#i think i have all the melee and physical ranged dps that i can do rn all done so thats kinda cool ngl

[zwei-rhunen]

-crawling thru the Thanalan deserts like a parched creature -

I've finally done it.. I've finished Hildibrand 2.0 (and leveled MCH to 50) ....

Now I can work on the rest of Heavensward (and try out BLU) 😋

[prettycottonmouthlamia]

Sometimes it's fun to just find a cheese strategy, even if that strategy isn't the fastest at dealing damage or what not. "The Immortal" my friend I have bad news for you.

I'm a really bad fighting game player. I subscribe to the School

OF NO BLOCK!

To explain this cheese for people who aren't aware and are wondering why my friends here aren't getting sandblasted to death, "The Immortal" has an interesting AI quirk where the attack he uses is dependent on the tile your unit is on, not whether or not he can hit them. If the enemy is on one of the ranged tiles around the map, he will hit them with his sand blast.

But if they're on a melee tile, he will always use his axe swing. This means that melee units with 0 Block can actually attack him with impunity. This means that Ambusher and Dollkeeper Specialists are at zero risk of dying to him and can freely whittle away at his HP.

There are two risks however: the first is the weather, so it might be a good idea to have a Healing Defender (like Saria) to keep their HP up. I had Thunderstorms and that can kill operators deployed, which will restore 12,000 HP to the boss, which is not great. As long as Saria doesn't damage the boss, she won't be attacked by him too. You might even be able to use her S3 instead of her S2, I haven't tested that yet.

The second is that _one_ of the Ore Guardians will decide to waltz his ass in the middle. We hate this guy. It's not super likely he kills anyone straight out since he'll also be whittled down, but importantly, it's annoying as shit. Once you see him, it's a good idea to block it with either Jaye or Lappland (since Silence turns off the retaliatory Arts damage iirc) and kill it off.

Ambushers:

Ethan: Ethan can actually damage The Immortal with his S2, but he'll only do about 250-360 damage with each swing depending on his Module progress and this is assuming E2 Max Level and Mastery 3. You'll want to use his S1 instead, because The Immortal actually has 0 RES and so the 100 Arts damage per second will be a much higher DPS.

Manticore: Manticore barely misses the 1000 DEF mark for her normal attacks to do damage, so it's best to use her S2 for this stage. She won't contribute all that much to DPS outside of doing a lot of damage to the Core Guardian, so she's not the most useful here.

Kirara: This might actually be one of the best stages for Kirara in the game, which is absolutely hilarious to think about. We've done it. We've finally broken Kirara. I'm not entirely sure whether her S1 or S2 is better, I think her S1 has better overall DPS than her S2, but her S2 boosts her survivability in the stage and she's pretty easy to position for the bonus.

Mizuki: Mizuki is actually the only Ambusher who can deal more than chip damage with his normal attack (only 97 though), but he does so much Arts damage its not really a fair comparison. You can use either his S1 or his S2 on this map, depending on which one you find has better DPS against a lone enemy.

Dollkeeper:

Bena: With Dollkeeper's, their skills don't tend to matter because they pretty much always instantly die. You might be able to get some use out of her S2, but Bena is more important due to the fact that her Substitute deals Arts damage, and a fully upgraded Bena can deal about 800 per attack, which is pretty reasonable.

Kazemaru: With proper timing, Kazemaru might actually be able to deal some damage with S1, but the big draw is the burst damage she gets off of her Substitute being summoned. This being said, she won't contribute that much damage even with her Module since the Substitute does physical damage and is just barely under 1000 ATK. Like Manticore, she's not really needed.

Specter the Unchained: This probably will not be surprising, but she's easily the best Dollkeeper for this bit. While it's highly unlikely that she'll survive to use her skills (even with the help of Gladiia and Skadi) her best one is obviously her S2, and she'll even do pretty good damage with it. Her Substitute is one of the big damage dealers here, as a full rotation will do about 17,000 damage and gradually wear him down. Skadi's Mod Y will also be a big help her for increasing her damage output.

I don't have everyone maxed out, so I can't say if this cheese can kill him within the 5 minutes for the stage. If not, it can get a good idea to supplement with a high damage Operator (they need to deal at least 12,000 damage in order to be worth it).

[miqolena]

Full thoughts on DT physical ranged role questline

Below the cut. Spoilers. Warning: I'm mad.

I can't do a full play-by-play reaction to the questline because I didn't take notes (it would not have been worth taking notes, I realize now of course) but there are a few bits that really stood out to me.

Like the stealth mission. I started to see red when the game had me walk around a big boulder two times in a circle. What an utter disrespect of my time for the sake of padding out the quest to an arbitrary length.

Characters were forced to be stupid in unforgivable ways. Like my WoL and the woman who saw the antagonist originally masquerading as a merchant when he stole the artifact not recognizing him on sight by his SHORT PURPLE HAIR when he came to them in a mask-less MERCHANT disguise. gods be fucking good.

And later, the whole plot led up to an INVASION OF ALA MHIGO??? WITH MAGITEK WEAPONRY??????? AND NO INPUT FROM ALA MHIGO WHATSOEVER? Where was Lyse?? Raubahn??? Why did the Resistance show up AFTER the fight was over (I know, because gameplay needed to happen, shut up). It didn't feel like the city was being invaded because they didn't show any of the effects of an invasion, like people running or soldiers fighting. I can only assume that this is because it wasn't in their budget to set up those kinds of setpieces. I'm not a game developer. But you know what I think should happen when that is the case? You need to write within your budget.

I thought that the deal with the impenetrable barriers the artifact generated was that because they explode when dispelled - which the game made a BIG DEAL out of saying a couple of times - that was why you needed to by a physical ranged dps to handle them. Because you could shoot it from afar and be far away when the explosion happened. But no. It wasn't anything like that. In the final fight it wouldn't have mattered if you were a melee or ranged, you just had to strike a weak spot formed in the shield by standing in front of it and attacking the target. Utter bullshit. There had to have been some sort of disconnect between the encounter designers and the writers to have that sort of setup happen with no payoff.

The rotten, rancid cherry on top was when the music for the final encounter was the hee hee hoo hoo silly music from DT, as it is for all the role quest finales it seems. This person literally just invaded Ala Mhigo with magitek weaponry and intends to kill people with it and the background music is hee hee hoo hoo. Fucking unbelievable.

I'm seething. No quest in the entire game which I have been playing for 8 years has made me feel so mad because of its subpar quality. Truly an achievement. Thank you Dawntrail. I cannot wait to see what slop the capstone role questline will be.

[anarchypig0]

This patch I started to tank as BLU mage. I realize this is the most difficult role to fill at pf and see so many complains about BLU doesnt being a "real tank" -which is true but a lot of BLU mages aren't doing the tanking well. So here are my spells and advices for BLU mage tanking.

Disclaimer: English isn't my first language so...

For grabbing and holding aggro

#27 The Look. Amazing, it's AoE for taking aggro. But you must be aware that if the mobs move, they be outside the aoe when you finish the cast and wont ger aggroed. This happens very often because other BLU entered in their radio before you finish the cast. Thats why I recommend j Kick or Supernakha to catch their attention and then the look.

#31 Sticky tongue: draw-in spell which increased aggro. Useful for one lost enemy in the pull. But be aware of the radius of the spell.

#97 Hydro Pull: draw-in AoE spell. Be aware of the radius.

#62 Frog Legs: The BLU's provoke. Use it to reasure your aggro.

#61 Avail: The BLU's Shirk.

Advice on aggro and tankbusters:

Very important for all the party!!! some tankbusters are based on aggro (fine, you can hold it by reassuring while to while with Frog legs) BUT others are based on roles and you all are dps classes so these will be random. All BLU should have #29 Diamonback for these.

For mitigation

#77 Aetheric Mimicry /Tank) & #30 Mighty Guard. They're basic.

#32 Toad Oil: 20% more evasion. Use it in cooldown.

#29 Diamonback: Blocks 90% of the damage and nulify the knockback and drawin effects. Think about it as your invul. You cant move for 10s. With good timing you can survive to more than one mechanic with this. It's expensive in MP but has little recast time and will help your healers so much! Don't fear to use it for hard tankbusters.

#95 Dragon Force: 40% mit.

#89 Chelonian Gate: 20% mit with a relative fast recast, it reflect dmg when you take >30% of your HP. Very useful! You can mover but shouldnt since It will end the effect.

#75 Devour: Increases your HP in 20%

#107 Schiltron, #49 Veil of the Whorl or #16 Ice Spikes: These counter some dmg you take. Ice Spikes is the weakest of these, pick the one you like most.

#117 Force Field: It grants 50% physical mit OR 50% magic mit but you cant choose which one so I don't really like it. I feel you can rotate dragon force, chelonian gate, and diamondback safely and drop this.

Advices on mit:

This is important!!! Even with the tank stance and Mighty guard your HP will be the HP of a dps class so you won't have a "real tank" HP pool. You NEED to mitigate, specially the tankbusters. Plus BLU healers doesn't have the big toolset that a "real healer" has, and the res spells has a very long recast so you need to help your party by taking less damage and not dying.

