#nerf preview

[300iqprower]

HRU Preview: Asclepius

Asclepius is one of those characters who you could take in so many directions due to both the number of holes in their kit and the amount of lore they have to work with. Posting this one next for no reason besides Happy Bond 10 to me! Certainly that alongside him being an argonaut will not in any way make me biased in how much I give him.

God of Medicine EX -> ‘EX’

Increase Healing Power for all [Medical] allies (1 turn). [Activates first] [20-50%] Increase Buff, Debuff, Buff Removal, and Debuff Removal Success Rates for all [Medical] allies based on the number of [Serpentine or Healer] allies (2 turns). [Activates first] [10-20%/ally] Remove seal and immobilization debuffs for all other [Medical] allies. Restore HP for an ally. Increase Debuff Resist for an ally (3 turns).

Child of Apollo A -> Gifts of Apollo D++

High chance to inflict NP Seal on one enemy (1 turn). Increase NP Gain for all allies (3 turns). Apply Invincible to self (1 time, 1 turn). Increase own Critical Rate Resist (5 turns). [4-40%] Apply Special DEF [Weakness Detected] to self (5 turns). [4-40%]

Serpent Charmer B -> Serpent Charmer (Divine) C~A-

Remove debuffs for all allies. Increase NP Gauge for all allies. Further increase NP Gauge for all [Healer] allies. [10-20%] Decrease Critical Star Gather Rate for all [Serpentine] allies by 100% (3 turns). Decrease ATK and DEF for all [Serpentine] enemies (5 turns). [5-15%] 40% Chance to inflict Stun on all [Serpentine or Dragon] enemies (1 turn). [Stun chance is calculated using own Debuff Success rate and enemy’s Mental Debuff Resistance]

Resurrection Fraught Hades B -> B+

Apply Guts for all allies except self (1 time, 4^ turns).^ [2000/3000/3500/3750/4000] Apply Debuff Immune for all allies (1 time, 4^ turns). Apply Instant Death Immune for all allies (1 time, 4 turns). - Apply Instant Death Immune (4 turns) instead for all [Healer] allies. Increase Ailment Debuff Resistance for by 100% for all allies (4 times, 4 turns). Apply trait-change status to all allies granting "Special Debuff Resistance supercedes Debuff Immune charges" for 4 turns. <Overcharge> Apply HP Regen for all allies (4^ turns). Increase HP Recovery Amount for all [Medical] allies (4 turns). [30/45/60/75/100%]

[fandomnerd9602]

Y/N Stark puts little baby May down for a nap as Petra walks in…

Petra: hey baby

Y/N: happy Halloween my favorite webslinger

Petra: you know what I want to do for Halloween this year?

Y/N: Han and Leia again? And we dress May up as Yoda or Rey?

Petra: good idea. But I want to stay in and…

She whispers in Y/N’s ear…

Petra: I’ll dress up as Slave Leia for you (winks)

Y/N: I-i…like…

Petra: I just bought the costume. want a preview, my nerf herder?

[daylilifiedsundrewdrops]

Archive of Alternate Realities CW: Tumblr nerfed the quality

Tales whispered by a hundred lost souls >>>>

A Guardian Angel closest to humanity, and a small little calf in winter.

The Warm Sun in a Summer Serenity.

The sharpest snowflake in the ice.

OMG THE FIRST BLOG BUNDLE!! But its... missing one artwork? Is it the one I accidentally deleted? No worries, it'll be in the next blog bundle!! Which will probably take a month or more to finish because we have so many projects and work to do for school..

Oh, obligatory extra art- Angelica Icon!!

Ms. Maddy actually got a preview of her blog fanart! Hi Maddy <3 I'll make an apology for this horrid art!!

I'm not tagging them. I'm sorry, they don't deserve to see this... Thing And now a word from Haven Winnie!

I don't understand why I'm in this museum. Someone help me. What is happening?

Okay, Shut up Winnie <3 I'll give you a companion soon!

[misslazarus]

TANGLED BLESSINGS GAME JAM

Solo TTRPG posting again for my fellow solo game enjoyers/the solo game curious!

I’ve posted before about Tangled Blessings by @cassimothwin , a project I was so thrilled to back and play (and find in the wild a couple of times 👀). It’s a really engaging solo/duet rpg about being a student at a spooky magical school, and facing off against your rival. Also very cool to know, Tangled Blessings is a hack of the iconic game Anamnesis by @goblinmixtape (a game I mean to post about here one day if I feel I actually have anything interesting to add other than “I love it” lol).

In extremely cool news for amateur/fledgling game writers and those who never find time to participate in NaNoWriMo [meeee], Cassi Mothwin opened up a Tangled Blessings game jam on itch.io !! The game jam is for expansions to /projects inspired by Tangled Blessings. The jam is running until February 29th (leap day swag btw). I think this is such a cool idea to explore a really fun game, and I’m planning on submitting something! If you want to participate and don’t already own it, Cassi has a free preview to get you started!

DISCLAIMER: I am not posting this in any capacity other than as a big fan of Cassi’s work— and to alert my buddies on here who are into this kind of thing and to whom I’ve spoken about Tangled Blessings and solo rpgs in general.

I’ve linked the jam below for the rules and info. I also linked Tangled Blessings and Anamnesis itch.io pages so I hope all the links don’t nerf this post in the tags.

Happy writing y’all!

