#you can parry nukes in this game

[dragonroilz]

cosmetic ideas for S105

[dravidious]

You're more amazing than games crashing

Speaking of devs not doing their FUCKING JOBS RIGHT, I played Ultrakill again today and tried to P-rank 5-2 again, because I had forgotten just how bad the lag was. It's very bad. Very very bad. So bad that it made me go play P-1 instead and I actually managed to P-rank that one. So basically, the Ferryman is canonically more powerful than Minos Prime.

[noxx-33i]

Hello I have come to word vomit RGB trio thoughts and headcanons. Beware some of these will probably be nonsensical and not in order.

I think skate has the worst fashion taste out of the three. I can't say much on this though cause I also have an atrocious sense of fashion/lh

Boombox and to an extent Skate talk in 80's slang. Like radical, bodacious, hella, etc. 80's coded boombox just lives in my head rent free and i can't kick him out/silly

Their alcohol tolerance from lowest to highest goes: Skate, BB, Sling

BB and Skate crash at Slingshot's place ALL the time. At this point even Shuri and Vine are used to them just random showing up

^^continuing this I think they like to enter through anywhere but the window. Most especially Skate. BB at the very least is willing to act like a Normal person and use the door SOMETIMES. Skate however if he uses the door you'll bet that he's going in on his board. Whether or not he immediately crashes and breaks something inside is another thing/lh

Sometimes they'll just have Katy Perry Sessions with Shuriken. Like literally just listening to Katy Parry. Don't. Don't ask why I don't know either/lh

^^they have California Gurlz memorized.

If one of them does a crime none of them are snitching. If one goes down they all go down if one admits to it the other two will admit to it too. No bro left behind/silly

Sling is the smartest academically in their group and is probably the best at math. Not saying he's a prodigy im just saying BB and Skate are probably dumb as shit with math /lh+aaff

Sometimes Skate likes to record his Sick Moves™ and sometimes it would Also be in a place he proooobably shouldnt be in so Sling and BB take turns being on either camera duty or watch duty. Whether either of them are good at it is a different discussion/silly

Skate was caught stealing by the police once but BB was there and somehow he managed to trick them into believing he was Skate's lawyer and that he did not steal anything. Sling watched from the distant absolutely flabbergasted

Sling prices his menu very high and whenever someone asks he's just like "Oh yk, inflation!" and somehow it always works

they like setting fireworks off at night. Sometimes BB can't come cause he's too tired from work or something tho so

Despite Slingshot being the most academically smart in the group Boombox is the one who would hesitate when given a big shiny red button that could nuke Crossroads. Sling and Skate would see a shiny red button and go "ooo shiny" then BOOM!!!! /silly

idk if you want this but I have an au with my friend using the skins ingame (and some we made up for it hehe) where Snowboard and Rainbox were highschool best friends and they would get into shenanigans together like light theft (Rain is the distraction), parties maybe, etc andddd I love them very much

Snow in the au has canonically tried to rizz up a girl (in High School) only to bag her boyfriend AND her brother

^^The au takes place years later when Snowboard is in college (in Blackrock college cause there's no faction wars in this au) and when he comes back he finally meets Cozyshot who is Rain's roommate and erm my friend likes skateshot so I think you can tell what happens next (GAY PEOPLE) /silly

Okay im gonna stop rmabling now have a good day silly muah/p

IM GONNA RAMBLE TOO AND Oh my god ur so right on the first one.

SKATE HAS TERRIBLE FASHION SENse. I can smell it. Hes so sweaty he doesnt care ab his looks too much but bb would say "youre not going out like that

YES I AGREE. Boombox is stuck in the 80s and he doesnt want to leave. Im actually picking up these habits i wanna say rad so bad.

Skate being the lowest is the funniest shit wver bc i love bullying his ass. Did you tell i put NO EFFORT in his stupid hc reveal HEELP

I FEEL LIKE ONE DAY THEY MIGHT GET A SECRET HANGOUT PLACE… like fully furinisjed and with ac and all that fancy shit. How? Idk illegally? They probably have board games and dnd sessions with trusted friends who keep the place a hush

Bro theyre not normal they will never be normal… "GUYS HOW DID YOU GET IN" // "We lock picked your door" // "WHAT THE FUCK"

> lowkey skate would learn lock picking for fun and hed get so good at it he would be tempted to steal more stuff

>> that being said.. rob the bank?/ref

LOWKEY i feel like bb was a nerd in his younger years but grew out of it… he would probably like science facts and everyone thinks hes smart but hes not.. AND YES sling being math smart is so real teehee. Hes the expenses guy but also cant stop himself from spending more than he needs to

Skate n BB would get into so much trouble but no one can ever find them guilty in some fucking way and it makes the authorities so mad

Ironically id like to think Zuka easily catches them doing dumb shit but he doesnt care enough to report it

Sling has probably done tax evasion one or two times.. or more….

Ok cute hcs to vomit out… with ur mention of tired boombox i feel like sling and skate would immediately go to bbs place and crash not in a chaotic way but like ogghd.. ÖIKE THEY MAKE HIM FEEL BETTER BY GIVING SNACKS OR MASSAGES TO HELP HIM LOSE STRESS

Literally any time one of the RGB members get their vibes off its instantly to care land bc bcbc bc 😞😞🙁🙁😞😞😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 *sobbing crying throwing up* theyr besties 😭😭 this xan be both platonic or romantic i legit do not care i love BOTH

With that in mind i feel like whenever skate and bb crash over sling would have a few of their favorite pastries from his cafe saved in his fridge… like dog treats LMAOO

This is likge.. dog-cat-dog relationship… but all are chaotic as fuck /silly

YOUR AU SOUNDS SO SILLY PLEASE I WANT TO SEE!!!! I WANNA DRAW EVEN.

that au makes me think of sling with glasses for some reason… i need to draw so bad….!!!!;!2!

And they were roommates /ref+j

[shuttershocky]

Not sure if you're looking for another character action game to play but V.A. Proxy(The game where you can parry a nuke) just released a demo on steam if you're interested

I was really excited to download it and show off a clip here on my blog, but unfortunately support for Dualsense controllers just isn't there. If I try to connect a PS5 controller to my computer the camera spins forever even after I disconnect my controller, forcing me to reset, and these kinds of games aren't exactly keyboard friendly.

Hoping the full release fixes this!

[niadevbutreal]

[ULTRAKILL ACT 3 SPOILERS]

Goddamn talk about a difficulty spike. Almost P ranked the 7-1 but did a dumb dumb vs Minotaur. Wow I forgot how hard P ranking a level for the first time was. This act has that P-1 and P-2 energy of "can you parry? Well, it's time to learn". Mannequins are kind of annoying atm but godamn are they common in this act so far. Guess it's time to learn the whole punch them mid fall trick the terminals recommend.

Gutterman and Guttertanks are probably my new least favourite enemy (Mindflayers are old news, tbh they're just more time consuming than hard at this point), at least until I learn how to deal with them properly. Atm I'm Knuckleblastering the shield then Nailgunning them while going between cover and defaulting to ProBoosting + Rocket spam like this shit is a Cerberus. The Guttertanks are probably easier with the Freezeframe trick, but only 8 seconds to fuck up multiple Guttertanks which are not frail, is not fun.

7-1 is probably my favourite level, and it comes equipped with Big John from Erebus Reactor in Dusk (and probably other New Blood games) as the secret encounter and the tram battle is just plain cool. Minotaur gives me massive Phantom from Devil May Cry 1 vibes since it seems to die only to come back with less armour and enraged for a final, and even runs through narrow corridors earlier in the level, but I guess a Phantom reference in Ultrakill was inevitable since there are already more DMC references in the game than I can count (Agony and Tundra = Agni and Rudra from DMC 3 in case you somehow missed it, V1 and V2 being twin rivals, etc.) and it's probably DMC's most iconic boss after Vergil, besides maybe Nightmare and Nelo Angelo. ... Oh god we're going to get a Nightmare reference aren't we. Would be pretty cool if the final boss was God and it's one giant Mundus fight reference (still one of the cinematically coolest fights in all video game history btw).