Be careful because your "real tank" mits are instant and the BLU mits must be casted. You'll taking a race on which castbar ends before: your mit or the tankbusters one. So your reaction must be on time!

For Utility and support

#28 Bad Breath: Very usefull for debuff enemies, even the bosses usually take some of the debuffs.

#70 Cactguard: 15% mit for other party member. Useful if you're offtanking, you put it on the MT. Or if you're MT you can put it on healer in danger situations.

#13 White Wind , #73 Exuviation or #108 Rehydration : pick one or two healing spell for backup for your party. Exuviation is aoe and removes debuffs from your friends.

#72 Angel Whisper: Always usefull!! The res spell. Since it has a veeeeeery long recast time it's prefered to all BLUs to have it.

#57 Eerie Soundwave: remove buffs of the enemy.

For Damage:

#104 Nightbloom or #9 Song of Torment: DoT, always useful.

#105 Goblin Punch: instaspell for basic dmg spam spell. Must be in melee range. It's single target.

#63 Sonic Boom: the basic dmg spam speel. Useful when you're away of the boss. It's single target.

#80 J Kick: Gap-closer, useful for start a pull.

#97 Hydro Pull: Pulls enemies to you, usefull for dungeon pulls. Aoe.

#31 Sticky Tongue: Pull in one enemy to you. It stuns also and increases aggro.

#78 Supernakha: Usefull primal spell, and useful for starting a pull at dungeons.

#75 Devour: It restores some HP.

#33 Ram's Voice & #92 Ultravibration: Always usefull for dungeons.

#109 Breath of Magic and #121 Mortal Flame: BIG DoTs but only one of each can be active so only one BLU must cast them. I like it to be the tank or healers so the dps has more room for other big dmg spells.

Hope some of this would be useful to you if you want to try the BLU tanking. Once you get used to the different way of aggroing at dung pulls and to casting the mits it gets very fun and challenging!

Feel free to add your own suggestions!

[hopskipandarump]

ok hold on im having Omega-related feelings real bad so i'm gonna ramble for a bit

So like, every final turn Savage/Ultimate is a what-if scenario, like how Dragonsongs Reprise was "what if Haurchefant lived", and E12S was "what if Gaia remembered her being an ascian and beat our ass" etc.

One of the things TOP takes and runs with is stuff we learnt about in Endwalker. The original Omega story ends with M/F because Omega is desperate to work out how we're so strong, but ultimately fails to learn, and in Savage, it ended with Final Omega because the story was "what if Omega tried fusing to become EVERYTHING it can think of that makes the Warrior of Light the Warrior of Light".

In Endwalker we learnt about this thing called Dynamis.

You see where I'm going right?

Phase 5 of TOP is Run: Dynamis where you fight M/F who have somehow managed to unlock Dynamis themselves and you face more and more shit as Omega goes wild with this whole new thing to consider and experiment with. And every time the boss tries to use Dynamis, its partially blocked out because Omega has no idea that it's called Dynamis, so you just have "Run: ****mi*: Delta/Sigma/Omega""

Eventually you reach the end of the phase, and the phase 5 enrage is Omega deciding they cant work it out.

(The enrage is called "Blind Faith", by the way)

When you beat the enrage in phase 5, obviously, you get to phase 6.

Alpha shows up like in the original raid. Except this time, Alpha decides to fuse with this Dynamis-infused Omega and shares his memories and knowledge. I don't see it as Alpha "betraying" us, honestly and never have, I cant imagine Alpha doing this maliciously.

Anyway Alpha-Omega now has full use of Dynamis and is desperate to get to the end of this test and finally, FINALLY, learn what makes the Warrior of Light so very unstoppable

All of phase 6 is basically a back-and-forth of you/Alpha-Omega blasting each other with Dynamis in the form of Limit Breaks, you use tank LB3, Alpha-Omega uses Bard LB3, you use melee LB3, Alpha-Omega uses Dragoon LB3, Alpha-Amega uses Black Mage LB3, you use caster LB3 and physical ranged LB3, etc etc

(The party does like 10 LB3 in one phase it looks cool as shit lmao I'm a sucker for a flashy ending but I guess if I was a DPS main I may feel differently)

Eventually when you reach Magic Number (the lead-up to the very final enrage), Alpha-Omega comes to the realisation that all along, it WAS Dynamis that makes us so strong, and they're CERTAIN that they finally understand how to use it and are going to test their final hypothesis and, basically, see if theyre finally stronger than us and able to defeat the Warrior of Light.

(Hopefully) you beat Alpha-Omega before they finish casting Run ****mi* [Dynamis, still blocked out because Omega still doesn't have a name for this mysterious power] and as Omega sits there defeated and confused, Alpha un-fuses and slowly, Omega realises that whilst Dynamis makes us strong, there are more facets to the Warrior of Light's power than just raw Dynamis strength.

Alpha talks to Omega and offers to journey together so that Omega can continue learning about the world and all the different things that make ANYBODY, not just the Warrior of Light, powerful, to continue their experiment.

And then the story continues from there as it does after the normal raids.

ok thanks for coming to my ted talk bye

[lifewithcake]

hello, any healing tips for lower lvld dungeons? im kinda struggling since my whm has been boosted (a gift) and i find it hard without skills such as pi and rapture etc :( thank you!

Yes! I got very long here so I divided it by section. If you need anything past Stormblood, please lmk :)

Note that Whm really fleshes out in HW, so take your time to get used to all of those new abilities since they remain an integral part of Whm's kit even now.

Sections (for navigation):

The Basics MP Management Healing DPS Members during mob pulls ARR (1-50) HW (51-60) StB (61-70) Dungeon Bosses Conclusion

The Basics

The core is basically the same as it is in ShB/EW: Keep Regen on your tank as much as needed, and use a Lily/Cure 2 when your tank is around 60-70% HP. Lilies always come before Cure 2 because they are MP free. DPS outside of this as you are comfortable.

You "wait" with Cure 2 because it has a hefty 1000 MP cost and you don't want to overheal. 75% HP is a generally good threshold to cast at because the tank will have lost enough HP by the time your cast goes off to get full value. Outside of this time, you should be using damage spells.

Give your tank a Regen before they start pulling. If your tank presses sprint, you need to sprint right behind them! Falling behind is a sure way to wipe because you'll probably panic and misuse your resources.

Holy spamming is important because it's effectively a 6 second stun in the beginning, and healer DPS significantly contributes to packs dying faster. (I use Swiftcast + Holy to get an immediate stun off :)) It may seem that healer DPS is insignificant, but I guarantee it is not so. Faster enemy deaths = less healing required

MP management

Use Lucid Dreaming around 7-8k MP and keep using it as soon as it's up again. Adjust this threshold as you get comfortable with your MP management. The later ARR dungeons have the most difficult MP management, but it gets a bit easier after that.

Healing DPS Members during mob pulls

I don't usually think it's worth it to heal DPS teammates unless they look like they're going to die. Remember that Melee/Ranged Physical DPS can heal themselves too (RIP Magic DPS). I say this because it's a lot more important to save your resources for the tank. I only heal a DPS if they're dropping dangerously low.

This also applies to yourself, the healer! I don't heal myself during packs because I trust myself not to die. If you think you'll die, then heal yourself ASAP.

In bosses, heal whoever needs it. Your resources are a lot freer.

ARR (1-50)

Cure 1&2, Regen, and Medica 1 are your bread and butter, and you just press them as needed. Drop Cure 1 once you have Cure 2. Let this be the time where you practice DPSing when healing is not necessary. Build your comfort with it over time.

Skipping to the real nasty stuff:

Stone Vigil, Dzemael, and Aurum can get rough when your tank is pulling big, so you may often have to spam Cure 2. Do not refresh Regen until their HP stops yo-yo'ing up and down. ARR tanks can die fast, so keep Cure 2 spamming until their HP feels stable enough to use Regen. Reminder to have Lucid going to keep up with the hefty MP demand.

Aurum is very painful since we don't have Medica 2. In its absence, be preemptive on Bosses 1 and 3 with your Medica 1. The debuff stacks will start to hurt a lot, so keep people topped off as often as possible. Wane off your DPS a bit if your MP is struggling to keep up here.

Cure 3 is niche use because it has a very limited range. I've never needed it in a dungeon. Medica 1 and 2 are much easier-to-use options.

[Extra info: The post-ARR 50s dungeons are mechanically creative, and since they're so rare, people seldom remember the mechanics and just brute force it instead. That said, brute forcing mechs means healers pick up the slack with extra heal spamming. Don't let the randomly massive damage scare you, just do your best!]

HW (51-60)

Don't worry if MP management felt rough in ARR because it gets easier in HW! Every new ability is MP free and some are actively beneficial to it.

Lilies now come before Cure 2 on priority list. The use criteria is the same as always.

Medica 2 is now your go-to AoE heal. You most likely only need it once, so don't spam it or your MP will suffer. If you know you need more AoE heals, use Medica 2 and then Medica 1. Refreshing Medica 2 too early is wasteful to your MP.

Benediction is great for emergencies, but you might like it better as a planned heal! Letting your tank drop low while you Holy spam will help conserve your other heals and give you a few seconds of free DPS.

