#using the basic one-wide strat...

[bibururokku]

I was re-reading the manga in anticipation of Season 2 and came across these panels:

Naturally, that distracted me and made me want to play Puyo Puyo Tetris on endurance mode and—

I was faced with the reality that I've gotten a lil' rusty...

[boxboxblog]

Explaining F1 Language pt 1

I use a lot of jargon in my posts, so I hope this is informative.

DRS = Drag Reduction System. It is a flap on the rear wing that opens and closes to reduce drag, It is only available in DRS zones of a race track and if your car is within 1 second of the car in front of you.

Chicane = Series of sharp corners, usually in opposite directions (think 'S' shaped), used to slow cars down and encourage overtakes.

Dirty Air = Disrupted, rough, hot air that drivers get when they are behind another car. It makes the car go slower and heat up faster.

Clean Air = Fresh cool air that a car with no one in front gets. Less drag and helps keep car cool.

Halo = Titanium arch that crosses over drivers head, used for safety.

Pole Position = Starting the race in the first position

Pit Wall = A wall where engineers analyze data from sensors in car, watch race, and advise driver. Only a drivers specific race engineer is allowed to talk to them. Team principals are also there.

Points Position = 10th place and up

WDC = World Drivers Championship. The driver with the most points wins.

WCC = World Constructers Championship. the team with the most overall points wins

Straights = The non curved part of a race track, where basic speed is most important

Street Circuit = A race track built over city streets. Often very sharp corners and thin tracks. Examples include Monaco, Singapore, and Baku.

Classic Circuit = A built track that remains, often more typical of older track styles. Often have long straights, wide tracks, and rounded corners.

Undercut = A strat where a driver pits earlier than whoever they are racing against in order to use fresher tires to set a quick lap time and overtake their rival before they exit their own pit stop.

Overcut = Opposite of undercut, where a driver stays out longer than their rival in an attempt to gain time up on them. The goal is that when they pit they come out ahead of their rival due to the gap they create.

The Racing Line = The perfect line for a driver to follow that gets them around the circuit the fastest. Most drivers follow the same line one after the other. There is an outside line and inside line on corners.

Marbles = Small bits of rubber that come off of tires and accumulate off of the racing line. Can reduce grip if driven over.

Dirty Side = Part of track where marbles, dirt, and debris gathers

Clean Side = Usually the racing line, where there are no marbles, debris, or dirt.

Parc Fermé = Area where cars are placed after qualifying and the race. Teams are not allowed to make any changes to their car once they enter this area.

Flat Spot = Flat area on tires caused by aggressive braking. Cause vibrations which means they are to be avoided as much as possible.

Lock-up = When a driver brakes to hard, it causes one or more wheels to stop rotating. Often leads to tire damage or missing a corner.

Blistering = damage to the surface of the tire caused by excessive heat. The tire rubber heats up and peels off. Can lead to bad tire performance.

Graining = When small parts of rubber detach and and reattach to the tire, creating an uneven surface. This reduces grip and often occurs when tire temp is off.

Box = Term used by race engineers to call driver into pit

Push Lap = You'll hear 'push, push' a lot, which essentially means drive aggressive and at max speed.

Mode Push = Engineer tells driver to switch to higher engine mode

Lift and Coast = Fuel or tire saving technique where driver lifts off of throttle early before corner and coasts before braking.

Delta Time = Target lap time during a safety car to ensure they are within allowed speed but keeping up with strat

Oversteer = When the the rear of the car loses traction and slides out in corner, the driver has to correct with opposite steering input. This is oversteer. Overcorrecting can lead to a spin.

Understeer = When the front of the car loses grip, causing the car to continue straight instead of turning, a driver must adjust steering or braking to compensate. This is understeer.

Lifting the Throttle = Slightly reducing pressure to accelerator, often used during fuel management or tire conservation.

Bottoming = When a car's chassis or floor hits the track. Often causes sparks.

Power Unit = Combo of Internal Combustion Engine and Hybrid Energy Recovery Systems (simply, the engine though its more complex then that)

Stint = A period of racing between pit stops. For example a car will go on a 15 lap stint, then pit, then a 30 lap stint after.

Tyre Deg = short for Tyre degradation, when the wear makes the tire (and car) lose performance

Safety Car = Slow car out out to force drivers to slow down when there is debris or a crash on the track. Drivers are not allowed to overtake when the safety car is out.

Virtual Safety Car = System used when they do not want to deploy safety car because incident will be cleaned up quickly. Same rules as safety car.

Brake Bias = Distribution of barking force between front and rear wheels. Can be adjusted to help balance, especially in wet weather.

Quali= The day before a race, drivers aim to set a time and make their place on the lineup order. There is Q1, Q2, and Q3. Only top ten make it to Q3 and attempt for pole.

Purple Sector = Fastest sector time set by any driver during a session.

Track Evolution = The way a circuit's grip improves during a race weekend. Effected by rubber build-up, debris cleaning, temperature, weather, time, and surface type. Big part of strategy.

Out Lap = Lap immediately after leaving the pits during qualifying. Used to warm up tires.

In Lap = Lap where driver is heading for the pits

Flying Lap = a fast lap in qualifying when the driver is trying to set a time

Formation Lap = Lap right before race start where drivers can warm tires and help track evolve

Tear-Off = A thin plastic sheet on driver's helmet that can be peeled away mid race to get rid of dirt and debris. Drivers have several.

Scrubbed Tires = Tires that have been used briefly but still have lost of life. Can be an advantage because they are slightly worn.

Overtake = When a car gets by another car

Recovery Lap = Lap after an incident or pit stop where the driver focuses on getting back into race rhythm and warming tires.

There will be a part 2, I ran out of words. Oops.

Cheers,

-B

[lapinaraoflimbo]

I think a lot of something called "F.O.O. strategies" or "First Order Optimal" strategies because from what I can tell it's not really a widely used term despite being so important to game design and playing games. I only have really come across the term in a meaningful way from a really old extra credits episode and a few handful of responses to that video (which I guess I am also guilty of adding to at this point)

The basic idea behind them is that when new players pick up a game they are going to have a difficult time learning the more complex aspects of the game. Players will naturally gravitate to the strategies and techniques that have the best difficulty to reward ratio. That is strategies that are easy to pull off but are comparatively more rewarding to many other strategies. There's a lot of really interesting design space to be had within and around FOO strats, ranging from how to introduce friends into games to drawing in new players to a game to balancing learning curves and skill ceilings.

All games should have FOO strats because it's in human nature to use FOO strats. Any game that intentionally deletes any sort of strategy that could help a new player get into the game is most likely going to be a very bad game. Even games that are intended to be obtuse and difficult to pick up like Dark Souls or Dwarf Fortress have a large number of FOO strats that can help players develop the skills to engage with the more complicated strategies present in the game.