Fuuuuck 7-2 last room. Not as much as 7-3's last room, though. That's a whole special breed of 'Hakita what the fuck'. About the first quarter of the time spent in the room is spent dealing with the machines and hell troops and that the last three are solely dealing with the blood tree's mannequin spawns.

7-4 is pretty cool too, even if the brain thing is kind of infuriating (skill issue I know). Pro tip - use the ledge on the side, and use it to more easily adjust your height for the next laser. Lasers you can't iframe immune via dash is something else though man, and a countdown before the whole thing explodes is sick as shit (Mallet Island reference :O)

I think it's pretty neat that the Hell and Heaven forces spawn near the end of level door in a room primarily flooded with machines who are canonically trying to go down, indicating that Hell really underestimated humanity and are trying to stop the machines from going apeshit on Fraud an Treachery like they have the previous layers, especially since Gabriel confirmed in 6-2 the first three levels are already depleted and destroyed. Oh yeah, and the tree of life might just be the endgame, since getting that might wind up making the machines immortal or even living again, and would explain why V1 is going straight to the bottom of hell as fast as possible instead of farming each layer individually. Violence being the Last War continued is pretty cool though.

My only complaint is that sometimes the Mannequins got stuck and couldn't do anything for some reason on one of the staircases in 7-1 and I got stuck looking for it for an entire minute because they have almost the exact same colour scheme as the stairs.

Worst level so far is probably 7-2, though, if solely because it is entirely possible to blow up the nuke by accident while respawning and winding up unable to progress and mandating restarting the entire mission (unless I missed the nuke refresh somewhere).

The grappling puzzles are surprisingly fun besides that though.

Good god I am not looking forward to P ranking the other three. I will probably want to die by the end of 7-3. I don't even want to think about P-3. No hints as to who the P-3 is beyond maybe the blanked out creator of Minotaur, but Minos got referenced again, so maybe it's Lucifer since bro is probably pissed as shit for being sent to hell just for asking questions and having the willpower to challenge heaven is a reoccurring theme for primes. Revealing that Hell itself has become Lucifer's Flesh Prison would be cool af though. That said it's probably some Greek king.

... oh god the new machines are going to be in the Cybergrind aren't they. Probably along with the Minotaur.

[xenosagaepisodeone]

I have finished Bayo 3. I can only describe this game as a hate letter to the franchise, unceremoniously executing bayonetta in an alley and parading her corpse around because kamiya really wants to make his dumb nero knockoff. The fact they had the gall to multiverse bayonetta power boost and in the end luka's fursuit is what saves the day. They didnt even do a cool sheba/omne thing. The 'jeanne lies to impress men' bit 🤢. Sorry for the rant I'm just so mad, it feels like a part of me has died

SPEAK! I completely agree with you, especially about Viola. She gets tossed around even more than Bayonetta does throughout the course of the game, and were supposed to believe she's Bayo's successor? She didn't even help out in the final boss fight. Her parry can be annoying, and her most fluid moveset is when she's in fairymode, but even then, it's very limited. The game wants to mirror how Nero and Dante interact with her and Bayo, but there's also the looming component that Viola is her daughter!! She hardly acts happy to see her mother again and seems to only fret over Luka (despite the fact that her mother is the one being killed en masse across universes)? Bayo treats her like a stranger (which is bizarre when you consider it's at this point well-established that she develops unique concerns for kids) from beginning to end. There's an incredible distance between them that Bayo would normally fill with teasing and actually mentoring/challenging her. The Luka/Bayo romance was bad as is, but the fact that they just make googly eyes at eachother as they're dragged to hell instead of saying anything to their daughter (who is crying for them not to go!) is grotesque. Rodin acts more like a parent to her than her actual parents! Platinum seems to want her to be the protagonist, but they also don't know what to do with her beyond make her suffer.

Everything about Luka's arc should have gone to Jeanne. His Strider color scheme is even white/red. Bayo speaks to Luka in this game how she normally speaks to Jeanne. The first game starts with Bayo and Jeanne fighting together and the second game ends with Bayo and Jeanne fighting together (she also looked at Jeanne's ass in that one scene). Jeanne (regardless of what anyone thinks of her and Bayo romantically) *is* Bayo's strongest relationship, her equal, and the biggest force behind her development as a human being and a witch. She should have been the one that Bayo goes out in a bombastic boss fight with if they were truly so intent on giving our cast a sendoff. Driving them apart and substituting that bond with Luka absolutely nuked all of her established character. It's weird! This game is so weird!

I keep repeating it, but I'm really convinced at this point that this game exists so Scalebound could see the light of day in some way. The sacrilege treatment of the characters and the random under-developed plot elements (the first 2 games are about defying fate, and now this game wants to insist that it is fated for Bayo and Luka to be together?) that feel worse the more you let them sit and marinate seems to support this.

My sister is a Bayonetta superfan (from 2010! She only bought a WiiU to play 2! actually ran some well known Bayo blogs back in like 2015 lol) and this franchise is to her what Xenosaga is to me. She's been pacing around the house and periodically saying things like "A human is stronger than Madama Butterfly....because he put on a fursuit" unprompted.

[realsorcerershit]

How the hell did you P-Rank P-2 so fast I suck balls at this game. I was able to P-Rank P-1 yet I literally had to turn on Major Assists just to get past that room with the Stalker.

Honest, genuine answer - I've put an obscene amount of time into this game. Something like 133.9 hours on steam right now. But - outside of that, there's a lot of like - little nitty gritty bits and pieces to it all, so if you want, I'll do a written guide under a read more? For anyone unaware - spoilers will be under the cut here. And, sorry if it's long - I have way too many thoughts about all of this, and do actually want to help as much as I can!

So - for reference, here, I actually have a video that I uploaded, which I'll use to reference? I'll try to refer to rooms as much as possible to be descriptive and whatnot, too! Video reference here. The name of the game here is threat analysis, and finding ways to keep yourself alive. What worked for me might not work for you, and vice versa.

Quad Cerberus: The name of the game for this room was speed. The upcoming Ferryman and Virtue spawn makes this one require you to go fast, so - I instantly open with a core eject + malicious railcannon nuke, dashing to avoid the damage as I shoot the nuke. This puts all of the Cerberus' to less than half HP, making projectile boosts and rocket usage the way to go to finish them all off. Then, it's all about setting up a quick sawcon trap to kill the Ferryman as soon as I can. For the double Virtues, I do my usual strat for virtue killing - shotgun swapping, punch with red arm, use whiplash to close the distance.

Double Sentry + Mindflayer 1 + Swordsmachine: For this fight - I took a look at what would be the most instantly lethal to me, in particular, for this fight. That would be the double Sentries in the back. Luckily, the Swordsmachine also spawns between them, so I go to the side where one of the Sentries spawn, charge up a slab revolver piercing shot, and follow it immediately up with a blue railcannon. From there, it's just cleaning up whatever's left. Sawcon to finish the Swordsmachine, too. If at any point, the ability to parry the Mindflayer's bullets shows up, take it. It's a free health and stamina refill. This applies all the way til the double idol room.

Hallway Cerberus + Double Streetcleaner: Once again, this is a case of threat analysis. The Cerberus needs to go first, immediately. I personally do a double railcoin setup to kill it fast - but if you can't pull that off, piercing slab revolver + blue railcannon + friendly fire damage from the Mindflayer should be enough. Finish off the streetcleaners last in any way possible, then move on.

Double Idol Mindflayer, Pack 1 (Sentry + 2x SM): Once again, the Sentry is your biggest threat due to lack of cover. However, you can just stun it with a revolver shot, and then set up saws to kill the Swordsmachines passively - keep moving to avoid the Sword swipes. This one's a lot harder to explain and just ends up looking messy no matter how you do it, and this one just takes practice.