Place Asylum as soon as your tank stops running. Its total value value equals a single Lily/Cure 2, plus it gives a 10% buff to all healing. This 24s buff should last you through the beginning of the pull, which is the most dangerous (most mobs alive).

Use Assize when your tank is done running to maximize its DPS and also heal some of the mob-pulling damage. Asylum/Regen will do the rest while mobs are Holy stunned.

Thin Air is primarily used on MP-heavy spells like Medica 2, Cure 2, and Raise. All are great options, but you absolutely want to use it on Raise. (You can also randomly use it on Stone, since it's often just sitting there capped. An MP gain is an MP gain.)

Tetragrammaton comes late but is a fantastic addition. This will take priority over Lily/Cure 2. Tetra is my usually my very first go-to heal. In HW, it's almost a 50% HP heal.

As for dungeon specifics:

The Vault Boss 3 is a pretty tricky one for people, so don't feel bad if you aren't DPSing as hard so you can focus on not dying to mechanics. The final phase can be a bit overwhelming, so focus on mechanics and healing until you get the hang of it.

StB (61-70)

[It's basically HW healing, so get comfortable with those abilities. I skipped PI since you mentioned it already]

Your one new ability is Divine Benison. I use it all the time since it has such a short cooldown. You can use it on the pre-pull and then whenever you want basically. It's very open-ended use.

Jumping straight to dungeon specifics:

Shisui: Watch out for the long hallway between Boss 1 and 2. Tanks can pull the whole thing, so have a heavy-duty heal plan ready.

Bardam's: This whole dungeon is a healing trip, so you may be Cure 2 spamming more than usual. The first section is the most infamous, but I'd stay on my toes throughout the whole thing.

Doma: The section before the first boss can catch you off-guard because the tall robot with the sword can actually cleave the whole group. Yes, this is more on the tank to face it away, but you can make up for their lack of preparedness with your own! Make sure you stay behind that giant robot. This is also where Melee DPS tend to die, so watch them too.

The Burn: Damage comes very fast in Boss 3, so do not let it catch you off-guard. This is an infamously difficult boss for a reason. That ice puddle that does damage-over-time hurts a lot (even on tanks) so watch out. This boss also has a mid-damage raidwide.

Dungeon Bosses

In ARR-StB, non-tanks will typically only take damage for a failed mechanic. You will basically bounce between Medica 2 for party damage and Tetra/Lily/Cure 2 for single-target healing. You may also opt to use Regen.

Bosses will occasionally throw out unavoidable partywide (raidwide) damage, which can almost always be healed with a single Medica 2. (Remember you also have Asylum and Assize as options, though I prefer to use Assize for DPS. Asylum will buff your Medica 2 if you need heavy healing.)

Practice your DPS here, because you're going to have a lot of downtime between heals. I also urge you to get used to reading the boss's cast bar. This is a vital skill for everyone but healers especially. Pay attention and you will start to memorize patterns. Soon, nothing will catch you off guard. (For example, I have never forgotten The Vault's raidwide is called "Altar Pyre." I always have Medica 2 ready to go for that :))

Conclusion

A typical pull in StB will look like this:

Pre-pull regen + Benison -> (run with tank) -> Asylum/Assize -> Holy x 3 -> Tetra -> Regen refresh if needed -> Holy spam -> Lily/Cure 2 as needed -> Holy spam

If all else fails, spam Lilies and Cure 2. This will get you through mostly anything, with only your MP as the limit. Remember that Thin Air can save you up to 2000 MP through this. Hopefully you can stall for enough time to kill the pack or for another heal like Tetra to come back up.

If you wipe, don't let it shake you! Everyone has wiped, and I myself have caused wipes many many times. You can only get better, so please keep trying.

Apologies for a bit of long-windedness, but I hope the explanations have helped you at least somewhat. It may seem overwhelming right now, but after practice it will basically become instinct. I wish you the best on your journey! :)

[motheatenscarf]

Putting off Eden Raids until this weekend when I can maybe run them with friends so just slowly progressing the Post-Shadowbringers patch content.

It seems to be taking me about a month to get through an expansion in total, 2 weeks for base, then another 2 weeks for patch content. I think they're releasing a big/the final patch for Endwalker in June, so if I keep at this pace, I'll be just in time to finish Endwalker just as it's, well, ending.

Then I can wait along with everyone else for the next expansion and finally, FINALLY, try to catch up on all the things I've been neglecting so far, like other classes, crafting, housing, gpose, trust leveling, etc.

Unfortunately, me being the trash that I am, almost all of the classes I'm interested in trying out are melee dps which is... bad, because I need to find a caster dps, healing, and ranged physical dps class each to do these fucking role quests.

But the only things I want to try are Dragoon, Samurai, and maaaaaybe Dancer.

Speaking of dragoon, it let me do a roleplay fight as Estinien, and MAN. It's reminding me of that Musuo Warriors games bullshit, big nostalgia bomb. Actual dragoon probably isn't that absurd, but man it was fun. Glad to have another NPC around who gives Talia well meaning shit like friends do, because whether he likes it or not, Estinien is now her best friend and wingman forever, he knows the Aymeric secrets and he's the Stitch to Alphinaud's Lilo, so we have to keep him no matter how dumb he is about summoning up Nidhogg's power when he REALLY SHOULDN'T BE.

Wish he'd actually, y'know, STICK AROUND to be part of the narrative, but apparently I don't get that unless I play dragoon. So :T

Like, god. I just need him to stick around long enough until the Scions wake up because I NEED him to meet Alisaie. I don't even know what I want to happen, I just need them to meet. She would either grok him immediately and it would destroy Alphinaud that his senpai gets along with his sister better, or she would H A T E him because only she is allowed to pick on Alphinaud and would absolutely destroy him verbally and probably kick him in the shins and leave him unable to hop for a week. There would be no in between and either would be highly entertaining.

But yeah, stream of consciousness that is this post, holy fuck, go Alisaie for figuring out a treatment for tempering, that's my GIRL!! And she says she's not as smart as Alphinaud!!! GODDAMN!

[sorcerornobody]

After I made this post, I decided it might be fun to do a follow-up post to show some of Sumi's outfits, and her siblings.

Casual glamour.

Tank glamour. This was absolutely designed with Gunbreaker first and foremost in mind, but works well enough for all tanks.

Healer glamour. I wanted something that felt healer-y without being robes. I like robes! But I'm tired of healer gear just being robes.

Melee DPS glamour. For this one I primarily had Monk in mind, but it works well for all melee jobs, and I love it with Viper.

I don't have a ranged physical DPS glamour, as Bard, Machinist and Dancer have pretty different vibes, so I've not managed to come up with something that suits all three yet. [30/08/24 update] Ranged physical DPS glamour. This was a tricky one! But I came up with something I like that I feel works for all three jobs, and I think it comes down to having a few elements that suit each of them without ruining the vibe for the other two. And I love that the boots have a second dye channel and it's the laces! Again, I went for stuff that was all no higher than level 80, in this case as a precaution just in case Beastmaster turns out to be ranged physical.

Ranged magical DPS glamour (as seen in the original post). The one big restriction I placed on myself when designing this one was no gear over level 80, due to the Blue Mage level cap. I don't feel this was at all detrimental to the result, as this probably gives me the strongest vibe of Sumi's personality of all my combat glamours.

Crafter glamour (just the Pactmaker's crafting set) – this was the gear that made me realise how much she likes to show her scales.

Gatherer glamour (just the Indagator's gathering set).

Sumi's siblings all have variations on her eye colours, which allow you to tell them apart even without their differing hairstyles. To start off, here's a closeup so you can see Sumi's heterochromia – the left eye is a slightly brighter purple than the right.

Kasumi (inverted heterochromia).

Makoto (matching eyes the same colour as Sumi's right eye). Yes, she dyes her hair black as part of her aloof façade. Yes, the magenta highlight colour somehow persists, she doesn't carefully dye around it or even dye it back in, it just Does That.

Chihaya (matching eyes the same colour as Sumi's left eye).

Keiho (same heterochromia as Sumi).

Kansui (inverted heterochromia).

[capsicrew]

Get ready because I like to ramble. Just workin out my thoughts on the potential new jobs coming in 7.0 before we have any official announcements.

All we know as of writing this is that the 2 new jobs will be a physical melee class, and a ranged magical class.

I just want to go over my thoughts on potential classes which already exist in other titles.

Cut because I tend to type a lot--

Casting Jobs:

Geomancer: A classic job, which already exists in the lore of FFXIV. Mentioned off-handedly with regards to, like, The Swallow's Compass dungeon--but if you haven't done the AST quests; Geomancer exists as a practice in the Far East (shown in both Hingashi and Yanxia, at the least). It sort of exists in opposition to Astromancy-- AST derives power from the stars and heavens while Geomancer derives similar powers from the earth. Further--Geomancy in 14 seems to highly derive from 3 elements--wind, water and earth, which also makes it extremely similar to Conjury in Eorzea. In short--Geomancer already exists so hard in the lore as a sort-of Far Eastern take on conjury, it doesn't really have an identity outside of its relation to these other 2 jobs. But! I wouldn't say its impossible. "Geomancy" has such far-reaching potentiality, the opportunity still exists. Black Mages focus on Fire, Ice and Lightning, so it could be interesting to see a BLM variant that instead focuses on Earth, Wind and Water and could potentially provide party buffs as well, maybe similar to Bard. So--while I don't find it likely, I still have some hope as a fan of Geomancer. Bell weapons would be great.