I think this is particularly interesting in games that don't require the player to ever engage with the full complexity of the mechanics of its systems. The most major example of this that comes to mind for me is Mario games, and specifically the kaizo romhacks made of them.

Mario 64 is a game with an incredible depth to its FOO strategies. Backflips are easier to pull off than triple jumps, and triple jumps can be easier to pull off than side flips. Wall kicks are a particularly challenging thing to pick up when you're a new player to Mario 64- the 5-frame window can feel very small especially when coming from other mario games that let you wall-slide before a wall jump. Long jumps are a particularly easy trick to pull off with a wide range of movement options, while doing a jump dive is significantly more complex and technical but can allow for much greater distances to be covered in a single jump. Even the more simple moves like punching, kicking, and diving can have very complex interactions with mario and his momentum.

This interesting balance between a very complex movement system and a very simple movement system is one of the reasons that I love Mario 64 so much. It is a game that is so simple it can be somebody's first video game, but it also has so much depth that thousands of hours will still leave you discovering new and interesting interactions with the physics. It's really a perfect balance of how to approach a game so that everyone can play it. Systems that truly transform to match the player are very rare in even the best of video games, and it's a wonder how they managed to find that in one of the earliest steps into 3D design.

I don't think that it's just Mario 64 that this balance between FOO strats and complex-technical strats exists either. Almost every major mario game has some amount of complexity to dive into it. It is not an accident that Super Mario World is what popularized and created Kaizo as we know it today. Super Mario 2: The Lost Levels (not to be confused with the english release of Super Mario 2) was a sequel to the original NES game that attempted to cater to master players, with very difficult levels that weren't intended to be played by beginners. That design philosophy sticks around today with the most recent mario games as well. Mario Odyssey has so much freedom of movement and tricks that are possible that it can open up entirely new ways to play without sacrificing the experience that casual need. Super Mario Maker has such a wide variety of difficulty it's almost nauseating. From levels that are near impossible to lose to some of the hardest challenges in all of video games. Mario Wonder also has this adaptive difficulty, with the badges and the range between the challenge levels and basic levels.

It's not just the complexity of the systems that enable this adaptability either. The systems being easy to pick up is an important part of it as well. There needs to be a balance between the easy and the difficult. The easy must be possible, and it must be good enough. But there needs to be a reason to learn the more complicated tricks as well. It's this balance that FOO strats really need to be focused on to achieve in any game. Make a strategy too powerful and simple and there will be no reason to learn the complicated tricks. But if you make the simple strategies too weak then the player won't be able to meaningfully engage with the system enough to learn the complexities.

Let's go back to Mario 64 though, since that is the one I am most familiar with.

If we break down Mario 64's moveset from this angle we can start to see how the game's FOO strategies look. To a brand new player, there is going to be a very limited moveset compared to that of a veteran player. To list off what comes to the top of my head: The player will be able to run, to crawl, to punch, to single jump, to backflip, to ground pound, and long jump... and that's mostly it. Wall kicks will be very difficult for a brand new player to pull off. Double jumps require tight timing that can be difficult to learn for players unfamiliar with video games. Triple jumps have even more difficult timing along with a significant amount of complex interactions with mario's momentum. Kicking in the air is going to be very difficult for a new player to pull off because of the precise momentum and speed mario needs to not dive. Side flips are probably one of the easier of the complex tricks to learn, but still require knowledge about speed and momentum that will take a new player a while to properly learn. Dives are likely going to be done mostly by mistake with new players, as the precise momentum needed to turn a punch into a dive is hard to learn. All of these are just the basic moves. When they are mixed in together, the complexity only rises. But let's just focus on the FOO strats for now and forget the ceiling that exists.

A new players is going to learn how to run as the very first thing they do. Running is often taken for granted in games, but for a brand new player it can be difficult to learn how to make a player character move properly. If the player character starts running slowly before hitting a top speed, like in Mario 64, it can be even more difficult to learn. So a player will have to learn that it takes time to run, and it takes more time to run if they are moving up a slope, and less time to run if they are moving down a slope. None of these things requires a large amount of skill to be able to achieve, nor do they require much technical knowledge despite actually being very technical. It's this very low skill floor that can allow players to start to experience with mario's momentum in a way that is easy and importantly not frustrating.

If a player tries to run up a gentle slope they will still be able to make it to the top of the slope. The technical aspects of slopes and mario's momentum will not be a barrier to a player who's using this particular FOO strat. However, the FOO strat also has some in-built limitations: mainly mario has difficulty jumping when running up a slope, and he moves much slower than if other strats were employed. Mario will have particularly hard time doing triple jumps and wall jumps if he is running up a slope, limiting his movement options rather severely.

It's the way that all of these come together that the player can start to experiment with more complicated movement strategies. Even without adding any moves in players can start to experiment with various strategies. For example, when a player is on a slope and wants to start moving, they can move down the slope and do a gentle 180 degree turn. This will help the player build up momentum quickly to run up the slope with. However, if a player attempts to turn to quickly they'll skid, removing all of the build up momentum so that mario has to build up speed again. Players can also explore complexities of running to the side on a slope, or the complexities of how mario's run is distinct from his speed.

Playing around with new moves can help introduce even more technical systems of the game. When mario is running up a slope, kicking can help give him a small speed boost. When mario is running up a slope, jumping and pressing the B button will result in a dive regardless of mario's actual speed, even though mario will typically kick when he's in the air moving at slow speeds. Diving on a slope will result in mario getting stuck in a belly slide animation, which the player may or may not be able to escape depending on the steepness of the slope and the angle and speed of mario. Players may start to learn that jumping onto a slope instead of running onto a slope will result in different effects on mario, or they might start to experiment with the differences between long jumps and regular jumps and side flips under different speed and momentum states.

All of this experimentation is found because of how easy the game made it to run. It might seem overly simple to look at something as simple as running with this much depth, but remember that automatic running is not something that every game has. Many games require a button to be pressed to run, or will switch into two completely different physics systems based on a player's speed, while other games may have extremely complex and technical systems to enable running. Mario's run is automatic, based off of a number of factors and has large changes to his moveset. There is little technical knowledge or skill that is required to run but it's still a deeply technical movement mechanic that only seems simple because it's made to be easy to engage with. There is no need to understand the complexities. It's a mechanic that is given to players to introduce them to and allow them to explore the existence of other forms of movement. In a game like mario 64, the running mechanics are more than just a way to get around, they are the game itself. And the way that this simple strategy enables beginner players to engage with more complex mechanics is part of what makes it such an easy game to pick up but such a difficult game to master.