[sereonhardware]

What are your favorite gods or goddess from Norse mythology? No Freyr we all know you’d drop knees for him (Make a list if you can :D/nf)

I hate that when I saw this ask as a preview I was IMMEDIATELY gonna mention Freyr as my first character but I suppose I’m too predictable 😭 THAN AGAIN I’M HAPPY FOR MY LOVE FOR FREYR IS BEING RECOGNIZED I’M HIS BIGGEST FAN BUT HERE’S MY EXTENSIVE LIST!! WITH EXPLANATIONS

Freyja, I love Freyja ALOT, she’s such a cool goddess and I love that she’s a warrior goddess… I love Freyr more of course but I save a few of that energy for Freyja too. I’ve never really seen warrior goddesses outside of Freyja so I was immediately intrigued by her, she’s a cool character and I wanna know more about her

Hel, I LOVE HEL, she’s a very interesting character and I love writing her, she’s a cool character aesthetically and she’s just a tragic figure that I think a lot of people can relate to; The feeling of giving up, you’re barely living and your body is just on a thread, everyday feels the same and no matter how hard you may try, you will be trapped in the same hell someone/yourself put you in. That’s just me of course

I love/like all the goddesses equally theres never a goddess that I DON’T LIKE. I love writing Sif and Nanna for example and exploring Sigyn and Gerðr’s character but these two are like the outstanding faves for me. Basically all the goddesses would be in the love tier list except for maybe Eir but she’s still in like so

Now for the gods which spoiler there will be a bit more than the goddesses I apologize

Baldr, I genuinely don’t know why. I got attached to MY Baldr in specific, literally just a naive shut-in boy who really wants to explore, he sees the world in fairy tails and desperately wants connection. He’s just a character I can look to and just smile, he’s also definitely the second crush I have, NOT SO BAD AS FREYR, but I love him a lot, he makes me giggle and feel warm inside

Hodr, I’ve always found Hodr to be an interesting character, disabled-born gods were always interesting to me and especially because of the mystery around his character. Because it really does seem like Snorri Sturluson nerfed him and we all collectively accepted him as blind. He’s potentially a warrior god? His name means battle for instance and in the poetic edda, Loki is never mentioned AS Baldr’s killer, it’s only ever Hodr being slandered. Hodr is also noted to be of ‘sufficient strength’ and Høtherus(Hodr but human) IS LITERALLY NOT BLIND. I recommend reading into his history cuz not only is it interesting but we potentially get into a glimpse of a god that we sadly may never know more about. Hodr in general is just an awesome god too and I love exploring his character

Vidar, I could not tell you WHY I like Vidar other than his vibes are great and my Vidar in specific makes me want to punt him like a football. He’s such a cool god, I wanna know WHY he never speaks or if he can at all, he’s also just really interesting in general. My Vidar happens to be a bit of an asshole who would dropkick his father but chooses not to on the basis of ‘I’m too tired for this bullshit’ but I love him for it, I think he’s allowed to kill people

Vále/Váli Odinsson, again this is more of a personal interpretation thing but I’ll always be interested in Vále just from the concept alone. Imagine being born as a weapon to avenge someone that you don’t even know, you don’t know why you bite, that person you avenge will have a far greater legacy than you and you are basically nothing in a sea of people that you don’t know at all. Are you able to love at that point? Is love simply a foreign concept that you’ll never know the feeling of? Stuff like that, I love Vále for being my mentally ill child

Skirnir, he’s not technically a god but than again I don’t know what he is. He might be human but that’s just a me thing. Uh, I could not tell you why I like him for the life of me, I just think he’s neat and a fun character to explore, he definitely has attachment issues don’t worry about

When it comes to the gods, I really love all of them but I really do have a hate-love relationship, in particular Njordr and Odin, I have a STRONG hate-love relationship with Odin. Thor, Heimdallr, Meili, Hermodr Loki and Tyr I also really love but those guys are not outstanding favs. I’d probabpy put the rest of the gods in like or I just don’t care enough about them

[missveryvery]

Have you watched episode 1 of tgcf season two yet? 👀

Are you kidding. It's literally the only thing that's keeping me alive. Now my life is "hold out until Wednesday, buddy, we can do this."

I'm not sure but I think they fixed up the animation from the preview we got before (like a million years ago) of the scene where they're all assembling because I remember thinking "oh no they lost their budget" and now the scene looks like "here are a hundred gods we made look incredible just for the background"

(Still salty about Mu Qing's hair getting nerfed, make it bigger you cowards)

The part where Pei Ming is about to kick Pei Xiu came off as cartoony in the book but they made it really intense here! I guess because they're trying to hide his clown nose for as long as possible.

I feel very gratified that I was correct that the person we saw for a split second in the preview FROM BEHIND was in fact sqx and my brain worms have again served me well.

I think if I was watching this and had no idea what the story was, I'd think sqx was another love interest because holy shit. The way they shot Shi Qingxuan after transformation where her hair falls and her eyes are locked on him is from Xie Lian's POV, right? Three people have "hair that falls prettily" scenes in this and it's Hua Cheng, Xie Lian, and Shi Qingxuan.

Gif set by @murcielaguitos

They're really going "she's BEAUTIFUL" and you can get the impression that even Xie Lian thinks so. I love the way Shi Qingxuan is looking at him here and her cute smile ; ; like "see? :)"

This is the first time I realized how massive her boobs are. They're INSANE. I really like how Shi Qingxuan's other form is so different! I like to think the trans color scheme is on purpose but idk if they care about flag stuff in China? I don't want to like, push that on them.

In the book, there are a couple people Xie Lian remarks as being attractive, I think Shi Qingxuan is the only lady?

Also the shot earlier of Shi Qingxuan glancing at Xie Lian's chest like ":) I could put some ginormous bazoons there for you, friend"

(Lmao, He Xuan is so fucking stupid 😭 what kind of idiot...?!?? This could have been yours, you absolute clown.)

I was surprised they kept Lan Chang!!! Like wow you're gonna do that part, huh?!

The presentation of the mission's circumstanses also gave me a theory about why Shi Qingxuan was sent with Xie Lian on this specific mission...!

I saw someone talking about how lonely the opening of Xie Lian waking up seemed. But then he gets such a cute friend...! That's so similar to him! It's so nice to see him happy. I like to think that if Hua Cheng didn't exist and all that other background shit wasn't happening, Xie Lian's third go around might have been nice, Shi Qingxuan could have gotten him settled in, reconciled with the clown boys, etc.

