nevermind!!

The panda face tattoo is there because I thought it looked like his mask. Hat and masquerade mask are there because they're fancy.

Sunflower life bond with Aisha future cactus btw.

Anyway that's my list. If and when in the near future I get better accessories I will do more dressup and also maybe deduce what zombies they main

[fragmentofmemories]

what's your opinion on subclassing in eo? i know you like to experiment with party composition and strategies so i'd like to know if you have any favorite unconventional class/subclass combos

Thanks for the ask! and honestly I don't really have an opinion that much different from other people.

It's a great mechanic that lets you essentially fill any hole you might have in your party, or minmax a character's best features.

Lack a healer or tank? Turn your character into one. Want to squeeze an extra bit of damage, dodge rate or whatever? Subclass into something with the one self-buff or passive you need.

But sadly, many people tend to focus only on the minmaxing part, to the point I often see tips like "subclass into gladiator/bushi, everything else is worthless."

And I feel that is really reductive of what subclassing can be capable of. Let's take EO3 as an example.

A fun thing I like to do is doing a Monk/Zodiac build.

"Because monks have high TEC right?"

No, because Fire Mastery, Singularity and Ethereal Charge affect Breakfire Fist.

Combine STR accessory stacking alongside any other buff/debuff, and you'll have your monk potentially deal tens of thousands of damage per hit with the right setup.

I see people often focusing only on a monk's supportive aspect, that with subclassing them into sovereigns and such.

But just like any other healer in EO (except herbalists who do not exist), leaving them to only healing duty is genuinely a waste of their true potential — as weird as that sounds.

And before you ask, you don't need the weapon exploit to make monks good. In fact, if you know how Fist Mastery works, you'll soon realize the exploit actually makes them worse (At high STR and Lv10 FM, their ATK stat is lowered if they equip a weapon).

Monks in EO3 are in the same place as EO1 Alchemists and EOX pugilists, as one of the most misunderstood classes. In the sense that people don't really know how to use them.

Other fun builds I'd like to make are Ninja/Buccaneer. Combine skills like Lady Luck (extra Crit chance), Swashbuckling (Multihit chance with normal attacks) and Kubikiri (Instakill chance with normal attacks). It only takes around level 50 or so to get all these skills maxed, and when you do it's pretty fun.

Knives also happen to have a high amount of forge slots, so you can further customize your character by either increasing their ATK, stats like HP, or even adding an extra effect on top. Combine that with accessory stacking and/or cloning, and you can actually deal plenty of damage even if the instant kill doesn't trigger.

After all, it wasn't until eou that they nerfed normal attacks (of course).

Lastly, though it has nothing to do with combat, I ocassionally like subclassing everyone into farmers. In doing so, I can give them the Waste Not skill for up to a 25% drop rate increase.

The reason for this is to more easily farm stat books from the enemies that drop it. It's a slow process, but being able to more easily get stat boosters — especially early on — is really helpful.

Formaldehydes and Lucky Hammer exist, of course, but those aren't easily available until the late/postgame. And the ones you do get early on are usually reserved for stratum bosses.

Moving onto other games, EO4 I admittedly kinda rushed over it gameplay-wise, and I've long since lost my 100% save. So I can't for certain give any build ideas.

I do believe dancers' normal attack and dodge skills are generally useful on anyone, as is landsknechts' Vanguard on medics. Not for healing, but for Star Drop and other attack skills (of course).

Nexus I did replay recently, so in quick succession (since this post is getting too long):

Survivalist/Ninja. Using it to further increase the former's Dodgetank abilities (meaning extra Hazy Arrows, and general survivality).

Pugilist/Shogun for Peerless Demon (More damage the more hits per turn) and Bloody Lance (More damage per enemy killed.) Conveniently enough, a pugilist's best weapon has an AOE skill, and it can actually be acquired near the start of the game if you farm enough. So...

Medic/Protector entirely for yuri reasons /j (actually because of anti- skills, and Shield Flare. Calling back the whole "subclassing to fix holes" thing.)

Technically EMD2 also has subclassing, and the idea of a protector with AOE skills is very enticing. But it's Japan-only (of course).

Funnily enough, I don't think I experimented much with subclassing myself. Once I get to 3 HD I am thinking of maybe doing something like, idk, Farmer/Gladiator for a meme Stun Attack build (lol).

[im-yn-suckers]

cupids arrows; karma kicked her in the butt

pairing- not exactly enemies to lovers but along those lines. idol niki x idol fem reader park y/n (jays baby sister) (debuts in gg)

warnings- fake friends, idk how kpop auditions work so bear with me, light swearing, lmk what else

wow, proofread this time

synopsis- flashback as jay's younger sister in school, you and your friend decided to audition for hybe at the age of 14. when you pass and she doesn't, you get selected to join a survival show. when your and the one member younger than you debut and you don't, you are announced as the 8th member of enhypen. how does getting cheated on benefit the fact that you and niki aren't very fond of each other?

chapter one; karma kicked her in the butt

masterlist -> next

"we should audition!!" you screamed as you showed your friend, I-jun, your phone screen. displaying the announcement from hybe saying they're looking for people to audition for their new girl group.

''sure. why not? after school on monday we'll go" she said from her spot on your bed. she was sleeping over and it was a friday night. enhypen just debuted and everyone at school called you 'not-so-famous park kid'. how motivating.

you texted your boyfriend telling him all about it. he was the best boyfriend ever.