Time Mage: Extremely unlikely. Most "Time Mage" skills were wrapped into Astrologian, so I don't see Time Mage being a unique job, even as a name for a new type of job. While I'm at it, the "Oracle" job falls into a similar niche, wrapped in AST's "fortune reading" aspects. A magical DPS job could be built with these names, but I feel like there's other options that are far more likely.

Chemist: Still a lot of hope for Chemist. I think the potential still exists for a "potions" themed class like this, but I think it more likely to be a healing class. So, probably not coming this time around.

Necromancer: After how much hype and hope there was for Necromancer as an EW class, I'm surprised I haven't seen more of it this time around. Necromancer has a lot of potential. If you aren't aware--Necromancer is an actual class that was added to the Advanced version of FF5. It has two skills, one is "Oath" which summons a random "demon" (of 4 potential results) to perform a single attack. And "Dark Arts" which is a list of powerful spells a Necromancer can learn by defeating specific enemies (similar to Blue Mage, but the enemy just has to be defeated by the Necromancer, rather than waiting for them to use the spell and Learn it). The trade-off is that Necromancer inherently has the "undead" status, meaning they cannot be healed by items and healing spells (except White Wind). In practice, for 14, it'd just be a sort of darkness-themed casting job, similar to Dark Knight and Reaper. The only refraining point is that Black Mage is a casting job that already deals heavily with the Void. Buuuutttt... "darkness" need not specifically be void-related. What would be amusing-- the 2 new jobs would start at level 80. Just slap the requirement to beat 5.0 MSQ to unlock it and the job teacher could be an Ascian looking for something else to do now that Emet-Selch is gone, lol. We DO still have convocation members we haven't seen or heard from at all lol  (though considering we're supposed to be "done" with the whole ascians/zodiark/etc saga, maybe they wouldn't pull that out).

Pictomancer: Seen it mentioned a few times. If it becomes reality, its likely just to be a whole new job based on the name, rather than including Relm's actual drawing ability (which was, like, a sort of weak Beastmaster catch/release skill). But just casting spells out of art supplies would be neat, aesthetically. Maybe worth mentioning that both Krile (XIV) and Relm (VI) are both adopted granddaughters. And Krile is due for a job change, I think. Would be great if she did. Cause if Pictomancer was really added, I'd be sorely tempted to make it one of Beutiq's main classes and its something he and Krile could conspire with lol

Melee Jobs:

Beastmaster: Been sing a lot of hope for Beastmaster as job. It wouldn't quite have the freedom of capturing any monster you want (unless its turned into a Limited Job, but I think we've all been too disappointed by "limited job" before). However, I could easily see Beastmaster being a physical job similar to Summoner in 14--where you're able to call upon a rotation of specific beasts/monsters which can attack and/or augment the player's attacks in certain ways. The slow phasing-out of "Pets" over the last few expacs gives me pause, but maybe that could be an excuse for Beastmaster to stand out. Again, though, I could easily see Beastmaster also being added as a "limited job," where you can capture and train from a list of monsters a la Pokemon--level them up and select specific skills, like the Chocobo companion. But... I'd really rather see it as a full job. My favorite class of all being a limited job already makes me sour on the whole concept, lol Also, I could see Beastmaster reasonably using the Scouting gear. I only mention this because common theory right now is that the new melee class will use the Scouting gear, since Ninja is the only "scouting" class atm--after Reaper was added to share Dragoon's gear last time. As an alternate method to capturing monsters, I could see Beastmaster combined with the Morpher job of FFTA, or Gau's abilities in 6--where the player channels the abilities of beasts/monsters (or actually transforming, in the case of the Morpher) to augment their attacks. Again, likely in the same line as Summoner where the Beastmaster has a set of routine skills that change execution depending on the active "beast."

Puppetmaster: Mentioning this one right after Beastmaster, because I could see it being added in exactly the same capacity. Moreso, perhaps, in that FF11 Puppetmasters were melee-ranged fighters along with their machines. Now, ideally... I'd like to see Machinist take on a form where its automaton is incorporated more into its kit, rather than a whole new class added. I was slightly disappointed when the autoturret "pets" were removed in ShB. Adding some more "puppetmaster" vibes to that part of the job would be interesting. It would create a nice trio of classes with Beastmaster-- Summoner as a casting pet-job, Machinist as a ranged pet-job, and Beastmaster as a melee pet-job.

Mystic Knight: I would love this, hahaha. Mystic Knight is probably my favorite non-casting class. The main challenge is that a potential Mystic Knight's weaponry would already fall into the same class of weapons Paladins use. But they pulled it off with Dark Knight--and I'm sure there's plenty of bladed sticks I'm not familiar with, so I feel like the potential still exists. It would probably be a whole new class with the sort of "feel" of 5's Mystic Knight, but the potential skills and abilities would be pretty easy to craft, I'd think. Maybe with a little feel from Monk were you can infuse the blade with a certain element which augments your stats to either focus on attacking, defense or speed. Or just a cycle similar to Summoner with just a sort of flavor of execution among different elements. When I think of Mystic Knight/Spellblade as a job in 14, though, I tend to think of it as a Tank, due to the comparable 11 class, Rune Fencer. However, based on my observation, I think 11's Rune Fencer was eventually worked into 14's Dark Knight (with 11's Dark Knight looking like its more comparable to Reaper). So just wanted to... point that out I guess. Totally could be a DPS job. Give it the Scouting gear, who cares lol The Warrior of Light wielding a sword with no shield in the teaser trailer gives me some hope, but it could've just been an "anything" filler before the new classes are officially announced.

Cannoneer/Blitzballer: Similar classes in concept. But most likely ranged classes, so not this expac. Only mentioning because I see people still talking about Blitzball lmao

Corsair: I've seen a lot of people talk about 11's Corsair being added as the new class. Which--doesn't seem at all likely to me? I think only because they see the Carribean influence on this central America-themed region and make the automatic association to the pirates. But, buddy, I just don't see it happening here. I think the furthest corsair's influenced has reached 14 is the gun symbol at the marauder's guild where they might've planned on putting a corsair starting class that would maybe evolve into Machinist at level 30. In the MCH quests, too, the guy who teaches you the basics is also a Lominsan pirate-type guy. So I just don't see Corsair being added as a class in its capacity as a job in 11. Plus the new job was announced as melee range, and I don't see guns being that. Granted, however... the 14 team could just develop a whole new class and CALL it "Corsair."

Juggler: Including because I think it would be really funny. Juggler is a sort of thief/ninja class exclusive to Moogles in FFTA. A clown-themed job would be great. Do whatever with it. Stabbing and tools. Melee machinist.

Other: Of course, the opportunity exists for them to do what they did with Sage. Take a job that exists and just ... make something completely new out of it. With that potential, even jobs that are just variants of existing jobs have potential, like Knight, Viking, Evoker, Devout, Magus, Illusionist ... even Green Mage, which is, like... nothing ! lmao

[nightzap]

I would say it's Dreadnoughts, because they are the most straightforward take on the idea of being a melee damage dealer.

I also think that Specialists don’t have a default since they are intended as gimmicky and have many different roles that are each doing their own thing instead of being deviations of each other. If anything, I would call Shifters the default, since the first guaranteed Specialist players get is Shaw, and Shifters have much more unique mechanics due to their focus on pushing and pulling enemies, while the other Specialist branches can be used for more straightforward combat.

@ ihaventdecidedonaname True, now that I think about it, the melee classes seem less defined than the ranged ones.

Ranged operators are seperated into physical damage, arts damage, debuffs, and healing.

Meanwhile the four melee classes seem to categorized by stats, with Vanguards being weak but cheap, Guards being damage focused, defenders tanking focused, and Specialists having unusual mechanics like fast redeploy-mobility or moving enemies around.

But then we have Duelist and Fortress Defenders who aren’t used for tanking, but damage, meanwhile the Centurion Guards’ 3 block and use of heavy equipment like chainsaws makes them seem closer to being defenders. And then there’s Vanguards, who didn’t even exist during the beta and instead some Guards had DP generation skills, with Fang being one such Guard. Guards was even more of a catch all term for melee combatants at that point.

What is the "default" archetype for Guards?

Every other class in Arknights feels like it has a default, or standard by which most other archetypes feel like deviations from Vanguards have Pioneers Medics have "Medics" (aka Single-target Medics and yes that archetype is called "Medic" in game so they are Medic Medics) Defenders have Protectors Supporters have Decel Binders Specialists have Executioners Casters have Core Casters Snipers have Marksmen But- Guards don't really have an archetype that feels like a default, or standard? There are really only three candidates, Lords, Dreadnoughts, and Centurions Lords feel like they are DQ'd immediately because their whole schtick is attacking from range- including against aerial targets, something other Guards or most Melee operators in general cannot do with normal attacks Dreadnoughts almost fit since Melantha feels like she's intended to be the introduction to the class as a whole, but their first six-star rep was a post launch operator (Skadi) and yes she was the FIRST post-launch six star but post-launch is not the same as at launch! And then there are Centurions, who not only miss a six-star at launch but also missed a three-star at launch.

