#thunder procs

[helladventurers]

Tried out black mage to get an alt set up so I can unlock red mage right away after I buy endwalker, and 💀 NGL the 1-50 rotation is so fucking boring and brain dead. Maybe it gets better on later level uncaps, but as is this is definitely the worst out of the jobs I played so far

[sky-ham]

Me building my party with save debuffs so Shart can hit everything

[gold-rhine]

anyway, if you look at free to play guides and articles, recommending 4 stars only teams, and these team don't work for you, it's not just "skill issue". tho ofc average player will not have as much practice as ppl who play this game for a living. artifacts play a huge role, if you don't have good artifacts, even broken 5 stars won't help in the abyss, at least.

but also, these guides almost always use c6 r5 characters without mentioning, and for many 4 star constellations matter SO MUCH. some characters straight up unplayable without cons.

so i wanted to go thru the list of most popular meta 4 stars and list the importance of their cons and weapons just so you can have reference if it makes sense for you to use them:

Xiangling - literally unplayable in serious abyss teams before C4. C4 gives plus 40% burst duration, at which point she's broken. She wants r5 catch or basically any 5 star spear, as long as you have like 200% er. 4 piece emblem set, no options, crit hat, pyro cup, er\em\atk sands, should have at least 100 EM overall.

Bennet - his importance con is C1, bc otherwise he either heals or gives atk buff, but most teams that want him will be ok with C0 Benny. Unless it's a nche team that relies on Benny's pyro infusion, then only C6. wants a sword with highest base attack you have. skyward blade is probably his best option bc it has er and high base atk, aquila favonia has higher atk, but you'll need more er, for f2p options sumeru craftable sword is best option, but if your team REALLY struggles with energy, you can use favonius sword. benny's weapon needs to be max level.

Xingqiu - C0 feels so bad to play, bc it's so hard to get enough energy off-field. Teams that want him like pyro carries with vape or hyperbloom will still be playable, but just feel kinda bad. Starts feeling ok at C2, at C6 becomes comparable to C0 Yelan. Wants sacrificial sword R5 or at least R3, if your sac sword is lower than r3, it's better to use favonius sword. 4 piece emblem set or 4 piece noblesse set if used with hypercarries like arle who cares about atk. use ER sands if you can't get enough energy to burst off cool down.

Fischl - pretty good at C0, but truly broken at C6. Wants stringless bow or 5 star bows. 4 piece golden troupe best option, but can work with thundering fury or combos of 2 pieces

Yao Yao - actual free to play hero, already great at C0, her cons basically don't matter. Event hp healer staff or just fav lance is good. if used in a team with majority dendro damage like alhaitham or tighnari, etc, then use deepwood, if used to just proc aggravate with like clorinde\keqing\yae\raiden + fischl, then 4 piece instructor is her best option.

Sucrose - becomes playable at C1. When guides say she's as good as kazuha, they mean C6, and it's a lie anyway, bc what they mean is that on paper damage calculations are similar. But in actual play her grouping is nowhere near kazuha and her burst actually ungroups enemies when unlucky. Wants sacrificial fragments and 4 piece vv with EM stats, no options.

Kuki - another f2p hero and hyperbloom goddess, good at C0, great at C2, immortal at C6. get as much EM as you can on her, should be near 1000, weapon usually iron sting. doesnt care about ER or anything else, minmax EM

Chevreuse - already good at C0 if you have strong pyro or electro carries. at C6 pretty broken. ONLY good in teams with only pyro and electro, nothing else, both need to be there. wants HP stats.

Beidou - good against 2+ enemies, but CANNOT trigger hyperbloom. Can be okay at C0, good at C4, pretty good at C6.

Thoma - for burgeon can use C0.

Layla - decent shield only after C2.

Noelle - usually shown in Furina teams as a driver, becomes decent at C6.

[ofdarklands]

level 90 at last!

so! about black mage

i've been thinking how to describe playing black mage, and i think the simile i used this morning in chat works well enough:

black mage feels like trying to run with a pot full of boiling water in my hands. with other jobs i feel light and agile, but black mage plays like how seeing emet selch as solus run would feel. look at that guy go. i didn't know spines could do that! you can hear his knees crunch, also

mechanically, it's really not nearly as bad as i feared it to be, even though i don't think i'd managed to figure out a decent rotation myself on the first or even third try so, thank you internet people for the guides!

anyway, the boiling pot wheezing trot sensation is not unique to it, though it is the most noticeable of all the casting classes i've played. i'd say rdm>summoner>whm>>blm in increasing awkwardness

so, while i acknowledge that blm is an optimizer's paradise to get the Biggest Booms, probably, playing it feels like it's almost fighting against the game instead of flowing with it and due to that it's just not very enjoyable, for me. it's got the same inflexible rotation that makes dragoon my least played class despite it being very canon for mitr'a

and from a physical perspective my fingers are not very precise on the keyboard, so i tend to fuck up the routine by accident quite often and then i have to correct it or start over and eeeehhhhhh. and my can't-remember-to-click-despair situation. dunno what the problem is with that one, to be quite honest. brain said no i guess :( that one's on me

woops this got longer than i thought so have a readmore

the good:

aforementioned big damages, when i manage to keep the rotation on track. sadly not as much of a plus for me, personally, but it's relevant still

against one enemy, getting immersed in the rotation can be pretty fun, until the 5 aoes come, the boss leaves the arena, and i sigh deeply while creakily running around, not casting

lasso spell goes brrr. it's got a very funny sound effect, in my heart

the 'return to leylines' spell is also great. i've used it mostly to instantly dodge when there's more than 2 sequential aoes. you can play around with these two spells

shoutout to the simplified job gauge for letting you actually understand anything about it. sure it's 3.5 things to keep track of, but for 2 of them you get informed about their readiness with convenient sounds and flashing borders so whatever