~

monday after school, you and I-jun walk over to the hybe building and wait in line. there was a crowd of about 40 when you two got there. the line got to about 100 people by the time it was I-jun's turn.

"Hello! my name is Hwang I-jun. i am 14 years old and hope to be able to work with you in the future." she introduced herself to the judges and began to sand a song in english, korean and danced. her vocals were good, they were stable but her dancing was something she could work on. she wasn't bad, but her vocals were very shaky when dancing.

"next!"

"hello, I am park y/n. i am 14 years old and i hope to become and idol just like my older brother." your vocals were like honey and your rap was so good. you had precision in your dance and nothing was wrong.

the other people lined up did their auditions and the judges went to the waiting room. they announced who passed the first audition.

"Ae-sol, Kim. Jin-sol Park, Y/n Park, Sook Lim, and, Eun Jung! Please fill out this form and give we will update you on when the next audition is within the next week or so. otherwise, you may go home! thank you!" you stood with your mouth open in shock and you felt I-jun's eyes on you.

"good job y/n. you did good, i should have practiced like you told me too. i guess i was just being a shit-head" she said, almost forcing herself to.

on the walk home, you were still in disbelief. you enjoyed the evening breeze and walked I-jun home. she was never that rude.

''don't you think one famous kid is enough? like why two? to brag? i mean, he's not that famous. he'll probably flop and end up disbanding" she was obviously jealous that you passed and she didn't. it was uncalled for and unnecessary for her to say that about jay

"i don't know but anyway, see you tomorrow at school. study for bio!" you dropped her off at her house and facetimed jay on the way home. he made you feel safe. despite his tight schedule, he always responded to your texts and calls. he was the best big brother and you wouldn't trade him for the world

"hey kiddo! how are you?" his voice was comforting and warm

"hey, im ok. how about you? how's life being famous and all?''

"its alright. have you done anything today? you don't usually call out of random like this"

"yeah, i wanted to tell you that me and I-jun auditioned for the new girl group audition at hybe. i passed the first audition, she didn't and she sounded really mad"

"now way! congrats! kind sucks that I-jun didn't. if shes being mean to you, tell me because i'll beat up anybody who hurts you. heh"

"Y/N!!!! wassup!! you passed the first audition? thats awesome!" jake was shouting in the background while all the members gathered around to talk to you.

"niki, are you going to say hi or something?" sunoo asked in his motherly tone, almost a whisper

"nah, tell her im sleeping" he rolled his eyes and walked upstairs.

"well, i gotta go jay. I'm home and i don't want you to hear mom and dad's 'happy' shouts"

"ok, bye kiddo! text me before and after the next audition! eat and drink water before i sneak out of here and force feed you"

"ok, bye jay! love you!"

"love you too kiddo" you hung up and walked inside.

"sweetheart! how'd it go? oh, i mean. welcome home honey."

"hi mom. i passed the first audition but I-jun didn't."

"oh. honey. i'm sorry. it'll be okay"

"don't be sorry, she said rude things about jay. karma kicked her in the butt" maybe she deserved it. you went up to your room and went to sleep. you had a bio exam tomorrow after all.

tuesday morning arrives and your phone is blowing up. tons of classmates congratulating you and a handful being rude.

after the bio exam, you had lunch. to avoid any interactions, you went to study hall. finally, peace and quiet. you checked your email and saw that hybe had sent an email confirming the next audition.

you texted jay, knowing there was a possibility he was busy. after school, you felt the buzz you were waiting for, in your backpack

jay big bro <3: hey kiddo! sorry i responded so late, i had dance practice. im so proud of you! you'll definitely pass. love you kiddo!

your shoulders dropped with relief when you saw jays contact on the screen of your phone.

~

the day of the audition came and you texted jay before you entered the building.

y/n: hey jay! i know you're probably busy being famous and all but i'm about to go in for the second audition. wish me luck! love you!

jay big bro<3: hey kiddo! good luck! i love you too! im so proud of you!

his reassurance was all you needed to push you into the doors of the audition.

after about two hours of evaluations, singing, rapping, and dancing, they announced who would go on the survival show.

"The participant who will be competing in "My High School Dream' is, Y/n Park!!! congratulations y/n." you were in shock and you couldn't believe it.

your first instinct was to text jay about it.

y/n: i did it!!! i made it! im going to be on 'My High School Dream'!!!!

jay big bro <3: hold up

he facetimed you and started shouting random things.

"guys! come here! y/n passed!"

the guys *unnecessary* shouts were all you heard. luckily you were at the park, sitting on the swings.

"congrats y/n -_-" of course. niki wasn't happy for you.

"thanks niki." all you heard was a sarcastic 'uh-huh' before jay came back after all the guys congratulating you

"i told you you'd make it! congrats kiddo. i love you so much. did anyone else make it?"

"thanks, i love you too. no, it was just me but they told me there would be 12 other girls competing to make one group."

"it'll be ok, kiddo. where are you?"

"im at the park. i was going to head over to Hyu- a friends house after you hung up"

"oh? who's that?"

"just a friend, uh. yeh"

"ooookaaaay. be safe. love you kiddo"

"love you too jay. i will"

your shoulders went up after accidentally telling jay about your boyfriend. he was the only one who didn't know about Hyun.

little did you know, jay texted your parents and told them to buy a cake quickly. he also mentioned Hyun. they told him who he was but that didn't matter.

when you got to Hyun's house, you greeted his parents and told him the news. he was so happy for you and after about half an hour. you walked home excitedly, unknown of what was waiting at home.