It's probably still Dreadnoughts but just- this is weird, y'all think this is kinda weird for the biggest class of Operators in the game, right?

[dear-wormwoods]

Did you ever write that meta about the roles Kyle and Stan choose to play in RPGs?

No, but I will right now!

Basically I just think it's interesting/cute that Kyle always chooses ranged/support classes and Stan always chooses melee DPS classes, because the two complement each other and reflect aspects of their personalities as well as how they see themselves as people.

In Stick of Truth, Elf King Kyle has a variety of ranged attacks that sometimes call on other people to do the damage on his behalf (like Ike or elven archers), and he also has a rallying cry that gives bonuses to the party. In TFBW, his class is a blaster/elementalist hybrid, which are both ranged and/or support classes. He has a ranged laser attack, but he also has healing capabilities and provides protection to allies. In Phone Destroyer, Kyle is a ranged card 100% of the time, and each of his cards offer support abilities instead of damage dealing ones. Gunslinger Kyle gives an attack buff to allies, Human Kite shields allies, Bounty Hunter Kyle both buffs attack and heals when his ranged attacks hurt/kill an enemy, The Master Ninjew gives an attack buff, and Kyle of the Drow Elves grants allies invincibility. Unrelated to the RPGs, but in World of Warcraft he chooses to be a mage, which is also a ranged/support class, physically weak but powerful from afar.

Kyle's purpose in games is not to be on the front lines taking hits, like a tank would, or dealing high face-to-face damage like a fighter or an assassin. He stands back and lets others do the damage while aiding them with buffs, heals, and shields. All of his characters are physically weaker (though the Elf King does have high health in SoT) than most, but he's a critical part of the party. This might seem counter to how Kyle presents in the show, since he does like to hit Cartman when he's especially frustrated, but in general Kyle doesn't like to resort to violence - he uses his brain, or his heart, to appeal to people's logic and emotions. He fights his battles with passion and intelligence rather than just putting himself in harm's way, and he tends not to take on leadership roles generally (when he does it's usually as a martyr or it just doesn't go well). Kyle doesn't see himself as a direct damage dealer or a leader, he sees himself as someone who can heal, protect, and buff others. This attitude is shown repeatedly throughout the show - he has a nurturing instinct and an innate need to help people.

On the other hand, Stan is always a fighter/melee class. In SoT, Knight Stan's abilities are primarily melee sword abilities, though he also has the ranged discus attack. Toolshed is an interesting one, because in TFBW he does better at range but in Phone Destroyer he's a fighter card. He's a Fighter 100% of the time in Phone Destroyer and all of his special abilities have some kind of negative effect on enemies (contrasted with Kyle, who buffs allies). Stan of Many Moons has an AOE (area of effect) attack, Toolshed puts down a chomper (damage dealt when activated), Program Stan has a freeze/damage dealing attack, Poseidon Stan slows enemies, and Stan the Great reduces attack of all enemies. All of Stan's characters deal moderate damage and have moderately high health. In World of Warcraft, he chooses to be a warrior, which can be melee DPS or a tank depending on specialization (I assume Stan would prefer DPS to tanking though).

Stan's roles reflect his protective nature and his tendency to put his own safety on the back burner for the sake of helping others. That isn't to say that Stan gets into physical fights very often, because he doesn't, but he will risk himself to help the people, animals, or causes he cares about. He's genuine in this aspect, but on top of that he is under a lot of pressure from society and from his family to conform to masculine gender roles. He sees knights and power tools as masculine, and he sees fighting enemies head on as masculine, so he aspires to perform those roles. Compared to Kyle, who consistently puts himself into more traditional "gamer girl" roles (healer, magic user - support classes), Stan has always chosen stereotypically Manly party roles. This is because in canon Stan has more expectations to be masculine compared to Kyle, whose nurturing instinct and emotional expressions are fostered and encouraged by his mother. Stan expresses his feelings only when they fester enough that he fails to hide them anymore and is generally determined to be tough and strong, so he gravitates toward fantasy roles that are also seen that way.

I know you only specified Stan and Kyle, but I have some thoughts on Cartman and Kenny too.

In Stick of Truth, Cartman has low health and elemental attacks, but in TFBW he has higher health and melee attacks that cause bleed effects. He's super effective as a damage-dealer but has no defensive abilities. Compare that to Phone Destroyer, where his cards are always tanks. His cards always have very high health but deal less damage, and he's slow moving, which sets him up as a protective force for his ranged and assassin allies. Sheriff Cartman has an AOE attack, The Coon gets an attack buff from other superheroes, Awesome-O 4000 freezes enemies, Zen Cartman pulls nearby enemies away from attacking other allies, and Grand Wizard Cartman has a magic attack. His Phone Destroyer cards are all about defending his allies and chipping away at enemies. In World of Warcraft, he is also a warrior, like Stan, but takes on the leader role in the episode, implying that he's also the tank there. I think that this is all a reflection of how Cartman sees himself - as a leader and a hero. Whereas Stan puts himself on the front lines because he genuinely is a protective person, Cartman puts himself on the front lines because he wants to be seen that way, even if the reality is that he's more selfish than anyone. Cartman also, like Stan, struggles with toxic masculinity. Cartman has some really intense, messed up ideas about what it means to be manly, so of course he'd want the "manliest" role in any game they're playing - whether it's simply to be the king, or another form of leader, or just the tank in a party.

Kenny is an interesting one, because I think at least Princess Kenny and Mysterion, if not all of his characters, are reflections of different aspects of himself. Princess Kenny has no melee abilities in SoT, and in TFBW Mysterion has mostly melee abilities. On the surface, they're both different not just in their skill set but in their look too - Princess Kenny is bright and cute (despite ultimately being the Big Bad) and Mysterion is dark and angsty (despite being the most traditionally heroic character in the franchise). But both characters utilize Kenny's curse - with Princess Kenny resurrecting as a buddy and returning as Zombie Kenny in the final boss battle, and Mysterion having Ghost Form. All of Kenny's characters in Phone Destroyer are assassins, and all of them have a unique 'upon death' ability - Inuit Kenny kills the enemy that killed him, Cyborg Kenny mind controls the enemy that killed him, Hermes Kenny increases energy gain upon death, Princess Kenny depletes her killer's attack level, and Mysterion revives himself repeatedly. Kenny's cards all have very low health, which reflects his reality in the show too, but deal high damage, which also reflects the type of person he is. Kenny tends to stay out of drama and falls by the wayside a lot in canon, but when he does get involved it's really effective and done on a grand scale.

I just think their Phone Destroyer roles are an important reflection of how the Broship functions. In order to have a well-rounded deck you need to have all four class types - tank, fighter, ranged, and assassin. The main four boys balance each other out, and they're all pretty much fucked without the unique skillsets they each provide. But... Stan and Kyle in particular complement each other. But that's just me. :)

[brineffxiv]

So while I was dicking around, deciding whether or not to move this liveblog to tumblr or quit it altogether, I procrastinated by leveling all my classes to 70. Of course, I've already maxed out my DoH/DoL classes too. I think at this point I can give a little summary of my thoughts.

Overall, I think Dark Knight is my favorite - there's something about the smooth, slow animations that really appeals to me. Syphon Strike and Souleater restoring MP and HP respectively is also perfect for my playstyle of getting distracted and forgetting to look at bars.

I've been slowly warming up to the healer classes, and I think so far I prefer Astrologian of the four of them - though obviously I haven't had much time to get used to Sage yet. Healing gives me such anxiety, lol, it's the most nerve wracking role to play. I'm always terrified I'll let my party down. As for the DPS, I enjoy the Physical Ranged trio equally; they're all pretty fun and intuitive for me to play. Melee classes on the other hand... well, they're definitely my weaknesses. Ninja especially. My dyslexia makes it a pain in the ass to hit the mudras correctly in the heat of battle, and I'm pretty sure no matter how hard I practice it'll always be a stumbling block. Similarly, I'm also forever forgetting which direction I'm supposed to hit the positionals from. Ugh. Magical Ranged is fun. Blue Mage is clearly it's own thing, so I don't count it for the purposes of this post, but next to DRK my other favorite has got to be Red Mage. Which I totally didn't expect when I picked it up! The abilities don't neatly fit how I prefer to set up my bars, but I tell you that dualcast ability is just beautiful. So fast and zippy. I've also developed an appreciation for Summoner and how hard it hits. Nothing else like the power trip of summoning freaking Bahamut to blast your foes, lol. I feel like Black Mage could be equally fun, but I just can't seem to get the rotation down. I'll keep practicing at it, and maybe when I do a lv 80 check-in I'll have improved some.