big staff to hit people with

cone hat funny

big lb meteorites. very good very cackling

the bad:

moving feels heavy, even when using the instant cast abilities. i keep lagging behind the group even in normal content, and sometimes clicking the right person to yeet to can be a bit hard in alliances or wall to walls. this class needs to do some cardio

clicking fire IV 3 times, then 1 fire I then fire IV 3 more times is. very boring. sorry. rotation 40 years long and rigid like the brutalism. the funnest parts are the thunder procs and the ice phase before going back to fire and the occasional instant cast. oh you sneezed and misclicked and dropped your fire badge thingies on the floor? sorry idiot you get to start over from the top, but sadder this time

this one i only noticed here at the end, but i feel it's very important, maybe more than the rotation: the best and biggest animations it has are the ones for the ice spells, which you use the least. xenoglossy, foul and flare are also good. amplifier, manafont and triple cast feel nice and dramatic to use. paradox i just got but it's also nice with the color mix. the rest i don't even remember, had to go cast them on a dummy. it's fireballs and fire columns it's all fireballs! the blm animations have a lot of boom but they need more heft, if that makes sense? more flying shit going from you to the target, shit shrapneling from the target, rings of fire, fiery eldritch runes, anything. if rdm can shoot 50 explosive roses at a guy for some reason and drk can summon shields of runes, blm can do something fancy also. casting a finisher skill called 'despair' should look like i'm sucking their souls out through a straw

also more casting positions. summoner has a lot and they're pretty different! they got floating symbols and shit. blm has 'slightly crouched' and 'staff held high' in variation 1 and 2, and that's about it from what i can tell besides the selfbuff ones. add some evil runes at least. the paradox wide armed one (i think you float a little?) is a good addition though

anyway, final verdict: it's a good class, but it's very rigid and inflexible to get Big Damages, which is not an exciting exchange, for me. i prefer to be nimble and do less damage but have a more varied and forgiving rng based rotation. also more utility skills! i miss peloton or having a group shield or heal, or even rdm's rez; makes me feel actually useful instead of being just a giant cone hat that produces flamethrower on command. i don't think i'll play it too often, i'm afraid, even though it's a perfectly alright class, and i'm sure i'll get better with time

HOWEVER. if dawntrail allows blm to throw meteorites outside of lbs i might reconsider. they can be small! even magical molotov cocktails if we must. but i want physical flamming objects to hit my enemies and i want to see the animations do that with some flair. just ole fire and spite booms and a couple icicles is not enough. i want to flatten them

[theterribletenno]

Juvia the Rain Warframe

I love water stuff. Underwater zones, water-based characters and powers, I just love water.

Like all other frames from this season Juvia is obtained from the Duviri game mode. Completing any objective during the Sorrow Spiral will award players with one Juvia's Tear or two if playing on the steel path. These tears can then be exchanged with Luscinia's courtier form in the Chamber of Muses during any spiral other than sorrow. Luscinia's tear exchange options are as follows:

Juvia blueprint (12 Juvia's Tear)

Juvia chassis blueprint (12 Juvia's Tear)

Juvia neuroptics blueprint (12 Juvia's Tear)

Juvia systems blueprint (12 Juvia's Tear)

Hailstone blueprint (5 Juvia's Tear)

Hailstone ball (5 Juvia's Tear)

Hailstone pouch (5 Juvia's Tear)

5x Rare Duviri resource (1 Juvia's Tear, stock rotates each spiral)

10x Uncommon Duviri resource (1 Juvia's Tear, stock rotates each spiral)

20x Common Duviri resource (1 Juvia's Tear, stock rotates each spiral)

Sundog Ephemera (100 Juvia's Tear)

The Sundog Ephemera (also included in Juvia's premium bundle) is a circular rainbow centered around the warframe's chest which is always behind the warframe no matter what angle they are viewed from. The Sundog's default energy color is white with the colors of the rainbow being an additive layer. Each time an ability is cast the Sundog Ephemera surges brightly and while a toggled ability is active it will shimmer and release colorful sparks.

Health: 200 (300 at rank 30) Shields: 500 (600 at rank 30) Armor: 105 Energy: 150 (200 at rank 30) Sprint Speed: 1.15

Passive: Elemental status effects inflicted by Juvia's weapons and abilities last 50% longer.

Ability 1: Thunderclap, 25 energy. With a clap of her hands Juvia lets loose a bolt of lightning and the boom of thunder. When cast all enemies in an 18 meter, 90 degree cone in front of Juvia will take 100 times 1+X (where X is equal to the enemy's level divided by 10) electric damage which is followed after a half-second delay by an equal amount of blast damage with a guaranteed status proc from both instances of damage. When the blast damage triggers all affected enemies will also be ragdolled and knocked away from Juvia.

Ability 2: Freezing Rain, toggled ability, drains 3 energy per second. Juvia is the mistress of misery, and her sorrow falls heavily on the heads of unwary foes, causing them to suffer and slowly die. While Freezing Rain is active Juvia creates a rainstorm centered on herself with a radius of 45 meters which deals 25 times 1+X (where X is equal to the enemy's level divided by 10) cold damage per half-second with 20% status chance.

Ability 3: Blinding Fog, toggled ability, drains 3 energy per second. Juvia generates a thick fog around herself which obfuscates enemy vision, causing chaos on the battlefield. While Blinding Fog is active Juvia exudes a blinding vapor in a 30 meter radius cloud around herself. All enemies within this cloud suffer a -40% accuracy penalty, and become vulnerable to friendly fire.