Pack 2 (2x Virtue, 2x Maurice): My biggest enemy here, imo, are the virtues, just due to the beams they fire that stun you. So, whiplash to them with the shotgun out, and shotgun swap while punching with the red arm to kill em off quickly. Repeat the same strat for the Maurices, then break the statues.

2x Mindflayer: At last, the double mindflayers. My goal is to just - kinda also shotgun spam them. That said, if I can find the window to safely instakill one with the malicious railcannon (the timing is right as their homing bullets spawn - shoot with malicious railcannon and they instantly die) I'll take it. Don't worry about your health too much going into this - punching the idols will heal you.

2x Insurrectionist: Good lord this pack sucks for me. However, with the addition of the SRS Cannon, you can now stun one of them, which is really helpful. Make sure to set up a sawcon on them, and spam projectile boosts to keep them on fire. They take more damage while on fire, as it's a weakness. Outside of that, just continue to move, do not stop, and use the big railcannon when you can as well. I believe whiplashing the skull into them also sets them on fire, too? Don't quote me on that.

Spinning Blood Lake 1 (2x Virtue, 2x MF, 1x Sentry): This is another game of just stun the sentry first, then kill whatever leaves an opening. In the uploaded run, I snipe with blue railcannon, then use the shotgun on the virtues, re-stun the sentry with the revolver, then finish up and move on. THis one requires practice and is very open ended on how you solve it - don't be afraid to fall if you need to just get somewhere for health regen.

Spinning Blood Chamber 2 (2x Cerb, 2x Sentry, 1x MF): This room sucks and killed at least 20 runs for me. My strategy ended up being whiplashing to the Sentries to punch them off the cliff ASAP, whiplashing to the Maurice to kill THAT next, then just plinking at the Cerberus' from afar until they died. Again, it's open ended, but I think that's the most ideal threat priority.

Stalker room, wave 1 (4x Stray, 2x Swordsmachine, 1x Ferryman): The name of the game here is to continue moving, and do not STOP moving. I set up a Sawcon trap in the middle to get free plink damage on the Swordsmachines and the Ferryman, and ultimately ignore the Stray until it's convenient for me to kill them. The name of the game is to keep pulling the enemies away from the Stalker, so that they don't get sanded, so you can maintain health regeneration.

Stalker room, wave 2 (4x Sentry, 1x Idol, 1x Hideous Mass): The name of the game here is to time your dashes with the shots that you cannot cancel - and use the red fist religiously to cancel as many shots as you can in combination with the Whiplash. As long as you're moving rapidly, the Hideous Mass cannot hit you, and that's what's most important. Getting locked down by the tail claw is a total death sentence. Punching the tether, if you get stuck, with the red fist, does get rid of it, though.

Stalker room, wave 3 (3x Virtue, 4x Cerberus): Here, we really have the thing of nightmares. However, one thing becomes safe: The Idol protecting the Hideous Mass opens up, and that can be immediately punched if you're in danger of death for a free health refill. That said, I take to the sky immediately with the Whiplash, killing off the three Virtues with my usual method, shotgun swap, red fist punch. Then, while I'm in the air and falling down, I set up sawblades on the underbelly of the Hideous Mass (breaking the Idol was the first thing I did, also worth mentioning), letting those do passive damage to both it and the Cerberus'. Follow it all up with staying far away from the Cerberus' to give myself time to react to their attacks, punch the idol, kill the Stalker, and then FINALLY it's time for the PANOPTICON.

PANOPTICON: Not too much to talk about here. Just - immediately whiplash up to kill the eyes, use the pistol on the face that spawns, high speed circle strafe around the PANOPTICON while doing as much damage to it as possible. The big thing for this one is find a way to avoid its explosive lobbing that works for you, I'd say?

SISYPHUS PRIME: Here, I adopted a strat similar to how people P rank Minos Prime nowadays - sawcon setup during the cutscene. Use the pistol to break a single nail when possible. When you're ready, do a double/triple railcoin through him, and then continue to bait him into saws. I panicked a bit in the video, as you can see, when the coins didn't kill, but. That's the hardest part. Just find a high DPS route in your own way!

Holy shit this was so long. I'm so sorry. I do hope that this helps a lot, though! And don't beat yourself up about having to use major assists - these are some of the most fucked up enemy patterns that exist in the game, in conjunction with excessively difficult room design. Genuinely, it's tough. Even making it to this fight is a massive accomplishment.

[askrockandfriends]

"Getting tired of being beat up, so you know what? I'm gonna beat someone else up... in the MWA ring!"

"Introducing first... the Ultimate Fashionista, the Queen of Despair... the one true Ultimate Despair to rule them all, Junko Enoshima!"

"Oooooooooooooooooo..."

"And... the portly plumber, Mr. Video, the... face of Nintendo and icon of gaming everywhere? Mario!"

"Hey, why'd you sound so unsure at that last part! It's-a me! ...Dipshit. "

"This is what I'm fighting? Some... bastardization of Mario? ...This'll be easier than I thought."

The bell rang and Mario looked at Junko and immediately began... dry humping her? Disgusted, Junko slapped Mario, threw him off, and kicked him and sent him flying into the corner!

"Mama F*@%er! You must die!" Junko was busy taunting and grandstanding the fans, and didn't see Mario get up and angrily charge her! The look of surprise on her face when she saw a fat Italian plumber running at her was something to behold. "I'm gonna kick your ass!" Mario punched and kicked Junko and sent her into the corner, grabbed her by the ankles and spun and threw her! He then hit her with a ground pound!

He punched, and punched, and then... quickly got winded, as his fatness got the better of him trying to do an activity as physically demanding as pro wrestling.

"Just a second... hoof... hoof... I'm-a tired..." Mario took a moment to catch his breath, allowing Junko to mount a comeback against him, which she did with a backhand and a kick, sending him on his back. "Maybe you should get a little exercise before trying this again, Tubby!" She taunted. Well... that set Mario off.

"Tubby? NOBODY CALLS ME TUBBY!" Mario quickly got back into it, hitting Junko with a sliding kick, throwing her again, ground pounding her, jumping off the ropes and trying to body slam her...

"Waluigi Launcher!" And... launching Waluigi at Junko (which somehow actually works). He them rushed Junko with fire in his eyes!

"I'LL END YOU! ORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORARAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORA!" When Mario got to Junko, he unleashed a wild flurry of punches that'd make Star Platinum proud. Once he got Junko reeling, he pulled out a... lightsaber?

"Oh, is it lightsaber time? ...Good thing I came prepared! Junko then pulled out her own lightsaber and clashed with Mario in the middle of the ring. They both exchanged swings, they both exchanged strikes... it seemed neither could fully get the upper hand, and it would be an epic battle. That is, until Junko parried a swing and kicked Mario square in the crotch.

Mario looked as though he was going to cry after the crotch shot. Junko could only smile and laugh at this. "Aw, is the widdle pwumber gonna cry now? Don't wowwy, Junko wiww end dis as qwickwy as possibw-" Mario then grabbed Junko and glared coldly at her!

"You don't... f*@%... with Mario!" Mario then headbutted Junko, hit her with a shoryuken, another rush flurry, and sent her down with a kick. When Junko got up, she could only see a fat Italian rushing at her with murder in his eyes.

"Aaaaaaa.... AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" As he rushed Junko, Mario went Super Saiyan and rush flurried her even harder! He drove his knee in her face, suplexed her, and hit her with a piledriver that visibly (via X-ray) shattered her neck. Mario then climbed up to the top rope. "This is the end for you! Finishing move!" Mario then jumped off the rope and flew at Junko with all the grace that a fat Italian can muster... "Italian Thunderfat!" Mario slammed down on Junko with the force of an atomic bomb and nuked her, the ring, and the surrounding area with a massive explosion! Though the force knocked both of them out, the move did cause Mario to end up on top of Junko, which was enough for a cover. 1... 2... 3!

"Uh... wow... I have never seen a match quite like that! I... I can hardly believe the results!"

