#balance patch

[tereox]

[ghostslazy]

Hand Embroidered Taako apron

Y'all this took me like all summer but I had so much fun designing everything for it! This really was peak brain rot, I can't believe I got into this fandom so late

Here's all the digital art files too

[eorzeashan]

I'm mixed on the KOTOR cutscenes myself, and a lot of what people are saying in the forums is reasonable (reduce black bars, make it more visually appealing and less stiff) but I'd rather, for lack of elegant metaphors, navigate Makeb without a map than go back to dull voiced cutscenes of 30 second PR meetings where Lana reads your itinerary for you. I don't really understand the sentiment that you want less story when other MMO's get to have tons of content unvoiced (see FFXIV, etc.) and people praise it up and down-- if voice work is holding it back, then I'm for less rather than more. We've been getting better story steadily, and I'd hate to see that change back to what we were given at the beginning of LotS, which people seem to forget quite easily.

I think what it could use as a compromise rather than alignment dialogue is class specific dialogue, if they're able to implement that many choices from 3 to 8. Then it'd be less of a yes - neutral - no situation, and players might feel satisfied that it's not just the same responses dressed up. But that's my opinion on it, and it's a small niche issue at that.

Also, unintentional comedy at being able to rate a team response like UberEats???

[zukoandtheoc]

i swear i blinked and chronos was dead. absolutely silly hammer combo. i think i saw a crit for 5000 at one point

[real-fire-emblem-takes]

me getting over 350 errors on febuilder today

[linksconverge]

[tentatively slides in here] New Links Meet AU...new Links Meet AU...new Links Meet AU...!

From left to right (plus bonus fact that doesn't really matter but is fun all the same):

Patches (ALBW/TH) got into dying their hair with Irene's influence sometime after their first journey. The pink was half-accidental and half-intended to be a prank, but he liked the look of it so much that he's kept it ever since.

Dusk (TP) has an iron gut — second only to Knight's — and the favoured Chu Jelly flavour to show for it (purple).

Knight (AoC) is an older sibling and has Complicated Feelings about it. To be fair, they have Complicated Feelings about a lot of things at the moment—

Sailor (WW/PH/HW) is an experienced participant and enjoyer of special handshakes and high-fives. He's great at clapping games too!

Linh's (ST) handwriting is the best of the party. This doesn't mean as much as they'd like it to.

Grasshopper (OoT/MM/HW) does not keep any bottled fairies in his inventory. Emergencies are handled either with potions or the hope that a fairy fountain is close by.

Cori (MC) has been banned from using Roc's Cape in conjunction with his Pegasus Boots in so many areas of Hyrule Town that he's taken to only wearing one or the other out of habit.

[idonutlose]

good heavens they put resource management in my resource management character

[raisinchallah]

god why are people so uncaring about outdoor cats..... new cat in my neighborhood is like driving my cat insane whenever she looks out the window making it hard for me to take her outside cuz theres always a risk of conflict if they interact but like im the person with the leashed cat whatever whatever but ive seen this cat outside at fucking 1:30 in the morning ive seen him get carried away by someone so clearly hes not a stray but like who the hell cares so little about their cat they dont care that theyre free roaming around a very busy street and dont even worry about getting them in at night when like there have been coyotes spotted in the neighborhood do u care if this animal lives or dies??? and now its out here torturing wildlife outside my window for hours and idk all this is normal??? and like local large animal shelter i go to their website cuz at first i thought this cat was a stray it kept trying to sneak into my house has no collar and is kinda skinny until i saw him get carried away by a person and its like they dont even take friendly stray cats animals that would do quite well in a home they say its best to leave them where they are the way it was nearly impossible to get anyone to go out and even just spay and neuter the stray cats my grandmother feeds which like does fuck all but also they keep having very inbred kinda fucked up looking kittens in the yard every year and sometimes dont even bother to raise the kittens and i feel like maybe it would be best if that stopped whatever its just bonkers to me people think its somehow the normal humane thing to do to just leave unhealthy cats on the streets killing wildlife regularly and getting hit by cars like you would definitely call animal control if a stray dog ripped apart a rabbit in your backyard but this is just how cats are they are tortured if they arent allowed to depopulate local animal populations and like i know animal services have limited resources but idk its just mystifying to me guess im the freak keeping my pampered indoor cat leashed so she can merely chase animals rather than kill them....