Ability 4: Heavy Weather, toggled ability, drains 1 energy per second. When Juvia's mood is at its foulest her powers intensify, making them even more dangerous to her foes but also draining her energy faster. Heavy Weather has no direct effect, but causes all of Juvia's other abilities to gain +50% range and +100% strength but also increases their energy cost by 100%. Heavy Weather also applies to abilities infused into her with the Helminth system.

Subsumed ability: Thunderclap.

Signature Weapons Hailstone: Juvia's signature sidearm, categorized as a throwing weapon. The blueprint and components for Hailstone are purchased from Luscinia in exchange for Juvia's Tears, requiring 2 Hailstone balls and 2 Hailstone pouches to craft. Hailstone is unique among thrown secondary weapons as it is neither a throwing star or knife nor a handheld explosive, instead it takes the form of heavy round balls of solid metal. Hailstone has a semi-auto trigger, a small magazine for a thrown weapon with a quick reload, and deals surprisingly heavy damage at the cost of a slow rate of fire and slow projectiles. Hailstone has quite high crit and status chance as well as a high critical multiplier and deals pure impact damage. As a unique bonus headshots with the Hailstone gain an additive +100% crit and status chance. As Juvia's signature secondary weapon she is an expert at handling the heavy iron balls and slightly improves magazine size when she wields it. Kusari-Gama: Juvia's signature melee weapon, a unique and special blade & whip. The Kusari-Gama can be purchased for the Drifter in Teshin’s cave for 50 Pathos Clamp, unlocking the blueprint for warframe use which is crafted using assorted materials from the Duviri game mode. Unlike most other blade & whip melee weapons the ends of the Kusari-Gama are nearly identical, a pair of curved sickle blades, one ever so slightly larger than the other. The Kusari-Gama has a high attack speed at the cost of low damage for a blade & whip melee weapon, above normal critical and status chance, and deals roughly equal values of impact, puncture, and slash damage. Guarding heavy attacks with the Kusari-Gama performs a whirlpool-like spinning sweep which ragdolls all enemies within a radius equal to 2x the weapon's listed range and applies a guaranteed cold status proc. This special attack is on a 30 second cooldown with melee kills reducing remaining cooldown time by 1 second each. The Kusari-Gama is also made to be compatible with new Kamaitachi stance; a blade & whip stance with combos that alternate between short-reaching attacks with the main hand dealing bonus damage and long-reaching attacks with the off-hand. The Kamaitachi stance is dropped by Ghouls in the Plains of Eidolon and Hyenas in the Orb Vallis. As Juvia's signature melee weapon the Kusari-Gama gains a slight bonus to range when she wields it.

Closing Notes: Holy shit look how tiny those text boxes are. She's so simple. Cute little abilities without a hundred moving parts. I bet people are gonna find all kinds of ways to break the game with her. I also bet people will go crazy for the Sundog Ephemera. Juvia is named after Juvia Lockser from Fairy Tail who also has hydrokinesis powers.

[arknightskitguy]

I was thinking about operator kits a lot lately and figured I'd make a blog about how I'd go about fixing the more flawed ones...

With that said, I figured I'd think on the Glasgow Gang (Siege, Indra, Dagda, Morgan) first and see how I'd personally improve them!

If ur interested in these Contemplations[tm] check under da readmore

-SIEGE-

Siege's main problems are DP generation, which isn't stellar for a Vanguard. She has high dps for her class, and clearly functions as a pseudo-guard, but without that dp gen, especially with her higher cost, she ends up expensive to deploy with barely any return besides damage and minor Talent buffs.

In regards to S2, I'd personally bump up the DP gain by 1 or 2. Not too much, since it has a very low SP cost that benefits well from her second talent.

With S3, I'd have it so that the skill generates 1 DP per second over the skill duration (total of 21 at SL7), similar to skills like Saga's S3. That way, it can still serve as an alternative to her S2.

If I were feeling extra generous, I COULD give her +1 DP everytime her Stun procs, but its percentage is high enough that the DP gen might end up too insane, even for a 6* trying to carve out a place in the current meta.

As far as her talents go, I'd merely make the full E2 Pot5 Talent 1 stat boosts around 15-16% instead of just 10% so that the buff feels a little more impactful.

Meanwhile, with Talent 2, I wouldn't really change anything. She has high damage and 2 skills (S1 and S2) that benefit massively from this talent, and this only further increased with the release of Siege's second module, 'Thy First Vow', which bumped up the SP gain by +2.

Overall, S2 would still be her main skill to use, especially with Thy First Vow's Talent 2 buff, which allows a higher likelihood of skill spam potential.

-INDRA-

She's fine, but the brutal SP cost for S2 hinders its usage. Personally, I'd reduce the cost to the ~30 range, drastically improving cycle time and, therefor, improving her self-sustain.

If I was feeling generous, I'd also gift her S2 with +1 Block. This would allow more chances for her Talent to proc while S2 is active, which would mean even more damage!

Speaking of her Talent, it's perfectly fine and synergizes well with both of her skills, so no changes needed.

-DAGDA-

Boy oh boy! Well, for starters, let's switch things up and delve into her Talents first.

For Talent 1, I'd honestly change the damage multiplier increase to +10-15% for every enemy defeated so that the ramp-up is faster.

For Talent 2, I'd make it so that it applies outside of [Return to Mist] stages as well, just halved (10% and 10%), allowing her to keep SOME of her self-sustain, even if it's not as strong.

For S1, I'd make it so that the cost is lowered instead from 4 to 3 because of how the sp charge type affects the skill.

For S2, I believe ATK being changed from +28% to +40% would help her damage, especially when her Talent procs and boosts it further. The skill duration being increased from 15 seconds to 25 seconds would also benefit its uptime, which isn't very good.