"Hm?" Mario came to in time to hear the winner announced.

"I mean... the winner is Mario! Give it up for SMG4!Mario!"

"Yeah! Hahaha!" Mario celebrated in the ring as confetti dropped from above!

Meanwhile, the Nintendo version of Mario watched on, unamused by this parody version of himself.

WINNER: Mario (@ask-the-smg4-crew)

[doubleddenden]

So I recently picked up Demon Slayer Hinokami Chronicles for PS4 with a very late birthday card I got recently for about $40

If anyone has played the Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm games, it's a bit similar in structure and play style, as it should given its made by the same guys: Cyber Connect 2

However, while Storm and Hinokami Chronicles do share structure, there are subtle enough differences to make them different imo. Storm is basically a fighting game through and through, and you can win by spamming Jutsu and charging to just nuke your opponents or Awake to stronger forms. Hinokami Chronicles is structured in a way that you have a skill bar that replenishes over battle, and the special techniques are not only a bit weaker, but flow and incorporate better as a combo with standard strikes. Also, you probably won't have long range combat unless you play as certain demon characters, meaning it's all up close and personal with a dodge, jump, or parry to aid you. Basically this game is made in a way to encourage you wale away at your opponents, and techniques that land feel satisfying.

You do have ultimate techniques that function about how you expect, but everyone also has the ability to either let their Ultimates build up over the fight, or use that bar to Surge, similar to the Awaken system. In addition, you can sometimes have a partner that can be summoned for a surprise attack, to eat a hit, rescue you from unfavorable scenarios, or to swap to, but just the one.

Lastly for combat, most of your opponents will be fighting with a mix of standard fighting and an AOE system, which means dodging will be your best friend here.

All that said, the game is very fun and challenging. Combat is fast and fluid, and I'm always on my toes. I think Inosuke is my current favorite to play as with his combos just being absolutely wild, bit I've also yet to play as a character I hate. Zenitsu's techniques are super fast and awesome, Nezuko packs a lot of punch, Shinobu is super fast and deals a bunch of damage quickly, and Tanjiro is all around fun.

All of this being said, as it is similar to the Storm games, your exploration will be very limited. Each location looks great, and there's collectibles in each level, but you'll be mainly getting hallways or narrow pathways.

However, I find this is passable, although not my personal favorite. The reason so is that the game follows the anime plot very closely, only allowing for small changes that either doesn't affect much or only adds to it. In a way I'd say that this game is a decent sub if you don't want to watch the anime, although you would be missing out on the great animation and some scenes are relegated to smaller Memory Glances that are basically voiced over pictures.

Speaking of Voice Acting, it's great! Not every scene is A+ work, but unlike the Storm games, you certainly don't have Naruto phoning in some very iconic lines or technique names. Every actor brings their A game here imo, though sometimes it night be B tier for scenes where it's harder to match lip sync or energy. I'd still say it's 90% great, Zenitsu and Inosuke especially are peak dumbass energy almost all the time.

Speaking of those two, the game also does an incredible job of crecreating iconic scenes scenes from the anime, including all the many meme faces Tanjiro makes, or all the Zenitsu freak outs.

If you like the anime, I'd say it's worth a grab. It goes all the way to the end of the Mugen Train arc as well, so it'll be plenty of time to have fun.

8/10 feels good for this. Room for improvement but overall fun and engaging.

[recentanimenews]

FEATURE: "Nioh" Review

Not going to lie here, with The Ringed City on the horizon I’m equal parts anticipating and dreading what will likely be the last installment of the Dark Souls franchise. With the end rapidly approaching, many have been on the lookout for a new game to fill the hollow. The Nioh alpha showed promised, providing an even more technical combat system that hit back just as hard and a setting which, though it lacked the gothic grandeur of Dark Souls, called back to some even earlier gaming nostalgia with a dark take on the Sengoku period of Japanese history reminiscent of the famed Onimusha franchise. Those are two very big shoes to fill, but who better to take on the challenge than Team Ninja, the developers behind the infamously difficult Ninja Gaiden? Nioh had a lot going for it and even more to live up to, which is why it’s particularly satisfying to say that the result is good. Really good.

First, the story. You play as William Adams, a real-life English pirate who was stranded in Japan in the 16th century and became an advisor to Tokugawa Ieyasu. Nioh takes some liberties with his story, offering an alternative explanation for how he ended up in Japan. An Osmund Saddler-looking Edward Kelley traps William’s imaginary girlfriend in a soul gem and travels to Japan exploit its vast, untapped soul gem reserves, offering his supernatural aid to the Ishida clan against Ieyasu to foment chaos so his work can go unnoticed. William follows him to Japan and joins forces with Ieyasu as yokai slayer to collect 150 Pokemon and rescue his girlfriend. The conflict of the Sengoku period and the strange supernatural power of the amarita have allowed Yokai to cross into our world, creating a dark take on feudal Japan complete with historic figures each possessing their own spirit guardian which all strangely works together. As William gathers spirit guardians from the members of Ieyasu’s retinue, he experiences visions of their personal experiences and struggles by way shadow puppet-like cinematics paired with emotional monologues packed with personality and a satisfying departure from the typical pre-rendered interludes.

If you're looking for high-stakes combat to scratch that Dark Souls itch, then Nioh delivers with a similar gameplay style packed with new mechanics that give it a distinct personality. The same dynamic of speed vs strength and armor apply, although the game seems to reward different modes of defense against different enemy types. Although dodging is always viable, you can get a lot of mileage out of blocking, parrying, and counter attacking against human opponents where ogres will just break your defense and instantly smash you. Nioh also uses a rhythm game-like mechanic called ki-bursting to instantly recover stamina by hitting R1 just as the dispersed energy from your attack gathers around you, which is very rewarding to do but difficult to describe. Timing this mechanic perfectly allows you to purifying miasma-like areas of yokai corruption that prevent your stamina recovery and, after one of several necessary upgrades to your skill tree, temporarily increases your damage. Finally, each weapon can be used in one of three stances; high, medium, and low stance that emphasize offense, defense, and speed respectively. The result is lightning fast combat composed of last-second dodging, ki-bursting, and dynamic weapon and stance shifting that achieves the careful balance of making you feel godlike when you execute it flawlessly and causes you to yell loudly enough to wake up your housemates when you get caught.

Probably the single most impressive part of the Nioh’s combat, however, is just how viable everything each and every strategy can be. Each weapon has its own definable strengths and weaknesses which, along with their multiple stances, can lend themselves to multiple play styles. I personally tried out three builds, going with a traditional armored, katana-wielding “heart” build, one with dexterity using a kusarigama and ninjutsu, and another relying on onyomi magic and spirit guide power. Each was fun, viable, and had its own individual challenges. Ninjutsu gives you a number of supplementary equipment you restock at every save point including poison, shuriken, caltrops, and bombs which you can use to pick off enemies without exposing yourself and use to chunk down harder monsters. Onyomi gives you magic seals and spells which are similarly replenished, which you can strategically use to exploit elemental weaknesses in enemies while using living weapon to summon your spirit guide serves as a good all-purpose nuke. Even ranged weapons have been improved upon with bows and rifles both invaluable tools with specific uses (silence vs armor penetration) that actually kill enemies with a headshot. The only sticking point is many skills and abilities require passing certain missions before they’re unlocked. This may have been to prevent players from dumping all their experience into a single attribute, but just feels like red tape.

Most satisfyingly, the game brings that same difficulty and rewards as From Software’s flagship. Nioh tries to catch you in all the same ways Dark Souls does, using inventive ambushes and unpleasant environmental interactions to keep you paranoid. Unless you’re building yourself heavy armor, getting caught by anything but a glancing blow can mean instant death, either by simply being one-shot or stunlocked into a combo that does the same deed. Strong human opponents have all the same tricks you do, so you can expect ninjas to pepper you with poisoned shuriken while keeping out of reach and samurai try to break your guard then force you to watch helplessly as they coup de grâce you and flick your lifeless body off their sword. Larger yokai and bosses give the same impression of invincibility that requires trial and error, along with a few deaths, to finally see through. Levels are odd labyrinths that loop back on each other, creating shortcuts and connecting back with save points regularly. Nioh makes use of a similar, if more forgiving, version of the soul return system. When you’re killed, your guardian spirit stays behind and watches over your precious experience points. You have to make your way back to collect them or lose the xp forever if you die again without retrieving them.

