#for getting health And are good damage dealers

[arolesbianism]

I've been playing the new cotl update and I generally like it but god do I fucking hate like all of the balance changes just let things be strong man

[juliasmesmerized]

Conversations with You

pairings: Josh Washington x F!Reader, Chris Hartley x Ashley Brown (Until Dawn) type: fluff, too deep into the friendship, mutual pining, subtle flirting vibes intended: nervous - The Neighbourhood for the best experience: read part one of this dribble and use word replacer II as y/n will be used. (i can also make a you / y/n-less version, but i just prefer seeing my name for DR purposes) word count: 3091 part 1 | part 2 | part 3

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever you say." Josh smiled at her comment. He knew she believed in him. She definitely would believe in everybody in the group when it comes to things they're good at.

She laughed back as the match began. Their hands are all on the keyboard controlling their respective characters. y/n's specific character had her focus on one of her teammates, whoever is most probable to benefit from her presence. to boost their damage and keep their damage consistent. The other support would focus on the rest of the team, mostly Chris, to keep them alive. The other damage dealer creates an ice wall and a one way beam of ice, which means the soldier Josh picked would be the best to support.

He chuckled when they saw the second damage dealer being incompatible with y/n's choice. "Guess you're now truly stuck with me, ms. Support."

She smiled to herself at the fact she'd be with him, but she decided to tease. "I hate it."

"Sure you do." Josh focused on the incoming enemies as he bantered with y/n.

The battlefield was located in Germany. Chris's character was in the front pushing the enemies back under a bridge between two buildings, and Josh was on top while y/n hid behind the wall in order to stay alive; switching between the damage boost beam, being blue, and the yellow healing beam. Chris is the type of guy who shuts up to focus, and he was focusing as hell with the entire team in front of him. Josh and y/n had it quite literally easy.

Still having the blue beam stuck to Josh while he decided to relocate to be behind Chris, y/n sighed. "I kind of regret my choice of character now."

"Oh, why?" There was a little inkling of concern in his voice, but it wasn't a long match to begin with if they don't allow the enemy team to secure the area.

She expressed her feelings begrudgingly. "This is my first game with you both and I have nothing to show for it as this support is literally brainless to play, until you have the entire enemy team running to kill you. Then it's a wild goose chase to fly to your teammates and safety." y/n only remembered her side goal of beating the crap out of these two after joining it.

Josh assured her, he was glad it wasn't anything actually serious, or he wouldn't have known what to do. "It doesn't matter if this is our first game together, we'll have plenty more for sure. You do help the team a lot, regardless of actual kills."

y/n proclaimed in excitement. "Great! Then I'll beat your highest score and get more kills." Almost ready to flex her non-existent muscles, until she realized she was only faced by a screen.

"Can't wait to see-" Josh was cut off.

Chris screeched on the other side. "JOSH!" The second damage dealer and support died and there was only Josh, Chris, and y/n on the map currently. "STOP FLIRTING AND HELP ME! WHERE ARE YOU GUYS? THERE ARE TWO SUPPORTS AND ONE DPS AFTER ME!"

y/n flew to Chris as soon as she could get him in her field vision and Josh used the running ability to get to him faster. "You're a big guy, Chris, you can handle them. We're coming."

She spoke up as soon as the beam connected. "I'll try to heal you up, bring your shield up. When you got enough health, I'll damage boost you to help with attacking against them." Chris obeyed and slowly walked back as his shield was up.

Chris weighed his options and shared his opinion on the current situation. "We gotta wait till the rest of the team comes back. They're also going to regroup."

Josh decided to weigh himself in to allow them information they may have not caught. "y/n, after healing him, come with me. I have my ultimate."

"That's great! We'll just have to wait for our team then so I could be taken care of while y/n's away." Chris cheered, feeling the tide could be pushed against the enemy team.

y/n decided to demonstrate the difference between them newbies and her knowing her way around the map. "Do you know where we could go to catch them off guard?"

Josh took a second to think as he was attacking the enemy team to push them back from Chris as he was being healed. "I was thinking atop the area Chris was?" She linked her beam to Josh signalling that it's time for them to go.

She walked ahead to a secret passage way into a building that led them behind the enemy team. "No, we could actually get behind the enemy team and use Chris and the rest of the team as a distraction."

"Smart thinking, doctor." Josh referenced her character choice in complimenting her.

Josh was getting ready by hiding behind a building along side y/n's character. She still spoke up to prove her superiority. "Mhmm. You can finally see the difference between you and I. I can think of things you wouldn't imagine!"

"Hold your horses, we'll see when you play DPS or tank." Josh pressed the key to use his ultimate, and walked into the battlefield behind the enemy team as she instructed. A full team kill thanks to y/n's boosting and Chris already damaging the entire team.

"Sure." It was long strung from y/n. She took a breath. "As if that wasn't from my critical thinking." y/n sarcastically kept a monotone voice.

Josh began to tease her, but he decided to go a little farther than what he usually would. "I couldn't have done it without you! I will kiss and worship the ground you walk on, you mastermind! What could I do without you, my dear princess?"

She decided to answer without thinking. "Hardy har. That wouldn't even be enough after I scored you the play of the game, lowly peasant." If she let his words sink in, she'd go against his earlier comment and she wanted to be special in his eyes. If staying strong during his playful flirting and jokes means that, then so be it.

Behind the screen, the facade, she was on the brink of shutting the game off. The winning message showed on all three of their screens. Chris began to chuckle and went to message Josh after that comment. Y/n's cheeks flushed and she grabbed her phone straight away.

y/n: AAAAAAASSSSHHHHHLLLLEEEEYYYYYY Ashley: WHAT? y/n: HE CALLED ME PRINCESS? Ashley: HUUUUH? IM GONNA TALK TO CHRIS RIGHT NOW

"Oh, hold on guys." Chris absentmindedly spoke as he closed his microphone. y/n absolutely knew what that would be about.

"Do we wait for him or let the queue going?" Josh almost sounding like he'd peek into her door to ask this.

She thought about about it as on one hand, he could come back super quickly and we'd have found a match, but on the other he could take long and he'd have to reap the consequences of being away. "That's a hard question, I guess the game has been going harder on people who get away from the keyboard in a match. Let's wait for him."

Josh, as if a light bulb came on, put two and two together. "Right, I remember reading that update."

"Mhm." She hummed back, still thinking of their earlier conversation and what Ashley might be doing right now.

Ashley: He'll be you guys' wingman and leave y/n: what? Ashley: I'm making him hop off and sit with me to tell me everything he knows about Josh

y/n jumped at the sound of Josh speaking up, as if he fucking knew what Ashley and herself were up to. "y/n." It's fucking as if he was right behind me as he spoke as soon as i read ashley's message. She thought to herself. Eerie as fuck. y/n: DONT LET HIM LEAVE ME ALONE??? Ashley: oh I heard him call you since Chris put down the headphones Ashley: thisll be interesting y/n: oh my god Ash

"Yes, Josh?" y/n responded, trying her best to separate her current nervousness and his conversation with her.

"Chris told me something a bit back that really had me thinking." He spoke while taking breaths and thinking his words over, which makes his argument more stretched out than it has to be.

y/n responds, waiting for more. "Right..."

Ashley: Im having him explain what Josh is telling you right now y/n: i don't love the fact you guys are talking about us while hearing us Ashley: Im doing it with love I promise y/n: liar ure especially NOSEY Ashley: what can I say? WHAT CAN I SAAAAYYY???

He continued after he trailed off last time. "Yeah, I used to pump him up all the time to speak to Ashley and confess to her, right, and now he's saying I should listen to my own advice." He sounds oddly genuine, something the group doesn't see from the playful flirt.

"Okay?" Still not seeing his point, y/n doesn't comment much.

Josh still puzzled about it, genuinely unsure how to move with his friend's words weighing on his mind "The problem is, I don't get what he means? I go for everything head on. Chris has been busy with Ash and I wanna give them space to adjust, you know."

"You do, but I don't think Chris meant it in that sense. It's sweet you allow them space for them, by the way. Not a lot of people would notice those little things." She spoke up, now mirroring his realness as she realized he was being serious. He seldom opened up about anything at all, and she jumped at the chance to support him.

Ashley: chris says ur right. y/n: what the fuck Ashley: he says he didn't mean it in that sense and josh misunderstood him y/n: omh yall nosey asses i swear Ashley: teehee js ur friendly neighborhood wingman and woman

Josh was kind of taken aback at her comment responding to his question; completely glossing over her compliment. "What?"

y/n explained herself. She placed her hands on her face as she sighed at his emotional immaturity. "Josh, are you inadvertently telling me you like somebody? What you told Chris is really specific to context of love, and if he's telling you the same then you're now in what used to be his boat?" How could somebody be that flirty and that beloved by many girls that he rejects be so oblivious to themselves. Her thoughts were rushing, but she knew she had to focus.

Ashley: HE SO DEFINITELY IS YOU HIT THE NAIL IN THE COFFIN y/n: IS THAT ASH TALKING OR CHRIS CONFIRMING Ashley: oh i told chris to explain later, i wanna hear this. Ashley: update: chris is snickering at joshs stupidity i think he knows that we know that you know ur right y/n: im killing you both istg

Josh sounded a bit over it. "I think I'll call it a night."