-MORGAN-

Honestly, I have to wonder why every Glasgow member besides Siege ended up being a Guard, because none of them benefit from her stat boost Talent. Well, whatever. Morgan is our third 5* Guard of the faction, and the unluckiest.

For her Talents, I'd change the second one so that it works outside of [All Quiet Under The Thunder] stages, but has a limit of 3 deployments in non-AQUTT stages before the Talent is disabled.

I'd also give the Talent a -4-5 DP cost buff so that it's more generally useful, since DP slot ignore, while also useful, isn't as generally applicable unless you just really like using her. Also, cutting her DP helps with her rising costs as she's continuously deployed for S2!

For S1, I'd make it so that she can't kill herself with it (HP doesn't go below 1 type of deal). She'd still have to rely on outsider healing, but if she dies it at least wouldn't be her own fault!

For her S2, the barrier slowly decays over the course of the skill's full 18 seconds instead of just a paltry 6, improving its sustain.

I'd also give her a massive passive RDP buff tied to her S2. That way, its cycle time is drastically improved.

Anyway that's all I got. I hope you found this ramble interesting! I like doing these :^)

[silkwyrm]

dungeons have been nothing-content in that game for a long time but i thought it was cool how the chance to get a thundercloud proc would scale infinitely with the size of a pull, to the point where you would reliably have it proc without even needing sharpcast. idk it was a neat little interaction and now that's gone for literally no reason and now you cant even cast thunder spells without like having a charge of Thunder Ready or whatever the hell

[freyalise]

me and a friend have started ff14 together, and theyve been playing black mage and really liking it -- how bad is it? what happened?

i guess a lot of it depends on what job actions they actually add for black mage in dawntrail, but the main changes is that you can't cast thunder anymore or get thundercloud procs (it just gives you a thunder gcd cast when you swap between astral/umbral), sharpcast is gone completely, and you can move your leylines once per activation (reducing the positional awareness slightly). black mage has always been an easier to play class post-heavensward which was mitigated by more interesting endgame gameplay, but these changes are going to make the lower-level and core blm rotations much less interesting

[greetings-inferiors]

whos your favorite survivors in ror2?

Favourite base survivor? Void fiend probably. Their mechanic of swapping between a more consistent commando-like character and an absolutely monstrous glass canon is really cool, and I love health as a mechanic (I’m also a big sucker for Rex), so health being the thing that determines the rate of their transformation is really cool. I can’t in good faith say they’re my favourite overall survivor though, as they only have one loadout, and they’re also a bit TOO busted and consistent, which means that after a few void fiend runs it can get a bit boring. If void fiend had another loadout then I think they’d be the clear winner.

My favourite overall is probably the loader. I love melee characters, and she’s so much fun to play. Every single part of her loadout is fun, and I can enjoy her no matter which I use. With her pylon she gets free bands without having to pot roll. Thunder slam is capable of nutty damage. Her fists are probably the most fun skill in the entire GAME. She’s also my most picked and most used (with acrid and Rex as second place respectively). My one critique of her is that when you use her m2 you’re completely locked into that direction of movement as if you jumped on a geyser, it’s probably done to make it feel better but idk it’s really annoying when I don’t have any backup mags and I let go and am like ‘welp I’m going this way now’. Such a small complaint for an otherwise FLAWLESS character

My least picked survivor is multi, I’ve recently come to appreciate double rebar, but idk I just think that commando does his job as a proc monster better, and I don’t think tanks are very good in this game as the best way to play is not get hit. The least time spent is artificer, just because when I play her I win or die very quickly 😂 I’ve came to appreciate her a lot more with eclipse.

I think every survivor is great, and most of them have an argument to be my favourite, but void fiend and loader come out on top.

What’s your favourite survivor? I assume railgunner, which, fair enough, she’s just a long ranged loader, with a vanilla pillarskip, ooh lah lah, and she’s so satisfying to play, I just a.) am not good enough to absolutely love her and b.) think her mobility can be lacking at times (even though the amount of tech with her is insane)

[asexual-spongebob]

The Waves That Lap The Shore - Chapter 26 - Cyclone Patrick

Notes:

Paani my beloved genderfluid fail. also I’m sorry for the lack of Shellie and Peso lately. But I bet they’ll have more focused on because of the whole Edda thing. ALSO HOLY SHIT BUD? Yeah >:3 I love bud <3 their just a guy. Love their sibling dynamic w/ pancake. So here’s my hc for him :) Bud - they/he, demiboy   This is so random but I watched some episodes w/ bud so I could get a good idea of his character and how he acts and such and I gotta say. I love him. Silly guy :) I watched the Caddisfly episode and it gave me a good idea of how him and pancake’s dynamic works. Ngl I absolutely adore it <3 I like to see it as older sibling and little sibling kinda dynamic :3 also random but I’ve been very excited to release this chapter.

•••

Shellington, Peso, Kwazii and Paani were chilling at Paani’s house. 

“We should show them the stones.” Peso whispered, Shellington nodded 

“We  found these stones at the bottom of the Moon Pool.” Shellington said, placing them on the table.

“We think that they mean something because they’re shaped like our powers.” Peso added “I’ll take this thanks.” Paani mumbled, snatching the one that was shaped like a lightening bolt, Kwazii then snatched the one shaped like a burning fire.

•••

Later 

Paani was in Kwazii’s room. He had went back with the other fish dudes to the Octopod. He pulled out his bracelet kit and started making an anklet for himself. 

He felt, unusually uneasy after he had put the anklet on, he felt knots form in his chest. 

Hm… this feels kind of weird… 

Maybe I just need to go for a swim. He thought 

Paani rushed down to the Launch Bay and went out for a swim on her paddle board, she hoped  it’d clear her mind.

Paani went out to sea, surfing near Mako Island during the sunset. But then, the full moon rose. Paani stared at it as if she was staring into someone’s soul.