In this environment of millions of build combinations, the biggest flaw of the game may be the sheer variety of possibilities available to you. Nioh uses an NRG-based system for equipment drops any MMORPG player should be familiar with, providing equipment of a level and type depending upon the environment you’re navigating with randomized stats and special attributes based on the rarity level of the weapon or armor. A complex system of soulbinding, dismantling, and reforging can let you upgrade these weapons, swap their traits, and create new ones to optimize for the specific stats you desire. While this in and of itself is fine, the drawback comes from the sheer quantity of the item drops. By the time you finish a level, you may have anywhere from 50-100 new pieces of equipment which are largely useless to you except as materials. Additionally, extra weapon abilities are unlocked through an equipment experience stat called Familiarity but you’ll often find you have one or two better weapons available by the time you’ve maxed one out. The result is you spending a ton of time navigating item menus that start to look and feel a lot like managing your email inbox.

Not all of you may be playing this game with Dark Souls is mind but, rest assured, Nioh stands well on its own merits. It’s difficult not to see the influences of both Ninja Gaiden and Dark Souls in the title, but there are plenty fresh mechanics that really give Nioh its own identity. The world is impressively presented in every respect. The environments don’t have the hallway-like feeling endemic among Japanese titles and the story and cinematics  great deal more like an excuse for a alternate history hack n’ slash. Whether and standalone title or the start of a new franchise, Nioh demonstrated that there is definitely room for more titles and innovation in its niche.

REVIEW ROUND-UP

+ High-speed technical combat system

+ Beautiful world and environments

+ Surprisingly good story with stylistic cutscenes

+ Satisfying difficulty and diverse enemies

+/- Great skills system with strange roadblocks

+/- Variety of equipment but painful inventory management

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Peter Fobian is an Associate Features Editor for Crunchyroll and author of Monthly Mangaka Spotlight. You can follow him on Twitter at @PeterFobian.

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com

[thomasroach]

Divinity Original Sin 2: Which Build is Right for You?

The post Divinity Original Sin 2: Which Build is Right for You? appeared first on Fextralife.

In this Divinity Original Sin 2 article we’re going to explore what Build is right for you. While we wait patiently for Divinity: Fallen Heroes, which is due out sometime later this year, I thought it would be a good idea to sort of index the Builds I have made, and point players in the right direction if they are having trouble selecting one. The Builds themselves are rather straight forward, but it isn’t always easy picking the best fit for you or your party, regardless of whether you’re new or a veteran player. In this Guide we’ll cover just that.

Divinity Original Sin 2: Which Build is Right for You?

The first thing to establish when choosing a Build is quite obvious and that is whether or not you want to be a Melee or Ranged character. This is a decision you will make in just about any RPG, and it’s one you’re going to want to make during Character Creation, as it will be the basis of much of your Build.

Melee or Ranged?

Whether you enjoy playing a Warrior, Rogue, Battlemage, Ranger or Mage, there are a few things to know about Melee and Ranged Builds. Not only will they help you decide which is right for you, but also how to play alongside these archetypes in combat. First, let’s take a look at Melee.

Melee Builds

Melee Builds utilize Weapons to deal close combat damage, and generally have a much heavier focus on Physical Damage than Magic Damage. In combat they will need to move to their target, which can sometimes be problematic, but they have the advantage of dealing very high damage with basic attacks.

High Physical Damage

Less reliance on Skills since Basic Attacks deal substantial damage

Average to good mobility

Have decent crowd controlling effects

Have good Weapon variety

It’s much harder to deal Magic Damage, and requires more knowledge of the game to be successful

Have a tendency to get nuked by ranged characters, friendlies included

Some Weapons are much worse than others to use

Weapon attacks can Miss their target

Ranged Builds

Ranged Builds deal damage primarily with Spells or Bows from far away, usually keeping them out of danger. Ranged Builds have a slightly higher focus on Magic Damage, though Rangers and Necromancers do incredible Physical Damage. These can be more difficult to play earlier in the game when there are less Skills available to choose from.

Excellent Magic Damage and Physical Damage

Large variety of Builds to choose from, and damage types to use

Tend to get hit less, as they are usually far from the enemy

Can use multiple Elements for increased performance

Spells cannot miss their target

Can harm friendlies with AoE spells

Magic Damage can be resisted, making it less effective in many fights

Some Elements don’t work well together, making party composition relatively important

Spells cannot Critically Hit without the Savage Sortilege Talent

Melee Archetypes: Warrior, Rogue, Battlemage

After selecting Melee, you’ll then have to determine what is the best Melee Archetype for you: Warrior, Rogue or Battlemage. While all three of these are comprised of close range combat, they all have very different ways of doing this. Warriors, for example, focus mainly on Strength, dealing predominantly Physical Damage with Weapons. Rogues focus on Finesse, and will generally use dual Daggers, dealing Physical Damage with their Daggers. Battlemages focus on Intelligence, dealing Magic Damage of some type with their Staff and spells.

Warrior Builds

Warrior Builds will usually use either Two-Handed Weapons or One-Handed and Shield to deal Physical Damage to enemies. Dual Wield is not typically used, because it does less damage on average vs. Two-Handed, and this is because Two-Handed provides a passive benefit of increased Critical Damage. Warrior Builds will mainly use Warfare Skills to deal damage, but can also use Polymorph Skills to help add further abilities to their rotation. They typically don’t do very much Magic Damage, because most Magic Damage abilities scale with Intelligence, and Warriors generally use Strength.

The following are some Warrior Builds I have created, with notes about each:

Blazing Deepstalker

The Blazing Deepstalker is a Warrior that uses Warfare and Pyrokinetic Skills to deal both Physical and Fire Damage to its enemies. Unlike many Pyro/Warrior Builds that focus on the use of Master of Sparks, Blazing Deepstalkers specialize in the use of traps. Traps deal Fire Damage, and only scale with Pyrokinetic and Character Level, much like Firebrand. This allows them to deal significant Fire Damage, while pumping Finesse, which increases their Physical Damage with Spears.

Two Damage Types: Physical and Fire

Can also be made into a Ranger variant

Can be used as a Strength Build

Great Build for a Lizard character

Harder to use for a new player

Requires some setup to use effectively

Doesn’t work well with Water-based characters

Death Knight

The Death Knight is a popular well-known Build around the community, and it uses a mix of Warfare, and Necromancer Skills. The reason Necromancer synergizes well with Warriors is because most of its Skills are resisted by Physical Armour. Characters who utilize this skill line will also be able to heal themselves for a good amount of Vitality quite regularly, which is great because you should be taking more damage as a melee character.

Both Warfare and Necromancer Skills deal Physical Damage

Gives you the ability to melee or cast spells

Hard to kill because of the passive Necromancer healing

Not optimized for the highest damage possible

Vitality healing isn’t necessary if you keep your Armour up, which you should be aiming to do

Eternal Warrior

The Eternal Warrior makes use of a decent amount of investment into Necromancer in order to obtain the passive healing when dealing Vitality Damage. When combined with Living Armour, the Eternal Warrior can replenish Magic Armour offensively, allowing them to maintain their position on the battlefield and keep on swinging without fear of being crowd controlled via magical attacks.

Very high damage

Great surviveability

Can heal passively

Less damage than a pure Warrior

Less Armour than a One-Handed & Shield Warrior

Frost Paladin

The Frost Paladin is a durable Warrior that buffs himself to unimaginable heights and then decimates his enemies with powerful physical attacks. Frost Paladins will utilize healing Hydrosophist Skills as well as a few other Frost spells to trap their enemies from moving before punishing them with Warfare Skills.