"SURPRISE!!!!! WE'RE SO PROUD OF YOU! WE LOVE YOU!" they were waiting at the door of your house with a cake and banner in their hands.

"thanks mom and dad. i love you too"

you ate cake and celebrated. you received an email telling you where/when to go. school wasn't the easiest, but you made it for the week you had left before leaving.

taglist- send an ask or comment to be added

[kalesmash13]

Thoughts on minecraft trial chambers after playtesting them:

The chambers aren't very big, being only 4 to 8 large rooms chained together

The loot and combat seems to be pre-ender dragon in terms of progression, and there isn't so much of it that it clogs your inventory

Aside from trial keys, the spawner loot is kinda meh since it's more likely to drop glow berries than anything useful

The breeze isn't very threatening as it's vastly outclassed by the massive hordes of skeletons that only shoot poison arrows

Husks and Skeletons seem to the most common spawners

The chambers spawn in deepslate level and don't seem to connect to any caves

Overall they're decently challenging but there's very little enemy variety. Until the trial key functionality is revealed, I don't see any reason so far to seek these dungeons out

I'm interested in seeing how the change in the coming months though

[sonicasura]

I just got done watching a playthrough of the 1st Legend of Zelda. And when I take Ocarina of Time and bit of Skyward Sword into account, it makes the setting much sadder with these details.

Every resident you encountered, minus the Great Fairies, live in caves or hidden passages within shrubs and dungeons. Bomb sellers practically get trapped in dungeons.

The economy crashed leaving 1 and 5 type Rupees the only cash available. 10, 50 and 100 Rupees no longer exist or can be made.

The Moblins whose homes you break into are probably rogues not with Ganon and are bribing you to keep their location quiet. There are also starving Moblins in some dungeons which means even they suffer under Ganon's rule. Especially since Enemy Bait works on normal enemy Moblins than other monsters.

Money is valued to the point that you can't get clues or even pass certain places. In the Second Quest, there's an old man who requires you to give up a Life Container or 50 Rupees. Literally says: Your life or your money.

The Lost Woods look...dead. Even if it's just graphics for that era, the trees look like they're dying alongside being sparse.

Fairies can only be found by defeated enemies except for the rare Fairy Spring. Nearly every fairy had been captured and held prisoner by monsters.

Zoras evolved to become monstrous just to survive. This trait being more recessive and altered for BotW Zoras as they now represent different species of aquatic life.

Dragons become hostile as most dungeon bosses are a draconic species. Something made sadder if you read the OOT comic or played Skyward Sword.

Even though Gorons aren't a concept at that time... The thought of Goron genocide lingers in my mind. Ganon's lair is found near Death Mountain and a shit ton of graves near said area. Twilight Princess had such occurrences with the Twili and Gerudo for Arbiter's Grounds alongside the Oocca in City in the Sky.

The Triforce of Wisdom was torn into pieces and Zelda put into a magical sleep. You don't get Courage until the second game. Mask/Time(OoT Link) had it on him...so what happened to him exactly (other than death)? I think I just made the context for Dark Link in the sequel more fucked up. 😶

But yeah. This is some sad shit with the timeline context. Now for stuff outside of angst.

Hyrule (this game's Link) acquires magic rings that boosts his durability. One can be bought and the other found in a dungeon.

Immediately can do sword beams at full health without the Master Sword.

Rupees serve as arrowheads cause when you use the arrows, your rupees drop with each shot.

Acquires a magic wand which can be enhanced to create flames via magic book. That means the wands/rods had upgrade potential which is probably something rarely seen for weapons in a Zelda game.

Gambling. Hyrule has gambled before for cash.

There are pocket watches capable of stopping time and recorders/flutes that can warp you to different dungeons or reveal hidden places.

And that's all I can list really. It does give me better context when I get to writing Hyrule's character. As for who I watched involving this playthrough, it was HCBailley here. Pretty entertaining and has a lot of info on hidden secrets or easter eggs for the game.

Until next time folks, I'll see you back in Hyrule!

[gynandromorph]

Hey there, recently god rain world and I am struggling though it lol.. wondering if you'd have any tips other than just "get used to dying a bunch" haha. I'm literally playing as the survivor (default slugcat, sorry if I'm remembering the names wrong). Anyway, thank you for the help if you have it, and if not, I'll just power through lol

look up the advanced movement video on youtube. most important takeaways: -how to slide -throwing an object while jumping makes you jump farther, with spears boosting the jump distance most -how to backflip and throw a spear straight down (i've never been able to pin an enemy this way outside of the arena, but there are some places only accessible if you can throw a spear into the ground and use it as leverage by climbing it like a pole) -how to fast swim without boosting by pressing A

any object you come across, it's good to look at its wiki, there's a ton of stuff that's never stated in the game.

always give scavengers pearls and always save pearls or take them with you when you can. if you end up on their bad side, it's also easy to avoid their attacks by moving vertically, as they can only throw horizontally. but scavengers will generally let even low reputation slugcats through tolls for a pearl (excluding artificer). also, crouch when near scavengers if you aren't high reputation with them yet and drop all weapons or they may attack you anyway.

start to memorize "easy" shelters such as shelters with food nearby and the rooms surrounding those shelters.

play with remix options on to make the game as easy as you need it to be.