[the-big-nope]

While I’m certainly nowhere near ready for the story of the Mighty Nein to come to an end, I am also a D&D nerd and there’s a new sourcebook coming out soon with a bunch of new subclasses in it. By the time Campaign 3 of Critical Role gets underway, that book will be published, leaving a wealth of new options for the cast members to choose from, so why not entertain myself by making barely justified predictions of what the cast is most likely to pick for their next characters! (Disclaimer: Some of the new subclasses have been confirmed and some haven’t, so for a few of these picks I’m just going off of what I think is going to be in the book).

Travis

Cleric (Tempest Domain): Travis has been playing lowkey EMT since campaign one, and Laura’s already confirmed that Travis almost went cleric for campaign two. Between Grog with his barb-boosted movement speed to get around the battlefield so he could shove healing potions into his squishier teammates, and Fjord multiclassing into paladin and lovingly tapping his friends with single hit points to get them back up, it would be delightful to see him fully jump in and embrace the classical healer role. Of course, this is Travis, so I don’t see him picking a cleric domain that doesn’t allow for at least some whoop-ass, and Tempest Domain brings plenty of it. You get proficiency with all armor and weapons, Divine Strike at level 8 for boosted melee damage, you can use a reaction to inflict lightning or thunder damage against any enemy within melee range that’s hit you. And if you climb up high enough in levels, you gain a flying speed equal to your walking one whenever you’re outdoors. Pretty nifty, and makes for a fitting subclass for a guy that’s voiced Thor on multiple occasions.

Blood Hunter (Order of the Lycan): I mean, come on. The only reason it isn’t number one is that it was already widely assumed this would be Travis’s pick for campaign two, and I wouldn’t put it past him to surprise us again. But still, we saw him get a taste in Liam’s one shot and he was clearly having the time of his life. Besides, we lost Molly far too early to really see the blood hunter’s potential come to life; it would be damn cool to see someone else take a crack at it, and Travis is enough of a D&D gambler to not shy away from the class’s riskier features.

Artificer (Armorer): Speaking of Marvel connections, if Travis doesn’t lean toward fantasy Thor, then fantasy Iron Man might catch his attention instead. Artificer is an official class now, and since it’ll be reprinted in TCoE by the time campaign 3 gets underway, it’ll be a lot more visible as an option. The Armorer sits in almost a perfect middle ground of what Travis has done before: tanky and a frontliner, but also still has spells and tricks to help the party. Plus, you get a badass suit of power armor out of it. What’s not to like?

Marisha

Bard (College of Creation): After Hazel Copperpot, we all saw the pure magic that was Marisha Ray playing a bard. I know she implied that Hazel was supposed to be her campaign two backup character, but I hope this doesn’t discourage her from making another one. There are quite a few bard subclasses, a number of which I could see her being drawn to (Lore, Glamour, maybe even Swords), but I really vibe with the idea of Creation. I can’t exactly say why; maybe the idea of the ‘dancing object’ feature in Marisha’s hands is very funny to me (remember Keyleth’s adorable “Be Our Guest” moment? That, but this time it’s a walking wardrobe beating the shit out of the enemy).

Paladin (Oath of Vengeance/Conquest): As of yet, no one on Critical Role has ever played a paladin from the start, only multiclassed later down the line. I think this would be a cool departure for Marisha. Both campaigns she’s played characters that were either suspicious or at least indifferent to faith and the gods. Paladins are typically associated with deities, but they’re not tied quite so closely to them as clerics are. It would be fascinating to see what she did with it. As for the subclass, I just think Marisha’s earned her turn on the Goth Character Carousel, and while I know Conquest paladin is very unlikely given its moral grayness by default which might cause undue conflict and that Vengeance is a much more likely and acceptable pick, I just think it would be a sexy character choice. 

Wizard (Bladesinger/Graviturgist): This is a much more pie-in-the-sky, wishful thinking pick on my end, but not impossible imo. Marisha has experience with heavy spellcasting already, so she probably wouldn’t shy away from a wizard, but like Travis I suspect she likes a bit of oomph to her characters, and probably wouldn’t play as support heavy as Caleb does. To that end, Bladesingers get a bit more survivability and some modicum of physical prowess alongside their spells, while Graviturgists are definitely on the more aggressive side of the spectrum for wizard subclasses, with unique dunamancy spells to boot. I’m not sure how restrictive Matt would be about Xhorhassian characters in the next campaign if it takes place on another continent, but hey, you never know. Plus, she picked one of Matt’s homebrew subclasses for the current campaign; it would be cute if it happened again.

Liam

Druid (Circle of the Shepherd): At some point before Critical Role comes to end (hopefully far in the future), I know Liam’s gonna play a druid, I can feel it in my bones. He's too big of a Kiki fan not to. However, while Circle of the Moon might feel obvious given the potential for homage and how much he likes turning into animals, I feel like he might regard it as getting too close to old territory (also, I don’t know if Circle of the Moon is like an exclusive thing to the Ashari tribes, and if it is that would be rather restrictive for building a backstory). If that’s the case, Circle of the Shepherd feels like the next best bet. It has some great support options via the totems you can put down, and rather than becoming badass animals, you instead just get really good at summoning a fuck ton of them. It’s like Frumpkin, but ten of him. And they’re bears. (Honorable mention: If Circle of the Moon would feel like treading old territory then I’m certain Circle of Wildfire would too, but I’d bet my dice collection it would at least be tempting). 

Cleric (Unity Domain): Listen. The pure sap potential that would be at Mr. O’Brien’s fingertips with this subclass is incredible. The domain all about strengthening and protecting the bonds between friends and loved ones?? The domain with the Channel Divinity that can spread damage taken by one creature across the party however the cleric chooses to distribute it to lessen the blow to the individual??? The domain that used to be called the Love Domain???? I’m practically gagging on the soft moments and unspoken devotion conveyed through spellcasting already.

Fighter (Rune Knight/Psi Knight): Liam has yet to play a tank in a long-term campaign, and while I’m more enamored with the potential of the above classes, it would be novel to see him play a character with an actually respectable amount of hit points. However, I feel like if he was gonna commit to a straight frontliner, he’d probably want something a little more unique than a Champion or Battle Master (especially since he’s played those already for one-shots). Rune Knight has some fun options and built-in flavor, and with Psi Knight you can basically be a Jedi. Not bad options at all if you ask me.

Taliesin

Warlock (Fiend): Yeah, it might be expected, or Percy might have been too close to warlock anyway to feel like there’s new ground to cover, but hear me out. Both Percy (who, let’s face it, was a warlock multiclass in all but the actual mechanics) and Fjord were the classic reluctants. They got in over their heads without really knowing what was going on, and once they did they wanted out, cutting ties with their patrons and getting clear with only the scars remaining. I want to see Taliesin commit to a warlock in a way I imagine only he could manage to pull off. How fun would that balancing act be, to have a character that has no intentions of breaking their pact, who’s here for the powers, and is willing to work that delicate balancing act between keeping what he’s got and not letting his contract holder get the better of him? Give it to meeeeee.

Sorcerer (Psionic Soul): Psionic Soul has a bit of that eldritch flavor that vibes with Taliesin so much, with the added interest of introducing a brand new feature to 5E, the Psi Die (with this subclass, using them can do things like letting a sorcerer learn a spell they don’t already know for a few hours, allow you to cast spells without needing verbal, somatic, or material components, and can give you telepathy). Taking both Percy and Molly into account, it seems Tal likes to lean into those unique additional mechanics, and while Psi Die aren’t as risk-heavy as Gunslinger or Bloodhunter, they do add a layer of variability and unpredictability that seems to match his style.

Rogue (Swashbuckler): We only got a little bit of time with Molly, and so missed out on the opportunity to see Tal play a more cavalier character this time around. If he feels like leaning away from spells next time and back toward martial, I think a high-charisma, high-swinging swashbuckler from Tal would be a delight to watch.

Laura

Barbarian (Path of the Ancestral Guardian): Laura deserves to hit things, okay? Yes, spellcasting is great and comes in clutch frequently and Jester’s amazing, but you can tell Laura misses doing fat stacks of damage to the enemy in a single round. I personally think it would be amazing to watch her just cut loose and go full rage machine. As for the subclass, I’m not glued to the idea, but Ancestral Guardians are pretty kickass, have decent support capabilities for a barb without detracting from their DPS at all, and it doesn’t tread on any previous characters’ toes or their aesthetics.

Rogue (Scout/Soulknife): Laura deserves to play her favorite class at last, okay? She’s been class poached two campaigns in a row, and though that resulted in both Vex and Jester and I wouldn’t trade them for the world, Laura has earned first pick. Seeing as she already dipped into Assassin as Vex and Sam took Arcane Trickster, I could see Scout being a viable subclass choice. It’s in the classic sneaky vein, relatively simple in concept, but comes with features that grant easy-to-understand benefits that you can never turn your nose up at (boosts to movement, advantage on initiative, giving advantage against a target to everyone else in the party, etc.). If she’s looking for something a bit flashier, Soulknife has the benefit of retroactively dunking on Vax by taking the basic knife-rogue and making it better, with psionic knives that you can manifest with a thought, that can teleport you around Whisper style, and cranking up that stealth to ridiculous levels by just being able to turn invisible for ten minutes, no concentration or spell needed. The psionic die mechanics are a little funky of course, but I don’t imagine it’s any trickier than learning to manage all those cleric spells.