"W-What?" y/n stammered in confusion, she was expecting being on for a very long while on this game.

"Chris isn't coming back, if he takes this long then it means goodnight for us all." Josh decided to excuse himself with Chris's impromptu leave.

She didn't know how to explain herself without being vulnerable with him. "Josh-" y/n could see her phone buzz multiple times, but she ignored it to focus on his voice. Her eyes are on the screen, but unfocused.

Josh pushed her away, as he often does with people anyway, keep your friends close from a safe distance. "Forget it."

She blurted out. "No it's fine, I get it."

"What?" Josh's jaw tightened.

"You could be the best person for advice for a certain situation, but literally when it comes to yourself, you are unbeknownst yourself. You helped Chris get her, now it's time somebody helps you. If you try at it without support, you might just lose her." She didn't even know what she was letting slip, but she went with the flow.

Josh groaned. "Goodnight, y/n."

"If that's what you'd like. Goodnight." y/n didn't want to push him, she knew of him well enough that it wasn't safe to temper with him when he declines. He knows himself best, pushing him will make things worse.

Ashley: NOOOO MY RADIO ROMANCE DRAMA y/n: its the fact u listened to all of that Ashley: of course I would what if he confesses to u right then and there y/n: huh Ashley: oh yeah after all of that u think he doesnt like u? y/n: we cant js assume that Ashley: ok im asking chris

As Ashley stopped typing, presumably to speak to Chris, she grabs a box of cookies her mom ordered to her dorm. They travelled without her as per usual, so she's stuck in the university dorms for the break. At least she get free food and free time away from people. A message notification popped up on the top part of her phone and her phone buzzed on the table. It was Josh.

Josh: sorry for cutting you off like that y/n: no harm no foul josh im sorry for pretending like i knew Josh: ironically its the fact you were so correct that made me upset y/n: oh. sorry? Josh: im not here to ask for apologies

She took a bite of the cookie in her hand, and since she was typing with one hand, she was unbearably slow. Fortunately, Josh was also slow in his replies. He was probably thinking through every word sent to her beyond this point. Josh: do u think u could leave ur dorm and we could walk for a bit? i think ill take u up on ur offer to talk things over y/n: sure, its a bit late tho u sure? Josh: yeah ill keep u safe dw, im the one who brought u out anyway. y/n: alr sounds like a plan.

She took out a pair of jeans and a fuzzy jacket. The cold weather of the outdoors was not welcoming of anybody used to the warmth of the indoors. It could be snowing, she thought to grab a few more things that would warm her up including a hot coffee. A 'bzzzzzz' sound filled the room as she changed into the improvised outfit. 'Beeeeeep.' She picked up the drink and took it with her.

Y/n stepped outside and walked out of the dormitory walkway to find Josh sitting in the common room.

He stood up and looked at her. "You ready to go?"

"Yep. Let's go." She nodded and walked right behind him.

He was wearing a flannel with a vest. The flannel was pulled up to his forearms. She spoke up. "You are oddly under dressed for the weather."

His hair was messy, he definitely ran his fingers through it whenever he reached a dead end in his thinking. She could imagine him sighing to himself and playing with it to try to take his mind off of things, messing it up further unintentionally. When she came to, they were now outside on university grounds. The place was gated and open for students during all hours of the day.

Josh looked down at the snowy ground and placed his hands in his pockets. "Yeah I didn't really think it through."

y/n smiled sweetly at him, she knew him to be rash at points where he needed to decide on something. "That's alright, here-"

"Truth is!" Josh perked up, cutting her words like a knife and louder than he initially wanted. Causing her to stare in silence, her eyebrow raised. She'd never be upset at somebody cutting her off once in a while, we all have our moments.

Josh cleared his throat and took a moment before deciding to go through with it. "Truth is, you caught my eye a while back. Chris figured it out first and then he became my confidant in this... weird situation." Y/n's mouth went agape, thinking of saying something, but she closed it to listen to him first.

He continued, still looking away from her. Focusing on his surroundings was his best bet in saying all of this. "He tried his best to convince me, but we were friends for a while, it's best to stay that way. I liked our banter." Telling his therapist his woes was already pushing it enough. This was ten times worse and she could tell.

"You joining us without me knowing you would had me appreciating your presence a lot more." She focused on him, his words, his stature, his walk, and most importantly his mannerisms. She knew he had to let this out it seems evident.

He took a shaky breath and y/n took her scarf off. "It made me need to think. If the people around me knew, then I needed to have a reason for it all."

Once he stopped to breathe, she lent him the scarf. He accepted reluctantly, but appreciated the gesture. He whispered a "thanks" and wrapped it around his neck. He closed his eyes to focus on its pretty scent for a moment. "I started regretting all the times I played with Chris alone. I hated thinking this way because of a lot of things. You getting my situation immediately caused my thoughts to go on overdrive."

She caught him between his breaths, now regulated from the warmth of her scarf. "Josh." y/n stopped in her tracks.

He walked a few steps before realizing she stopped, and turned around to her. "Yeah?"

y/n contemplated her words, but since he already confessed at this point, she had nothing to lose. "The reason how and why I joined you guys tonight was because I wanted to get closer to you. You were special from the moment you entered my life." Once he heard her reciprocation, his eyes focused on her moving lips.

"The amount of times you made me nervous-" Her voice, music to his ears, was stopped by his lips meeting hers. He placed his hands on her cheeks to lift her head slightly up. The cold was quickly replaced by imminent warmth. As much as he wanted to be reckless with her, have sloppier kisses, touch her in places that allow him to explore her curves, he didn't like the idea that they were outside. The kiss was short but desperate, she realized he was waiting for this for a long time.

i wanted to end on part two, but i feel like this def needs a third part. im now going to read this with my word replacer. i love this MAN I NEED HIM NOW. id really appreciate opinions on how the characters were written, i never really wrote fanfiction seriously till now. i usually write original work hidden in my endless google drive lol. thank you for reading!

[mdhwrites]

The Tragedy of Yanqing

It's fascinating that if you look at Yanqing, it becomes actually really obvious really quickly that he's mocked not for being weak but for being awkward.

Yanqing's buffs by all means should make him a MONSTROUS Hunt character. He gives himself a 10% speed boost on Crit, he deals extra damage to ice weak enemies and, oh yeah, HAS A 20% CRIT RATE BUFF AND 30% CRIT DAMAGE BUFF. And that's without getting into the 60% crit rate buff on his ult or his follow up that can freeze. These are all really good buffs for a damage dealer on top of just having the correct percentiles to work as a DPS... So why is he a laughing stock?

Well, it's because unlike most DPSes, your sustainer doesn't just matter but is CRITICAL to him working. He is by a wide margin one of the most rigid characters to build a team around for. It all comes back to those big crit buffs of his for why. If you don't know his main mechanic, it's that after he uses his skill, he enters Soulsteel Sync, a buffed state that gives him those crit buffs and that make it so when he attacks an enemy, he has a chance to do a follow up that itself has a chance to freeze. It has one turn of windup but then can last forever... With two major caveats:

1: He never stops using his skill. The buff only lasts one turn. That is BRUTALLY rigid but not really all that untenable as most DPSes want to be using their skill every turn regardless. No, the bigger problem is

2: He can never take damage. Period. If he takes damage, he immediately loses the state and has to re-activate it. He HAS to have a preservation sustainer because they create shields which protect an ally from taking direct health damage, which is what Yanqing cares about. Hitting a shield doesn't do anything to him. However, until Aventurine, your options for that were... Imperfect. March 7th drew aggro to him, which he doesn't want. Gepard only shields on ultimate which means if you're doing most hyper carry strats, it's very easy for Yanqing to lose his shield and Preservation Trailblazer... Well, the shield isn't always strong enough to take a hit without a well built one and even then, it only lasts two turns, which doesn't work at all with hypercarry Bronya strategies.

It wasn't until Aventurine came out that he had a sustainer who could genuinely allow him to work in a smooth manner and by then, we have to face two inherent things about the game.

1: Powercree-

No. Not that. Design shifts in the game have led to new DPSes mostly being stronger but that's largely in part because you get a LOT less traces like Yanqing's that gives him 20% effect resist while in his buffed state. The game learned better what its goals were which is why you can feel very real design differences between 1.0 characters and even 1.6 characters. No Hunt character since 1.0 has gotten the aggro reduction trace that at least three? Characters from 1.0 had because survival elements on your DPS have been mostly abandoned. Hell, one example of this is how a lot of 1.0 ice characters, one of Yanqing's eidolons included, expected freeze to be MUCH more prevalent than it was for adding additional damage.

No, instead, it's much more:

1: Ice has been entirely absent. Most enemies in fact resist ice instead of being weak to it and this isn't surprising when you remember that from 2.0-2.7, MISHA was literally the only ice character released. I know someone who adores Jingliu who has been struggling under her damage just getting cut by this lack of enemy weaknesses that came with the extreme fire focus of 2.0. This would naturally hurt Yanqing's options.