Great Surviveability

Excellent support and healing

modest crowd control and Magic Damage

Less damage than a pure Warrior

Doesn’t work well with Fire-based Builds

Juggernaut

The Juggernaut is a Warrior Build that uses a mix of Warfare, Geomancer and Polymorph Skills to flatten his/her enemies to a pulp or turn them to stone. Juggernauts focus on pure Strength, but deal a mix of Physical and Earth Damage to their enemies.

Deals both Physical and Earth Damage

Great AoE damage and crowd control

Very hard to kill

Less Physical Damage than a pure Warrior

Long cooldowns on Earth Damage Skills

Warden

The Warden is a hybrid Warrior & Ranger Build that uses Spears and Bows to vanquish its enemies. The reason Wardens can do this effectively is because both Spears and Bows use Finesse for their damaging Attribute, allowing Wardens to deal maximum damage with both weapon types.

Extremely versatile with Ranged and Melee combat

Spears have longer range than other Two-handed Weapons

Not as optimized as a pure Ranger or Warrior

Finesse means that you cannot use Tentacle Lash effectively

You lose 1 AP when you switch Weapons

Rogue Builds

Rogues are essentially Warriors that use Daggers and Finesse to deal damage to enemies. You must have at least one Dagger equipped in order to use many Scoundrel Skills, so this part at least is not optional, and is really what separates Rogues from Warriors. Daggers do less damage than other One-Handed Weapons, almost forcing Rogues to Dual Wield them in order to deal good damage. Rogues can still use Warfare Skills as well, but Warriors cannot usually use Scoundrel Skills, except for the few that don’t require Daggers.

The following are two Rogue Builds I have created, with notes about each:

Assassin

The Assassin is a hybrid Rogue & Ranger Build that uses Daggers and Bows to deal massive damage to its enemies. Assassins can pull this off because Finesse is used to determine the damage of both of these weapon types.

Versatility as you can switch between Ranged and Melee

Excellent Damage

Can also be played as pure Ranged or Melee

Weapon swapping consumes AP

Pure Rogue or pure Ranger will do more damage

Duelist

The Duelist is a high risk, high reward Build whereby the character focuses on high damage and Dodging. Because players are more inclined to Duel Wield when playing a rogue-like character (with Daggers) there is a natural synergy here with the Talent Parry Master which increases Dodging by 10% when Duel Wielding.

Can be very hard to kill

Good Damage

Very equipment dependent

Prioritizing defense over offense isn’t usually recommended

Battlemage Builds

Battlemage Builds are essentially Warriors that use Staves to deal Magic Damage, and generally use spells from their chosen school of magic as well. They are a bit of a hybrid between Ranged and Melee, but they usually select spells that work well at close range, making them skewed much more towards the Melee side of things. These Builds can be harder to play as a new player, but can be devastating if played well.

The following are two Battlemage Builds I have created, with notes about each. I have not added the Elemental Champion Build here, because it is the one Build that was gutted by the Definitive Edition changes.

Battlemage

The Battlemage is a front lines Mage Build that focuses on Pyrokinetic Skills to deal massive damage to its enemies. Battlemages focus on pure Intelligence and get in close and unleash devastating Fire attacks on all nearby enemies. The Battlemage also uses a couple Warfare Skills and Polymorph Skills for mobility, resistance and some extra AoE, because they want to get in close and blast the hell out of foes.

Excellent Damage

Makes use of some Fire Skills that don’t see much use otherwise

Can be hard to stay alive

Hard not to hit other melee characters

Doesn’t work well with Water-based Builds

Radiant Battlemage

The Radiant Battlemage is an Aerotheurge variant of the fiery Battlemage Build. It aims to be an alternative melee Magic Damage dealer, while at the same time avoiding Aerotheurge spells that may harm other melee units. The drawback of this Build is that it does not Shock or Stun targets, which is the primary function of Aero mages (besides killing things). However, it does have a decent amount of controlling effects via Skills like Vacuum Aura and Medusa Head, making it a much safer addition to any group which already has 1 or more melee character.

Decent crowd controlling effects

Much safer than a typical Fire-based Battlemage, since no friendly fire

Can be used with Water-based Builds in the group

Can be hard to keep alive

Less damage than a typical Aero Build

Summoner of Sparks

The Summoner of Sparks uses a mix of Summoning, Warfare and Pyrokinetic Skills in order to deal both Fire and Physical Damage. The skill Master of Sparks has long been used by many players to buff their own personal damage with each swing, however, with the Summoner of Sparks we take this a step further. By buffing an Incarnate and our own character we get 2x the fun.

Exceptional Damage

Physical and Fire Damage

Summoning is really strong

Very little friendly fire for a Fire-based Build

Doesn’t work as well with Water-based Builds

High investment into Memory early on

Ranged Archetypes: Ranger & Mage

Rangers use their Bow to deal damage with Huntsman Skills and Basic Attacks to pick off enemies from afar. They deal some of the highest single target Physical Damage in the game, and can also deal Magic Damage with Elemental Arrows, to a lesser extent. Mages usually deal a mix of Damage Types, because they don’t focus on the use of Weapons, allowing for very versatile Builds and setups. They will use a Staff for increased Critical Damage, but more often than not use One-Handed & Shield for increased Armour.

Ranger Builds

All Rangers will use a Bow for a Weapon, allowing them to deal very high Physical Damage from range. They can also use Elemental Arrows, which can be crafted, to deal a decent amount of Magic Damage if they choose. This will be less than the Physical Damage they deal, but allows for versatility. Rangers, like Two-Handed Warriors, generally have the lowest Armour values, and so tend to be a bit squishier than other party members.

The following are some Ranger Builds I have created, with notes about each:

Assassin

The Assassin is a hybrid Rogue & Ranger Build that uses Daggers and Bows to deal massive damage to its enemies. Assassins can pull this off because Finesse is used to determine the damage of both of these weapon types.

Versatility as you can switch between Ranged and Melee

Excellent Damage

Can also be played as pure Ranged or Melee

Weapon swapping consumes AP

Pure Rogue or pure Ranger will do more damage

Magick Archer

The Magick Archer is a versatile damage dealer that takes its targets out from range using Bow attacks and Elemental Arrows. This Build is one hundred percent optimized to maximize Elemental Arrow damage.

Excellent Damage of any type

Easy to gear up

Very focused Build

Can be hard to stay alive

Elemental Arrows can be a pain to manage

Ranger

The Ranger is a hybrid Build that focuses on ranged damage with a Bow or Crossbow and Summoning some form of “Pet”. The reason it is advised that you use a ranged character when Summoning is because Summoning tends to take up the bulk of your character’s AP per turn, which doesn’t leave much for Movement.

Excellent damage

Elemental Arrows allow for different types of Incarnates

No AP wasted on Movement

Split Ability Points means the Ranger itself will have lower damage as a character

Sanguine Bowman

The Sanguine Bowman uses a mix of Huntsman and Necromancer Skills in order to deal good damage to many targets, as well as give the character multiple ways to deal Physical Damage. The biggest weakness of Rangers and Necromancers is that they blow through their Skills rapidly, leaving them with gaps in their cooldowns. With the Sanguine Bowman, we not only rectify this by adding more Skills to use, but we also add versatility to both of these Builds.

Both Huntsman and Necromancer Skills deal Physical Damage

Gives you the ability to use your Bow or cast spells

Hard to kill because of the passive Necromancer healing

Not optimized for the highest damage possible

Vitality healing isn’t necessary if you keep your Armour up, which you should be aiming to do

Venomous Sentry

The Venomous Sentry is a unique Ranger. The general concept of the Venomous Sentry is to buff your Poison Damage through Skills like Venom Coating, Elemental Arrowheads and Siphon Poison, and then unload upon your enemies. This Build does a mix of Physical and Poison Damage, because of the use of a Bow, but focuses more heavily on the second one.