do not play aggressively and try to fight creatures you can run from. pressing A to jump constantly when fleeing makes it more difficult for an enemy to grab you. if you learn to slide and spear boost the slide spears may have more worth in fleeing than fighting (i never learned to slide well). especially true for survivor, who can't even eat the meat from predator creatures.

that said, most enemies are incapacitated with a spear throw or two, even though it won't kill them. vultures may start to flee and have a difficult time getting back into the air, lizards fall off the background and poles they're trying to climb repeatedly and may also flee depending on their health, and so on. being able to get one good spear shot in pretty much guarantees safety from a predator who isn't already right in your face, but it often incapacitates and stuns predators who have even grabbed you in their mouth already enough to get away from them. the worst creature to do this with is the green lizard, who is heavier and takes significantly more hits. it really pisses them off if you spear them. they can't climb, though, so they are easily fled from.

learn to juke enemies by going through connections or doorways repeatedly while they try to chase you. they can't attack you while you're going through, although they can attack you in the doorway or connection opening (the little arrows). this is possibly the most vital skill i can think of in rain world. usually when i'm juking i will bait lizards if they don't chase me depending on which way i want to go. i'll either run in the opposite direction on the other side of the door once they go through or go back through the door again to spear them in the back because they are slow to turn around. do not try to juke king vultures (vultures who can shoot lampoons from their face). just run for cover. i learned this the hard way, multiple times--

if you're getting slaughtered by a specific enemy over and over again, give up on getting past them and practice killing them. it makes them less scary overall and gives you a lot experience getting away from them. assuming your karma is at the bottom of the ladder anyway, it's really no loss besides affecting your score.

have a map open to consult which way you should go.

a lot of enemies don't spawn immediately and they don't stay in their spawn rooms forever. you can get through some areas by leaving immediately and trying to get through before an enemy spawns, or by waiting a bit and seeing if they aren't even there.

i elect to always have something in my paws when i can, even if it's just two pieces of rubbish. a piece of rubbish works just as well to force a lizard to let go of me if it's latched its tongue on or cause it to fall into a pit while it's climbing the background.

that's all i can think of off the top of my head. i'm not even a great rain world player, most advanced movement i can't do because of how precise it is (fast pole climbing for example is a frame-perfect trick over and over again), but these things got me through all of the scug campaigns except for enot and monk (presumably i can do monk, i just never bothered to)

[greenflamethegf]

What is your favorite TTRPG and why?

After seeing your answer, I supposed I should write a one to match. I have played so many different ones, I simply no cannot being myself to name just one. This to say nothing on system I have made or am working on.

Also, I will reference your post quite a bit, so let me just link it [here]

My first love is pathfinder 1e, but from even from there two really cool variants

Sphere Finder

a PF 2e before PF 2e. This takes PF and add a some system of sphere and talents, from supplants published by Drop Dead Studios. Effectively getting to choose marshal or magic powers to mix and match with feats and class abilities. A lot of death while being simpler then base PF 1e. Especially as caster no long had a list of 20+ spells, rather a few abilities and ways to modify. Similarly, for marshals, they even got cool thing like inspiring shouts or cutting a whole in space to teleport. So there wasn't much of gap between caster or marshals

Perhaps still speak TTRPG expirance, but It is quite taxing on the GM, and it largely still has the issues you mentioned in your post. Still, I would REALLY like to play it again. Heck, I would probably run it if I could, that instead of my day job. Anyway, largely in the same vain is

3.P

Perhaps a term you have heard being around in time of D&D 3.5, as was used to describe any amalgamation of PF 1e and D&D 3.5e. My favourite way to play it was to use PF a base and add more reasonable 3.X (D&D 3.0~3.5) rule books, as well as from 3pp (third party published) suppleness for both. It's difficulty, a crown king of complexity, but it did and still dose made my brain go 'woooo'. I still have oh so many indexes and lists for it. I get immense satisfaction with crazy fancy builds that are still rules legal.

however, they aren't I play and run these days... on that honour goes to

Uncommon Words

A cool hack of Dudgeon World that is simpler than 5e while providing more options, interesting characters. In many ways it's what people you don't play TTRPGs thing 5e is. And since this a post about enable TTRPGS, this the last mention of 5e.

DW and pbta (pawed by apocalypse) games in general have this cool three outcomes system of: Yes and..., Yes but... and No and.... This keeps the action going, often one action crates opportunity or danger that will be to relent for then ext one. Specially the way I run combat, it's just a consent stream of "This tread approaches, what do you do?", "This allay is gander, what do you do?", "This enemy is exposed, what do you do?".

Similarly, rules little means you can improve a lot of stuff. You can make a monster on fly with a simple questioner, and by deciding they do any actions appropriate for their kind.

Still, unlike other rules lite system (for example 2d10), it does offer some rule. Some character builds and dice mechanics. This is just enough to have a solid base for a character.

It's by one means perfect. The HP and damage rolls are a bit of a jarring departure from typical PBTA fun. Singularly, I it makes you count individual coins, then it comes to wealth, and I must it's a rather annoying bit of bookkeeping. Really, in D&D, I would never have played arc hares because those systems made you track how many arrows you use. Luckily, DW has that ones solved in quite an elegant way

Honourable mentions

So that dose were the contenders for my favourite. However, I should at lest named drop a some other of very cool systems I played, Mutants and Master Minds 3e, Thirsty Sword Lesbians, Savages Worlds, Chronicles of Darkness, 2d10, Magical Burst and Blades in the dark

[thelampisaflashlight]

Whenever I read/watch fantasy that involves someone dropping in from our reality into the past, a medieval world, etc., the thing I always think about is how I, as someone who wears glasses, would struggle so hard in that kind of situation, especially if I lost or broke them for whatever reason.