2: He's Hunt. The only Hunt team that still gets respect is Follow Up and that's because their response to Hunt's limited action economy of single target attacks is just to add more attacks on top anyways. Even then, plenty of hyper carry Hunt characters can do just fine. My understanding is people still rock Seele against MoC and win out because they've put in the work to make her work despite her not having had a dedicated support in so long. Hypercarry Hunt though definitely struggled in the more synergy focused era of Penacony where Bronya hypercarry finally took a backseat to full team wide strategies. Remember: We didn't get a new Bronya until Sunday and unless you have a summon, Sunday still gives less damage% than Bronya. Crit damage hyper carry just hasn't been the game's focus for a while so someone like Yanqing will suffer in that environment.

So when we finally got the sustainer who could work with Yanqing, no one has been looking at him. Even if you were, you were probably looking more at Jingliu because she's the crit ice hyper carry everyone normally talks about. And yes, if you want to call Jingliu powercreep on Yanqing, I'm not going to deny that entirely. One is a limited time five star, the other is a standard five star. Just like with Yunli and Clara, or Sunday and Bronya, I don't think it's a bad thing for the limited time version to be stronger because you should get something in return for the money/pulls you spent on them.

But it's a shame that it's a meme to root for Yanqing, rather than being honest about the fact that he's still a five star DPS. You want to make him work, you absolutely can. You just need to know that he's a bit awkward coming in, but aren't most teenage boys?

======+++++======

If you want more thoughts on mine on what shifted Star Rail's design priorities from 1.0 going forward, please shoot an ask. The shortest version of it though is that Simulated Universe was eventually chosen to be more side content than truly the focus of end game content.

My link to Amphoreus' pre-registration, if you want to help me out. Still feels weird to say that a pre-registration is happening for a game that's already out.

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

[slugdragoon]

RPG Role Analysis Series #15 - Mother 2/Earthbound

Mother 1 analysis here

Ness - Ness' stats are a little bit different than Ninten, opting instead of perfectly balanced stat growth to give him the stats of a secondary damage-dealer role as the character with the best Offense next to Poo, but also the best ability to get critical (SMAAASH!!) hits. That's actually the same as Ninten, but Ninten got it by default by having a base stat total so much higher than Ana and Lloyd that "balanced" was really strong. Ness also has a higher base stat total, but the gap is closer here and Ness's stats actually have an emphasis on critical physical hits, and if anything, is a bit slow compared to Ana and Poo, so it feels like more of a choice here.

However, when looking at Ness's PSI ability list, he's also a flavour of support PSI user, much like Ninten. Ness has HP-healing moves, both more of them and faster than Poo, but gets status-healing abilities later and can't guarantee revival of party members to full health (but has a 75% change to do it to half-health). Ness can also do single target shields. His signature offensive ability is a multi-target, no-element wave of PSI that might decrease enemies' resistance to PSI attacks. Ness is the only character to be able to put enemies to sleep or paralyze them, or use PK Flash which does a random detrimental effect (status and instant death among them). This is a major change from Ninten who gets no offensive PSI at all (but who could still hit really hard). I think Ness, even more than Ninten is an all-rounder. He really can do everything just a bit worse than the best. Maybe a little more luck-based, too, given his gamble on revival, gamble on PK Flash, gamble on criticals instead of consistent high damage like Poo. Effects like PK Flash, Hocus Pocus (Dragon Quest), and Metronome (Pokemon) always make me think of a wild mage, but Ness is deep into healing too. A wild cleric maybe?

Paula - So I realized my memory was faulty, because although Ness, Paula and Jeff are very clearly modeled after Ninten, Ana, and Lloyd, Paula isn't much like Ana mechanically at all. Paula has the same emphasis on being the party's PSI whiz kid with the highest IQ, like Ana, but notably uses it entirely for combat. She's fast too, but isn't using her Speed to go first as a healer and stabilize the party. Paula uses Fire, Freeze, and Thunder to attack her enemies, and she's kind of a glass canon with miserable defensive stats. She can also drain PSI from enemies, buff your Offense and Decrease enemies' Defense, all of which are pretty aggressive abilities. The support skill she does get is a PSI nullifying or reflecting shield, depending on the rank, like any good dueling wizard. No status effects though, which always makes me think more battlemage than black mage. The exception to her lack of healing and her inability to deal status effects are the random results of her Pray ability, which really can't be described in any other way than a wild magic effect that covers many scenarios, a small fraction of the time, randomly.

Jeff - Jeff get the exclusive ability to Spy, which give you information on the enemies' Offense and Defense, a PSI weakness, and any items they might drop, which allows you to take them after battle. I wouldn't say the looting ability suggests thief at all for Jeff, as you can't take the item and run, and I think that distinction makes the difference, but the other side of Spy is much like Goombario or Goombella from the Paper Mario series. In terms of using items to attack, Jeff is a lot like Lloyd from the first game, but with a larger set of items. Unlike Lloid, some of them have no chance to break after use, so become his defacto attacks, and he's less about inventory management, despite still using Bottle rockets. Jeff's tools also can drain HP and debuff and remove shield from everyone, including the party. That last one, plus the inherent HP-splitting effect of draining moved makes Jeff a character than levels the playing field, in theory. Reset buffs when they get out of hand, and in terms of HP, take from the rich to give to the poor. OK, so maybe he is a thief of a different kind, but I would overall call Jeff a tactical scholar/scout type who can read enemy weaknesses and choose the best moment to strike with, often limited use items, but in the meantime keeps the party from getting in a bad tactical position.

Poo - You would think Poo, a martial artist, would be a lot like the remaining character from Mother 1, Teddy who was a huge physical damage dealer, and Poo can hit the hardest of anyone in Earthbound, but he can also use PSI this time. Poo is the best at fixing status effects and reviving party members, though a bit slower at learning HP-healing abilities than Ness, and he gets multi-target PSI Shield while Ness can only apply it one party member at a time. The difference between the usefulness of this is even greater in a game with 4 party members instead of 3. Poo can also confuse enemies, guarantee fleeing from battle, and drain PP, and attack with PSI, but his damage output won't be as good as Paula's until he gets PK Starstorm. Poo has the Mirror ability to copy a move from an enemy for one turn. Honestly I don't think that one is very notable, but it's like a magical counter ability, fitting for a martial artist. I feel like it's common to see monks get status-healing in JRPGs, like Chakra in Final Fantasy, and everything else about Poo's design says monk, plus they sometimes get confusion as a physical ability like dazzling them with your fast strikes, and Poo is the fastest. However, mass-party shielding and full revival is so strong that he has strong protection cleric energy as well.

[monowritestoomuch]

My Notes While Listening to Chapter 1 of Lost & Found

So I only found Charlie from BitterSweet so far and that's what I've been using to write Charlie's character. but in light of the newst hype with him and Auron, now I'm listening to the audios. This is all of chapter 1's notes that I wrote. Read along as I lose my shit.

NOT THE SLOGANS BRO--

HE'S A CUTIE OML

I see he had to sign un NDA, hmmmmm, and so did we, hmmmmmm--AURON YOU MOTHERF--

OH MY GOD HE'S SUCH A WET CAT

WE PUT A LOVE NOTE IN THE CD?! OH MY GOD THE FUCKING HEARTBREAK BRO

MOMMY AND DADDY ISSUES BRO BUT MAKE THEM SADBOI ANGST

HE WANTS US TO RUN OUR HANDS THRU HIS HAIR BRO DUDE THAT IS THE MOST ROMANTIC SHIT I'VE EVER HEARD

HE DEALT DRUGS?!

BRO WAS THE DRUG DEALER HOLY FUCK HE IS WALTER WHITE

it can't get worse, can it?

Oh no he, he was hopeless to life, oh. . .he didn't care about death. . .oh

He almost did. . .oh. Someone saved him. At least he made friends?

Dude omg

He got out and he's free? Dude has the mental health of a fricking side character in the mf mcu

guilt and shame and fear, dude im gonna cry,

He's not okay guys.

"I just have to keep going," what if I cried?

"And then you showed up," WHAT IF I CRY RIGHT HERE RIGHT NOW

Bro said that it wasn't a good story. Bro. Bro. You're traumatized honey. You need therapy honey.

HE'S A TRAUMATIZED CUTIE

PLEASE JUST KISS ALREADY

DUDE WE DID SLIP YOU A LOVE NOTE AND I'D DO IT AGAIN--

PLEASE JUST KISS ALREADY WJKFNFRSUKDNJCFUD

I'D TELL YOU BY KISSING YOU BRO, NOT HARD

PLEASE KISS

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE

HOLY SHIT UHHHHHHH WHAT'S ABOUT TO HAPPEN WITH US AND HIM BRO WHAT

"I dare you to, show me how you feel. . ." WHAT IF I FUCKING SCREAMED

THE KISS HAPPENED YALL.

(he's a fucking bottom omg)

damn bros speechless

MORE KISSES?! YUURI MY GOOD SIR YOU'RE FEEDING US TONIGHT--

WE ASKED IF HE WAS OKAY. WE STAN PPL WHO CHECK IN ON THEIR PARTNERS.