They snapped back to reality after being knocked down by wave. 

Paani could feel clenched their hand into a fist, huh?? I don’t think I moved that? 

However, soon his hand was clenched tight. Strong winds began to form, the water became rougher and rougher by the minute. 

I need to stop this! Paani thought to himself, trying to unclench his fist, but he couldn’t. No matter how hard he tried.

A huge boom came from the sky, huge strikes of thunder came from the dark gray storm coulds,  heavy rain pouring down. 

Paani backed away, he had started a huge storm. 

He didn’t know how to stop it!!!

The winds blew faster and faster, it had turned into a cyclone! and Paani was trapped in the eye of it. 

•••

Dashi was in the HQ with Tweak. “Hey Tweak. The storm tracker is picking up some strange activity. This huge cyclone just formed off the coast of Mako out of nowhere-“ Dashi remarked nervously , Tweak spat out her sweet tea “Oh me oh my!” Tweak gasped.

“Dashi, sound the Octo-Alert!” Tweak urged “got it Tweak!” Dashi replied, hitting the Octo-Alert button.

Octonauts! To the Launch Bay!!!!

“What seems to be the problem, Dashi?” Captain Barnacles questioned, him and other Octonauts looked at her nervously. 

“A- a g-giant cyclone formed o-off the coast of M- Mako Island out of nowhere! Dashi stammered “Cyclone Patrick!” Dashi exclaimed. 

“THEY NAMED IT CYCLONE PATRICK?! FUCKIN’ CYCLONE PATRICK?!” Kwazii laughed, everyone gave him a disgusted look. 

“Kwazii! This isn’t a laughing matter!” Dashi scolded, turning to the cheeto colored cat “Sorry Dashi..” Kwazii apologized “Jumpin’ Jellyfish! Paani must’ve looked at the full moon!” Shellington blurted “What does Paani have to do with this?” Captain Barnacles questioned, raising an eyebrow.

“Oh shit. Um. We forgot to tell you but um. Paani became a merperson-“ Tweak answered, Captain Barnacles just gave her a thumbs up in response. He proceeded run his fur throw his paws. 

“Dashi, Tweak, you go take the Octo-Ray and find them.” Captain Barnacles commanded, “aye aye cap!” Tweak saluted. 

“IM GOING AFTER THEM!” Kwazii proclaimed, jumping into the Launch Bay tank. “But Kwazii! It’s dangerous!” Dashi began “you should stay here!” They insisted “I’m going after Paani if you like it or not. He needs me right now.” Kwazii insisted. “We’re going to.” Shellington proclaimed. “Fine…” Dashi sighed.

Dashi and Tweak hovered over in the Octo-Ray. 

“It’s hard to drive through these damn winds…” Dashi frowned. Tweak nodded in agreement. 

“We’re right below ya Dashi.” Kwazii meowed, “got it!” Dashi replied, giving the cat a thumbs up. He then hung up on her.

Kwazii lead Shellington and Peso to the cyclone. 

“Kwazii what  do you think you’re doing?!” Shellington gasped “Saving me partner.” Kwazii said sternly. 

“Where do you think they are?” Peso questioned “I think she’s in the middle” Shellington guessed 

“Paani!!” Kwazii called out “g-go a-away…” He heard a faint stammer in a horse and nasally tone.

“Shiver me whiskers! Paani is trapped in the middle!!!” Kwazii yelled, his voice muffled by the strong winds. 

The waters began to soften, so did the winds.

It had become calm enough to where Kwazii could swim through. 

Kwazii pushed himself through those rough, horrible waters. Until he was able to reach Paani. Kwazii swam over and placed a comforting paw on the macaque’s shoulder “it’s okay matey, we’re here for you!” Kwazii assured, Paani gave Kwazii a glance of uncertainty.

He had eyeliner running down his face, Poor thing….Kwazii thought with a frown. 

Shellington and Peso swam close. 

“It’s okay, we understand how you feel right now.” Shellington reassured, Shellington noticed the moon start to set, making way for the rising sun.

I- I can’t do this a-anymore. 

Then. After one last huge blot of thunder came from the clouds, Paani collapsed his hand unclenching, and Kwazii catching him in his paws. 

“PAANI!” Kwazii screeched, this was like the “Kwazii burnt Mako” incident all over again! But this time, Paani was the one whose powers got out of control, not Kwazii! 

Peso rushed Paani to the Octoray, Kwazii was sobbing like a baby, Shellington was comforting him.

“It’s okay Kwazii. Everything will be okay.” Shellington soothed as he stroked the cat’s back, Kwazii sobbed even more. 

“But what it’s not.” Kwazii croaked “trust me, Paani is in good hands, or shall I say, flippers. Peso will take good care of them.” Shellington assured, handing Kwazii a tissue.

“T-thanks Shellington.” Kwazii sniffled, blowing his nose. 

He felt like he’d been punched in the stomach, this is your fault. He blamed himself.

•••

Paani awoke, what happened last night? They asked themself glancing around the sick bay what the hell were they doing here?

Hm… that was a weird dream. Paani thought 

Paani got up walked into the HQ. 

“I had such a weird dream last night.. I had started a cyclone.” Paani recalled, then directing his attention to the television screen. 

“Mysterious cyclone “Patrick” formed out of nowhere on the coast of Mako Island. It is not known what caused cyclone “Patrick” the news reporter said in a thick Australian accent.

Paani felt his stomach drop.

“Y-you mean it w-wasn’t a dream? It was all real? Paani began to tear up. 

“Hey it’s alright pancake!” Kwazii mrrped, pulling Paani into a hug. 

“No. It’s not. I could’ve put everyone in serious danger!” Paani cried in Kwazii’s shoulder. 