Almost every good game will have a mechanic like this, though it isn't always going to be the movement. There are games out there that do not have complex movement. Those games will likely have other systems that are just as easy to pick up, that have complex interactions with the rest of the game. Whether that's basic damage calculations or aiming or basic combos or skill cooldowns or unit management or menu-ing, every good game will give players a way to pick it up that leads them into the other skills they need. FOO strats are easy to It's useful to be able to identify these early strategies because it can help you learn more about what makes games work by showing you the edges where the different mechanics merge together. Every game will have more depth than what you can see on first glance, and every game needs a way to show you that depth.

[oawa12]

Private Wealth Management with OAWA: A Personalized Approach to Financial Success

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Unlike many larger financial institutions that often take a one-size-fits-all approach, OAWA prides itself on offering personalized service. The firm’s team of experienced advisors takes the time to get to know each client personally, understanding their financial aspirations and challenges. This close relationship allows OAWA to develop tailored strategies that align with the client's objectives, whether it's growing wealth, preserving capital, or planning for retirement.

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[wormytoast]

holy shit. i beat protocol 6.

only took 2 tries too! the rng wasn't on my side until the literal last plane lmfao

so the main stuff: this took me 2 tries. the first try i went with the preservation 3-star equation but i got hard-stopped at the second boss. yanqing just kept locking his toughness bar and i didn't dare bring silver wolf into the battle cuz i knew he would kill her VERY quickly 😭 so i quit and decided to go with the abundance 3-star equation on my next run

my second run was a whole mess. first plane was the same as always but i had to reroll the 3-star equation from the first boss twice before getting the abundance one. the main problem was the game literally refused to give me abundance blessings despite having the abundance seal curio.

somehow i got 3 weighted curios and some other regular curios, and in the second plane i got a curio escapade that allowed me to reroll one and i got the preservation weighted curio! i also synthesized some regular curios and got the PLAGUENEST! this was one of the two curios i was missing which was exciting.

unfortunately, i didn't have 8 abundance blessings by the time i hit the second boss which was yanqing AGAIN. i resigned myself to ending the run BUT it turns out the laurel curio WORKS FOR BOSS DOMAINS (it's description specifies "defeated in a battle outside of a final domain"). so it was counted as a win!

it took screwy's blessing shop in the final boss domain AND the cake cat resets to activate the 3-star equation 😵‍💫 but that's all i needed!

the final fight was honestly kind of funny—the boss was sam which was VERY lucky because it meant i could go double sustain with luocha and aventurine AND use silver wolf to implant wind weakness for blade 😀

key points of my strats this run:

team members:

luocha's heals constantly proq the abundance blessings and give team-wide heals to charge dewdrop.

aventurine's shields prevent one-shots and keep the rest of the team safe—his fua also gives him a ton of toughness depletion and an extra attack to heal from luocha's field.

silver wolf is the least important but she gives a ton of def shred and toughness depletion to the boss and implants the needed weakness.

blade is SUPER important, because he synergizes with the abundance path extraordinarily well—not only does it make him extremely tanky but it's a HUGE buff to his damage. his dewdrop values are constantly out the wazoo which lets him deal a ton of damage while not being even close to dying. the literal only time he'd drop under 50% hp is when he used his ult lmfao. i love my old man cockroach <3

team order had SW and luocha on the outer slots while aven and blade were in the middle. the only one who would get close to a ko is silver wolf.

weighted curios

the abundance one gives a stackable shield when units are healed by the abundance team member. i think luocha's field proqed this?

the preservation one consumes hp instead of the shield value when the unit's hp's is above 50%.

this basically meant that my team's shields were constantly being reinforced thanks to both aventurine's skill+fua and luocha's heals refreshing shields while at the same time allowing my team to take chip damage from attacks which could proq blade's fua and my entire team's grit stacks!

blessings:

mainly tried to focus on survivability. the most important ones are from the abundance and destruction paths:

"mudra of blessing" which, when upgraded, charges dewdrop based on max hp instead of current hp,

"regression inequality of annihilation" which distributes damage across all allies and makes all allies receive 15% less damage,

"boundary density expansion group" which gives stacks of grit whenever allies lose or heal hp.

other abundance blessings i had were the 3-star one that has blast healing as well as the 2-star one that deals additional damage to enemies based on a unit's current hp. other destruction blessings i had were the 1-star blessings that increase max hp as well as increasing def and effect res when losing or healing hp. i also 2 had preservation blessings to bulk up shields.

equations:

borisin: 3-star. the main damage dealer. blade can essentially super-charge the damage of annihilation flower with his insane dewdrop values. the tally would usually get to at least 200k if he got to act a couple times before it.

viscorpus: 2-star. literally an equation made for blade. it increases the dewdrop value limit AND restores part of the charge when dewdrop is broken with a basic attack.

memosnatcher: 2-star. when characters use their ult they will consume hp and have a chance to freeze enemies (ehr based on their grit stacks). helps with survivability and crowd control AND helps proq blade's fua. (somehow this had a much higher success rate than the 3-star pres/rem equation...)

wingweaver: 1-star. increases charging efficiency of dewdrop when an enemy is defeated and restores hp for all allies.

drifting circus: 1-star. which increases a character's max hp based on aftertaste hits. mainly for blade due to his kit but worked for aventurine since he also has a fua and it would be proqed a LOT.

regular curios:

easily the least important category. the only important ones were:

family ties: gives a 30% damage boost for every destroyed curio in your possession (i had 2, so 60% dmg boost).

space-time prism: a classic! increases all allies eidolon level by one when in battle. not really needed but very nice for aventurine's shields, SW's ult up-time, and blade's damage!

other stuff about the run? i also had the 3-star blessings "perfect experience: innocence" and "vineyard: against the night". the first one is the dissociation on break blessing. the second deals extra aftertaste damage in a character's next fua whenever they use their basic/skill/ult.

the game doesn't save un-expanded equations in your save file but i had two! i don't remember what they were though lol

i also had the lightning weighted curio which... i kind of didn't need at all lmfao. i'm convinced that curio was only made for acheron so that her ult could have more weakness break efficiency.

i also got an occurrence and a curio i was looking for! i was missing the plaguenest curio (i'c ranted about this a lot) but i was also missing the ipc promotion saga iv occurrence, and i somehow got it in this run! super lucky :)

[waywardcamel]

Csgo callouts dust 2

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CSGO) is one of the most popular first-person shooter games. With millions of players around the world, it’s no surprise that the game has become so popular. One of the reasons why CSGO is so fun to play is because of its maps. There are several different maps in the game, but none as iconic as Dust 2. This map has been a classic since its introduction in 2001 and is still played by many people today. But what makes Dust 2 so special? The answer lies in its callouts. In this blog post, we will take a look at some of the common callouts used on Dust 2 and how they can help you become a better player.

What is the map dust 2?