The way he looks at Lang Qianqiu ;0;!! he's like "My baby ;0;"

Also losing my mind over this rando. I need to see what the uniforms for each god looks like or I'll die. Why was this dude so well designed and animated ;0;! I love him?!? So exasperated with his dumbass god ;0;

[fight-fight-danger]

early combat loop preview

dashing will definitely get a nerf/cooldown LMFAO. infinite stamina cheat would be cool tho

[the-deadlock-south]

as pleased as i am that we're getting a new support hero, i can't help but be disappointed that she looks like d.va's and tracers's models just got mashed together (i literally thought it was just a new skin for either of them for a sec). i kinda want to know what the lore behind her is, but... at the same time i lost interest in new characters lore after bap :( let us know if she's at least fun to play when you get a chance to test her out!

i havent been interested in OW lore since like. idk maybe ramattra: at this point i am just here to see if the chara plays nice and if they look nice while liking the old ones LOL juno looks real fun to play with the space theme, so i'm optimistic she'll be a joy :^)

regarding juno about her appearance, i don't think she looks too much like a mash up of dva/tracer like some of the gal heroes usually do (kiriko genuinely does just make me think of tracer sometimes, for instance)..

...but i do like her 'preview' model before. at the very least, her eyes made her stand out with how sharp the lashes were coupled with her smaller face

in the model we have now, they like. nerfed her lashes LOL??? i could be coping but her old eyes looked more 'rectangular' than the rounded shape we have now also. if they kept the eyes from before, i think that would've helped make her stand out, at the very least the lashes. they have a particular style to them that just isn't translated into the in-game model now

[iwillbringyouruin]

Fanwork Spotlight

Rules: share a fic, fanart or gif you're proud of!

I was tagged for this by @loki-is-my-kink-awakening (thank you!), so here is a Geraskier drawing of mine I am really proud of :)

Since previews always nerf the quality, I recommend clicking on it to see it more clearly. Here is where I originally posted about it!

[cryptvokeeper]

oh man I’m just in full taz graphic novel brainrot mode huh

Cuz like I’m thinking about the part of the preview where GM Griffin says something like “I’ve completely lost control of this world” and how on the cover his book is full of holes and I’m thinking like. They have the chance here to make the very concept of a GM really hurt.

like hear me out in the podcast there was always a level of meta to griffin. He didn’t exist behind the fourth wall. He wasn’t a character in the story of Balance. Taako, Magnus, and Merle didn’t talk to Griffin, Justin, Travis, and Clint did. But In the graphic novel there is a direct line of communication between the characters and what is essentially a god. And hey, gods exist in this universe, so tres horny boys take that in stride. They call him a friend, “practically family”. He’s their lovably friendly neighborhoood GM! He’s just hanging out and helping them level up, what a guy.

But at the same time, putting him behind the fourth wall nerfs him, in a way I don’t think the characters are aware of, can ever be aware of. GM Griffin is a character. He’s gone from the storyteller to part of the story. He’s the “GM”, but what does that even mean in a preplanned, structured narrative? What power does he truly have aside from being a reminder to the audience that this story you’re reading used to be a dnd game? And, on a meta level, real world person Griffin has gone on record talking about how completely the end of suffering game derailed things. Originally he planned for a whole adventure in the astral plane that arms outstretched completely obliterated.

So if you will, imagine a scenario where the boys go into the suffering game and get put through absolute hell and their friendly GM Griffin can’t do anything about it. He has no power here, not in any way that matters. He can’t control the liches or stop them. He can’t give the boys any help or healing. Imagine all that salt and anger felt during the suffering game, but instead of being good natured bitching at a son/brother/DM, it’s three mortals genuinely pleading with the supposedly omniscient entity that’s been with them the whole time, but can’t actually do anything but watch them suffer. I was ready to see the “real low” conversation illustrated as a goofy silly bit, but imagine how messed up that moment would be from Taako’s POV.

“Is it almost like some fucking liches from your imagination took my hit points away from me, a wizard? Is it Griffin?”

[maidenvault]

not WIP Wednesay lol

I don't know if anyone else is interested in Crosshair/Howzer after those last episode but uhhh I'm writing it. Here's a preview of them hiding out in an old wrecked ship while on a mission together. (Edit: this fic is finished and posted)

“I bet Omega doesn’t like that she’ll be separated from most of you for the start of this mission.” He made a noise of confirmation under his breath. Howzer didn’t know the half of it. “She’ll never let us go without her, so that’s the deal. She’ll be with Hunter waiting until the first team has made it to Tantiss.” Howzer gave him a mild smile, now starting to remove parts of his armor. “She’ll be fine with her brothers there. You all trained her well.” That got a dismissive little huff of laughter out of him. “I had nothing to do with it.” He paused, hiding with effort the darker place his thoughts went from there. “I’m only here with you now because she doesn’t listen to anything I say.” When he looked directly up at Howzer again, he saw he was stripped down to just his body glove and now beginning to peel the top off over his head. “What are you doing?” Howzer couldn’t seem to hold back one of those broad smiles of his that made his skin crinkle at the corners of his eyes. “I remember Cody said the sonic shower works,” he answered, now bare-chested and freeing himself from the sleeves. Crosshair arched an eyebrow at him. For kriff sake, he’d never seen anyone so nerf-karking happy about using a shoddy old shower. “Well, no offense,” Howzer said in answer to his look, “but it’ll make it a more charming atmosphere on the voyage back, don’t you think?” For a strange few seconds Crosshair was struck silent, so disoriented by this vaguely ribbing comment from Howzer of all people, by the way it was accompanied by Howzer’s eyes briefly going up and down his…person. But this wasn’t the first time he had found Howzer to seem a bit pampered in his sensibilities compared to other clones. Serving as Cham Syndulla’s security and remaining comfortably stationed on one planet for so long, getting sunlight every day and a consistent sleep schedule, had appeared when Crosshair first met him to give him a certain healthy radiance. He'd since heard from one of the defectors of his squad that on special occasions Howzer and some of his men had even been invited to join the Syndullas at their dinner table, treated almost like part of the kriffing family, and the clones on duty those nights would get cakes sent to them to enjoy at their posts. Crosshair supposed if he’d been used to all that not long ago instead of spending much of his life in space, he wouldn’t like sharing close quarters with others for many hours either. “Nice,” he drawled sarcastically once he had recovered from his surprise. “You’d have gotten a much better wash if I let you slip into that ravine, and then you wouldn’t have to smell me anymore.”

[kylesvariouslistsandstuff]

THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS enjoys another re-release theatrically before Halloween...

This is... The seventh theatrical re-release... Domestically. As in, a wide release and not a limited engagement. Like a one-night only thing... I mean a full release that lasts more than a week and runs everyday until it's gone...