“M-my parents s-should’ve named me “Paani Shithead Macaque.” Paani sobbed into Kwazii’s Spice Girls shirt. 

“Matey. Do not fucking say that about yourself.” Kwazii meowed sternly.  “You are not a shithead.” He added.

Paani pulled himself away from Kwazii. 

“I FORMED A CYCLONE!!! ITS NOT FUCKING OKAY!!! I SHOULD’VE KNOWN BETTER!” Paani wailed “IM SUCH AN IDIOT!” Paani grunted. “Well you’re my idiot” Kwazii mewed softly, hoping it’d make Paani feel better.

It didn’t… 

“No. It’s not okay Kwazii. I could’ve hurt someone!” Paani sobbed, he started to sound like a broken record. His thick eyeliner running down his face into a black river of tears. 

“But you didn’t! Everyone was safe in the end!” Kwazii assured. 

“I know. I just feel so guilty. This whole situation could’ve been easily avoided..” Paani sniffled “is it okay if I step away for a moment?” Paani asked “of course pancake, take all the time you need.” Kwazii answered softly, “I’ll be here if you need me!” They added.

Paani went to Kwazii’s room and cried into Kwazii’s pillow. 

Tunip and the vegimals could hear the sound of sobbing from Kwazii’s room “what should we do?” Tominnow questioned “hm… maybe we should bake some fish biscuits for Paani? That might cheer them up.” Grouber suggested, the others nodded in agreement.

They rushed to the kitchen, Pikato, Halibeet, and Sharchini were in the kitchen with Shellington.

“Howdy dad, we’re gonna bake some of ‘em fish biscuits for Paani. We heard him sobbing and we thought it might cheer him up” Codish explained “Aww, that’s very nice of you” Shellington smiled. 

The Vegimals got to work, soon they were finished mixing the ingredients and the fish biscuits were ready to bake.

Tunip popped them in the oven.

Paani could smell something sweet coming from the kitchen is that fish biscuits? He questioned, sniffing a few times.

It was!

Paani jolted out of bed and rushed down to the kitchen “Howdy Paani. We heard you weren’t feelin’ too good so we decided to make you some fish biscuits. We hope you like ‘em” Codish smiled “aww thanks Vegimals.. I appreciate it very much.” Paani smiled back, getting a warm fuzzy feeling inside. 

•••

A few days later

The news of the crazy cyclone Patrick had spread like wildfire. Everyone was talking about it. 

Paani and Ryla sat on the dock drinking grape juice. Meanwhile Kwazii and Shellington were playfully fighting and Peso was eating his lunch. 

“Hey Paani. Did ya hear about cyclone Patrick? Absolutely crazy how it formed out of nowhere!”

“Oh um… about that… I need to tell you something.”

“Oh? What is it?

“I formed cyclone Patrick…”

“How?”

“Oh um- this is gonna sound really weird but- I went to this place on Mako Island became a merperson- just like Peso, Kwazii and Shellington but he became a merman at those Irish Sea Caves-“ 

“Oh- well I’m glad everything didn’t get out of hand with the cyclone!”

Paani nodded in agreement. 

••• 

Paani was in Canada with Bud, who he kind of saw as a younger sibling, he hadn’t known him for that long but he still felt that way.

Everyone had mentioned Cyclone Patrick. It was almost inescapable. Everyone they’d spoken to since the event had asked them if they’d heard about it. 

When Paani was down in Florida with Dashi, Tweak and Ranger Marsh, Ranger Marsh had asked him about it. 

“Hey Paani, lad, did you hear about cyclone Patrick in Australia? Sounds like something that would’ve happened  here in Florida.” 

When Paani was chatting with Tracker in the DMs, Tracker asked them about it. 

“Hey Paani, did you hear about cyclone Patrick ? Natquik told me about it”

When Paani was chatting with Pearl, even shementioned it. 

“Did you hear all about Cyclone Patrick? Shellington told me about the crazy cyclone!” 

Bud and Paani had been chatting as if they were siblings. Wow.. Their like the little sibling I never had. Paani thought to themself.

“Did you hear about cyclone Patrick? I heard about the crazy story on the news today.” Bud mentioned why does everyone keep bringing up cyclone Patrick wtf Paani thought with a sigh.

“Is something wrong?” Bud asked, noticing Paani’s sigh. “Oh um… can I tell you something?” Paani sighed again “yeah sure go for it!” Bud said.

“Well um.  You know how Peso, Shellington and Kwazii are um… merpeople right?” Paani began, Bud nodded in response “well um..” Paani paused for moment this is such an awkward conversation… He thought “basically I’m also a uh.. fish.” Paani finally said.

“Oh cool!” Bud grinned well that went smoothly Paani thought relieved.

[unrealization]

[There's nothing worse in DBD on survivor than bringing the thunder all game and then proccing NOED when the last gen is completed.]

[eggplantbun]

i finally got enough weekly boss materials to give alhaitham his last crown today so here are my thoughts on my current triple crown gang

ganyu

my first 5*, literally carried me through the game

i did not truly appreciate how much QOL she provides until i started an alt account without her... pain

i play her exclusively in melt teams because i don't have any of her freeze supports and i like seeing big numbers. yes i know that means i didn't need to level her skill or burst, no i don't regret it

objectively i think her character is somewhat boring but subjectively i love boring characters and she's boring in a way that is deeply relatable to me (i may or may not have teared up during her story quest don't look at me)

i love her

10/10 worth every crown

zhongli

favorite character in the game, strong contender for favorite character ever

me meeting him in game for the first time: "lol this old man (derogatory)" me 1 hour later: "lol this old man (affectionate)"

the only character i have cons for... i will c6 you someday king

currently built as an hp shieldbot because this game refuses to give me homa but eventually i will make him a burst nuke build and also a physical dps build because he deserves to have his normal attacks seen

i gave ganyu the honor of being my first triple crowned character because she deserved it but also because i know zhongli will be my first character to reach lvl 90 on account of never leaving my team

no i don't know how to dodge, what about it

10/10 worth every crown

cyno

he's so awkward i love him

probably my favorite character to play, there's just something so satisfying about executing your combos perfectly so that you can get more E's in addition to all your endseer procs (i have him on 4pc thundering fury). also his burst animations are cool af

i may or may not have triple crowned him out of spite for everyone who said he was mid/his normals are useless/he's worse than keqing/etc etc