Using Outlander as an example, corrective lenses for astigmatisms weren't a thing until around 1827, so being dropped 82 years prior to their advent... I would be screwed.

Glasses would exist already, historically speaking, but they wouldn't do much to correct my particular vision problems.

So even if I could somehow get my hands on a pair, I would still be in blurry hell.

But assuming I couldn't get my hands on a any for whatever reason, I'd also be getting migraines all the time, so I would just... not be doing well.

Like, I didn't know I had freckles on my arms/hands until I got glasses.

I'd be so shit at identifying anyone/anything.

Reading would be difficult, not impossible, but I would have to be two inches away from whatever I was looking at.

Someone would be trying to point out an enemy or something in the distance and I would be like, "I can't even pick out an individual blade of grass while sitting on the ground, you think I can see an arrow flying at me??"

I wouldn't be trailing the lead/main character or hero because I was enamored with them, I would be following them, because, "Aw, fuck, where am I even fucking going now?"

tldr if you're ever wondering for whatever reason, "Gee, I wonder what Lamp's thinking about right now?"

It's this.

It's probably this.

That or how well my skills from work would crossover...

Yeah, my fantasies aren't that interesting lol

[full-pockets]

Mini(?) rant about the new abilities vs the Sheikah Slate abilities

I feel like the new abilities -ascend, recall, fuse, ultra hand- aren't really combat abilities, not like how stasis and bombs were used in BotW.

And I don't mean speed running abusing the physics engine wind bombing and such, although that was cool. I mean I want to climb to a high place, paraglide off, drop some bombs, bullet time sling arrows and stasis the enemy so I can pull off multiple spins with a claymore. Like, these new abilities are not for active combat. Ultra Hand & fuse are not in combat abilities, at best they prep for combat.

I just kinda miss being able to throw bombs at shit without needing the use of materials. Which I know is the whole premise of this game, creating stuff, which is probably why we don't have the Sheikah Slate anymore and this dumb Purah Pad. It's pretty but like, I miss the Sheikah Slate.

[crystalelemental]

Okay, for real this time. Unicorn Overlord defeated. There was a bonus chapter. It legitimately feels like a victory lap where every fight was pretty easy to beat. We got Alain's team to level 50. No one else, but like. A lot came close. Anyway! Now that it's definitely 100% over, I wanted to record the teams I used, with some comments on how they did.

Alain/Melisandre, Scarlett/Rosalinde/Nina The ace team. Nina is absurdly strong, Melisandre is a great dodge tank, especially backed by Alain's constant defensive coverage. Alain feels excellent for defense, if crap on offense. He's an excellent general guardian and leader, given the boosted Valor gain and cav movement. Melisandre is wonderful, but I do have to admit, the way I used her she was more an evade tank with incidental offense, rarely getting much out of Meteor Strike but being able to immediately destroy high evasion Scouts. Scarlett's excellent because Innocent Ray removes debuffs from the entire enemy team. Rosalinde did alright, I don't consider her damage output to be peak, but she's definitely great at offense once she gets Elemental Impetus. Nina's hilarious. Sapphire Pentant + Enrage into Assaulting Blow to regain AP every KO. Phenomenal work, girl.

Virginia/Fran, Kitra/Leah/Miriam This team was structured because Knights of the Rose with the descendant and her wife, Leah. The team was always pretty damn strong, though occasionally they'd meet something that would push their entire shit in. I couldn't really tell you why. Fran focused on direct offense rather than Fatal Dive, so great on cavs but otherwise alright. Kitra is Nina again. Leah aimed more for offense, but to be direct, I think she's outright worse off than Melisandre. Evade tanking with Swordmasters doesn't go so well long-term, and offensively, Meteor Strike leaves a lot to be desired, being 2AP and easily Guarded by heavy shields. Their high Initiative works against them, as armors are almost always able to jump in. I have some ideas for Playthrough 2 to test getting them more offensively motivated, but we'll see how it goes. Miriam as a holy knight feels...fine. I admit, I don't think too highly of Holy Knight, I like the magic negation but on a rounded tank like Virginia, it's unnecessary.

Railanor/Ithilion, Eltolinde/Gammel/Galadmir Eltolinde team. Eltolinde herself is very comparable to Rosalinde, having the Elemental Impetus into heavy offense, so I like her setup a lot. I opted for both Fencers due to their regaining 1AP on a successful dodge, and paired them with Gammel, who can spread Blind to a whole row. Galadmir is just some extra damage output and potential freeze to slow down the enemy offensive, because this team is ridiculously frail.

Celeste/Liza/Yunifi, Tatiana/Lhinalagos Second only to Alain. Celeste went for Fatal Dive, which came together excellently once we acquire the Ervelda's Talisman. Column-wide true damage that can't be guarded, uses unique items that most others have significantly less use for, she's great. Liza was excellent the moment she dropped, Sharpshooter might be my favorite underrated class. High shielding, healing, solid damage output; like her stuff a lot. Yunifi was high-risk high-reward. Counterattack focused, hitting three enemies for full damage whenever she dodges or takes a hit. Tatiana had the staff to grant Overheal, pushing Celeste's damage even higher up. Lhinalagos was nice magical damage, and had Ice Arrow to set up a powerful Yunifi follow-up.