There was a small re-issue in 2000, prior to the DVD release. Then, it was converted to 3D and re-released in 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009. Five so far. Then there was a re-release in 2020 when the theaters were slowly opening back up, w/ limited auditorium capacity. (The distanced seats, remember that?) Lastly, there was the 2023 re-release, for the film's 30th anniversary. Now we're on re-issue #7... Just because.

That's cool though, but it's interesting in that this 31-year-old movie has seen as many re-releases as the oldest Disney animated features... Which are decades older than this movie is...

For context... SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS, the very first Disney animated feature film... Was re-released eight times: 1944, 1952, 1958, 1967, 1975, 1983, 1987, and 1993. It's turning 87 in a few months...

The video age mostly brought the end to Disney theatrically re-releasing their movies. Video killed the re-release, oh-a-oh...

What happened was... The first Disney animated film to see a re-release after a home video debut was PINOCCHIO. PINOCCHIO went to video in summer 1985, this particular release - with its nighttime cover depicting Pinoke and Jiminy strolling through the countryside - disappeared a couple of times, coming back w/ a new price... and then went into the vault completely by early 1987. It wouldn't see a new video release for a long time.

Disney re-released PINOCCHIO theatrically, in a new "restored" form, in summer 1992... To underwhelming box office. Disney surmised that people either owned the 1985 VHS release, or rented it. It was no longer viable as a re-release title. Especially when the gross ($18m) was put next to the 1991 re-release of 101 DALMATIANS ($60m) and the 1990 re-release of THE JUNGLE BOOK ($44m)... Those, as you may have guessed, weren't on video yet.

The low gross lead to them cancelling a re-release of SLEEPING BEAUTY set for spring 1993, as that too had come to video in the mid-1980s. A preview of that scrapped re-release appears on the VHS of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, that must be how last-minute the cancellation was.

So with video, usually a film wouldn't appear again in theater. Disney did put THE LITTLE MERMAID back in theaters in 1997, and it only did so-so. Again, the video had come out in 1990 and sold around 10m copies in North America.

In 2002, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST and THE LION KING got extended "Special Edition" IMAX-only re-releases that only did so-so at best. Their performances lead to them scrapping the plans to do the same for ALADDIN (where they would've animated a new sequence set to the unused song "Proud of Your Boy") and POCAHONTAS (which may explain the completion of the cut "If I Never Knew You" scene that appears on the 10th anniversary DVD).

Then there was Disney's brief go at 3D re-releases, it had only resulted in theatrical runs for THE LION KING (in 2011, to great success) and BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (in early 2012, to relatively so-so results), in addition to Pixar's FINDING NEMO and MONSTERS, INC. They also did so-so in comparison to LION KING in 2011. A fall 2013 LITTLE MERMAID re-release got nerfed thereafter.

2020 did see some re-releases when theaters were opening back up but very few new movies were coming out, and then there have been random ones after that. The Disney 100 campaign last year brought some re-releases. My theater didn't get them, bummer. They didn't go back, animation-wise, any further than BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. The UK, however, got a SNOW WHITE re-release. Lucky bastards...

Then we had LION KING earlier this summer, for its 30th anniversary. Now we're on NIGHTMARE again, and also HOCUS POCUS.

So...

SNOW WHITE and FANTASIA each had 8 re-releases in the span of six decades.

PINOCCHIO had 7 re-releases. BAMBI had 6. CINDERELLA and PETER PAN had 5. The number gets lower, the later the film.

NIGHTMARE, at 31, beat almost all of these. That's something.

But, I do think - even if these movies are available somewhere, be it on disc or Disney+ - Disney should do wide re-releases of the classics more often. A whole generation didn't get to see SNOW WHITE and CINDERELLA and such on the big screen, and I sure as hell would LOVE to, myself. And not for a one-night only screening that isn't in my state, I mean a wide release...

Well let's see... 2025's coming... PINOCCHIO and FANTASIA turn 85, CINDERELLA turns 75, LADY AND THE TRAMP turns 70, ARISTOCATS turns 55, EMPEROR'S NEW GROOVE turns 25, you get the idea-

[hamofjustice]

(reposting my own tweet)

wondering if a pokemon-like game should keep the accuracy and critical hit mechanics

most types have 100%-accuracy moves and crits've been nerfed to 1.5x damage at 1/24 chance, but they're still swingy in a game where a missed turn can be so devastating

but that's the point huh

if you play stadium 1 (pick 3 of your 6 pokemon with team preview, 2x damage crits, something like 1/3 crit rate, permanent freeze) you get the feeling that pokemon was intended to be more about throwing your guys at each other and hoping they do a good job than consistency

catching pokemon being based on making dozens of RNG attempts in a row while not even fighting back and epic legendary battle music playing as if something cooler is going on feels... improvable upon, also

but anyway, i'm brainstorming up a move sheet for such a game and idk if there'd be value to focus blast if everything that got it also got aura sphere

thunder vs thunderbolt's kinda multifaceted for having weather synergy and different paralysis chances. more of that, i think

oh yeah, and crits being able to ruin someone's +6 calm mind setup or whatever because they ignore basically everything that would reduce their damage, while usually happening because of 1/24 RNG and not builds/tactics because crit builds/tactics are outclassed feels... not great

[bluecorallite]

Okay, I've finished the decklists of all the cards that each relevant character has used/confirmed so far.

Chapter 7 update: No, I have not made much progress on it. I've only written like 500 words xD. I'm gonna be honest, I'm going to be very busy until around the end of November. I don't know if I'll be able to finish Chapter 7 before then. However, once Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays roll around, I'll probably be able to go wild.

I'll give a little preview as a bit of a consolation lol: Stelle will be dueling in the next chapter! I won't even hide it, she does use Kshatrira. A funny thing is that when I decided her deck, I didn't realize how busted and oppressive that archetype was. She'd probably curbstomp everyone in this fanfic, even Kyoko. No way in hell is she supposed to be stronger than him xD. I like the theme of the archetype and I've already committed myself to it, so I'll probably have to rework it entirely. Might take some more time, but it's the best way to make sure Stelle isn't so overpowered. Hell, I probably won't even give her Shangri-Ira until later in the story. Plus, it should be fun with the alien theme it has going, I can crossover with some other interests I've got like I did with Super Quants and Power Rangers.