Monk (Way of the Open Hand): Between Beau just being super cool and her brief stint as Farriwen Breeze, monk wouldn’t be a surprising pick from Laura. An Open Hand monk might be the definitive version everyone knows, but you can’t deny it’s a solid subclass, and between previous overlap and the concepts of the other subclasses just not seeming to fit, I could see the classic being what she went with. But hey, it’s Laura Bailey. She could surprise us with Way of the Drunken Master or something.

Sam

Ranger (Monster Slayer): Let’s be real, I don’t think this would be his actual first pick for a Campaign 3 character, but the amount of shit-stirring he could achieve by making a character with the aim of pissing off Laura Bailey specifically would be hilarious (and since Matt isn’t completely opposed to UA and acknowledges that PHB ranger has a lot of issues, I wouldn’t be surprised if they went Revised Ranger this time).

Warlock (Genie): Actual first pick here, Pact of the Genie Warlock is confirmed by now, and the potential of a warlock in the hands of Sam Riegel is pretty vast (for some reason I’m imagining he would go the ‘spoiled sugar baby’ route). The subclass doesn’t matter as much, but the Genie one is nice in that, depending on the type of genie patron you pick, you can get a wide variety of extra spells, you get a container like a classic lamp or lantern that you can bamf into for short rests, and you get a limited Wish ability for your capstone, all features I feel like would especially appeal to Sam.

Barbarian (Path of the Wild Soul): I want to see Sam play a fairy barbarian. ‘Nough said.

Ashley

Fighter (Eldritch/Echo Knight): Ashley really seems to vibe with the crushing power of martial classes (she does love her brutal kill descriptions), so I could see her sticking with it rather than going back to full caster. However, I do see her picking one of the magical subclasses for some variety after Yasha. Eldritch Knight is a classic and reasonably easy to manage, but tbh I’d LOVE for it to be Echo Knight. And think, if my wishful thinking came true, with Ashley picking an Echo Knight and Marisha playing a Graviturgist wizard, they could link up their backstories and be a traveling Kryn battle duo that left their homeland behind to explore the world!

Sorcerer (Draconic): If she does want to go back to full-time casting, Sorcerer doesn’t require near as much bookkeeping as a cleric, druid, or wizard while still having decent variety, and the Draconic subclass is a bit beefier than the other subclasses. Also, it would be the third campaign in a row where Ashley Johnson’s character eventually got wings, soooo...

And tbh I have no idea what a third pick might be for Ashley, so I’m just gonna throw a dart or two at the board and say either College of Whispers Bard or Way of Mercy Monk *Shrug* We can only wait and see!

[djgamek1ng]

My thoughts about the Endwalker/6.0 announcement stream

I had originally posted this on Twitter in a TwitLonger tweet, but I’ll also put it here. This also contains the follow up “thread” about the pure healer/barrier healer balancing (which is at the end, so if you are only interested in that, skip to where it starts with “So... I was”). OKAY, SO I'M REALLY DAMNED HYPED ABOUT THIS EXPANSION. I'm going to go point by point for things they talked about, in as much of the order they talked about things. - The trailer is really freaking cool! Personally, it is arguably my favorite trailer now and we haven't gotten the full version, though depending on the full version the Shadowbringers trailer might still win it out. The music is great, bit less rocking than the Shadowbringers one, but still fantastic. The WoL as a PLD is everything I've ever wanted from this game. It is also a FF4 reference with Cecil going from a Dark Knight to a Paladin. Seeing the twins in CG finally is also amazing. Endwalker, great freaking name ruined by its unfortunate abbreviation: EW. - Okay, so the new jobs. One is a melee DPS. Honestly, didn't expect that. Was expecting a caster, but this does silence the whole "they are going to balance the choices to be 4 each and then we might no longer get any jooooobs!!!!11!" discussion that I've seen happen, so honestly I'm okay with this. The other is our new healer, Sage. Alphinaud also job changed to it, so that is nice. - Specifically, about Sage, they made it a barrier/shield healer and will be shifting over AST to be a "pure" (regen) healer. The actions they showed look cool enough, but it is hard to judge. It is also very very very interesting that they are looking to make the raid finder actually distinguish between barrier healers (so Sage and SCH) and pure healers (WHM and AST). I will get to this point in another post, since I think it is very interesting that they are doing this. - 6.0 being the end of the major Hydaelyn vs Zodiark arc. VERY interesting that it is specifically 6.0 that is going to be the end of that and not 6.3, makes me think that 6.0 is going to be a slightly bigger patch than normal expansion launch patches in terms of story. - Higher level cap! ...I'm only mentioning it because they did. Okay, to be fair, we do see some of the new AFs and DRK's looks great, WHM's looks good, SAM's is awesome and BLM's is nice. - Finally going to Thavnair and Garlemald. Bit of a shame we are only going to Garlemald when it has been entirely destroyed, but it was to be expected I guess lol. Oh, also, new beast tribe. Matanga, the big elephant people. They look pretty cool and I'm honestly intimidated by them as a Lalafell ^-^" - Anima confirmed! Is it going to be a Terminus beast similar to the enemies we saw in the Amaurot dungeon, just as a trial instead? If so, that is really really cool. Regardless, a long overdue enemy to see arrive here! - "Challenging" new dungeons. I'm... sorry to be skeptical, but I'm guessing these are not going to be that challenging. I really hope I'm wrong and that they will provide a decent challenge, but I just doubt it. The art does look pretty though! - New 8 man raids, the Pandaemonium raids. Ascian inspired with Lahabrea of all of them being the one we supposedly see in the art. Very very interesting and I'm glad that they are moving to more FFXIV original stuff, though Pandaemonium isn't a new thing in the FF series for sure. - New 24 man raid series. Not title said, just said that it will be FFXIV original. All I gotta say: thank GOD. Sorry to all Nier fans, but I just could not care about Yorha: Dark Apocalypse. It very much feels like it is the continuation of NieR: Automata in FFXIV with little to no relevance for the FFXIV side of things (such as world building as such). Hoping the 5.5 one can make me feel different though. - New small scale PvP mode. Apparently going to be approachable by casuals? Seems like a good direction for FFXIV's PvP at the moment, since you currently need too many people to have a PvP match. - Role quests are returning. Also, ranged is now split up into physical ranged and casters. I'm... divided on this. If it means again only 1 job quest at the level cap, that is going to be disappointing tbh. If it doesn't, then I will be very glad. Also gatherer and crafting quests... uh... *stares at him only having one of each unlocked and neither are even at level 50*. Also, WAR, MNK and RDM AF art. WAR looks pretty good, MNK looks nice and RDM looks pretty neat! - Estinien in the trust system. Yup, that makes perfect sense since Estinien is basically a honorary member of the Scions at this point. Also since we have no more melee DPS in that spot, since Ryne isn't with us anymore. I will miss Ryne in the MSQ. Hopefully they have more quests for us on the First that involve her :( - Island Sanctuary. Stardew Valley FFXIV edition? I mean, I'm down for it. Especially if we can customize the place. If I'm able to get a training dummy there and teleport to that place, it will basically just be my new house and I might actually consider getting my current house demolished. - As literally everyone expected, Ishgard housing. Makes perfect sense after the Ishgard Restoration. Not personally jumping on it, as I remember the bloodbath that was Shirogane housing *shudders* - Stat squish. I'm perfectly fine with this, since smaller numbers feel more impactful for me. I'm 100% a person that sees a 61389 damage Confiteor crit and just feels nothing towards the 3 numbers on the right. They mean nothing. Smaller numbers makes smaller increases more substantial - Removing belts. Nomura's worst nightmare... Honestly, I'm just glad about the extra inventory space for main weapons arms and rings. That is the good stuff! :) - Data center travel. UH. How in the heck is this going to work? Is it only in the regions or can I go from Chaos to Primal, for example? If the latter, that is amazing and removes the need to have alts for friends in other datacenters by quite a bit! - PS5 version. Yeah, that makes sense. - Digital Fan Fest 15th and 16th of May (14th and 15th for the NA folks). Looking forward to it and to seeing the new melee DPS job being revealed! Plus a live concert by the Primals is sick! So... I was gonna make a post about the whole barrier healer/pure healer thing and how that is weird compared to what they did with tanks in ShB and how it might impact tanks in End (I don't like EW as acronym), but an interview happened and they have already confirmed tanks are not getting balanced for main tank/off tank. So I'll just sum up what I had about healers: it is a very interesting direction that I honestly think is more healthy for the game. It diversifies and focuses the healers into their type of healing, a problem AST had since it came out, where the only pieces of identity it had were its cards and the fact it could be a WHM-lite or a SCH-lite, where the second part isn't really an identity. It also confirmed that the healers aren't getting split in 2 categories in the game (like the DPS are split between melee, physical ranged and magical ranged). Just for balancing, which is good since queues would otherwise be a pain for no real reason. Also, he confirmed that content will be easier with one pure healer and barrier healer, not required. 