[nebulousfishgills]

As much as I love playing embrace Dark Urge runs (discussion in therapy pending), there's something so narratively satisfying about how a Resist Durge playthrough can go once you get to the Bhaal Temple. Your character steps into the ring with Orin, it's intended to be a duel, but odds are you're getting eviscerated pretty quickly. You then switch to one of your other characters in your party and throw an attack, effectively breaking the duel and setting the whole temple upon you.

(Adding a cut because this ended up being longer than I thought)

But, I think it's a very satisfying way to play. Your party members have grown fond of your Durge, seeing them as a friend, a family member, even a lover. They've watched you and your pain over your Urge and what it makes you do or want to do. Maybe you've slipped up once or twice, but you've been trying so hard to be the hero they know you can be, that Faerûn needs. So, when it comes time to finally face your demons and you're getting so horribly hurt in the process, they can't help but rush to your defense. It'll put all of them in danger, but it doesn't matter because they want and need to help you, their ally and companion.

Bonus points if you select your character's romanced companion as the savior/duel interruptor to make it extra delicious. They've fallen in love with you, stayed with you when your Urge craved their blood the most, maybe by this point in the game you've helped put their demons down as well. They see you in pain, a final valiant effort to overcome your Urge against the power of Orin, a whole cult, a god of murder himself. They want to protect you, save you as you saved them.

I'm also fond of the extra beauty of Astarion being your Resist Durge romance since it puts the two of you in very similar situations. Fighting against the will of your masters, finally defeating your demons with your newfound companions' help and being offered the greatest power you could ever fathom... only to deny it, ignore power in favor of your party and your love.

This isn't even mentioning just how goddamn good the Withers resurrecting you cutscene is. This skeleton in your camp with unknown and unfathomable power (also apparently supposed to be Jergal himself if I've done my research properly?) is able to bring you back to life, free of your Urge. The line along the lines of "Bhaal could only destroy what of you that he knew, but because you've grown past your Urge and become your own person, he couldn't destroy that new growth" is just so weirdly powerful narratively. Tav may be a default character for you to create upon making a new save file, but Durge is the canon protagonist and I think that entire scene shows it the best. It's a beautiful secondary climax of the narrative (primary being battling the Netherbrain of course).

And, perhaps it's just an oversight on Larian's part or something that'd be a bit difficult to work into the cutscenes mechanically, but I think that it could only get more impactful if your companions could comfort each other during these moments. Everyone and their mother wishes you could hug Astarion after he kills Cazador, but also imagine your romanced companion cradling your body after Bhaal kills you. It seems just a little odd that they all (meaning your party) kinda just stand around staring at your corpse, especially with how close y'all have gotten.

Idk, I have a lot of thoughts about this section of the game in this particular type of playthrough and some of them are hard to articulate into words. It's just such a damn good narrative peak and can really make you feel things.

I've completed I think two resist Durge runs and just hit this point on my third and it really stuck out to me this time (then again my new antidepressants are kinda fucking with me so that might be playing a role). I left it as my last mission before dealing with the Netherbrain and I think it helped build the anticipation of that moment. Everyone else has been helped by you, and now it's your turn to come into your own. I really felt so connected to my character walking into the temple, feeling like everything has been building to this, that regardless of what happens our suffering will finally end. And you have your party there to help you in your time of greatest need as you've done for them.

There's a reason this game was Game of the Year, the narrative is just so powerful and the replay-ability is just insane. I've beaten this game ten times, heading for my eleventh and it truly just never gets old and never fails to make me feel so many things so strongly.

[invinciblerodent]

an interesting little contrast i'm experiencing compared to my previous run is that while Arvid at least entertained the idea of becoming a mind flayer himself, Iona just... categorically rejected even its very thought.

(but look at how cool she looked in this scene, OOH I love her backlit in red like this)

i'm kinda taking a break in going through the endgame (it's very cold right now in my apartment, so I'm like shivering as I'm sitting at the computer, doesn't make for very pleasant gaming lol), but I think I've mentioned before that Iona's trust in the Emperor has been far flimsier than Arvid's, or even the Emperor's in her, from the very start.

It was definitely a very far-rippling blunder on the Emperor's part, to take the face of Iona's (then only recently ex-)husband, which kinda tipped her off that something was up far faster than he would have otherwise revealed his cards. (It made sense for him to choose it though, it's easily the most prominent face in her mind, and the one she has the most intense, if mixed emotions about.)