HE'S TOUCH STARVED OH HONEY--

MORE KISSES

"just a natural reaction" and I oop--

more kisses

"excited around you--" I CHOKED--

NO DON'T GO TO BED--NOT WITHOUT HIM

HELL YEAH HE'S GONNA CUDDLE

yes honey, you're nervous. it's okay

COMMUNICATION IS THE FUCKING KEY

Side note: I had to pause this absolute masterpiece because I actually had to screech.

Oh he's self deprecating, oh no baby. . .

"Maybe I'll figure it out if you kiss me again," WHAT IF I ENDED UP ON A PUDDLE ON THE FLOOR--

He called us hot, guys. Why can't real men be like this?

more smooches. okay. okay.

HE MISSED US. MY FUCKING HEART <3

WHY CAN'T REAL MEN BE LIKE THIS?!

Ticklish you say. . .

mono.exe has stopped computing

sir.

"None of it has changed. You still make my heart race." Can a man say this to me?

"Restless sleeper." Restless sleeper you say?

His parents totally shipped us.

"Gas station rhino pills." PFT--HDJFEWHJDSFKJESDJFJWE

YOU ARE GOOD ENOUGH NO MORE SELF DEPRECTATION

YOU ARE NOT DAMAGED GOODS

EXPECATATIONS MY ASS. YOU'RE GOOD ENOUGH.

YOU'RE NOT GOING TO DISSAPOINT ME. YOU'RE A FICTIONAL MAN. Honestly you can't do that, it's impossible.

HE IS A FUCKING BOTTOM I WAS RIGHT LMAO

I would kiss you a million times my boy

mono.exe has stopped computing x2

THERE'S SO MANY PEOPLE WHO WANT YOU BRO. HAVE YOU MET THE WET CAT LOVERS?????

"How do I say this without sounding like a thot?" my friend, you are one

mono.exe has stopped computing x3

IM SO RED IN THE FACE RN ACTUALLY IM A FUCKING TOMATO

I WOULD KICK HIS ASS IN A FIGHT THAT SCRAWNY MF NEVER STOOD NO CHANCE

WDYM UR NOT SMOOTH BRO

HE'S THE SILLIEST LITTLE GUY ISTG

HE SMOKES??????

HIS BOSS HAS A FUCKING WEED GARDEN I FUCKING CAN'T ANYMORE

little mister rat boy

he's so cute and for what.

BROS SO FUCKING HIGH RN

mono.exe had stopped computing x4

GUY YOU KNEW????? OMG IT'S FRICKING ALPHONSE ISN'T IT. AND SETH.

MORE KISSES

my fbi agent is going to be so concerned when i looked up "how to safely bleach one's ears?"

End Notes: I'm going to listen to chapter 2. Holy fuck. Please expect some Charlie content in January and February. Now I'm going to go bake. See you on the 25th for a special surprise!

[magicalmanhattanproject]

Who's Training Whom? or A Screed Of Reasonable Length About Why Étoiles Is Still 15-0 In My Heart

So, through this whole Codes vs Étoiles arc, we've been repeating the question over and over again: who is training whom? Are the codes training Étoiles? Or is he training them? Is he just making them stronger and stronger? Well, it turns out the answer is neither because Étoiles is learning and innovating and developing new tricks and techniques and the codes have learned a grand total of One (1) trick and are mostly relying on Number Go Up in a way that's antithetical to everything I personally enjoy about Minecraft PVP.

The rest of this will be under a cut on account of how reasonable the length is.

Okay, so what makes Minecraft PVP more engaging to me than PVP in other roleplay or video game genres? Well, the thing that makes it unique is that everyone is starting from a completely even playing field. Look at it this way: if a DND Barbarian and Rogue of roughly equal level just stand there and take turns hitting each other, the Barbarian wins. The Barbarian has more health and does more damage and that's going to tell pretty quickly. Of course, there are ways to compensate for it and the Rogue can think on their feet and engineer a situation where they win and of course there are also advantages to playing a squishier class, but the point is that there are squishier classes and squishier players.

Minecraft doesn't have that. Everyone has the same number of hearts and can theoretically use the same weapons and armor. If you and a friend jump into a Minecraft world and just stand there and take turns hitting each other, whoever goes first wins.

That means consistently winning at Minecraft PVP requires you to get good at thinking on your feet and engineering situations to your advantage. You aren't a tank by virtue of picking the tank class at the start of the game, but you can become a tank by making a turtle farm for turtle master potions. You aren't a damage dealer because you selected the high DPS character five minutes ago but because you spent hours grinding the resources to upgrade your weapons to the best they can possibly be. You aren't winning fights because the stats on your gear are higher than anyone else's. You're winning fights because you know how to control the fight so that you can hit the other guy more than they can hit you. If you're winning fights with other PVPers, it's because you're better than them at their own game.

Unless you're the QSMP Code Monster.

And like, to be clear, I don't blame the admin(s) for getting frustrated enough to brute force it. We know current 06 is competent PVPer and so are a couple others we haven't identified for sure yet, but I doubt they were hired specifically to be cracked at PVP. But like, they also do have to fulfill the role in the story of being cracked enough at PVP to kill either the super well defended eggs or the French Beast. Like, they do deserve to take some shortcuts.

But also, it does really really undermine the narrative of the codes and Étoiles training each other when the codes aren't really learning from Étoiles because there's a lot they could teach him.

For example, they haven't really made much progress on learning to outmaneuver them. Watch back any fight where he's fighting them 2v1 after the sweeping edge bug gets fixed. If you're fighting someone 2v1, you want to be attacking them from two different sides since they can only defend and counterattack from one side at a time. Watch how often they're both attacking him from the same direction. That's not an accident. That's Étoiles constantly moving to keep both his enemies where he can see them and it's not something they've made much progress on dealing with. The fact that they'll have three codes present but only two of them attacking at once pretty clearly demonstrates that they haven't recognized the importance of using the numbers advantage and negating the shield.

(Also, this isn't super relevant, but Étoiles is a master of healing potion usage. Watch how often he throws them ahead of where he's running so he maximizes how much he splashes on himself and minimizes how much he splashes on the codes. It's good stuff.)

One really clear moment that shows how the admins have a tendency to brute force their way through Étoiles related problems is in the fight in the basement of the lore dungeon where Étoiles was convinced he was going to die and the admins had to give him a goodie bag afterwards. At one point, he digs himself down into a 1x1 hole and a code follows him down into the hole to attack him and prevent him from warping away. He grapples out and seals off the hole. From his expressions and reaction time, it's pretty clear this was a plan to trap the code the whole time. The code breaks the block and rejoins the fight. We have never seen a code break blocks before or since including in otherwise relentless attacks on eggs behind unprotected walls.

Like, dude, you got outplayed. Take the L. And no, I don't buy that it's just the code getting more powerful from training with Étoiles because, again, we haven't seen it break blocks since that one fight. This doesn't seem to have been an ability added to its bag of tricks.

Speaking of abilities which have been, I do think that giving it God apples in that fight was a fine play. Okay, it's getting stronger and it can buff itself now. Great! Genuinely! But again, it's only really getting stronger in the sense of Number Go Up.

How does Étoiles counter this new threat? Well, one day he's laughing hysterically at the idea of Tubbo using something as pathetically useless as a soul saber and the next day, he's got a soul saber of his own on his hotbar. Why? Because the soul saber's special ability is that it nullifies special effects. That's useless against 99% of mobs, but the hearts and regeneration given by the god apple are special effects that the sword can nullify.

Étoiles doesn't counter a new threat by buffing his stats or getting a stronger weapon. In fact, he gets a weaker weapon. He gets a weapon that he thinks is terrible and shitty and garbage, but that happens to give him what he needs for his specific use case. And that's enough to turn the code eating god apples from a seemingly insurmountable advantage into probably a mistake to even bother with.

Étoiles fights the codes with three weapons out. First, his broken sword, which does such absurd base damage that it's stupid to use anything else. Second, the soul saber which turns the Code's most obvious power move into a trap. Third, the nightmare scythe, which blinds enemies, leaving them disoriented and giving himself time to recover. He also has his grappling squowk for mobility, Enough healing potions (he prefers to have at least 1000), a lava bucket for chip damage, blocks for gaining distance and controlling enemy movement, a water bucket for controlling enemy movement and clearing cobwebs, and his xp backpack to keep all his gear repaired. This represents a massive amount of prepwork and theory crafting to put together and have ready and decide on what to have and how to use it. He also has to know his notoriously messy backpacks by heart to be able to navigate to his other potions fast enough to be able to use them in a fight, which is he is consistently able to do.

The Code has a healthbar that doesn't move, a single weapon that does too much damage for the repair upgrades to keep up with, and sometimes it can spawn a single cobweb now, which Étoiles already had a counterplay ready for.

Like, I get that Étoiles is the goat. I get that. I am not going into this discussion unaware of the fact that Étoiles is the goat. I am not expecting the admins to be able to play at his level and to be able to pull out all the tricks he pulls. In fact, it's fine and even good that the Code doesn't have the same tools and moves as a player.

But it still feels a little cheap to say that Étoiles isn't ready for the sword yet when he's outplaying them every single time it's even possible to make a play.

Oh before I forget to add it in, the cobweb is the One (1) trick the code has actually learned from Étoiles. It's a good trick, to be fair.