TL;DR: I think this is a change for the better. AST will (hopefully) get a real identity outside of “it can be either like WHM or like SCH!” and their cards.

[thekaijudude]

With the advent of a new Ultra hero with fusions to create his forms, I wanted to ask a vs question I’ve wondered about for a while. Ultraman Orb vs Ultraman Geed.

Hi!

Oh man this is one question that I haven't been asked for a long time

I'm pretty sure from I've been posting, the answer is pretty obvious but I would like to briefly cover the conventional aspect of this analysis and then go even deeper than my old answer

And let's first pit their appropriate forms against each other just to get a sense of the dichotomy and you'll realize that their 'same type' forms surprisingly differ more than you might expect

(And yes I'll be heavily referring to ultrawiki for their stats so I suggest y'all also take a look at them to get a better context)

SZ vs P

At this stage, SZ possesses a really strong edge in terms of speed which I think it's more significant than the edge P has over SZ in terms of brute strength, especially when SZ can also access Sky Type's speed for a further boost

But Wrecking Burst is definitely more potent than the Sperion Ray as seen when the former was able to launch both P and Chimerberus from the moon to earth whilst a weakened Maga Pandon managed to plough through the Sperion Ray before being defeated

But if that's all P has over SZ, it definitely unlikely for him to overcome the sheer difference in speed as we also need to take note that P isn't all that durable as well.

SZ's stats is more 'biased' towards speed and special abilities whereas P is more 'balanced' in terms of conventional capabilities only

So even though it'll take quite some time, SZ would definitely be able to overcome P

BM vs SB

So BM almost twice as fast as SZ and now more than twice as fast as SB

But Geed now brings a very solid durability form that is SB here and he could still counter BM's superior speed by relying on his rocket boosted dashes to put up a much better fight than in the previous matchup

And tbh I think SB could tank at least one of BM's Stobium Dynamite. But assuming that he can't, BM still has to get within melee distance for it to work, which would give SB an opening to lay his hands on BM. So the question still remains if SB is able to anticipate it and take advantage of the situation

And as SB is much physically stronger than BM, so counterintuitively speaking BM has to rely on ranged tactics as his safest bet by utilizing his superior speed, but then again SB could still throw him off using his surprise boosted movements

We're essentially looking at a speedy fire elemental vs a tank unit

So it's a really close fight for this one with both parties possibly being able to take the W here but very high diff for both

HS vs AS

I think HS takes this as although the difference in speed here has been reduced, HS now possesses the ability to also teleport, and as we know, having a speed advantage plus being able to teleport is essentially game over

Not to mention that AS is essentially a non-lethal control unit meant to subdue kaiju whilst HS is a high dps unit

And AS, being a speed form, definitely doesn't have good enough durability to deal with Orb Lancer Shoot and whatnot overtime

HS takes this without question

TB vs M

So I'm just gonna use the same analogy that I pointed out in my old answer since everyone seems to agree with it

TB is basically a unit that's meant to tear and crush opponents quickly whilst M is built for prolonged fights

While both seems to be equal in strength, M seems to have a higher durability (armor platings) and beam potency (the sheer force behind Big Bustaway) to complement said strength whilst TB doesn't have such a solid support

So imo, I see M taking this

Can't compare OO and Geed's original form cause the latter's stats are unknown as of this point

And from this point going forth, it's just gonna be unfair

LA/ES vs RMM

I mean what can RMM even do at this point, the forms he is up against either have high durability or are too fast for him to deal with

Melee combat is absolutely a no go considering such a HUGE discrepancy in brute strength

And that's bad news considering that his opponents are much faster than him that it acts as an anti zone ability itself

I mean a full powered Royal End from the get go could probably do massive damage to LA if he catches him off guard somehow but ES can easily counter with arguably a more potent ES Specium

Definitely not looking good for RMM either way here

OT vs UF

Just look at the discrepancy, OT is way too fast even compared to LA and ES

Not to mention OT basically excels in the insta kill tactics to be able to inflict HUGE amounts of damage in one go

OT absolutely stomps UF

Overview:

And now speaking of OT, it's essentially just how Fusion Up works compared to Fusion Rise

Let's just assume that both ultras uses their hypothetical best fusions

Orb using Belial x Taro x Ginga

Geed using Neo Fusion Rise with King x Belial x Ken x Leo

Orb will definitely still stomp Geed regardless

Let's examine why

As we can see from Duo Fusion Ups, we have a very huge discrepancy on just how powerful a duo fusion can get as seen with SZ all the way to LA

Whereas for Fusion Rise, we see that the max power of duo fusion rise reaches a plateau with RMM which is why we only see marginal improvements in stats from SB to M to RMM

And even for Neo Fusion Rise as seen with ZB that's utilized 4 new gen ultras turned out to be surprisingly weak, especially when u consider that base Zero is stronger than base Geed (Primitive)

Whereas LA, whom only uses 2 of the same components, already severely overpowers ZB easily

Not to mention Trinity Fusion Ups is an exponential improvement from duo fusions which I suppose also means that the discrepancy between Trinity fusion ups is even larger than duo fusions

That's why the capabilities of Fusion Up forms scale up exponentially much higher than fusion rise

But with the advent of the Z Riser and with Geed gaining GR, I still dont think this form could beat OT even though I'm positive that it'll be stronger than UF

Not to mention I just don't see any type 2 fusion techniques being better than Fusion Up at all period aside from type 1 fusions considering that Orb is a 'milestone ultra' that is meant to commemorate 50 years of the Ultra Franchise

Oof the long post, feel free to inquire more about anything you're still confused about regarding this cause I purposely didn't cover everything and only the main parts or else this already long post would've been even longer

Thanks for the question!

[clearsundays]

Trust NPC || Sun’li Yhunja           

SELECTION CONFIRMED: “All set? Hey, don’t sweat it - I’ve got you covered.”

JOB: Combat Medic (Conjurer | Quarterstaff Martial Arts)

WEAPONS: Two Handed Conjury Staff; Grass-stained Grimoire

AI Behavior:

Even though he’s a healer and should be staying at range, Sun gets right up in his party’s personal space. He never stops moving and dances circles around enemies, springboarding from place to place like an opo-opo on stimulants. He would be the kind of AI that would make you think: ‘Uh.... is this guy glitched?’ He will only stop bouncing around to cast healing spells as necessary, never letting his party fall below 50%. Because he prefers to stay mobile, he rarely long-casts offensive spells (unless he is forced at range due to mechanics) and prefers to fight physically with his staff, weaving quick spells in between melee bursts. During big pulls, he casts [Aqueous Veil (Divine Benison) + Regen] on the Tank and then goes absolutely ham. Basically acts as a third DPS who heals when needed. Sometimes he stays in AOE markers just to get more whacks in but always gets out before it hits. 

DPS who eat AOEs frequently will end up having him practically attached to their back as a second shadow, and will receive heals via a firm bonk to the head with his staff. Similarly, if the tank isn’t using cooldowns and taking excessive damage, Sun will get directly in their personal bubble and bonk them repeatedly on the head while healing them. He is forgiving the first few times, but if this keeps happening, he will eventually start scolding them. 

He shamelessly and periodically cracks dad jokes when progressing. When idling, he passes out potions and dried fruits. Sometimes he will remark on the dungeon’s flora, if applicable. 

Battle Lines:

“Looks like a tough crowd. I guess talking it out is off the table, huh?” - Engaging Enemy

“Whoa! Are you okay?! Don’t worry; I’ll be just a second.” - Using Healing Spell, Variation 1

“Oof, that looked like a nasty hit! Wait right there - I’ll patch you up.” - Using Healing Spell, Variation 2

“Mid-battle bonding, anyone? Not to brag, but I give the best hugs.”  - Putting down Solace (Asylum) Healing AOE (if you stand within arm’s reach of him, he will actually /hug you)

“Hey, get off my tail!” - Getting Aggro from Enemy

“Sorry! But, I mean, you kinda asked for it when you picked a fight.” - Enemy Defeated

Limit Break:

“I won’t let it end like this. C’mon, take my hand... that’s it. Deep breaths now. I’ve got your back.” - Using limit break with 3 bars (Golden Hour) - He will only use LB3 if the entire party is incapacitated. After using this, he will gain a fatigue debuff that lasts the rest of the instance and his movement will be considerably slowed. 

Battle Observations:

“Whoa, nice moves!” - Ally landing a critical/direct hit

“You really know how to push a guy’s buttons. Fuck off!” - Enemy pushing out high party-wide damage 

“Ahaha, what a rush! You’ve got to show me how you do that!” - Ally uses party buff

Defeated:

“W-Wha...? No way... I... can’t...... ” - Variation 1

“Sorry, everyone...... I... really screwed up...” - Variation 2

Revived:

“Ouch, ouchouch. Ugh... I owe you big!” - Variation 1

“Talk about embarrassing. I won’t let you down again!” - Variation 2

This was really fun LMAO!! Such a neat meme hehehe ♥ If you haven’t done this yet and want to, consider yourself tagged!!!! (and then @ me so I can read, I highkey love reading these KEKE //THUMBSUP

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