Ochlys/Fodoquia/Raenys, Sharon/Auch Ochlys' life is funny. Comes in amazing as a pre-promote, falls off around mid-game when her stats and extra AP/PP aren't as impressive anymore, then comes back doing pretty alright by endgame. I don't think she's excellent, but I like her. Raenys is ridiculous. Her ability to just shred enemy PP is staggering. Fodoquia is all nonsense, outright reflecting magic back at opponents. Sharon is the healer because come on, while Auch...kinda showed up on this team early game to easily manage the first Galarius fight, and just never left. He kept being useful.

Hodrick/Monica, Chloe/Ridiel/Berenice Hodrick and Monica are fantastic. Heavy shield defense, and the ability to negate an entire magical attack thrown at his whopping 1 Mag Def. Chloe showed up on this team early, thanks to her ability to heal Hodrick and keep him tanking early game, and just never left. Ridiel was added for magic damage and because Chloe/Ridiel is good, while Berenice is the persistent physical offense with...I can't remember the name of the skill, but similar to Nina is gives +1AP on a KO.

Hilda/Jerome/Lex, Yahna/Primm A little slapped together, but it works. Hilda has Fire Breath supplemented by an Ice and Freeze effect from Yahna, inflicting two good status conditions on a row. Yahna herself casts Trinity Rain, and Primm has Quick Impetus to get her firing immediately. Lex specifically prevents Hilda from getting bopped by anything, and has the shield that grants max initiate for whoever he's covering, which is usually Hilda or Yahna. Jerome's around. I can't really say much about him, he's fine.

Clive/Adel/Renault, Gilbert/Aramis Cav Charge. Clive, Adel, and Renault all have Cavalry Call as a stackable buff, and then just blitz enemy columns, or regain AP constantly with their variation on what Nina does. Gilbert is excellent for applying Initiative for the team, and then even more attack boosting. Aramis was chosen because I was doing rapport stuff with Gilbert, but if I were to make a switch, it would be to Sanatio. I think the cavs, rather uniquely, would love the Endure effect. They're a hit and miss kind of comp, where the miss usually means the entire front row getting decimated. Sanatio would easily prevent them from taking all that much, thanks to the block to an clean KO.

Berengeria/Gloucester/Travis, Mandrin/Selvie This team never took off. I blame that partially on mobility, resulting in their level falling behind the curve and just never catching up. The rest is that I think some of these components are a problem. Berengeria herself is excellent, but really wants the opponent to have some kind of detrimental condition. Travis was set to be that condition, with row-wide Blind. Gloucester can also Burn a whole row and has good offensive pressure. The problem is really in the back row. Mandrin offered nothing of particular interest to the team, just kind of existing, while Selvie can debuff but isn't really doing anything novel. Like, Travis doing his job means the offense debuffs aren't necessary, and Selvie is competing openly with Beregeria for a good on-entry skill. I might split them up next run.

General Impressions You may notice, no Bestrals. That's because by that phase of the game I was super stuck on my current teams and just wanted to progress, stopping only for some favorites and tests that I felt important. As a result...I literally don't know what they do. I intend to fix that on round 2, their actual skills didn't seem too influenced by this whole day/night cycle thing. In particular, Ramona sounds ridiculously good. Flying means evasion, and evasive healers are great, but having one that also supplies good PP control is divine.

I really like how most of these teams came out. There are a few I felt were a bit low-effort, but it wasn't enough to make them detrimental. I'd like to experiment a bit more with alternate combinations, and focus on different strengths. Some major goals are: making Meteor Strike Melisandre a damage focus of a team (the plan is Aubin's War Horn), testing out Bestrals generally, actually playing with more staff effects, and getting a team that actually uses Selvie that I'm happy with. I like debuffs! I should like this class, but everywhere I put her I just felt it wasn't that great! I don't know what happened, I know they can be devastating, I've faced them!

I'll be picking up Round 2 shortly. Want to catch up on Dungeon Meshi and Frieren with my wife, but will likely start a new playthrough tomorrow morning. I might try a harder difficulty. Normal was fairly simple to clear, and I don't really know what changes with difficulty selection, but it might put a bit more pressure on my comps. I'd at least like to try.

[heavensbeehall]

"Catching Fire", Chapter 22

Part 3: The Enemy

Chapter 22: The morphling woman dies. Peeta talks to her. The monkeys vanish. Their poison blisters start to itch. Katniss and Peeta go to sleep to allow Finnick to grieve for Mags. Haymitch sends ointment for their gas burns. Katniss and Finnick play a prank on Peeta. Another parachute arrives with bread and Katniss assumes this means she is to be friends with Finnick. The District 5 female is killed by the tidal wave wedge. Johanna, Beetee and Wiress arrive on the beach. Johanna got them out for Katniss. And tick-tock the arena is a clock.

-- Peeta sees Katniss take care of Beetee and Wiress and thinks she'd make a good healer. Katniss disagrees but she seems okay doing a lot of unpleasant things if she likes someone. I would like to know if you guys thinks Katniss could be a healer when she grows up?

Quotes:

Peeta drops the sheath and buries his knife into the monkey's back, stabbing it again and again until it releases its jaw. He kicks the mutt away, bracing for more. [...]