Anyway, the other big problem with Number Go Up escalation that we've reached a point where it's Literally Impossible to fight the Code without the Shield. Without the Shield, either the Code is gonna have to be randomly weaker for no reason, or it's gonna just gonna get to run around pretty much unchecked for a while. To be fair, the Code running around unchecked could fuck, except for the fact that there are counterplays available if it didn't three shot people in full armor.

The big problem with fighting the Code right now, aside from the whole three shotting people in full armor thing, is that it has that sword that makes you drop whatever you're holding.

Luckily, Étoiles and BBH both have their own separate, individual solutions. Étoiles never got the chance to test his out in a combat situation because he got the Shield before it came up, but BBH used his against Code Tilín during the new member code battle and it proved effective. Unfortunately for all of us, Étoiles still landed the final blow on that Code so I think a lot of people failed to realize just how powerful BBH's strategy is.

But since then, the Code's damage output has just simply gotten so ridiculous to be able to cope with how ridiculous the Shield is that all those interesting, exciting strategies get sidelined in favor of Number Go Up.

So, uh, yeah. I think that's about everything I had to say. In conclusion hashtag hire jojosolos to play the code monster please quackity please she's a cracked pvper and she knows modded please

[spinaroos-47]

I started a new save a week or so ago, and here are most of the spirits Ive used so far.

It's been fun and refreshing to experience the new stuff in the way that its probably more expected. Im taking things slow, but yknow, some stuff has been going faster since I know more now.

I decided to try and name my spirits this time! I chose Ankylo as my starter, named Ponkylo, and... unfortunately he got replaced quite fast, there was a lot of times that he was getting oneshotted while in full health and armour, while my other spirits were doing fine, all around the same level, mind you. 

Oh Womr and AquaPlont were the first additions to the party after Ponkylo, Oh Womr being very useful to clean the area around my base especially. Cactise went to replace Oh Womr since most islands around were either earth, water or poison types. Plus I wanted to try using their hability of being the most likely one to be targetted to use them as a bit of a shield/tank. 

That worked well until I got to a water dungeon. When theyre weak to water nfjfjgn. They even used to be named Hydrange before I realized the fact, so I ended up changing their name to Cactise, and finding a poison substite to them, not pictured here

And finally, RubensBrutus. I just really wanted an electric type and he was the first one with a good level that I found. Not the biggest fan of Burgloons, but he's growing on me, kinda my main damage dealer right now. The name came because I was thinking of calling him Rubens, but wasn't sure, and my sister was around and suggested Brutus. So, RubensBrutus

I got two other spirits now, a Shadeling and an Emoshroom, but that was after I drew all these, so I'll draw them some other time

[mbumblebuzz]

can u explain what tf2 is ? as in depth as possible, if it's not an inconvenience ^^

ANON YOU'VE MADE MY DAY PLEASE MARRY ME /j ohhhhhh boy strap in i'm about to give you one hell of an infodump(seriously this is pretty long there's a lot to cover) team fortress 2(tf2) is a class-based multiplayer shooter game released in 2007 by game developer valve. it was originally developed off a quake mod and released alongside two other valve games-portal and half-life(eps 1 and 2, and hl 2)-as part of the orange box. it is free to play off steam and is the most fun you can have online.

GAMEPLAY

tf2 is generally played in a team vs team format - red vs blue. mainly gonna talk about casual since competitive has its own rules and servers also do sometimes.

there are nine classes/ 'playable characters' - scout - soldier - pyro - demoman - heavy - engineer - medic - sniper - spy

each class has its own function/role on the team. these roles are grouped into 3 different 'types' based on how the class is meant to be played- offense(scout, soldier, pyro), defense(demo, heavy, engineer), and support(sniper, medic, spy), although this system is slightly outdated.

offensive classes are the frontline classes, they're the 'attackers' so to speak. their main function is damage dealing and breaking through the enemy team's frontlines to advance the efforts of their own team.

defensive classes are exactly what they sound like: defense. if the enemy team has manages to break through the frontlines, defense classes are there to deal with them. their main function is to stop the enemy team from advancing.

support classes are also what the name says. they support the efforts of the rest of the team.

CLASSES (please keep in mind i am by no means an expert and these are just the main purposes of the classes. also, i will only be covering the stock weapons, as there are a multitude of alternate weapons and playstyles for each class and if i went into detail about all of them we'd be here all day lol)

SCOUT: the scout's main function is to get in and out and deal damage fast. he has the fastest base movement speed of all classes at 133%. he has a base health of 125, with 185 health with full overheal. he is the only class that can double jump. his stock weapons are the scattergun as the primary, pistol as the secondary, and baseball bat as melee.

SOLDIER: the soldier is mainly meant to be a damage dealer and is very good for clearing out groups of enemy players quickly at mid to long range. his base movement speed is 80%, one of the lowest in the game. base health is 200, 300 with full overheal. the soldier can rocket jump, the act of shooting a rocket at the ground and jumping to launch yourself into the air and across the map, an ability shared with the demoman. soldiers are also effective at destroying engineer nests. soldier's stock weapons are the rocket launcher, shotgun, and shovel.

PYRO: the pyro is most effective clearing out groups of enemy players at close range by setting them on fire. base movement speed is 100%. base health is 175, 260 full overheal. enemies set on fire are subjected to afterburn and take extra damage over time even if they are not being actively attacked. the pyro also has the ability to deflect projectiles(rockets, grenades, arrows, ect.) with their airblast. it can also be used to push away enemy players and extinguish teammates that are on fire. pyro's stock weapons are the flamethrower, shotgun, and fire axe.

DEMOMAN: the demoman specialises in dealing damage through explosions. base movement speed is 93%. base health is 175, 260 full overheal. demo has two main explosive types: stckybombs and grenades. grenades are like rockets in that they expload on contact with enemy players. stickybombs are useful in laying traps, as they do not detonate immediately and can stick to buildings and other surfaces and can be remotely detonated by the player. both can be used in a similar way as rocket jumping. demos are also effective at destroying engineer nests. stock weapons are the grenade launcher, stickybomb launcher, and bottle.

HEAVY: the heavy weapons guy(heavy) is good for mowing down enemies quickly. base movement speed is 77%, slowest in the game. base health 300, 450 overheal, most health in the game. heavy's minigun has a very high firing rate and thus a high damage output but is slowed significantly while firing. stock weapons are the minigun, shotgun, and fists.

ENGINEER: the engineer specialises as the main defensive live. base movement speed is 100%. base health is 125, 185 overheal. the engineer's main ability is constructing buildings. the building he can construct are the sentry gun, dispenser, and teleporter. the sentry gun is a stationary gun that targets enemy players at mid to close range. dispensers are stationary buildings that provide ammunition and health to teammates. teleporters are used to transport teammates around the battlefield quickly. a collection of all these buildings together is sometimes referred to as a nest. the engineer technically has four weapon slots as opposed to the usual three- the stock weapons slots are the shotgun, pistol, and wrench, along with the pda which is used to monitor buildings.

SNIPER: the sniper's main purpose is picking off important enemies at long range. base movement speed is 100%. base health 125, 185 overheal. headshot with the sniper rifle is a guaranteed critical hit that will kill most classes instantly(unless the enemy is overhealed) and a fully charged headshot will instantly kill all classes(unless ubercharged). the rifle charge is built while scoped(zoomed in). stock weapons are the sniper rifle, smg, and kukri.

MEDIC: the medic's job is to heal teammates. base movement speed is 107%. base health is 150, 225 overheal. the medic technically has no primary weapon and instead has the medigun, which heals injured teammates. fully healed teammates get overheal going up to 150% of the player's base health. healing teammates builds ubercharge, that, once fully charged, is used to make both the medic and the target to the charge invincible for 8 seconds. the medic's stock weapons are the medigun, syringe gun, and bonesaw.

SPY: the spy is a stealth class mean to infiltrate the enemy team and kill targets undetected. base movement speed is 107%. base health is 125, 185 overheal. the spy has the ability to cloak and become invisible or diguise as enemy(and friendly) players. the spy can also backstab, instantly killing the enemy when attacked from behind. spy can also disable and destroy engineer buildings using the electro-sapper. the spy also technically has four weapon slots- stock weapons are the revolver and knife, as well as the disguse kit and invis watch.

GAMEMODES

the main game modes i'm going to talk about are capture the flag, control point, payload, and mann vs machine, as those are generally the most played. capture the flag, control point, and payload are all team vs team, and mann vs machine is technically player vs everyone

CAPTURE THE FLAG pretty simple, the main objective is to get inside the enemy's base and steal their intelligence and bring it back to your own base without getting killed. if a player carrying the intel is killed, it is dropped in that spot and can be picked up by either team. if it is picked up by team it belongs to, it is sent back to their base. if the intel is not picked up within sixty seconds it is also sent back.

CONTROL POINT both teams work to capture all control points. depending on the map, the method of capturing the points may be different, but overall play remains much the same. to capture a point it must be stood on by a member of a team for a certain amount of time. that player must be uncontested(no players from the other team at that point). more teammates on a point mean the point is captured faster. scouts also capture points at twice the speed of one player. there are typically an odd number of points. depending on where the point is, it can be locked, captured, or neutral. locked points cannot be captured by the opposing team until the point before it is captured. captured points are points that are captured but can be taken by the opposing team. neutral points have not been captured by either team.