With Mika and Tearlaments, it should be a lot easier to nerf her until the power curve catches up.

[divineerdrick]

Grinding Gear Games Live Stream for March 21, 2024

So I wasn't the biggest fan of the Adepticon live stream from last night. I'm hoping Grinding Gear Games can make up for that a bit with new details on Path of Exile 2 and Necropolis. While not the first time I've reacted to a League announcement (I think that was Synthesis?) this will be my first live reaction on this blog.

I absolutely love Path of Exile. When I was trying to do the YouTube thing, I tried my hand at making some PoE content. Unfortunately I hate editing, especially sound editing (does not go well with migraines). So that put an end to that. This is one of the reasons I've tried to move to a blog format, despite the fact that blogs get far less attention. But somehow, it never occurred to me to do blog posts about Path of Exile!

I might also try putting some content on here about Last Epoch, since I'm falling in love with that game as well. Don't know if it will replace PoE as my favorite ARPG, but it's definitely a ton of fun!

With that preamble out of the way, let's do some predictions!

Predictions

For Path of Exile 2, we know they're probably going to be giving us some Ranger gameplay. Johnathan has also talked about the Witch, but I'm gonna guess she's not ready based on things he said in a recent interview. So, for my prediction, I'm going to say we'll also finally see a reveal of one of the itemization systems.

As for Necropolis, that sounds so much like it would be a dungeon League. But we just had one, so I'm thinking this will mostly be a map mechanic. Judging from the preview, I'm betting we're going to have to dig up relics, as in bones and possessions, of heroes of The Eternal Empire. We'll then probably have to earn the respect and favor of these heroes through combat. But that still seems like easy predictions, so I'm gonna go a step further. We will be fighting alongside these heroes in special, juiced, boss encounters.

This League is also turning out to be quite the QoL patch too. Though, if you've been following the teasers and reveals, not all of the changes are actually beneficial. There have been some pretty heavy nerfs revealed, probably to bring the game more in line with design intent. The big one is that we can no longer bind skills on click to move. Instead, we will have to use the new support gems to automate those skills for us. This not only takes away a popular feature, but also takes away some of the control that click to move auto-casting gave us while also increasing socket pressure. My guess is that there will be some more grinding of teeth after the patch notes as well.

I'm gonna guess we're not done with new features yet though. The reveal of a separate PoE2 means that many of the announced features are now up in the air for PoE1. I'm guessing we'll hear some more about features coming back to PoE, even if we don't get them this patch.

I'm also gonna guess we're not gonna get any new transfigured gems, despite how popular that feature is. I'm thinking a great deal of the patch notes will be dedicated to balance changes on these gems.

And I think that's where I'm gonna stand for my predictions!

Announcement Stream

Oh nice! Simultaneous expansion release! While this doesn't affect me as I don't enjoy trying to play PoE on console, it's nice that development and developer tools seem to have caught up to the point where they can release the expansion on all platforms at once.

Oo! I heard deep crafting system~

Jumping right into Path of Exile 2! Here we go with that Ranger preview! We're really focusing on the bow it seems for this preview. For those of you not familiar, your class in Path of Exile does not come with a fixed playstyle, just things the class might be better at. So, for example, melee and grenade rangers are a thing. But for these previews they've been trying to focus on specific things to demonstrate.

Oh! Mounted combat! Diablo 4 eat your heart out!

We have some NPC villain reveals too! They're slowly giving us teasers for the story and setting of this new campaign.

Rangers are getting that move and shoot like the Mercenary. This is huge! One current problem with PoE is that you almost always have to plant your feet to use your skills. This means the difference between being a bow build or spellcaster is whether you're scaling attack damage or spell damage. And the less said about melee the better. Giving bow users the ability to move and shoot helps make the playstyle feel different, instead of just casting AoE spells from a bow.

Speaking of, it's smart to have the finisher have a bit of AoE. Melee already has a little bit of built in AoE, but arrows are still just pure hit or miss. Especially with that wind up on Sniper Shot, hitting multiple enemies and making sure you hit your target will be important.

Johnathan then starts going through the skill system for all the new people who have become interested in PoE2. Thanks again, Blizzard! All you sweet summer children, waiting for the sequel to play PoE for the first time, will never understand just the incredible upgrade this is. I love it so much!

You'll also be starting with such a better looking game! These new lightning effects are so good!

Interesting . . . Barrage has been changed to a cooldown skill. This support skill currently just greatly reduces your damage while rapidly firing our 4 shots. Now they want you to set it up a bit first. It feels a little like another support that exists called Unleash that lets you build up repeated castings over time. So this does feel to me like cooldown finishers will be a thing, but maybe you'll have to choose to opt into them by using a support gem.

But man! Sitting here watching this I just love all the skill and combo interactions in this game! Path of Exile 2 is going to become a theory crafter's dream! I mean detonating gas clouds! That's awesome!

Of course we end the preview with an epic looking boss fight. This boss appears to have a few bullet hell mechanics. I wonder how rolling interacts with these sections.

Wait! Not the end of the preview! Here's that mount, and it's a Roa! I wonder how much of the game you get to use it for.

Oh man! Beta delay . . . Oh well, I prefer they delay and make the game as polished as they can. Even if this does mean we have to wait till the end of the year. But hey! Now it won't be competing with Shadow of the Erdtree!

With that, we're onto Necropolis!

Oh! This does look like a dungeon League! Possibly more Rogue-lite mechanics too! I honestly didn't think they'd do two in a row.

Woah! New Tier of Maps and new bosses. I though we weren't going to see endgame reworks of this nature yet. I guess PoE2 is getting to the point they can divert more resources back to the original.

Yes! There's one I'm glad to be wrong about! New transfigured gems! Can't wait to see what we get!

Oh! No it's not a dungeon League or a Rogue-lite! This is definitely an in map mechanic. I like these modification manipulations, though it might slow things down a bit. I also really like that this is much more control over difficulty than last League.

This is a lot of information we're getting here too! New players can potentially use this to make more informed decisions on how to move through the game.