Dust 2 is a map in the Counter-Strike series that is widely considered to be one of the most balanced and iconic maps in the game. It is a symmetrical map with long lines of sight and small choke points, making it perfect for both attacking and defending. Dust 2 has been featured in every Counter-Strike game since its release, and has been played in nearly every professional match.

What are callouts?

In Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, a callout is a specific location on the map that has been given a unique name. Callouts are used to help players communicate with each other during matches and can be particularly useful when calling for strats or giving directions. The most common callouts are for specific sites, such as A site or B site, but there are also many others for key locations such as dropdowns, chicken coops, and catwalks. Knowing the callouts for a map can give you a significant advantage over your opponents.

The different types of callouts

There are three different types of callouts in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. The first type is the most basic and simply tells your team where an enemy is located. The second type gives more information about the enemy, such as what weapon they are using or how many there are. The third type is a special callout that can be used to warn your team about something specific, like a grenade being thrown.

How to use callouts

In order to use callouts effectively in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, you need to first understand what they are and how they work. Callouts are simply a way of referring to specific areas on the map, usually by using abbreviations or acronyms. For example, “B Site” is a common callout for the bombsite located at the bottom of the map de_dust2.

This system of calling out locations is important because it allows players to communicate quickly and efficiently without having to describe the location in detail. It also helps everyone to be on the same page, especially when things are happening fast.

There are many different callouts for each map, and some maps have more callouts than others. The most important thing is to learn the most common and basic callouts for each map so that you can at least be understood when communicating with your team. From there, you can learn more specific callouts as needed.

Here is a list of some common CS:GO callouts:

• A Site – The bombsite located at the top of the map de_dust2.

• B Site – The bombsite located at the bottom of the map de_dust2.

• CT Spawn – The Counter-Terrorist spawn point on any given map.

• T Spawn – The Terrorist spawn point on any given map.

Conclusion

Dust 2 is one of the most popular maps in CS:GO, and its callouts are essential to mastering it. Knowing these callouts will give your team an edge when playing on Dust 2, as you can quickly and accurately communicate where enemies are or where a push should happen. There’s no need to memorize all the locations but brushing up on them from time to time won’t hurt either! Have fun experimenting with different strategies on this iconic map!

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[rosesmusicandaloeveraplants]

aloe!!! wacky q but are you planning on writing/posting about your theoretical strats for aa in 1.19??? I would absolutely love to read them lol

like i'm probably the least qualified in the aa sphere to be comign up with strats but i was discussing with fox (@dadzathechaosgod) over how with info from the newest snapshot on how this would impact some of the bigger advancements such as hdwgh (how did we get here), monsters hunted, and at (adventuring time)

though later apparently through findings found in javacord hdwgh and monsters hunted should not be a concern

uhhhh i'll like sum up what we came up with in the read below (mansplaining minecraft real):

this based off of info from the latest snapshot article, so who knows if later snapshots change this

hdwgh: advancement where you need to have every status effect

- initially was of concern considering the advancement's definition, plus the only way to get the new status effect (darkness) is either wardens or sculk shriekers, both found in the deep dark only, and also like yikes you're gonna get fucking decked by the warden

- later it appears that the darkness effect is not required as of now for hdwgh, which allows player to continue using the various common hdwgh set ups used in 1.16 (and other various versions) aa without considering creating a new set up either in the deep dark or having to find a way to get a sculk shrieker/warden to give you the effect long enough

monsters hunted: kill all hostile mobs

- initially concerning cause deep dark is scary and the warden basically can one shot kill you

- 1 wide 3 tall is not safe, but looks like 1 wide 2 tall is safe barely

- fox and i were coming up with ways to kill it, and together we figured out that towering 4 blocks high was effective, night vision+ potions slightly help with the darkness effect, and you can tower lava (pour lava down the side of the tower and just let it flow and damage the warden, note that this takes a while), wool can be helpful on damping signals and such, it does not look like the warden can drown? but who knows we at least know that the warden can survive at least 2 minutes underwater, since you need a bare minimum of full prot 4 netherite to withstand 5 hits, it's fucking scary (with at least 400+ health with my crude calculations), either chug healing and resistance stuff or get an elytra plus rockets and hope you can move well enough to avoid hits

- later, again through the same javacord message i referenced above, it does not look like the warden is needed for monsters hunted, so speedrunners probably can opt for more stealthy and fast movement (aa runners will have a decent set of diamond/netherite armor, roughly prot 2 or 3 if lucky, plus elytra) if they enter the deep dark rather than needing to kill the warden, which brings me up to the last advancement i had thoughts about earlier

adventuring time: get all of the biomes as listed

- again coming to the deep dark -> risk of running into and dying to the warden, combat strats from above may or may not be viable

- with the javacord message, the deep dark is confirmed to be a biome needed for the advancement, but since there is not much that needs to be done in the deep dark aa runners can simply just, elytra in, elytra out, avoiding potential deaths and stuff, like obviously still be careful but it is still way less risky than if the darkness effect or the warden kill is needed for the advancement (oh and also if you don't touch the ground i think you're safe from the warden's wrath but don't take my word for that, i don't have a way to play test the snapshot)

- the main concern with this is proximity from spawn, and how it's underground and extremely tiny, which probably will kill pace if there is no breakthrough on how to find this biome fast

- some rudimentary data shows that they tend to spawn around 1800, 5000, or 7000 blocks from spawn (which is, a lot further than most people would search for the extremely rare mooshroom biome in any typical 1.16 aa run)

- in aacord, some talk of a map from a cartographer being a reasonable implementation from mojang to make the deep dark encounterable by casual players, and there are also talks of there possibly being able to find a divine method (basically find location of the biome based off of terrain generation near spawn or something, such as in fossil divine in 1.16 nethers)

- (this is a new thing aacord brought up while i was drafting this post) i almost forgot about the newly to be implemented biome status that will be joining the f3 menu, this along with other various f3 tools will probably make it easier to pinpoint the biome once you figure out generation conditions

[europeanmusicals]

What exactly is the bat out of hell musical?

I don't know how much you know about musicals or Jim Steinman so forgive me if you know all of this, but I may as well explain it for others.

Jim Steinman as well as composing musicals, also has composed for rock and pop singers. You may have heard of 'Total Eclipse of the Heart' or 'Holding out for a Hero' sung by Bonnie Tyler. They're probably Steinman's two most famous songs.

But he also wrote lots of songs the the rock star Meat Loaf. In total he wrote 3 entire albums for Meat Loaf, and songs on another two. The album that rocketed Meat Loaf into fame was called 'Bat Out of Hell', as was one of the songs on the album. It's one of the best selling albums of all time, selling over 50 million copies world wide. Steinman had already written some of the songs earlier for a musical he workshopped called Neverland. Nothing ever came of the musical, so he repurposed the songs for the Meat Loaf album. Steinman repurposed and reused melodies and songs throughout his career. If you're familiar with Tanz der Vampire then you'll recognise 'Boléro (Live Intro)' off the album as 'Ewigkeit'.