PAYLOAD the attacking team(blu) attempts to deliver a bomb through a series of checkpoints into the defending base(red) within five minutes. players push the cart foreward by standing on or next to it. each checkpoint the cart reaches adds time to the clock. the more people pushing the cart, the faster it moves. if any member of the opposing team stands next to the cart, the movement is stopped until that player is chased away or killed. if there are no players pushing the cart after thirty seconds, the cart begins to slowly move backwards.

MANN VS MACHINE a group of three to six players fight a horde of robot versions of each class attempting to deliver a bomb into a mann co stronghold. the robots attack in waves and the players must defeat each wave to defend the stronghold and prevent the robots from delivering the bomb. there is a period of set up time for players to choose weapons, set up buildings, and build ubercharge before fighting. dead robots drop money, which can be used to buy upgrades for weapons and ammo, as well as health and crits. medics can also revive dead players, allowing them to get back to fighting faster.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

and that's the game! i didnt include the lore becasue it isnt really necessary to know to understand the game but if yall want to to i can make a continuation of this that explains the lore as well :) also if i got anything wrong feel free to correct me i mainly based this off my own experience and what the wiki says. im not perfect.

if you want even more information about everything i talked about, here are some useful links: official tf2 wiki official tf2 website

and also the petition for #fixtf2, bc the game is kind of overrun by bots atm :(

[cerastes]

IS3 question: how do you deal with emergency Out of Control on higher Waves numbers with any sort of consistency? Or like, even at all, outside a run with perfect collectibles?

The bonethrowers start strutting toward the exit with around 35% of their big ass HP bars left, and they just about onehit even my strongest units, so it’s extremely difficult to get any damage on them before they decide it’s time to head out and take your whole squad with them.

I can’t even begin to imagine how I’d build my squad to accommodate this stage given all the other killers you have to deal with and the strain on your resources. Any advice?

On higher Waves, like 12 and above, the best strategy is really to avoid Out of Control as best as you can. Dealing with it with no losses on higher Waves is pretty difficult, it is in fact one of the hardest maps, period, due to the way the stat multipliers just send the very high stats of the berserkers into space, and it's a pretty demanding map in terms of roles. It's not impossible but when doing Out of Control at highers Waves, always be prepared to lose a few Lives if it means clearing, as opposed to trying to not lose any and crumbling entirely. Taxes Omertosa and Kirin Yato S3s are good due to their ability to deal good damage safely, Fortresses (Horn, Firewhistle, Ashlock) are very good since they can be more freely deployed than ranged units (who initially only have the right tile and the mid upper tile) and have great range and damage, making them good at killing Bonethrowers. Paired with other damage dealers, Muelsyse Melee S3 and Eunectes S2 are great since they Stun blocked enemies for the duration of the Skill, making the rushers way more manageable. Pozy S3 is extremely good here due to the Typewritter. Trapmasters like Dorothy and Robin kick their asses with CC mines due to their high Physical damage and ability to keep them in place, as well as Out of Control having great Trapmaster tiles. Global attackers like Goldenglow and Ambriel work well on lower Waves, but not too well later unfortunately, due to their ballooning RES and HP being too much for them, respectively. Shifters have a bit of a hard time since the rushers' only real big lane to push them far into is the upper row which is well covered by Bonethrowers, so they only really pay dividends if you have ways to kill the Bonethrowers relatively quickly.

In terms of gameplan, you usually want the center and upper right Bonethrowers eliminated ASAP, while throwing excess means of damage at the left ones. Secure the right side to cover for fodder, take the right ranged tile and aim left or up to kill the Bonethrowers with a Marksman or anything that can reach (Fortresses can do this from Melee tiles), and use the mid upper ranged tile to the left to target whichever Bonethrower you aren't attacking first (I recommend aiming the top ranged unit to the right so that way they have better coverage of the rushers once the times comes). From here on, it really depends on what you're packing, but you ideally clear the map from right to left, and save skills as best you can for rushers. If you don't think you can avoid losing Lives, just pop skills to kill the earliest rushers and deal with the situation as it evolves.

Certain items make this map MUCH easier, like Civilight Eterna (their innate health loss is in fact True Damage, and it is amplified by Civilight), reduce enemy HP items in general (their innate health loss is a flat value, Bonethrowers lose 350 HP per sec, Leaders (aka rushers) lose 500 HP per sec, and their big HP pools makes the % based reduction good), Glory Pack if you have plenty of Fast Redeploy units like Executioners and Merchants (essentially lets you stunlock them!), Fincatcher's Shawl literally wins you the map instantly and is the best Out of Control item unless you have no ranged units at all, End of Times is, well, for obvious reasons, really good for this map lmao, and anything that extends CC duration especially if you combo with items that inflict damage while CC'd assuming you have consistent sources of CC. There's more utilities but those are the ones I rely upon personally.

Higher Waves Out of Control, not even the Emergency version, is an infamous run-ender. I personally handle it by sacrificing a few lives early if I can afford it to the first couple of rushers so I can bring out a strong latemap composition into the field, take out the second pair of mid and upper Bonethrowers, and then open the map up with units fresh and ready to cover the killer upper lane. I wish I could give you Magic Killer Strat but it's a difficult map that you never know really well what you'll have going into it. Hell, I try to make my Operator examples in these of varying rarities, but you can see how I mostly used 6* Operators as examples.

[cviperfan]

Pokemon Black Nuzlocke progress

-Caught a Darumaka (Enchilada) on Route 4 -Finally a full team! So wanna go over them real quick.

Stringbean is the Water/Ground/Rock killer. Decent defense and probably my highest speed poke at this point. Mega Drain and Leaf Tornado for decent damage, Growth to bolster Spatk, Tackle kind of a subpar normal attack option til i find something better.

PatBenatar is my rock (literally) in terms of raw attack and defense, the dedicated Flying/Bug bully. Smackdown and Power Gem for them, Mud-Slap at least an option for Electrics, and Headbutt a solid normal attack option.

Ratricia is the bruiser right now, with Hypnosis as a so-far reliable opening move into easy good damage from Crunch, Super Fang for big health pools, and Detect as a defensive measure.

Prince has low-ish Sptak and Spdef but solid attack, with Gust/Air Cutter to deal with Bug/Grass/Fighting types, Roost for emergency healing, and Quick Attack for priority damage in a pinch, with Big Pecks protecting against defense-lowering moves.

Juri comin in with decent Sptak and Spdef with high defense; Poison Tail and Bug Bite to cover Poison and Bug weaknesses, Screech to lower defense and Protect as a safety-net move.

Lastly, Enchilada is the newest member of the team, and despite sporting VERY low Sptak has solid regular attack, with Fire Fang and Headbutt as solid damage dealers, and Fire Punch/Facade a synergy combo if a Burn gets off. -Beat Battle Company no problem, tho the CEO's Mniccio's Swift did more damage than I would have liked -Beat Burgh fairly easily. Enchilada dealt with Whirlipede and PatBenatar took care of Dwebble with a one-shot but Leavanny gave Prince some trouble mostly thanks to Protect and some fairly hard-hitting non-effective Razor Leafs, which forced me to use a potion but Air Cutter and Quick Attack sealed the deal when a window finally opened.

-the post-Gym Bianca fight went pretty smoothly, along with the Cheren fight despite not knowing he was on Route 4 right after and IMMEDIATELY in front of the healing spot lol

The team so far:

Deaths: 1

[coachbeards]

no but the way that the show treated beard's repeated drug use as another "oh he's just so wild and quirky 🤪" joke instead of the self-medication and self-harm it actually was....

beard being high during a match because he accidentally consumed drugs he wasn't aware were out..............that's not funny. being a drug addict, getting high without being aware you consumed drugs in the first place must've been genuinely terrifying. while high on shrooms, the best thing you can be is calm and relaxed...beard had to go to work. he had to pretend to be okay. he couldn't let anyone see, since his literal career would be at stake if it was discovered. dealing with the anxiety of an unexpected high (one you can kind of see beard blame himself for. "i drank tea from the wrong pot." instead of framing it like jane left it out and he didn't know. he framed it like it was his fault. and "it won't happen again." again, like it's his own fault) that's not funny. that's not a little haha beard you're so wild <3 especially since two episodes prior, ted was having a panic attack during a match, and all the characters treated that with way more sensitivity than beard's situation. even ted, the one who is aware that beard's life was almost ruined my drugs, just made a joke about it.

making jokes that implies beard routinely gets high with their bus driver.... that's not good, y'all! smoking toad venom with the bus driver??? and ted brushing it off too and the show treating it like a joke? the bus driver also being revealed to be beard's drug dealer being framed as nothing more than just a quirky beard thing. can i just say i hate how much they refused to delve into beard under the excuse that he's just enigmatic and quirky? yeah.