Oh wow! Cool rewards here! Though this is a weird collection mechanic. But hey! I knew bodies were involved somehow. And talk about a wonderfully morbid form of deterministic crafting. I love it! They keep revealing more and more you can do too! The reveals don't stop keep happening! You can even use these to craft and get better rolls on Uniques!

Oh that's an awesome jewel!

And the corpses are tradeable! I love this league so far!

What! There's even more to the mechanic! You can modify the monsters in the maps! That's so cool! This can help get rid of problem monsters!

And Tattoos are back! This is insane!

Oh interesting! We're getting direct Atlas Tree support during the league! Pretty good, since I'm betting this mechanic isn't going core.

Okay, this is an interesting way to get to Ubers. Now the value of these maps won't be determined by your Atlas Passives. You unlock the original bosses the same way you always did. But then, you move onto a new Tier of maps. You farm those for shards to make your attempts on the pinnacle bosses. These maps also make good intermediate content to gear up on before the attempts.

Oh wow! Nice way to rework some Uniques that have fallen behind. Instead of just improving some and making them rarer, they're going to some of the new bosses.

Looks like they're adding almost all the optional content to Scarabs. Not sure how I feel about this, though it does give a lot of control if you can get the Scarabs you need.

Oh! I love that Divination Scarab! I hate farming the same maps over and over! See this is one of things I love about this game. They're always trying to find ways to allow you to progress the content you want to progress. And to that end, they're also increasing our ability to get content into our maps.

Oh wow! They easily saved the best QoL change for this reveal. We now get three Atlas Trees we can swap between! Again, this gives us more control what content we experience.

Oh! New campaign improvements, huh? Nice! I think that settles it. I'll be playing this League.

Here's the note again on the new and reworked transfigured gems, plus our two most controversial inclusions, Automation and Call to Arms. We're also getting a new support gem for wanders.

Okay! I wasn't sure if I was going to comment on the supporter packs, but I really like the turtle hideout. And wow most of these are still just fun and silly, between that and the mimic pet I might have to see if I can find some money for PoE this League.

All and all, a very impressive live stream!

Interview Stream

I'm gonna follow right on over to the interview with ZiggyD. The amount of extra detail and discussion this always gives us is so worth it. I'm wondering why we're not getting more of Chris this time though.

Interesting. We won't be getting a new monsters or bosses for this the League mechanic. They focused on the new maps instead. This League will instead be all about augmenting our existing content and getting these new crafting mechanics.

Hmm. Not sure I like the fact that you can't sustain T17s. Still because the drops are tradeable, they need to gate them somehow.

And here's some of that conversation I mentioned. I noticed right away that this was probably gonna slow things down a little, as you'll want to try and optimize your monsters in each area. While Mark does suggest that some people might just ignore the mechanic and select whatever they get dealt, and we're even getting a Atlas Passive for mapping that way, they definitely want us to slow down and think it over.

Interesting! They've also made it so that you only get the best modifiers the first time you clear an area in the campaign. And the more of the campaign you do, the better your potential rewards. Combined with campaign improvements and new secrets to find, this is another reason I'll want to play this League.

And while I was impressed with all the information we're getting in game now, it looks like they're not done. They're going to try and add more information to the UI on release. So we'll potentially be able to prepare or min/max a lot.

Okay! Looks like we're going into binding click to move.

It looks like they're making changes to this. The bad news is, they're not ready to revert yet. The good news is that it seems that when they changed this, they suddenly discovered everything the community has been using it to fix. This means that even if they revert, I hope they continue to address these things and make the game better. At the end of the day, this is a lot of annoying stuff that, as Ziggy puts it, we've been using left mouse button as a band-aid for.

Okay! That's not a bad fix for mines. But I'm not sure about the passive changes. We'll need to see the changes directly to see if they're any good.

"Oh, he's doing it again!" Thank you, Ziggy! Pausing coming to PoE1! Doo eet!

They're definitely still trying to come up with systems so you don't have to trust people with your items. Again, in their world we wouldn't use trade for clears or bossing either. But anything they can do to provide tools to keep us safe from scammers is good.

For more on the economy, it feels like they're moving a bit away from the idea of how drops should feel or the economy should feel, and just paying attention to the community and how the game feels. This is obviously the correct choice. First, you won't be able to please everyone. I know plenty of people who hated how easy it was to get gear last League, especially those who enjoy juicing maps. But I know builders like Ziggy loved it.

Bye bye rucksack. F's in chat . . .

But hello Town Portal button!

Moving onto Path of Exile 2!

Woot! Active block! Can't wait to see the new Souls comparisons that will come from that! I love the sound of it personally. Being able to walk forward with your shield raised might be a huge boon to melee.

Oh no! More monsters with tracking! That's going to be fun! Again, Elden Ring says "Hi!" But still, this will be much more engaging than running around in circles.

Still, I wonder if they ramped difficulty for the people they invited to test the game again. I think a lot of people are still very curious as to how difficult this game is going to be.

Oh nice! Multistory dungeons! Wonder if we'll get some scene transition boss fights? Get some Mortal Kombat style beatdowns going.

Sounds like they're trying to make the Beta the entire game, though we might not get all the classes or the full endgame. They definitely want to know if the campaign is good to go before release. If possible, it sounds like they want changes in the beta to be just bug fixes and balance changes. So we'll be getting all the content they can give us.

Finally, we get a little mention on the life globe changing color. I'm surprised they'd never thought to put poison on the life globe before. It's a classic ARPG mechanic.

I honestly feel this was a great interview. I know some people are insisting on being salty about "LMB" right now, and I'm already seeing people take Mark's "deal with it" out of context. Again, I do think this has revealed some real mechanical flaws that need to be addressed. If it comes back, it should be because it's a feature players like and not because we need it for our builds.

Patch Notes

I'm following along with Zizaran for the patch notes on this. I'm a huge fan of his content and He'll catch way more than I ever could.

It's RAW!

Ziz thought this was going to be a Vampire Survivors League! Oh man! A bullet heaven league would be great! I do hope we get something like that in the future. Bet they're already trying something out along the lines of Blight.

"Added a new Intelligence Support Gem - Sacred Wisps:"

Definitely need to see how those wisps play out. I've always enjoyed Wanders and have been wanting to try one again. I'm also curious about Elemental Hit and Tornado transfigured gems.