"Come on, then! Come on!" shouts Peeta, panting with rage. But something has happened to the monkeys. They are withdrawing, backing up trees, fading into the jungle, as if some unheard voice calls them away. A Gamemaker's voice, telling them this is enough.

I want to bring this part up for two reasons:

Peeta basically says "Come at me, bro!" to the monkeys. And that makes me laugh.

Also, there is this misconception that Peeta is useless in the arena. Peeta doesn't kill a lot (human or animal), but he will, despite what Katniss said before about him trying to negotiate at the Cornucopia. I imagine this is much what happens with Brutus and Chaff. Though we don't "see" it, we are told later that--during the confusing night just before Katniss blows up the forcefield--Peeta sees Brutus kill Chaff. (I assume Chaff was trying to protect Peeta and jumped in, much like the morphling does here.) Enraged, Peeta then kills Brutus. I don't need canon to tell me that Peeta fucked Brutus up either. I know it in my heart. Chaff was Haymitch's pal.

Peeta crouches down on the other side of her and strokes her hair. When he begins to speak in a soft voice, it seems almost nonsensical, but the words aren't for me. "With my paint box at home, I can make every color imaginable. Pink. As pale as a baby's skin. Or as deep as rhubarb. Green like spring grass. Blue that shimmers like ice on water." The morphling stares into Peeta's eyes, hanging on to his words

Katniss herself notes the similarities between this and her singing to Rue. This is the first games where Peeta lost an ally.

His eyes are still puffy but I pretend not to notice.

I consider this a sign of true friendship.

I draw back an arrow, readying for an attack. But all that happens is that the one who was being dragged collapses on the beach. The dragger stamps the ground in frustration and, in an apparent fit of temper, turns and shoves the circling, deranged one over. Finnick's face lights up. "Johanna!" he calls, and runs for the red things.

Not Finnick knowing it was Johanna from her kicking someone apparently injured.

It takes a moment to place Blight. I think he was Johanna's male counterpart from District 7, but I hardly remember seeing him. Come to think of it, I don't even think he showed up for training.

Johanna and Blight are here. They like trees and they don't give a fuck.

There's no choice but to strip him naked to get him clean, but I have to say this doesn't make much of an impression on me anymore. Our kitchen table's been full of so many naked men this year. You kind of get used to it after a while

Ah, the truth comes out. So her annoyance at Johanna being naked wasn't just about nudity. But who she got naked for.

I wonder if this is what it's like to have an older sister who really hates you.

Yes! I love Johanna and Katniss's relationship in Mockingjay. Sisters. Katniss, Peeta and Haymitch should adopt Johanna in the future because she is the only "sister" who would never remind her of Prim!

[jikanet-tanaka]

Some fanfic asks: 2, 13, 14 24 for Nornir, and 32, 40, 44

Thanks for the ask!

2. Go to your AO3 “Works” page, to the sidebar with all the filters, and click the drop-down arrow for “Additional Tags.” What are your top 3-5 most used tags? Do you think they accurately represent your writing habits?

First is 'Spoilers' and second is 'Fluff', which aren't bad, but then, hahaha, oh man. I have 'Implied/Reference Child Abuse', 'Canonical Character Death' and 'Dysfunctional Family', so...

13. Are there any tropes you used to like but don’t anymore?

I'm not sure? I'm think I'm less patient with the bickering couple trope than I was as a teen, though.

14. Are there any tropes you would only read if written by a trusted friend or writer?

Probably a lot of popular, if not all, tropes found in romance, like enemies to lovers or love triangles or soulmates bonds. I usually dislike those, so I would only trust a very good author to write something I would enjoy.

24. Are there any easter eggs in Nornir, and if so, what are they?

Yep, the scene where Stocke and the gang take Aht to an indoor amusement park was based on my (then teenage) friends and I doing the same for my bestie's nine-year-old cousin (who had just moved to a new city, and was thus very lonely, poor kid).

32. What’s your ideal fic length to read?

Used to be a time where I read really fast, so I devoured long fics, but now I don't have the attention span, so I do prefer shorter ones.

40. Do you tend to reread fics or are you a one-and-done kind of person?

Hahaha, well, I reread them all the time, because I'm afraid that I made mistakes?? I tend to get self-consious about that...

44. If you take/write prompts: do you prefer dialogue or scenario/narrative prompts?

Probably depend on the prompt? I think both would be alright, really.

[dragoncharming]

The problem with the final arc of A Journey to Love is that it steps on the face of the previous 85% of the show. They make it explicitly clear that they're in this mess because emperor made 3 critical errors:

not properly utitlizing intelligence assests.

casualities should be avoided wherever possible. when not possible, exchange each drop of blood for maximum results.

don't let commanding officers run around in the middle of the battlefield bc they want to.

And then guess what the last few episodes consists of? Did we follow any of our own instructions.* How many strategy meetings and information reports are there? The main characters are spies, agents, assassins, and guards. They are not rank-and-file soldiers so the show should not be about slamming a block of soldiers against the other guy's block of soldiers and seeing who dies faster.

Starting from when they arrive in He County, the initial confrontation, yes, should be messy. The command doesn't fully believe them yet and they are scrambling to get prepared. But that encounted lasted three days. So after the first night, a scene where they are debating how many of the few Liudao hall members they have to send out to gather information and sabotage vs. how many to keep to guard the emperor. Second day goes a little differently. Yuan Lu had time to build things and Sun Lang advised the local commanders on rearranging some of their formations. Then when we get to the third day's strike on the prince, it follows from the build up they've been working towards.