in sunflowers, beard refers to shrooms as his medicine. and yes, meth + shrooms aren't exactly in the same ballpark. but if i heard my best friend, whose life was ruined by drugs to the point where i had to rescue him and nurse him back to health, said that he took shrooms as a self-medication tactic, i'd be a touch concerned. but since they never framed it as an issue, despite beard's backstory (and brendan had headcanoned drug addict beard from the beginning, so it's not like it just was put into the plot for the sake of mom city,) ted didn't make a big deal out of it. he was seemingly fine with beard's drug use, and even agreed to do drugs with him.

but also........................a man devoted to not only ted, but to the team........i just don't think he'd be soooo casual about taking several illicit substances and he wouldn't do it all willy nilly.

especially considering nate leaking ted's panic attacks to the press (which......not that beard was ever nate's target, but he could've easily leaked beard being high, too. which...again. would've tanked his career), beard wouldn't be doing drugs with the bus driver or traveling with illegal substances on a team related event. he'd be aware that his actions have consequences, clearly given his prison record, and i just don't think he'd be so......open and uncaring. beard was guilted by being high during a match to the point where he had to come clean, as it was something eating him alive.

if beard's drug addiction was revealed, especially the port vale match or using the bus driver as a drug dealer or carrying illegal substances on team trips..........it wouldn't just be his reputation and job at stake. it could ruin ted's career, having been aware of his criminal record and his repeated drug use and didn't do anything about it. it could create damage for rebecca, for employing a man without carefully combing through his records (drugs are..............obviously very frowned up in society in general, but within the sports world? yikes.). the team would face struggles as well. beard wouldn't risk any of that. but not only would he not risk it, he wouldn't do it so openly and freely in the first place.

i do not care that brendan waved it away with the excuse that meth and shrooms aren't the same thing. a recovering drug addict using drugs to canonically self-medicate isn't exactly a good thing. beard has substance use disorder, and i wish it was treated better within the show, by the other characters, and by the writers.

[blackjackkent]

All right, time to learn to fight Thisobald!

Our boy the booze elephant ("Wretched Distiller") is uh. Sure something.

That's... gross. :P At max damage he could two-shot Rakha by burping.

Numb also makes things somewhat complicated. Rakha's party, though, is actually better suited to this fight than Hector's would have been; Hector's primary damage dealers at this point were himself and Karlach who did bludgeoning and slashing damage respectively. Rakha has a bit more of a spread by comparison; she herself focuses on fire, Wyll does force and necrotic damage with Eldritch Blast, Minthara does radiant with Divine Smite and various other things (or potentially fire with Searing Smite). Lae'zel's weapon is a slasher but also does 1d4 psychic damage, and Minthara can use Inquisitor's might to imbue it with some extra radiant as well.

Also we're on easy mode. :P Thankfully.

-----

After Action Report:

OK this fight is actually a bit more goofy than I thought at first glance. Thisobald's reflux feature CHANGES based on the type of damage you do to him!

I had to do a couple reloads to try out different damage types to see what happened. Each of them changes the feature name, a new skill associated with it, and dialogue from Thisobald and Rakha in response.

ACID DAMAGE "Acid Reflux" -> "Acidic Regurgitation" Thisobald: "SIZZLE! FIZZLE! MELT!" Rakha: "Watch it - the acid's altered his brew!"

FIRE DAMAGE "Burning Reflux" -> "Fiery Regurgitation" Thisobald: "Fire and flames, blaze and burn!" Rakha: "Flaming brew? This battle's taken a heated turn."

COLD DAMAGE "Cold Reflux" -> "Icy Regurgitation" Thisobald: "Brr. Cold, chilled, frozen." Rakha: "The brew's been chilled!"

LIGHTNING DAMAGE "Electrified Reflux" -> "Electrified Regurgitation" Thisobald: "Lightning strikes. Drink up!" Rakha: "Damn - the brew's acquired a spark!"

NECROTIC DAMAGE "Rotten Reflux" -> "Rotting Regurgitation" Thisobald: "Drink of dead, dying, death. Order up!" Rakha: "The drink - it's turned necrotic!"

POISON DAMAGE "Toxic Reflux" -> "Venomous Regurgitation" Thisobald: "I've picked your poison!" Rakha: "Hells. His brew's turned to poison!"

I just love that Rakha, who is like the least one-liner-ish person, ends up cracking jokes here. This is clearly not her canon behavior but I thought it was funny. :P

Anyway. There's probably some kind of interesting strategy one could do here around orchestrating him having a particular damage type that would be beneficial to us, but I am not thinking that strategically about it. XD

I did have Lae'zel focus on the other four little zombies wandering around the place since we have to fight them too and her damage is more effective on them. Everyone else just sort of laser focused on Thisobald to try to burst him down.

The other interesting mechanic here is that every time Thisobald does a puke attack, he gets drunker. After three attacks he is "Profoundly Intoxicated":

This is basically how he died with Hector - exploded after drinking too much - so it would certainly simplify things if we didn't have to bust his health bar all the way down.

And sure enough, after his next fire puke:

Nice. Rakha was downed in the fire but Minthara, being the hardened warriors that she is, immediately prioritized beating the shit out of their adversary:

Obliterated.

"A shame, what the shadows did to him," Wyll says thoughtfully, looking down at the strange, bloated corpse. "His death gives me no pleasure."

It's perhaps a good thing that Rakha is still unconscious when he says this, because probably neither he nor she would be very proud about what she would have to say about how much pleasure Thisobald's death gave her.

[cringelordofchaos]

what's brawl stars about anyway

Do u mean the lore or the gameplay? I'm gonna talk Abt both anyway

Gameplay wise it's pretty fun, there are multiple brawlers (characters) you get to play with different personalities, gamestyles and mechanics, that belong to different classes (support, tank, damage dealer, marskman, artillery, assassin). A lot of the game is about knowing how to dodge your opponents attacks and predicting your enemies movements but there's more to it and it's pretty fun and really good for a mobile game (and no ads god bless). you get trophies from victories and the rewards vary from starr drops (random rewards) to power points and coins which are used to upgrade brawlers or bling and gems which are usually used for cosmetics such as pins (emotes), sprays and skins, or credits used to unlock brawlers. (God I sound like a boring inexperienced game reviewer, sorry for that). There are several different game modes, permanent ones being solo showdown (be the last one standing), duo showdown (same but you have a teammate), gem grab (gems spawn with time and you and your two teammates are meant to grab them all and not get killed by the other team for a specific amount of time), heist (a broken ass gamemode where you're supposed to defend your safe and also destroy the opponents safe. The reason I don't like it very much is because it doesn't matter how much damage you're slowly doing to the safe with time and how much skill you have, because certain brawlers can just completely turn the game around with a single button and completely turn the game around, it's kinda annoying), there's also brawl ball (basically soccer), knockout (you n ur teammates need to defeat the opposing team twice), wipeout and bounty (similar gamemodes where your team needs to get more kills (except in bounty you have to play more defensively), duels (1v1), etc. and there are other gamemodes that come and go. tho do be aware, whole there can be a sense of community and friendship at times (such as a teammate giving you a genuine kudos after a match for being good at the game, or just throwing around heart pins and sprays to express allyship) there's also a shitton of toxicity, like opponents or teammates using the clown or dislike pin on you cuz they think you suck at the game or are using a "no skill brawler" or whatever, but you can disable pins and sprays and enable them back any time you want to. It sounds silly but sometimes Id get pretty upset from toxicity lol. You can also play with friends.

This is what the game can look like, there's the blue joystick on the left uses to move, the red joystick on the right for basic attacks, the yellow button on the right is a super attack that charges with time (takes more or less time depending on brawler, most brawlers can only charge their super gay attacking but some charge it by being close to Enemies / taking damage or it charges by itself). You can also buy/randomly get gadgets (in this screenshot I didn't have one), basically a special ability you can only use three times a game (or 4 if you purchase a specific gear), and you can also buy/get a hypercharge, basically takes longer time to charge then a super, increases your speed, damage and health for a specific period of time and changes your super (usually), like pocos normal super heals his allies but his hypercharged super adds a shield on top of the regenerated health. (Though pocos hypercharge kinda sucks because the shield decays pretty quickly. they did my boy dirty). Not every brawler has a hypercharge yet but they're planning to give everyone one at one point. Also as u can see the players on screen are pretty small, the little chat bubbles are pins that I was talking about, brawler specific pins also have voicelines (except for spike who doesn't have voicelines). Your teammates are blue and your opps are red and you are green.