"The following currency items now have a stack size of 20:"

Woot! QOL stacks!

"Added a myriad of small improvements and surprises to the Campaign."

Again, the campaign changes demand I come back.

"Alternate-art Unique Items can now be converted to account-bound microtransactions . . ."

Oh wow! Very nice! You can now make account bound alternate art items! This . . . probably doesn't affect me? I don't think I have any alternate art items. Nearly all of them have been from races, and I don't think I ever did well enough to get one. You'd think I'd remember if I had, but migraines often make things fuzzy.

"The Dark Seer Unique Sceptre now has +2 to Level of All Spell Skill Gems . . ."

Dark Seer is +2 to Level of All Spell Skill Gems! Wow! That's gonna be a chase item.

But I'm with Ziz here. Not sure that's a good enough change on Malachai's Endurance.

"The Manastorm Unique Shield now has 1-100% increased Mana Recovery from . . ."

This sounds like a blast!

"The Wraithlord Unique Helmet now has 4 Abyssal Sockets . . ."

And this just seems completely amazing! To be fair, minion builds often have to deal with a lot of a socket pressure, and this kills a full 4 of your sockets. But this is so powerful and they're taking steps to bring some needed QoL to minions too.

"The Yoke of Suffering Unique Amulet now has Enemies take 5-10% increased Damage . . ."

Yoke of Suffering seems fail at first, as the buff has only increased by up to 5%, and nothing else. But that extra 5% can stack up pretty quick with all the ailments you can inflict in this game.

"The fifth slot in the Map Device is now unlocked upon completing a non-Valdo's Tier 17 Map."

Oh nice! We no longer have to do Legion for this. Again, we get to do the content we want.

"You can no longer earn Einhar, Alva, Jun or Niko Master Missions . . ."

Yeah, I'm not sure on the Master Missions. But if you can target farm the Scarabs properly, this should be an improvement.

"Added a new Atlas Keystone Passive to the Necropolis Atlas Tree . . ."

As Ziz points out, we can't know how good the Necropolis keystones will be. They all depend on how good the mechanic turns out. If the mechanic is garbage all around, no one will care about these. If the rewards from the maps are good, but not the crafting, then all we'll care about is improving those and vice versa.

"Added a new Atlas Keystone Passive, Thorough Exploration . . ."

If you like clearing your maps the way I do, this will be great. If you just run to bosses you'll pass on this. Again, helping you to play the way you want.

But there's a lot of changes here. I mean, a lot of changes! Like many of the passives around the League content really change a lot!

"The Amplified Energies Atlas Notable Passive now causes . . ."

Looks like a bit of an Essence nerf here. To be fair, Essences are a powerful mechanic for both farming and gearing. But they're so useful for when you're trying to get your build going, especially in SSF. I kind think this first change is okay, but the second one seems pretty bad.

"Essence Monoliths in White Maps can now spawn up to a maximum tier of Screaming . . ."

Okay, that's a better change for Essences. I never liked White Map Essence farming.

"Vorici's Research Safehouse reward is now a stash of Harvest Scarabs."

RIP white sockets.

"The Unique Cortex Synthesised Map can no longer drop from Atlas Map Bosses . . ."

Did we just lose Cortex? Okay, there it is.

Here's the part of the Patch Notes where we get the map changes for the League. And I agree with Ziz that these are mostly good map changes. There's a few we've gotten that I'm really not fond of (Cells and Dungeon), and a few we lost I really like (City Square, Mesa, and Racecourse). But overall this seems like a pretty good pool.

And wow! They took away Seventh Gate and just gave us all the map options! That's a totally worth while trade! Again, it's about letting us pick how we want to play the end game.

And now for the big list of gem changes! I'm honestly seeing a lot of buffs here. There were only a handful of gems that seemed really over tuned, so it seems like they're happy to bring up more options in power while only nerfing a few.

"Essence Drain of Desperation: Now deals 50% more Damage over Time at all gem levels."

Hee! GGG's gonna force Ziz to run ED again . . .

"Sniper's Mark: Now causes Cursed Enemies to take 10% increased Damage from Projectile Hits at gem level 1 (unchanged), scaling up to 29% at gem level 20 (previously 35%) . . ."

Big nerf on Sniper's Mark! That will affect a lot of builds.

"Summon Raging Spirit: The Raging Spirit's melee attack no longer naturally gains 0-38% more Damage as it levels."

RIP vanilla SRS. But as Ziz points out, minion instability will still be very good.

"The Ralakesh's Impatience Unique Boots no longer provide 30% increased Movement Speed."

Ralakesh no longer that impatient.

"The Void is now considered a Boss-exclusive Divination Card."

That's an interesting change to The Void. Ziz is wondering if that means Void can grab boss exclusives.

"Scrolls of Wisdom can now be used on items that are Corrupted. As a result of this, most items that previously dropped identified now drop unidentified."

As Ziz, says, "Oh no!" And yeah, I'm just gonna hide any non-six link corrupted items. The only advantage these had was you knew what they were when you saw them.

"The Veiled modifier that provides reduced Mana Cost of Skills during Effect can no longer be unveiled or crafted on Flasks."

Massive nerf to Pathfinder!

"The Jewel Suffix modifier that grants 3-5% reduced Mana Cost can no longer roll."

Yeah, I'm with Ziz on this. Not sure why they killed the Jewel Mana Cost mod.

Wow! This is a lot of changes for Tattoos and many of them are really good! It's great to have these back!

"Rare Monster item bonus mechanics are now rarer, and the following item bonus mechanics have been removed: Items dropped are converted to Gems, Items dropped are converted to Scarabs, Items dropped have all White Sockets . . ."

RIP white sockets! Why are they reducing them like this? How were they a bad socket fixing mechanic? The whole of PoE2's skill rework is socket fixing! Why does PoE need to have vanilla socket fixing?

Also, I really don't like the changes to Rares. The drop mechanics made Rares feel so much better. They made me want to engage with the Rares in my maps instead of just boss. And they definitely didn't feel overly generous to me. They do remember this was offsetting a drop in loot, right?