"he's fine in abyss but you'll never get your burst back in overworld" listen. just use favonius lance

10/10 worth every crown

alhaitham

simultaneously the most relatable character in the game and also the most irritating... idk what that says about me and i don't want to know

every time he opens his mouth i'm like mmmmmmmygod you are so annoying (affectionate)

the only character i own who also has their signature weapon... it cost me 200 wishes that i had been saving for the homa+aqua weapon banner and now it looks like neither ganyu nor zhongli are getting 5* weapons anytime soon. at least he brought home a spear for cyno along the way

i prefarmed all his talent books before his release but he was stuck at talent lvls 10/10/9 for 4 weeks because the game refused to give me the right boss drops or any dream solvents... i swear this asshole did not want to be triple crowned

genuinely feel like he exists on my account solely to make my life difficult but sucks for him i am putting him to work until kaveh is released and then i will kick him out of my team for kaveh, idc if kaveh's not a dps

that said, his attack animations are gorgeous, his gameplay is fun and very satisfying, his dps is great and his face is beautiful

i hate him (affectionate)

...10/10 worth every crown

[jeremy-ken-anderson]

Compounding Bonuses

Oddly, I'm not talking about the way FFXIV creates "damage windows" by having the math of multipliers be multiplicative instead of additive. That's totally a thing though and you'll surely learn about it if you get into extreme+ content.

No, I'm talking about how there are tiers to the powers you use and the farther you get into the process the less often the "starter" tier gets used. Let's look at possibly my very favorite job, Red Mage.

Your core rotation is Jolt, which is a spell so it grants you Dualcast, then you use the removal of casting time to cast either (we're gonna take out the Ver from all these for ease of writing) Aero or Thunder. These two deal a lot of damage but have a long cast time - such a long cast time, in fact, that you only cast them without Dualcast at the very beginning of a battle, and then only IF your tank is kind enough to give a countdown (rare in most content).

Then you get the melee combo, which spends the resource your spells build up for a bunch of flashy sword strikes that are the opposite of the "long-cast spells" - strikes so fast the DPS is higher than your average Jolt-Aero-Jolt-Thunder mix.

Then you get Stone and Fire, which have a 50% chance to become available for the next 30 seconds when you use Aero or Thunder respectively.

Then Acceleration, which makes your next Aero or Thunder quick-cast AND guarantee the Stone/Fire proc. The important bit with that is that on top of just dealing more damage, Aero/Thunder gain 1.5 times as much of your melee combo resource as Jolt, and Stone/Fire gain 1.25 times as much. Jolt-Aero-Jolt-Thunder-Jolt deals 1230 and earns 24 mana (12 each) toward the melee combo. Acceleration-Jolt-Aero-Thunder-Stone-Thunder takes the same amount of time but deals 1580 and earns 27 mana (13 | 14).

Your melee combo gets a third hit at level 50, and because it deals better DPS AND the later hits in the combo cost less of the build-up resource it's much more efficient to build it up to 50 points and then unleash a big combo. But ALSO, because your combo takes more time, that's more of your overall time not spent on Jolt, giving more time for Acceleration to come off of cooldown and further reducing how often you cast it.

At 60 you get Manafication, which gives you 50 | 50 of the resource to do the melee combo. So once every 110 seconds you just get to do that an extra time. Again, this serves to reduce the total number of Jolts you cast per battle.

At 70 you have Holy and Flare, which are a big finisher to your melee combo AND they grant you 11 mana of their color AND if you use the one matching your lower number on the 2 resources for your melee combo they automatically proc Stone/Fire.

So instead of Jolt-Thunder-Jolt-Aero-Jolt-Thunder to start you're casting Acceleration-Thunder-Fire-Aero-Manafication-[Melee combo]-Holy-Stone-Thunder and you've gotten some 30+ seconds into your rotation without casting Jolt even once. Acceleration may well come off of cooldown before you need to use Jolt.

And that is the compounding power I'm talking about. The mere time you're spending on your wide variety of higher-power moves as you get more and more of them is making it so the middle-power moves or the higher-power enablers are coming off of cooldown before you need to dip back down to your bottom-level tool set.

It's making it so the average of all your damage is higher than just "the average damage of all your moves," because the presence of more efficient ways to build up resources means you can spend less and less time on the "buildup" phase of your attack pattern and more and more on the "kaboom" phase.

[theradicalkanji]

So in the campaign I'm in I play a faerie storm sorcerer. (a little nature spirit native to the plane of air). And he is four inches of FITE. His fighting style is fly in point blank to the enemy and zap the target. This procs 2 class effects.

1) Heart of the Storm

At 6th level, you gain resistance to lightning and thunder damage. In addition, whenever you start casting a spell of 1st level or higher that deals lightning or thunder damage, stormy magic erupts from you. This eruption causes creatures of your choice that you can see within 10 feet of you to take lightning or thunder damage (choose each time this ability activates) equal to half your sorcerer level.

2) Tempestuous Magic

Starting at 1st level, you can use a bonus action on your turn to cause whirling gusts of elemental air to briefly surround you, immediately before or after you cast a spell of 1st level or higher. Doing so allows you to fly up to 10 feet without provoking opportunity attacks.