The finale should be a microcosm of the show. We have hostages and we have a king for Ruyi to put a sword to. This is a greatest hits concert, bangers only, with the whole gang working together. War table with everyone around it. They get intelligence from their field agents there are hostages. Li Tongguan does immediately try to rush out of the room calling for troops, but he's stopped by Ning Yuanzhou before he can leave with a "Then what? So you can watch them get slaughtered?" and a laugh. This confrontation and relationship growth happens here.

Everyone working together towards a singular goal. Li Tongguan does lead the army out to ensure that suspicions aren't raised. Yang Ying comes over before he heads to make sure his acting is on point. The Crimson Guard follow Ren Ruyi to slip behind enemy lines. Liudao Hall gets the hostages out. It's still cool badass battle scenes, but just change it to half the artillery hitting the wall and half blowig themselves up because they've already been spiked.

I'm not saying it needs to be a flawless victory. It's a story about the serious cost that war and even peace has on the people in charge of protecting that peace. Great, love that, but that doesn't have to mean everyone dies. Their happy ending, retired and disabled, not silent and "remembered" as heroes but messy and real. There is poety in that.

Yu Shisan, the archer and lover of beauty, going through the rest of his life blind. Qian Zhao, unbending, rolling around the Imperial Palace in a wheelchair because his spine is not going to recover. Sun Lang, everyone else's defense, not able to hold a shield again because when he threw his shield to cover Yu Shisan he could only catch the arrows aimed for him in his own arm. Not to mention, an emperor they so badly needed to write an edict not able to write again for years or even ever due to the burns on his hands.

Ning Yuanzhou was introduced pretending to be dead on a battlefield. How else is his arc supposed to end, other than him hiding among the dead again, except this time he is found by people hoping he is alive.

*Li Tongguan caveat. It is, in fact, good characterization for him to lose rationality over sentimentality. However, we can simply do that in a different frame.

[harlequinchaos]

TotK Intermediate/Advanced tips/things not to miss (spoilers ahead)

⚠️⚠️ DUPLICATION GLITCHES PATCHED AS OF VERSION 1.1.2 ⚠️⚠️

Zonai Devices + Hylian Sheild = OP

You can put Zonai Devices on the Hylian Sheild and they won't break. If you duplicated the Hylian Sheild (and have the sheild slots), you can have a cart for mobility (basically an unbreakable skateboard), a flame/ice/shock/beam emitter, or a cannon for pesky caves. The ice emitter is OP for stunlocking every enemy that isn't a Lynel or Boss, and a cannon is good too for armored enemies, and as long as you hold still while aiming, it fires straight (this is true for all devices fused onto sheilds).

Most Efficient Zonai Machine

Getting to different sections of the Water, Fire, and the section leading up to the Wind temple can all be pretty much skipped using an airbike. It seems to be the most efficient use of Zonai devices while providing the best mobility. It's also amazing for exploring The Depths, just throw a Giant Brightbloom seed on it and you're set (be careful as throwing a seed on it activates the device). Also if you don't have much battery, consuming a Large Zonai Charge will fill your battery and give you a brief period of unlimited energy use. They are rare however (but again, easy to dupe).

(I recommend a YouTube video for instructions on how to build it, it can be REALLY finicky if not done correctly)

Expensive Taste

Once you finish the Gerudo section you can unlock the full Accessories shop. (You might have to do the side quest, I'm not sure) but you can buy the diamond circlet. It's better than it was in botw as it now has Attack Up, and when fully upgraded has 28 defense. It will cost you 18 diamonds and 3 star fragments and some flint to fully upgrade, but is definitely worth it.

Pimping out the Purah Pad

Complete Josha's quests which involve exploring The Depths to unlock the Autobuild ability at Hyrule Central Mine, but then go see Robbie to unlock the Shrine Sensor, Heroes Path and Travel Medallion. To unlock the Travel Medallion you'll need to enter Robbie's old Tech Lab in Akkala (use the chasm and ascend into it), and this is also part of the Yiga quest chain. The Travel Medallion is definitely worth it for going back to hard to reach areas, or putting it in useful spots (I have one right next to the item break-down place in Tarrey Town).

Yiga Clan Questline Rewards

If you've gotten the Travel Medallion for Robbie from the Akkala Tech Lab, you've already done 1 of 3 hideouts for getting the Yiga suit. The other two are in the Old Man's cabin on the Great Plateau, and just west of the Great Hyrule Forest in a cave in Aldor foothills. The suit's stats aren't the greatest, but Yiga clan members won't ambush you while wearing it (and they'll all have unique dialogue), you can enter the Yiga Clan hideout and participate in a challenge to unlock their paraglider design, their earthquake technique, and a replica functional Thunder Helm making you immune to lightning.

Gleeok Horns Pack a Punch

If you've managed to take down a Gleeok, the horn they drop does a MASSIVE aoe if you attach them to an arrow. They're also the highest elemental fuse component at 30 Damage. They are rare, but are also easy to duplicate.

⚠️ I've purposely left out a bunch of details on how exactly to accomplish some of these, but feel free to message if you need further instructions, also google is free ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

Link to duplicating Here.

⚠️⚠️ DUPLICATION GLITCHES PATCHED AS OF VERSION 1.1.2 ⚠️⚠️