If the name 'Neverland' didn't give it away, the story was a retelling of Peter Pan and when Steinman had the opportunity to make his own musical in England in 2017 he chose to reuse this idea. 'Bat out of Hell: The Musical' uses songs from the entire trilogy of Meat Loaf's 'Bat out of Hell' albums, all songs written by Steinman.

It's a very loose retelling of Peter Pan, please don't go into the musical expecting some kind of intricate plot. It's there for you to rock out too, and if you like Steinman's music then you'll like the musical. If you don't like Steinman's music, the plot and character's aren't enough to make you like the musical (in my opinion). The main character, Strat, is the leader of 'The Lost' gang (a group of teenagers who had their DNA frozen when they turned 18) and falls in love with Raven, the daughter of the tyrannical ruler of the land they live in. But don't be put off by me! I think it's a fun musical, just a heads up that if you don't like Steinman's music this probably isn't the musical for you. It's basically a jukebox musical of songs he wrote for Meat Loaf (in the same way 'Mamma Mia', '& Juliet' and We Will Rock You are jukebox musicals that use pre-existing songs).

Here's the original West End trailer, and some TV performances from the original 2017-2018 West End/Revival cast (most of the same cast returned for the 2018 revival). I've always personally been impressed Andrew Polec, who originated the role of Strat, playing him from the 2015 workshops until the end of the 2019 North American tour. And Danielle Steers who played Zahara from 2017 Manchester until the end of the West End revival in 2019.

And here's the Oberhausen (German) trailer:

Since it's original 2017 West End production it's also played in Toronto (2017), had a North American tour (2019), a West End revival (2018), Oberhausen in Germany (2019), Off-Broadway (2019) and an international tour (2020). It's been very successful in the West End, breaking the Dominion Theatre's box office records on the first day ticket sales for the 2018 revival went live. It's currently touring in the UK and Australia. I can't find updates on the postponed USA tour.

Here's the current 2021/2022 UK tour trailer:

[katestrophic]

Decided to join in on the fun and post my Champion Stadium clear & teams used, especially with the new Master Mode 10k update. Idk if this will become a weekly thing but just wanted to give it a try this week.

Click “keep reading” to read about my thoughts on each one of them

First round: Agatha

Parameters: Physical Dmg. Reduction, Attack & Sp. Atk ↑ 1, No Status Conditions, Strength ↑ 1, Sync Buff ↑ 5, Attack & Sp. Atk ↑ 3, No Stat Reduction, Power ↑ on Hit 1, Attack & Sp. Atk ↑ 5, Strength ↑ 2, Max HP ↑ 4, Power ↑ on Hit 2, Strength ↑ 3, Ally Move Gauge Max -2

Team Comp: 5/5 Misty (Swimsuit) & Psyduck with Vigilance, 2/5 Phoebe, 1/5 EX Anniversary Lillie & Lunala with Critical Strike 2

Even at 1/5, EX Anniversary Lillie decimates any ghost weak stage lul. I had to reset a few times to get 2 MP refreshes on Misty’s Duck and Cover! just so that way my units had a fighting chance to survive Agatha’s sync. Phoebe’s there mainly to restore move gauge.

Second round: Lorelei

Parameters: Physical Dmg. Reduction, Special Dmg. Reduction, Attack & Sp. Atk ↑ 1, No Status Conditions, Max HP ↑ 2, No Stat Reduction, Ally HP ↓ at Start 5, Max HP ↑ 4, Ally Move Gauge Max -2, Max HP ↑ 6, Strength ↑ 6

Team Comp: 5/5 Professor Sycamore & Xerneas with Vigilance, 1/5 Lana & Araquanid, 3/5 Player & Support Eggmon Primeape

Probably the most difficult stage for me in my opinion. I’m not joking when I say I spent almost an hour trying to come up with a team composition and parameters to beat this stage. My only good grass strikers are Brendon and Selene and neither are EX (side note: which of the two should I EX?). Sure, I have Gardenia but since she has no sync grid I’m basically running a gridless striker. I had originally tried to run a team with 3/5 EX Skyla & Swanna, 2/5 Brendon & Sceptile with Dauntless, and 3/5 Misty & Starmie. But, Brendon using Leaf Storm couldn’t beat Lorelei. Lorelei really loves using Surf and seeing Brendon keel over and die after getting hit with a Surf with max defense, max special defense, and max evasion hurts me deep in my soul. I tried running a toxic-trap stall team with 5/5 Lucy & Serviper, 5/5 Janine & Aridos, and 3/5 Misty & Starmie, but I had forgotten Brace Yourself! applies gradual healing to Lorelei and even after picking up all the HP parameters and a few attack boosting parameters, the team wasn’t able to sustain itself long enough for poison and trap to run its course. I reluctantly decided to use Sycamore (since I was trying to save him to use against Blue) on a Horn Leech build alongside Lana and Support Eggmon Primeape. Brick Break just gets rid of damage reduction so that’s a free 100 points right there. After that, I just boosted crit rate. Lana meanwhile used Wide Guard so Eggmon Primeape could set up along with buffing defenses, which helped Sycamore survive a few Aqua Tails. It became a 1v3 with Sycamore against Lorelei and her entourage, but I found a strat that worked.

Third round: Lance

Parameters: Special Dmg. Reduction, Attack & Sp. Atk ↑ 1, No Status Conditions, Strength ↑ 1, Sync Buff ↑ 5, Attack & Sp. Atk ↑ 3, Defense & Sp. Def ↑ 3, Attack & Sp. Atk ↑ 5, Strength ↑ 2, Power ↑ on Hit 2, Ally Move Gauge -2, Strength ↑ 6

Team Comp: 5/5 Hop & Zamazenta, 5/5 Bugsy & Scyther, 2/5 EX Steven & Metagross

Hop: *leans in* Hey, remember that hell that was Lorelei’s stage? How about I provide 6 MP Refreshes to Hop to It! as compensation?

No seriously I lucked out with MP Refreshes for this stage and I’m certain that said MP Refreshes carried me through this round. I just used Bugsy to Leer and drop the defenses while Steven nuked it with his guaranteed critical hit sync. Basically a Pre-Sync Nuke.

Fourth round: Bruno

Parameters: Physical Dmg. Reduction, Attack & Sp. Atk ↑ 1, No Status Conditions, Strength ↑ 1, Sync Buff ↑ 5, Attack & Sp. Atk ↑ 3, Defense & Sp. Def ↑ 3, Attack & Sp. Atk ↑ 5, Strength ↑ 2, Power ↑ on Hit 2, Ally Move Gauge -2, Strength ↑ 6

Team Comp: 4/5 Dawn & Torterra, 2/5 Sabrina & Alakazam, 5/5 EX Giovanni & Mega Mewtwo Y with Critical Strike 2

AHAHAHAHA WHO NEEDS SYGNA SUIT LUSAMOMMY & NECROZMA WHEN YOU GOT MEGA MEWTWO Y.