So like. Fly I and pop thunder wave which is an AOE centered on me. Pop my bug zapper effect to add an extra handful of damages to all enemies around me. Then use tempestuous magic to ascend into the sky to avoid melee and opportunity attacks.

I was doing shit like this to packs of enemies and even going point blank with a giant magma spewing worm beast. To which one of the other players was like. "How does he fly with such huge balls!?"

To which I just replied

[isnt-it-pretty]

Baizhu in Cyno Comps

I've seen some misconceptions about Baizhu's role in Cyno team comps, so I wanted to take a moment (or a few) to clarify that!

Note* this post is only for people considering pulling Baizhu exclusively for Cyno. If you plan to pull him because you like him, then none of this applies. Do whatever you will have the most fun with.

All of this is, of course, leaked info about his kit and early theory crafting by the people who are far better at it than I am.

TLDR: Baizhu is meant to take your flex slot, and he is only good* for Cyno if you already have Nahida. If you have her and are looking for a little extra boost on your team, don't mind a weak shield with healing to make up for it, and like Baizhu enough to play him over Zhongli, Baizhu may be worth pulling.

(*I say "only good," but that's numbers-wise. If you like him, who the fuck cares)

Okay, disclaimers aside, lets get into it.

We're going to start with where Baizhu fits into Cyno parties.

General Cyno party comps

The two main comps for Cyno are quickbloom/hyperbloom (I'm going to be saying quickbloom in this post because, for this conversation, the comps are the same, and nobody can agree on a definition anyway) and aggravate. Quickbloom tends to be more popular because it does more damage, but this also means a more restrictive party.

Aggravate comp is Cyno, dendro, flex, flex. Usually, one of the two flex slots will be an electro battery like Beidou, Shinobu, or Fischl, while the last slot will be a shielder or anemo support like Layla, Zhongli, or Kazuha. A battery is more important if you aren't running Cyno on 4pc Thunder Fury because that set almost doubles the number of E skill uses during his burst, which is where he gets most of his particles

Quickbloom is Cyno, dendro, hydro, flex. The most common picks for flex are Zhongli and Beidou, while the hydro can be any off-field hydro applier. I use Xingqiu, but Yelan is also very popular for a bit more dps. Some people use Kokomi, Ayato, Barbara- you get the point.

In both of these comps, Nahida is and remains to be the ideal dendro unit. We'll explain why Baizhu doesn't replace her in a moment.

Notice some similarities in the comps? Cyno and a dendro unit, but the flex slot is almost always a shielder over a healer. Why is that?

Baizhu's role

One of Cyno's (admittedly many) flaws is his low interruption resistance. You can be staggered out of attacks and miss using your E skill at the proper time, leading to a substantial loss of damage. The fix for this is running a shielder like Zhongli or Layla, or somebody who adds interruption resistance, like Beidou or Xingqiu (the latter in quickbloom teams). That is also the role Baizhu fits into, not the dendro role.

Baizhu has a shield, but it's extremely weak and acts more as interruption resistance than anything. You'll still take sizable damage through it, which is why his other strength is that he also heals.

The downside is that Baizhu doesn't combine roles. He can't be your sole source of dendro, so he takes a flex slot. There are two reasons for this. First, his burst cost is too high to run solo dendro. In a team that's already particle hungry like Cyno's, having another solo, high burst-cost character will be extremely difficult to fuel per rotation. The second reason relates to why Nahida is still the best dendro support for Cyno: Baizhu's dendro application is, quite frankly, horrible. It's single target which on an ao3 unit like Cyno is just bad, and also slow. You won't proc enough bloom cores for quickbloom, nor will you apply enough dendro to multiple targets to proc aggravate on them. You will lose out on substantial damage if you run Baizhu as your solo dendro.

So, if Baizhu takes the flex slot and not the dendro slot, what's his appeal?

- Well, he's a dendro healer with interruption resistance, meaning he helps avoid Cyno being staggered, keeps him alive, and resonates with your other dendro (who should be Nahida) to give extra elemental mastery based on your reaction types.

- One of his passives gives buffs depending on the elemental reactions you trigger. Those won't make a big difference, but it's something.

- Baizhu works off-field, something our other dendro healer, Yaoyao, struggles with.

- He frees up your other good shielders, like Zhongli, for additional comps.

- His minimal dendro application may actually help Cyno take in his burst for longer!

The last point is what people love Baizhu for. Anybody who plays Cyno knows the main frustration with him is that his damage suffers in wave battles. His burst is so long that he kills everything that has dendro app on it, and then he's just doing straight electro damage until his burst ends, or you swap out early to reapply your dendro. This could have been fixed by making his burst cheaper and shorter, but we'll make do with what we have.

Baizhu's burst being 14 seconds means that there is at least some dendro application for most of Cyno's 18-second burst! If you kill everything Nahida applied dendro to earlier, you can get a few hits in with Baizhu's dendro without having to swap out as early. It means more damage overall and more particles for Cyno.

Is that enough to make Baizhu worth pulling for Cyno? I don't know. I'm pulling him, but it's all a personal choice.

The bottom line is that Baizhu is not meant to take your dendro slot, so don't pull him thinking you'll free up your flex for somebody else or free up your Nahida for another team.

Why Nahida and not Dendro Traveller?

Look, if Nahida wasn't running right before Baizhu, I wouldn't say Baizhu is only good if you already have Nahida, but since she's coming, you deserve to know that Nahida is the best dendro support there is. She'll do more for your damage than Baizhu & dendro traveller will do.

[andnowrotfront]

this is so overcomplicated this is literally just. apply thunder or thunder 3 then blizzard 4 for umbral hearts, and you may have thundercloud procs to use.