Not to mention that she, being an elf, almost never truly sleeps, but only meditates, during which she's still essentially conscious.

I personally headcanon that that alone was enough to make it so she could keep her wits, and her rational mind about her even in her "dreams", more than Arvid could- making her healthy suspicions far harder to overcome, and, also making it far easier for her to lie, and string the Emperor along.

Like, as it's her little habit not to cut off a potential escape route until it's unavoidable, she made the Emperor believe that he had her in his palm, even though she never had any real intention of embracing her "illithid potential". (something something men are always willing to believe that a woman is weak, even if said man is now a mind flayer)

So when this scene of deciding whether to become illithid came up, not only was she already well primed to not believe a word the Emperor was saying.... she, unlike Arvid, is also just very simply far too selfish for that kind of sacrifice, I think.

(he kind of needed to be talked out of it, but as a result of her immediate and vehement rejection, I believe I missed out on some really cute dialogue from Astarion. it's okay tho, that's why I save every five steps or so, this is what reloads are for lol)

(either way, we're probably gonna go through the sewers this time because MAN i don't wanna do the courtyard fight today holy shit)

[fionnaskyborn]

Was tagged by @oceancamp to post my current five favorite songs! (They should invent a stages-of-grief-esque model that encompasses and accurately describes both types of anguish I had to go through making this list - the one of limiting myself to only five songs, and the one of trying to put as little videogame music on here as possible so that I don't end up looking like an absolute goddamn geek, which... I am... Oh well!)

Thank you so much for tagging me - here are the songs!

Heaven Pierce Her - War Without Reason

Tatsuro Yamashita - Love Space

This specific arrangement of Death And Republic + Meet Again

Winger - Junkyard Dog (Tears On Stone)

The Protomen - Light Up The Night

Is it courtesy to tag other people after you've been tagged in a post like this? If that's the case, I'll tag @spiralled-fury, @solradguy, @swamppossum, @five-by-five, @northstarring, @ineedmoredragons and @tbonechessor!

[waflof]

I've heard a lot of people saying that the "lethality boost" to sombras kit will keep her at around the same ranking if not higher on tier lists this season.

As a rein main I can tell you more damage with no way to get to your target, or get out will do nothing

They locked sombra into two playstyles that before were just part of how you could play the game

Sombra 76: running it down main with your team. hacking tanks and playing like a shittier soldier with the ability to do magic hands at the enemy

"Aasassin"

You set up behind the enemy (somehow)

And then wait (now with no invisibility)

Until you see the Ana (congrats blizzard supports are going to get obliterated in .5 seconds now)

Then (if you're lucky) boom your done. You did it. You got the trade !

Unless they got saved by any of the many bail out abilities. Or you got blasted before you could get the trade.

And don't even think about escaping after getting the pick, It doesn't matter if invisibility doesn't end when shot. Their team is going to blast that entire general direction like its a comunist during the red scare.

[bluebudgie]

Ok here's my last hot take before I exit gamer babyrage mode but I do not think every class needs access to quickness and alacrity and I do not think quickness and alacrity should have the importance they've gained in the past year. Alacrity was fine as a chronomancer only boon, just like Grace of the Land's unique damage buff was fine. Specs should actually differ and not all be able to do everything.

[domokunrainbowkinz]

AAAH THE PATCH IS OUT!!!! AND THE OST SOON!!!!!

[satansleftnutcheek]

God BLESS Larian for the extended epilogue in patch 5 I CAN FINALLY HUG EVERYONE!!! SO MANY HUGS!!!! EVERYONE’S GETTING HUGS!!! AT LONG FUCKING LAST THE ONE THING THIS GAME DESPERATELY NEEDED!!!!! FORGET GAME OF THE YEAR THIS IS GAME OF THE DECADE FOR ME I GET TO HUG MY FRIENDS!!!!!

[solradguy]

ngl im kinda bored about ky slander at this point. everything that has been said negatively about him has been said about literally every shoto of all time. ky slander is starting to become more boring than ky himself imo. and i main sin

Right there with ya, buddy. It's always "Sol plays like a gorilla" or "zero IQ gameplay." Never "Wow, what a clean dustloop" or "God that combo looked sick." Solidarity. Gamers hate to see a box art character main thrive.