Another Pre-Sync Nuke. Dawn and Sabrina are still pretty good without their EX. Heck I reused the parameters from the previous round just without the special damage reduction. Just remember to not put up Reflect before Bruno’s sync move since he uses Brick Break and strips you of that buff. I really wish I have Bianca & Musharna to help me out with psychic weak stages though.

Final round: Blue

Parameters: Attack & Sp. Atk ↑ 1, Defense & Sp. Def ↑ 1, No Status Conditions, Sync Buff ↑ 5, Attack & Sp. Atk ↑ 3, Max HP ↑ 2, No Stat Reduction, Ally Healing ↓ 5, Power ↑  on Hit, Gradual Healing at Start, Power ↑ on Hit 2, Ally Move Gauge -2, Strength ↑ 6

Team Comp: 3/5 EX Skyla & Swanna, 3/5 Misty & Starmie, 3/5 EX Sygna Suit Red & Charizard

Chose the Special Attack Buff as my bonus effect for my final round. I used EX Skyla’s sync move first for the double sync buff and then synced with EX Sygna Suit Red. I probably should’ve ran Blaine & Rapidash in place of Misty so I could’ve done more damage with Red, but I really wanted the evasion up for the team. Took me a few tries because Blue kept on nuking my team after his sync move. Eventually, I got a run where he ALMOST nuked my entire team but everyone survived by the skin of their teeth by some miracle. I was able to beat the stage by using Blast Burn on Blue and then spamming Heat Wave on the sides. A clutch victory, but a victory nonetheless

[retphienix]

Alright, I planned on making some big post about HH and I very well might do that when I'm at end game but I've been taking my time like crazy to play with friends this time around.

I don't have some big brain meta strat to drop and I probably won't then either- BUT

I WANNA SAY ONE THING:

Sonic barrier?

That's a VERY powerful tune in the right hands.

The gist is that it's a one use party wide super armor with a 5~ second timer.

Now what that means is a bit bigger than that.

It's a party wide one use earplugs(L), so that means you can protect the party (assuming their weapons or gear doesn't already allow that utility) and potentially more importantly because of that, you can protect YOURSELF by just playing the tune before their roar.

(Side note, the 1 wirebug move also applies armor to yourself that makes you immune to roars! So you have an option anyway, but this one is less positional and doesn't require a bug.)

You can also just go braindead spamming the tune either with the default playstyle (2 notes) or my preferred style (echo) and constantly give yourself and your allies hits of super armor. This can have BIG gains on some weapons but ironically the weapons that you'd think would benefit the most from a dose of armor like GS- well on paper or with very verbal teammates it DOES help them- in practice I've found that GS are better off relying on their own positioning and plethora of tools like tackle to allow armor instead of saying "I'm charging a true slash- play the song! NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW!" and then getting hit out of their move because of bad timing on either of your heads or just voice delay in general.

Basically spamming armor is helpful for weapons that don't already armor themselves or time their swings intensely- something like an aggressive DB or SNS can benefit a lot from free interspersed armor because it lets them get just a little bit more sloppy and aggressive.

But do beware ;) Armor ain't invulnerability- if you get TOO aggressive and shrug off too many hits you'll still get stunned or just outright die from poor health management.

Sonic barrier is at its best when timing out roars for the party, and it's at it's most dangerous (but most fun) when it's making the party hyper aggressive because of all the free armor lol.

Just give it a shot is all I'm sayin'.

It's currently my favorite song in terms of gameplay effect.

Attack+defense up is obvs doing the most for cutting times down, and health regeneration is way too convenient, but barrier? That just makes the game FEEL different and I dig it.

(Considering the songs I listed it's obvious I'm using Maggie's horn as of the typing of this lol)

[muffinrecord]

Advice on the Memoria Pool Gacha

My first advice: don’t use your gems/tickets on this, save for a character instead. Alright, with that out of the way, here is my list of good memoria to select and roll for. Again, I’d skip this banner because I don’t think it includes a ton of “must-haves” to justify it, but if you’re hurting for memoria or if you just want an excuse to spend stones, here’s a small list. 

I’m not listing all the memoria because imo some aren’t worth rolling for-- I’m just listing ones that, in my opinion, are extremely notable. I think there are arguments to be made for Momoko’s garden memoria (and Mami’s) but I don’t think they are as useful as the ones I’ve picked. But your mileage may very!

Recommended Passives

Attack Up [IV / 20%] & Chance to Critical Hit [IV / 25%]

“I Made Friends” is still amazing, but it’s also not the number one best memoria in the game. If you like to use Generic team strats, Charge teams, or Blast teams, this is a good one to get. If you like to use Magia teams AND NO ONE ELSE then it’s more ehh (but still not bad!)

Attack Up [III / 15%] & Defense Up [II / 15%] & Status Ailment Resistance Up [III / 30%]

This is a generic memoria that does a bit of everything, but it’s not bad. It can be very useful for accounts just starting out or if you’re not sure what to expect in a fight.

Damage Cut [IV / 20%] & Damage Increase [V / 25%]

Another generic and good memoria, this will fit into a wide variety of situations. If you like to fool the AI in mirrors with Damage Cut, this is the best memo to get, but it works basically anywhere.

Recommended Actives

Blast Damage Up [X / 60%] (Self / 1 Turn)

This is going to be AMAZING in the upcoming event. It’s great for Blast teams (watch out for the blast damage cap at 100% though), and overall a solid pick. However, it’s really only good for one thing and won’t be helpful for magia at all.

Damage Down [X / 50%] (All / 1 Turn) & Status Ailment Resistance Up [IX / 60%] (Self / 1 Turn)

Pretty good protective memoria. It also has good enough passive DEF stats to be a stat stick. This will give you no damage bonus though

Damage Cut [IV / 20%] & Regenerate HP [IV / 5%] (Self / 3 Turns)

A very protective memoria that’s good to use on tanks. The Damage Cut can be a real savior, and the HP Regen can act as a mini-heal if you don’t have a healer on your team. It can work for squisher characters too. This is another one that gives no damage bonus.

[jones-friend]

Uncommon Deckbuilding

So you’re bored. Its quarantine times, but you’ve got that deckbuilding itch to scratch, right?

But have you ever built a deck around an UNCOMMON commander before?

Uncommon rarity legends often fly under the radar, allowing consistent support for your deck without taking the whole thing overboard. I’ve amassed a small collection of ten commanders that are absolutely all worth looking into!