This is a screenshot of payload, non permanent gamemode. Also it's similar to hot zone, I almost forgot it existed, basically you have to stay on the zone for longer than your opponents

The first few matches on a specific brawler you are put up against bots

(SORRY IF U WERENT REFERRING TO THE GAMEPLAY)

LORE WISE ITS. EXCELLENT. It isn't explored in the game itself, (however obvs there are hints thrown then and there), but mostly from outside sources such as the WKBRL livestreams, the starr park investor video, or CCTV footage. It's really fun and there's many videos made about it. It's basically about how all the brawlers are trapped there by force and how there's a ton of danger in it but the people who run starr park have to pretend it's not and force everyone to believe IT IS NORMAL. Everything is fine. The confusing part tho is WHY everything is the way it is. I'm not sure if I can explain all of it here tho. There's also a lot of cool characters w rly interesting personalities and back stories (from what we know anyway (like from their voicelines, brawler descriptions or official animations or artworks), like Gus, a little kid that one day followed a balloon that led him to starr parks ghost station, and now it's implied that he turned into a ghost (aka died) due to probably being ran over by a train or smth. Even though his current character description implies he ISNT a ghost it's probably a lie (starr park lies. A lot)

This is the official starr park investor video it's pretty cool

I like this guy's theories

Some CCTV footage

Even if you're not super into the DARK, TWISTED TRUTH BEHIND STARR PARK or smth the characters are still pretty fun

here's the official animations

There's also music, might be embarrassing but I like the bad randoms, even though it's supposed to be a parody of bad random teammates a lot of people claim to get

My fav brawler at the moment is Nita, her and her brother Leon's parents got taken away by starr park :( but I think that Starr Corp erased their memories

And also Colette, hyper obsessed teenage girl that loves collecting autographs and other things from all the brawlers and adding them to her scrapbook

And also Gus the traumatized ghost kid hahaha

I'd recommend checking it out!!!! sorry if I ruined it for you or I didn't explain something well enough

The community... Pretty toxic but at this point which fandom isn't :/ also everyone despises edgar for some reason (emo guy I occasionally post about) but Idc he's the first brawler I mastered and I love him

[blundergato]

im still playing zenless. i say this every so often, but i dunno how much i have left in me for this game. i rolled miyabi. shes broken as shit and makes every other character feel weak. why am i putting in any sort of work with a team build for my fully built nekomata when i can just choose miyabi, close my eyes, turn off my pc's monitor, walk outside and gorilla smash the buttons on my controller until she kills everything dead in 15 seconds flat. boring ass character to play, but goddamn shes strong. i rolled lycaon too and i havent even used him yet cuz i dont need to use anyone except miyabi (and caesar if i REALLY just want to turn my brain off).

the next characters coming are astra yao and evelyn. im not particularly excited about either of them. im a soldier 11 truther now, so i REFUSE to get evelyn. im sticking with 11 until obol squad comes out. astra yao looks neat, but i feel like unless the game somehow makes miyabi not busted, i dont give a shit about supports. ellen is coming back which is cool cuz i started playing after she was already gone, but miyabi exists and is also an ice damage dealer, so.....

none of the new future characters theyve shown speak to me that much.

--

i started playing judgement a few weeks ago. im back in kamurocho! i like it a lot so far, but...duh? i do like that yagami does not feel anywhere NEAR as busted as kiryu. like with kiryu (or majima or saejima), you walk around and you just feel like the final boss. yagami does not feel like that at all. hes a good fighter an all, but hes not a force of nature. kiryu gets shot like 3 times in a cutscene, takes a short nap and walks that shit off to fight 100 dudes at a shipyard. yagami can and will take actual, semi permanent damage to his health bar during boss fights. he also has to sneak around and stuff cuz hes a detective while kiryu's method of finding the truth is just beating up everyone in his way until he accidentally stumbles upon it. awesome games.

[safelynte]

A pattern I enjoy in games is the increase in volatility, complexity, and specialization as time progresses. This kind of game pattern reflects the rising action -> climax pattern from storytelling.

Rogue-likes start with some basic state, but as you get power-ups, they synergize with each other while enemies keep up. To take Slay the Spire as an example, characters have a set starting deck with almost 50% attack and 50% defense, little draw, and limited energy. As you progress, you begin to draw and play more cards each turn. Early fights chip your health, but as you progress, enemy damage becomes even burstier. But notably, your hit point total doesn't tend to increase very much. Heck, it often decreases. So the stakes of each turn/combat become a higher and higher % of your HP as you go ascend.

Even in each combat, playing powers and enemy buffs create this ramping effect. I think a good 80% of the enemies gain strength over time or place debuffs. There's always a trade-off to consider between long-term set-up and immediate blocking or damage rush-down.

There's a similar escalation in Starcraft 2, where ranged units tend to be a higher tech tier than melee units, and splash damage units tend to be an even higher tech. (Ranged units tend to be more volatile because of their increased ability to focus fire compared to melee units, which are constrained to surface area.) The earliest ranged units are Zerg Queens and Terran Marines. Queens aren't that volatile due to their high fire rate, high hp, low damage, and transfuse. Terran is the most glass cannon of the 3 races, so it fits that they get ranged first. There's some negligible early splash from Reapers. Sometimes, Hellions, Banelings, and Mines can pop off. But I things get really volatile around Seige Tanks, Templar/Disruptor, and Lurker play. The mining out of resources and base expansion in SC2 also notably make conflict more frequent and more impactful as game time increases.

It's a pretty obvious pattern in League. You start off doing piddly damage to minions, and trading a full HP bar between champions will take tens of seconds. But most champions get a big kill-threat spike at level 6. With a couple level spikes and jungle ganks in between. Once towers fall, fog covers the map, and volatility increases from hidden information. At the same time, objectives gather teams together in big fights, creating more focus fire opportunities. As damage dealers begin specializing, time to kill decreases until the point where entire teams can fall in seconds. Interestingly, towers scale down in HP, too. Combined with extended death timers, the stakes of a single mistake slowly approach the entire game.

Even the age-old game of chess exemplifies such a pattern. Pawns are the shortest-range, least-threatening pieces. But as they fall, they unlock space for more powerful, longer-ranged pieces. These powerful units also start at the edge of the board. As they take center, they are able to threaten more and more pieces. It's a really clever design!

[miriamforster]

So I’ve tried my ”release spiders, summon ogres, draw out Razlin, ENJOY THE CHAOS” strategy at least three successful times now and I HIGHLY recommend it to anyone who gets bored with the goblin leader quest.

If you like giant battles with like 20 people that take a long time and are unpredictable enough to keep you interested, this is for you.

1. Release spiders

2. Blow Ogre horn

3. Snipe Razlin from the unlocked doorway to his room and run the hell away.

Notes:

1. You absolutely can do this if you haven’t befriended the spiders. They’ll mostly chase the goblins first so as long as you don’t run by them and draw AoO, you should be okay.

2. You need a rogue by the spider door to start. Both for lockpicking purposes and to disengage to get by unallied spiders and goblins safely. Stab the guard first, then on your turn, lockpick the door and open it. When the spiders come out, disengage and start running to the right hand side of the room.

3. The person at the door to Razlin’s room needs misty step. Since it is a bonus action, you can hit Razlin and when the battle starts, dash away and misty step to get out of range, preferable to the right side of the spider pit. I used Gale because magic missile lets me hit Razlin and a couple goblins, to make sure I draw out everyone. NOTE: YOU MUST GET RAZLIN INVOLVED BEFORE THE MAIN FIGHT ENDS.

4. The person with the horn needs to be in the great hall. This is where the fights get unpredictable because you don’t know where the ogres will appear. Usually it’s on the left or right balconies for me. Depending on where they appear and who they fight first, it might take them longer to get down to the main hall, which means you have to kill more goblins yourself, Last time I did it, I blew the horn while standing on the back right stairs, which worked pretty well.

5. The name of the game is STAY ALIVE so you need a lot of healing spells, or a lot of potions or both. Also some of the goblins can curse or blind you so if you have access to remove curse and lesser restoration, those are good to have on hand. I like having a dedicated healer for this fight to free up spell slots for the damage dealers.

6. The goal is to get all of your party to the right hand side of the hall, (the side where the torture room is, and the path to the worg pens) Razlin and his crew generally come down on the left side, so this leaves fewer enemies for you to deal with. There’s high ground for spells, and there’s a ladder if someone needs to get into the rafters for any reason.

7. Once you’re all there, don’t spread out the party too much. You need to be in healing, helping and buffing range. (Rafter person is an exception.) If the ogres are engaging with Razlin, and no enemies are in range, heal and wait.

8. Keep an eye on Razlin’s health and the health of the ogres. They have never killed him by themselves in any of my playthroughs, but once you’re in position you can snipe him with spells and arrows. The balance here, if you can swing it, is to ideally get the ogres killed or take their health down enough so you can take them out before the battle is over. So don’t kill Razlin before he does good damage to them. BUT you do want him to be at least half dead or more before he turns his attention to you, otherwise bad shit will happen.

9. Once Razlin is dead, evaluate the ogres and the goblins left. If they’re still in battle, let them fight. If the leader is dead and you passed the persuasion check to hire them for free, any ogre survivors will just wander away at the end of battle. (May work if you agreed to pay them too but I never do lol) Regardless, you want the leader dead because Cool Loot so if he’s not, then make it so.

10. Mop up any leftover enemies. Last time I did this it worked so well that my Tav got bored and went to kill the goblins outside the worg pen door before the battle was fully over. It’s a good time to get the priest of Loviatar too, if you can. (He bugged for me last time.)

So there you go! Everything I’ve learned from doing GIANT CHAOS FIGHT in the goblin camp.

I’ve also discovered this doesn’t draw out Minthara, so you can save her for last if you don’t want to worry about reinforcements coming.

(Scream all you like Eye, no one will save you 😈)

Anyway, give it a try if this sounds fun. Make sure to save first!

(Edit: this does come with a risk of glitches, just because of the sheer number of people. Not recommended for an honor run.)