Deals Poison and Physical Damage

Very High damage

Not great for a new player

Requires some setup to use effectively

Warden

The Warden is a hybrid Warrior & Ranger Build that uses Spears and Bows to vanquish its enemies. The reason Wardens can do this effectively is because both Spears and Bows use Finesse for their damaging Attribute, allowing Wardens to deal maximum damage with both weapon types.

Extremely versatile with Ranged and Melee combat

Spears have longer range than other Two-handed Weapons

Not as optimized as a pure Ranger or Warrior

Finesse means that you cannot use Tentacle Lash effectively

You lose 1 AP when you switch Weapons

Mage Builds

Mages deal Magic Damage or Physical Damage at range, rarely if ever, using a Weapon to attack. They will more often than not use a combination of two or more schools of magic, because since they don’t use Weapons, have an abundance of Ability Points. Since not all schools of magic work well together, this makes for a variety of combinations that outperform others.

The following are some Mage Builds I have created, with notes about each:

Blood Mage

The Blood Mage is a Necromancer Build that relies on high Intelligence and Critical Chance to deal massive damage. Unlike other Mages, the Blood Mage deals Physical Damage, much like a Warrior or Ranger.

High Physical Damage

Very hard to kill

Very few good Skills early on

Less versatility than other Mages

Crystalline Cleric

The Crystalline Cleric is a hybrid Warrior/Mage Build that leans a lot more to the Mage side of things in the offensive department, only with the defensive capabilities of a Warrior. The Crystalline Cleric does a mix of Water and Physical Damage to its enemies and is especially deadly against Undead (as a Cleric would be).

Excellent vs. Undead enemies

Great healing and support

good crowd control

Deals Physical and Water Damage

Can take awhile to get going

Doesn’t work well with Fire-based Builds

Druid

The Druid is a Summoner who utilizes his Conjure Incarnate to the fullest by buffing him to extreme lengths that make the Incarnate extremely deadly. Druids also come equipped with many utility Skills from many different skill lines and this allows them to have a wide variety of spells for nearly every situation. Druids stack Armour up high so that they cannot be controlled and they force their enemies to deal with their Incarnate or face the consequences.

Summoning is very strong

Very hard to kill

Great for group support

Low personal damage

High Memory investment

Elementalist

The Elementalist uses all forms of Magic to destroy their enemies. Dumping only the minimum points into each Magic skill line, and the rest into Polymorph will grant you one extra Attribute point for each rank. This allows you to drop it into Intelligence, which increases the damage of all Intelligence-based Skills by 5%, regardless of skill line.

Exceptional versatility of Damage Types

Excellent crowd control

Hard to kill

Less damage than other Mage Builds

Need tons of points in Memory

Lots of Skill Books needed

Glacial Guardian

The Glacial Guardian uses a mix of Hydrosophist and Summoning Skills in order to control the battlefield in which they are fighting. One of the problems that water mages can have, is that they have to set: (Chilled + Chilled) OR (Chilled + Wet) in order to Freeze enemies. And, although several Hydrosophist Skills hit with multiple projectiles preventing this issue, often they run out of Skills to use. By adding Summoning to a Tidalist sort of Build, not only is this obstacle resolved, but Totems summoned on water or ice will hit for Water Damage. Water Damage makes targets Wet if they have no Magic Armour, which will Freeze Chilled enemies, or allow them  to be Frozen much more easily.

Great Damage

Excellent crowd control

Summoning is really strong

Doesn’t work well with Fire-based Builds

Glass Cannon is risky

Occult Flamewielder

The Occult Flamewielder is a Mage Build that utilizes both the Pyrokinetic and Necromancer Skill Lines to deal two types of damage: Physical and Fire. Most Mage Builds will be able to max out at least 2 schools of magic, and because they share a common Attribute (Intelligence), they lose very little effectiveness.

Deals Fire and Physical Damage

Great synergy between Fire and Necro in the form of Corpse Explosion and Mass Corpse Explosion

Doesn’t work well with Water-based Builds

Very Talent hungry, meaning you won’t have all the Talents you want until later in the game

Doesn’t work well with Water-based Builds

Scourge Wizard

Because of the Torturer change, this Build becomes extremely effective, especially in the earlier parts of the game. You can use Skills like Ignition and Contamination at the very beginning in order to deal significant Magic Damage to enemies around you. On top of that, the AoE radius is quite large, these 2 Skills both ignore friendly targets, and they both only cost 1 AP each.

Multiple Damage Types

Tons of damage over time

Hard to kill

Good Crowd Control

Needs lots of Memory

Less damage than other Mage builds

Doesn’t work well with Water-based Builds

Stormchaser

The Stormchaser is an exceptionally high damage build that relies on Air Damage to Stun its targets, and Dodging to avoid being struck by Weapon attacks. Stormchasers can also Silence their enemies, making them have no choice but to attack with their Weapons, which will be Dodged.

Very high damage

Very easy to build

Great synergy with Water-based Builds

Friendly fire can be an issue

Better as Lone Wolf than in a party

Some enemies have Water Damage resistance

Tectonic Sage

The Tectonic Sage is a pure mage Build that focuses on Geomancer Skills to disrupt the movement and positioning of enemies. By Slowing, Entangling, Crippling, Blinding and Petrifying the opposition, these mages ensure their party always has the upper hand. Earth and Poison Damage spells make up the better part of their repertoire, allowing them to deal significant damage because of the heavy focus on one skill line.

Excellent crowd control

High damage

Hard to kill

Works well with Fire-based Builds

Not great against enemies that have high Earth Resistance

When paired with Fire-based Builds, can cause friendly fire if you’re not careful

Terramancer

The Terramancer is a Mage Build that utilizes the devastating AoEs of Geomancer to deal tons of Earth Damage, while also making use of Necromancer Skills that hit for Physical Damage to individual targets. Sprinkle in a few Hydrosophist Skills and you have a Terramancer.

Great versatility with Physical, Water and Earth Damage

Good crowd control

Very hard to kill

Doesn’t work well with Fire-based Builds

Not as much damage as some other Mage Builds

Tidalist

The Tidalist is Mage Build that focuses on purely Hydrosophist Skills to deal Water Damage, heal and buff. Tidalists will unleash the fury of the tides by drenching and icing nearby enemies, hampering their Movement, Chilling and Freezing them.

Excellent damage

Great crowd control, some of the highest in the game

Can add healing spells if you need support

Works well with Aerotheurge-based Builds

Not great against Water resistant enemies

Doesn’t work well with Fire-based Builds

This should be the last Divinity Original Sin 2 Guide I will be making, because hopefully we will hear something about Divinity: Fallen Heroes soon. I’ve been in touch with Larian about it, and I will update you guys on its progress the second I know anything at all that I can share. God I hope there’s news at Gamesom! Until then, Good luck Sourcerers, Rivellon is counting on you!

The post Divinity Original Sin 2: Which Build is Right for You? appeared first on Fextralife.

Divinity Original Sin 2: Which Build is Right for You? published first on https://juanaframi.tumblr.com/

[thecoroutfitters]

Written by R. Ann Parris on The Prepper Journal.

Editors Note: Another guest contribution from R. Ann Parris to The Prepper Journal. A timely subject with so many of those who serve us daily having to forgo a paycheck this week because of the children we elect (repeatedly) to represent us.

No-buy and pantry-only challenges can make great assessment tools for preppers. Go ahead and do one – any month, although there’s some added value to certain seasons. It’ll take a little prep work to avoid unnecessary expenses and allow accurate tracking, but the data gathered can be invaluable for identifying gaps in our supplies and challenges we’ll face.

Apply Ratios

When you trial what it’s like to live and eat off of your storage, make sure you maintain whatever duration and pacing or proportion is stocked. That means if I only have enough coffee and tea for a daily cup in my six months of storage, that’s all I get during my test run.

That in-stock equivalency ratio applies to everything.