Bladewing the Risen looks like a steep cost. And you’re right! The good news is dragons have lots of cost reduction (Dragonspeaker Shaman, Dragonlord Servant) and some specialized ramp (Sarkhan m20, Dragon’s Hoard). Essentially, you use red to discard and black to reanimate. Throw in Conjurer’s Closet and dragons with powerful ETB’s and you have a working deck!

Danitha comes into this bridging of auras and equips Dominaria looked to make. As your commander she supports playing cards cheaper and can be the voltron creature for such a strategy. (1) drop equipment are now free, triggering draws off Sram for free. Her keywords are relevant for these kinds of modifications too, lifelink scaling with increases to damage. She makes an efficient aura, equip, or both commander you can design as you want!

Eutropia was my favorite legendary from Theros. She’s like a simic Jori En, subtly supporting the strat without overruling it. Essentially an Oath of Ancient Wood, you gain counters with each constellation trigger. Mark of Eviction, Attunement, Riptide Chimera, there’s a lot of ways to keep enchantments moving around enough to hit a constellation trigger consistently. The flying keyword also comes in handy getting your giant counters creature through combat!

Grumgully is the gruul counters alternative. Take creatures who are already big and make them worse. Run Renata, Durable Handicraft, Path of Discovery, load counters on just by ETB! Cauldron of Souls keeps stuff from dying. Riot and Unleash tech gets stupid huge with counters, and landfall tech like Evolution Sage and Kazandu Refuge get nuts.

Jalira is a strange monoblue commander, basically a polymorph deck! Where Wurmcoil Engine is something you can both sacrifice and want to dig for. She would facilitate an artifact deck well, and topdeck tech helps sea monsters fly out by sacrificing a Solemn Simulacrum.

Rona is a very solid entry into dimir artificing. Her abilities let you hit artifacts, sagas, and legendaries alike. Rona becomes another piece of the machine for you filtering draws as dimir artifact tech from the Kaladesh block lets you do a slow melt on your opponents.

Shanna is an interesting piece from Dominaria, I still have a foil of her I’ve always wanted to use. She’s like Oviya, going wide and tall, but with white. White has a lot of effects like Crusader of Odric that give you these buffs as well. Any effect that reads “power of a creature” reads “number of creatures”. That means Fungal Sprouting makes a 1/1 saproling for each creature you control. Rishkar draws for each creature. Overwhelming Stampede is a Craterhoof Behemoth.

Syr Faren is on here because I think Forests Matter is an interesting strat. Buff with equips, counters, auras, transfer power around to creatures who should not be that large. Green is rife with trample enablers too, Syr Faren has huge potential to kick down doors.

Tiana is here because like Danitha she bridges two strategies, but allows sacrifice to be more viable. Auras that sacrifice to exile or require sacrifice of a permanent via Theros 2.0 or Shadows over Innistrad keep value by keeping the bone saw coming back. Trading Post can sac for draw or just recur. Its a roundabout build but a fascinating one to build.

Pay for 2 get 1 free!! Whisper is an interesting switch to flip in a colorset that loves to die and loves to come back. Retrigger those ETB’s! Whisper can work at instant speed too so you can wait till the last possible second. Abhorrent Overlord, Chittering Witch, Sengir Autocrat, its not hard to churn out sac fodder and recur after some self mill!

Some of these I’ve built proper, some I still want to. Take a look, peruse! See what catches your eye! If you make a list I’d love to see it.

[halfgclden]

Aphrodite’s Pride

Summary: Parker and Jack are weebs.

Date: November 2020

TW: Sap

"Who would you have in your cavalry?" Jack asked as he settled back onto his bed. He laid the open box of Chips Ahoy cookies between him and Parker and set a big mug of milk on his nightstand. "Like, if we did a cavalry battle here in New Athens," Jack specified.

Parker took a cookie and chewed it as he thought. “Um, if I’m on top, probably like, four people who are the same height, right?” He tried to think of people with cool powers, but the only person that came to mind was Blue, and he had enough sense not to bring her up. “Hm. I’d probably be better as one of the runners. I think I’d pick, like, Danny? For cool plant powers. And then... Casey? And I bet Rosie would be great at getting the bandanas since she’s so crafty. Maybe Brent just... in general?” He squinted and then exhaled a laugh. “That sounds like it’d be a terrible team.” He shook his head and took another bite of his cookie. “You?”

"Ugh, I didn't even consider height," Jack mumbled in response. "Okay, well, considering the height thing I guess I probably wouldn't pick Brent because he'd be hard to match. Maybe, like..." Jack tried to think of people that he knew that actually had some sort of combat prowess. "Ugh, I don't know. Mal, Kieran, and Lil' Jack, because we'd all agree to just give up and do something else," he confessed with a snort.

Parker grinned, pleased that he had considered something Jack hadn’t. Not that he had considered his choices fully, picking Brent himself. He laughed at Jack’s official choice. “Nevermind, I’d want to be the fifth on that team. We could like, ignore the whole game and get Chipotle.” He tilted his head from one side to the other to stretch out his neck. “So am I basically the quirkless here?”

"Chipotle," Jack chuckled in agreement. "Um, I mean... I guess Mal and Kieran would also be, right?" Jack hadn't thought about how in this team, he'd be the one with the most powerful quirk. Gross.

“Nah, Mal’s got her whole ‘I can tell who people like’ thing.” Parker said as he took another bite of his cookie. He held a hand in front of his mouth so he didn’t spit crumbs everywhere with the next sentence. “Not that that’s super great in this case. But I guess it would be, since we wouldn’t be participating anyway.” He shrugged one shoulder and rested a hand on Jack’s leg. “We all know Lil’ Jack would be who we’d be relying on anyway, right?”

Jack reflexively laced his arm around Parker's and wiggled in close. "Oh yeah. Lil' Jack's the evil mastermind." At the sound of his name, the one-eyed fur ball glanced up from where he was laid across the room. "Thank god that dogs can't hold public office because Lil' Jack would try to like, invade places. He'd be a tyrant."

Parker leaned into Jack as he wrapped around him, smirking as he looked over at Lil Jack. "I'd vote for him. Unless that's just him getting to me too."

“Hey,” Jack called out toward the dog. “We’re onto your schemes.” Lil’ Jack stood from his spot and trotted on over. He stood at the boys’ feet and looked up at them, his one eye wide. “What?” Jack asked as a little paw tapped at their shins. “Are you jealous? Do you need attention?”

Parker laughed at the interaction. "He's signaling for someone to take us out. We know too much."

Jack snorted. “Oh my god, and I live in a glass house too. We’re like sitting targets in here.” As he spoke, Lil’ Jack pulled himself up onto the couch and nestled into the space between Jack and Parker’s laps. “Now he’s trying to be cute to shift blame. Ugh. Genius level strats.”