Well that was not the best way to end the patch notes section. There are definitely some bitter pills in all of this. But as Ziz keeps pointing out, we're getting so much! But that is GGG for you. They're not afraid to take harsh measures to fix things, but they do fix things. The click to move binding is probably still the harshest thing, but I'm willing to give them a league or two to fix the mechanics it was propping up. At the very least, they've got as long as it took them to realize Archnemesis was a bad idea.

Final Thoughts

That was definitely a nasty way to end the patch notes, but it's not souring me on this. This League looks like it's going to be a ton of fun! Obviously, click to move casting is going to continue to be contentious until they either fix everything or end up reverting. Other than that here are my primary concerns.

1. Scarabs are doing a lot of work.

They've shoved a ton of mechanics that were all previously separated onto Scarabs. Want sextant modifiers? Scarabs. League content? Scarabs. Master missions? Scarabs! Plus they're even adding new and interesting modifiers to them to top it off. If getting the Scarabs we want is too inconsistent or we just can't get enough from drops, then we're just vanilla mapping.

2. Pressure to Run Tier 17

Right now it often feels like you need to get to the point you can run Tier 16s as soon as you can, and there isn't any point running anything less. This often causes newer players to wait to do certain content until they've geared up to running those maps, making progressing their gear harder. I even catch myself doing it! I'm hoping the way they drop will incentivize players to engage with content instead holding off until they can do the highest tier maps.

3. Drops

This has been a concern for a while now, with some not being happy about it since Expedition. It didn't help that Leagues had gotten way wealthier previously, with many players forgetting how lean drops could be originally. But especially given how wealthy Affliction was, players might be feel poorer this League. And now they've made Rare drop mods, um, rarer. Even though this is a crafting League, that could cause some problems.

However, even with those bad things let's look at what we're getting.

1. More control over the endgame than ever before!

They just keep knocking down barriers to experiencing the end game the way we want to experience it. Well, except maybe if you're playing SSF. But if you're playing any form of trade league, you can probably make money farming the content you want and trading for anything you need.

2. So much QoL!

Just so much! So many little things we've been asking for or that are sources of friction are gone!

3. More build diversity than ever before!

Transfigured gems really did cause a ton of new builds to pop up. Yeah, some have gotten nerfs. But for the most part, it's all broken stuff. And some of that looks like it survived pretty much intact. Add in new gems and buffs to older ones, and hopefully theory crafters like myself will have content to chew on for months!

4. An honestly awesome looking League!

I'm still a little concerned with fiddling with monsters between maps, but I think many builds will eventually get to the point where you just grab random enhancement for increased rewards. The changes to the campaign seem really interesting though. And the potential crafting power might lead to some awesome items. We obviously won't know until next week, but I'm honestly really excited to log in!

[drainowl]

I've run out of sketch work I feel somewhat proud of posting, looks like I'm actually gonna have to get to work if I wanna have something worth presenting.

Sadly I have no grand revelations or thoughts to share as I spent most of the week indulging myself and playing video games, particularly Dark Souls 2. One small notable thing I did was open Godot game engine and program a first person character controller, of course its rather primitive and doesn't feel good to control, so I still have a long way to go before I have anything close to a game but I'm still gonna use this as a dump for design notes based on my opinion of Dark Souls 2 for future reference. Not that I'm even making a game akin to Dark Souls in anyway.

So starting off Dark Souls 2 feels like a fan game that missed the point of the original mechanics and narrative and just went overboard. The main progression of the game has many obscure and arbitrary objectives that practically require a guide to find. The first game also had this problem when it came to some of its deeper mechanics and optional content but not along its main progression path, completely blocking players not in the know as well as destroying the pacing and flow when you inevitably have to stop and look up a guide.

The UI on item pickups only shows the name and category icon rather than the small preview of the first game. Together with the increased amount of pickups, players are often overwhelmed with items that build little intrigue to use them. Making for a big, cluttered inventory of unused items and equipment.

The feeling of creating an interconnected, coherent world that can be learnt and in turn rewards players for doing so is lost from the first game and replaced with mostly linear runways that build up in the warp menu, slowly making it more bloated and hard to navigate. The warp mechanic really just exists as a crutch for the level design, as well as breaking the pacing of the game when your forced to warp back to the hub area to level.

The combat has become far slower, the enemy AI nerfed. The dodge roll feels particularly harmed, although it could be argued it was due a nerf. Its animation gets little distance, making it feel awkward to use, the invincibility frames gained from a dodge are tied to a stat that is not explained to players, meaning new players main form of defense is removed in a way that is hidden from them, this is insanely frustrating. For players that know about the stat, it is given priority in character building, making player choice less emphasized and builds more uniform.

Bosses, which I though were a highlight of the first game. In Dark Souls 2, bosses are often easily cheesed by walking around them, attacking, then healing if they manage to land a hit, as often they just leave big gaps of time in-between attacking for players to do so. Often times you'll fight a boss only to die and realize you don't have the MacGuffin to beat them, which once again is often left unexplained, souring all the bosses and making them feel more like a cheap trick rather than the actual test of raw skill they were in the original Dark Souls.

The new healing system, honestly isn't all to bad. life gems are easily obtained and abused, not great for balance but for a game with poor balance anyway, its a decent remedy. The actual nerf and added progression of regular healing/Estus at first feels like a mistake... which yea it is, players need more than 1 Estus to make it through the hordes of enemies the game throws out in the first level. At least feels like a step in the right direction for the balancing of the game, giving the player more renewable healing as they progress. I wouldn't be surprised if the wide range of healing options available to players at any given time is why the balance is so off throughout the game as opposed to Dark Souls 1s more reserved approach to healing.

Now that I've run out of actual gameplay mechanics to complain about and could really only nit pick from here on, ill touch on the story. Its the same story as Dark Souls 1 spelt out through an annoying, on the nose and mostly forgettable bloated cast of characters.

I disliked Dark Souls 1 as I played through it, but as I looked back, I realized most of my problems stemmed from my bad decision making in a world that left so much choice up to the player and my own lack of perception. As I learned and became better it slowly made its way into my favorite games list... The word "most" should be emphasized, there are some moments of genuinely horrible design, but I thought the same might be true for Dark Souls 2 which is why I gave it so much time to win me over and went on to beat it. But sadly, it just ended up becoming a further lesson in poor design. Although I know there are many people who enjoy it, I personally would not recommended.