What are your cooking options? How much fuel do you actually have for cooking, for heating, for light? How much water does it take to wash dishes and laundry, and keep clean? Brush teeth? Water gardens and pets and livestock? How much time and effort would you spend collecting that water if nothing came out of your faucet tomorrow?

Be honest with yourself, and test it, whatever “it” is. Otherwise, you’re guessing and gambling. We spend an awful lot of money and time on preparedness to let it be riding on pulling the right card.

Hiccups & Hitches

Daily modern life has requirements we can’t wedge into our no-buy, pantry-only challenges. Things like school projects, repairs, and travel can all interfere with our test.

That’s okay. After all, the most common disasters we’ll face are personal and local, many of which will still require work, appointments, educated children, and good/decent hygiene.

Please don’t go under a 2-4 week supply, in case something does happen. (You’ll have savings from not spending for replacements, but we’re trying to avoid empty pantries if a snowstorm, flood, etc. limits travel and resources in your area.)

Please keep your tanks topped off, again, in case something does happen.

Please see a doctor/veterinarian immediately, don’t wait just to try and get to the end of the challenge month.

Track any hiccups and hitches. They’re exactly what we want for formulating good plans.

Non-Grocery Preps

Skip new movies, TV, books and magazines, and find an alternative for entertainment. Depending on your situation, there’s liable to be a household riot if you unplug the internet for even a week or two, but track the hours spent there.

Yes, we’re likely to have busier lives. Everything will take longer to accomplish if we’re limiting or eliminating powered assistance like gas/electric stoves and tools, and if we’re using books for how-to instead of popping up 3,000 results on the internet in 0.015 seconds.

Part of what is normally our down-time reading and surfing and game playing will end up replaced by tasks. That doesn’t mean our need for entertainment and distraction goes away.

Throughout history we have had entertainments.

Some of the games we play and recreations we enjoy started with knights and peasants in castle eras, or got handed down to us from various native peoples. Colonists of all phases still had time for their varied gatherings, homestead games, and reading.

We may take longer to accomplish things than Medieval Europeans, Iroquois, and Incas. We’re not used to doing some of the tasks, or doing them by hand, and we lack the community and infrastructure that made their lifestyles work.

Even so, it’s unlikely we’ll never have some time to kill, or always sleep when the sun is down or it’s pouring rain.

And, again, there are a lot of things that can go big-time wrong – like job loss, fuel shortages or price skyrocketing, big bills – where our households or even the whole country is affected to one degree or another, but we still have expectations of a fairly “normal” existence.

Things like small crafts even for older kids and adults, new/different games and books, small “finger-diddle” gadgets and puzzles, tabletop and carpet versions of some of our sports, jigsaw puzzles, board games, and other distractions can help alleviate some of the “loss” from our impacted lives, lift moods, and combat stress.

Knowing what we gravitate to in our free time will let us better choose those alternative preps.

Biggies on the “non-grocery” side of the house are our electricity, heating/cooling, indoor plumbing, and waste disposal. A lot of our health, safety, and abilities revolve around them.

How many times do we flush? Do we actually have enough kitty litter or waste processing built into our plan? One way to find out is to cut the water to it and line it, or put one of those geriatric toilets with buckets and liners between it and the door to make sure it’s actually getting tracked.

How many degrees of warmth do we add to our homes autumn, winter, and spring? What’s the burn time and heat output of our alternatives? Can we create much smaller spaces to heat?

Most of us can track meters for energy use. Many already have them available for water, too. Some will have to install them or work out of tubs/tanks they can track instead.

Right now most of us have garbage men coming through or drive to a dump. Various pests are going to become a problem when trash builds up. Is there a plan for those?

Let the trash build up an extra week or two. Yes, some of what we throw away will go away or be reused in a disaster, but it’s going to be dependent on storage types and emergency systems. It’s also going to be an adjustment, not automatic.

Don’t forget that women, babies, and regularly seniors have additional daily and monthly needs that also generate laundry or waste.

Over-the-counter meds, cooking fuels, and animal feed needs – without normal scraps and treats – are others that seem to regularly escape our notice, both in budgeting and anticipating needs.

Replacements for Food Storage

I’m not talking about busting through actual storage foods – unless it’s time to rotate. We can pretty easily find facsimiles, or skip the extra packaging steps.

Instead of MREs, hit the various nuke-‘em pouches, tubs and canned stews, pasta, and rice meals and add commercial sweets and crackers.

There are all kinds of boxed and bagged noodle and rice meals that can help avoid busting into any expensive bucket and can kits. Many are nearly as fast and easy to heat. They make a decent one-to-one exchange on the Wise and Augason Farms meals for the most part.

To replicate a Mountain House meal instead, snag some of those just-add-water or frozen dinner kits that includes the meats. I’m inclined  to say stick to cans, because it’ll be closer to storage foods than pre-cooking and freezing them will be.

A lot of kits have soups. Bear Creek makes a whole line that’s actually pretty good, and regularly goes on sale two for $3-$5 in our areas, so they’re already a common storage item for us. There are other options in any supermarket.

Match any “flavored” oatmeal in your storage with packets from Walmart. Same for granola and for fruits – canned for freeze-dried or if you can’t find the dehydrated versions at Dollar Tree, Ollie’s, or Walmart.

For a good test, if you don’t have extra seasonings, sweeteners, cream, etc., in your storage, make sure you’re not adding any to the challenge week/month.

Supermarket Coolers

If you’re not harvesting meat, produce, eggs, and milk products from home, make sure to switch for shelf-stable, wet-pack canned, and dried equivalents for them, too. If you can’t or you’re on your own within a household of non-preppers, make extra sure you keep track. That way, the right amount of shelf-stable alternates can be stocked.

Be aware that many of the dry and dehydrated versions, or substitutions like TVP (Textured Vegetable Protein) and beans are far lower in calories and especially fats.

Supermarket Snacks

One of the biggies to keep track of, are the treats. That’s stuff like the soda, beer, candy, bakery rolls, cakes and frosting, nummy crackers, pudding, chips, popcorn, trail mix, nuts – even the non-local fruits. Don’t forget coffee and tea, cocoa, flavored milk, and soft drinks.

You’ll need to stock equivalents or alternatives to account for the calories they contribute to your diet, and you might consider some for a pick-me-up here and there or to ease transitions from “normal” to long-term disaster eating.

Keep track of sugar consumed, too. For storage planning, sit down to make a list of how much sugar a lot of the goodies we munch require to make at home or from scratch. (That goes for water bath canning jams and fruits, too.)

Non-Grocery Goodies

That “goody” might also be non-food items – my silly routine of certain music while I do my physical therapy and Pilates or before bed, tennis balls for my dog, or my father adding to his Lego collection every 2-4 weeks and taking half the day for his weekly shopping instead of 2-3 hours because he’s chatty and likes to look (at everything).

Many of us are accustomed to – if not hooked on – news and information, connectivity, gaming, and social media. “Goodies” can also be time spent on sports, reading, watching TV and movies, or outings that would no longer be safe or affordable in a crisis.

Our bodies and our minds are adapted to having certain things. Many people will react just like an addict in withdrawal if their goodies are eliminated, regardless of their form. If we can ease that, we can ease the stresses.

Some of those activities, outings, and routines are also already the ways we de-stress. Eliminating that relief while adding other stressors is a recipe for problems.

The basics take precedence, but prepping to retain and replace some “goodies” is worth consideration.

Track the Results

“Track it” keeps getting repeated. And by track it, I mean, track it. Write it down. Write down your feelings and your observations of others’ ongoing personalities and opinions as well.

It’s important.

A trial of a week or two will open some eyes. A trial of a month will give you a lot more information. We can use the data we gather to better plan for all aspects, from transition phases from “normal” to “okay, this is going to be longer than expected” all the way out to disasters we know from the outset are going to be huge and life-altering.

We only have that data to apply if we try it – and if we adequately track it. Otherwise, we’re making our plans based on guesses and somebody else’s say so. Those kinds of preparations are better than nothing, but do we really want to gamble health, safety, and survival on them?

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