Parker laughed. "If a red dot appears, we'll hit the ground." He smiled down at Lil' Jack and rested his head on Jack's shoulder. "Still want him on your cavalry team?"

"Oh yeah," Jack reassured Parker. "I'd rather have the monster on our side. Keep your enemies closer, right?" Jack rested his head on Parker's, a privilege he once thought he'd never be afforded. "Lil Jack's like our Tokoyami. He's got a dark shadow inside him too."

Parker nodded, making sure not to move too much as Jack rested against him. “Oh that does make sense.” He smirked down at the dog between them. “I’m glad he doesn’t have a bird head though. I like how cool everyone is with the bird head, but it’d be weird for your dog.”

"Oh my god, that would be so Greek though. Like, a little crow-headed, bichon-frise-bodied chimera," Jack speculated. "The Gods would probably live for that."

Parker exhaled hard in a laugh. “I was thinking like a gryphon. But a dog-gryphon.” He made a face. “Ugh, so chimera totally works better.” He tilted his head back and shook his head. “No, please don’t give them any ideas. They’ll do it because it makes me uncomfortable.” Parker raised his eyebrows at Jack. “Whose powers would you want to have, if you could?”

"From the show? Uh..." Jack immediately skipped over some of the weirder quirks in his head. There was no way he was going to object himself to the social burden of looking like a bird or frog. "Invisible Girl," Jack quipped with a snort. "Or like, Kaminari, so I could charge my phone without getting off the couch. And, like, I'm already stupid anyway so there wouldn't be any drawback. How about you?"

Parker laughed quietly at Jack's response. "Oh my god, true. I like Kaminari's, but I'd have to go with creation. That's just, like, the best power. Do you think she's rich because she can just, like, make money?"

"Nah, Momo wouldn't. She's trying to become a hero, that would be, like... Scandalous." Jack gasped and grabbed Parker's arm. "Think of the snacks though! Oh my god, I could charge our phones and you could make more snacks and we literally wouldn't have to get up for hours."

Parker laughed and brought his feet up, narrowly avoiding Lil’ Jack with them. “We’d be a power couple.” He ran a hand through Jack’s hair to push it back and smiled at him as he dropped it once more. “Do you think the food would taste different depending on what I ate?” He scrunched his nose as he considered it. “Ew, I actually don’t want to think about that. But yeah, I could never be a hero, I’d get the coolest power and just use it to eat more.”

"Okay, but then if one of us was Momo and the other one of us was Sato—" Jack paused. "Oh, uh, this is, like, small spoiler, but Sato's quirk is like, he eats sugar and becomes powerful. So like, we could team up and be like... A feederism crime fighting team. Ew." Jack cackled.

Parker had trouble picturing Sato, but nodded along as Jack explained. “Feederism,” he repeated after Jack, shaking his head. “I feel like that’s definitely something weird. Do they do that though? Like, team up so that he can eat more sugar?” He pressed his cheek into his shoulder. “Do they explain how his quirk works? Like, does he have to have straight cane sugar or can he have an apple or something?”

“Uh, they like, show him more later, but not a lot,” Jack confessed. “I don’t really remember what he does for fights, but I think he goes for just straight up sugar, like crack.”

“Hm,” Parker nodded as he made the sound. When he realized he didn’t have much more to contribute to the conversation, he stretched forward over Lil’ Jack so he could press his face into Jack’s chest, wrapping his arms around his middle.

Jack hummed contentedly. He wove his fingers through Parker's hair and thought back to when he was convinced he would never be able to touch somebody else again. "This is my favorite."

Parker made a content noise and moved so his chin was against Jack's chest now, looking up at him. "You're my favorite." He felt dumb once he said it and closed his eyes again, but didn't move away.

"Aw," Jack squealed. He looked down and planted a peck on Parker's forehead. "Love you." Jack paused. Had he ever said that before? He definitely thought it. Well, too late now. He gave a weird grumble and pressed his lips together.

Ah. If Parker’s face wasn’t red before, it certainly was now. In the relationships that he’d been in, he’d never said that first. Was it a security thing, to make sure that the other person really liked him before spilling his guts to them? Mostly it was just because he never really knew when the right time to say it was. Now would be a good time, after his boyfriend had just said it for the first time. Oh god how long had he been thinking about it now? Was it too long a pause for him to say anything? Was him thinking that he waited too long only stalling it longer and making it worse? Parker let out something that resembled a squeak and moved to push his face into Jack’s chest again, squeezing him tighter. “Love you too,” he mumbled, the words muffled against Jack’s shirt.

Was it actually taking Parker a long time to say something or were Jack's nerves just making it seem like forever? When Parker finally responded, Jack tried not to exhale too loudly in case Parker might hear him doing it. Jack gave his boyfriend a tight squeeze and shut his eyes contentedly. Not that Aphrodite would ever be paying attention to him, but Jack wondered in that moment if she would be proud of their lame little demonstration of love.

Parker wished that he was not a son of Aphrodite so that he could have some sort of excuse for how awkward the interaction had been. But for now, rather than think about how his friends were going to laugh at him if he gave any details and how his sister was going to scream at the news at all, he found himself perfectly content with their declarations. He laughed as he pulled away from Jack, climbing over the small dog between them so that he could sit in his boyfriend’s lap. He rested his hand against Jack’s cheek and smiled at him. “I’m really glad we decided to watch Sharkboy and Lavagirl. Like, way back.”

"Oh my god, yeah," Jack chuckled. "I can't believe that's what brought us together. And Ratatouille," he added with a snort. "And My Hero now, I guess. Our track record is, like, Kieran's nightmare."

Parker laughed again. “God, I guess. He’s sitting there watching things in black and white and I’m telling my boyfriend I love him while talking about a cartoon.” He rubbed his cheek against his shoulder. “At least it’s foreign entertainment?”

Jack snorted. "Yeah, our show's imported. That counts for something, right?"

"Imported! It's like a cheese." Parker laughed, then tapped his fingers against Jack's chest, unable to keep the grin from his face. "I love you."

"I love you too," Jack responded, with more conviction this time. "Like, a lot."

"That's good." Parker grinned, spreading his fingers wide. "It'd suck otherwise." He leaned forward and pressed his face into Jack's neck.

[elizabethcrobert-blog]

Choosing the Best Electric Guitar For You

When it concerns selecting the very best electric guitar, numerous  considerations enter into play. The very best guitar for me might, for a range of purposes, stop being perfect guitar for you personally. Exactly why is that? For the basic reason that we're not all developed the exact same fashion and neither are guitars.

When evaluating guitars, cost is generally a key concern. The majority of us are running within a budget along with a Gibson Les Paul Custom, really a second hand one on eBay, is gon na set you back a great $3700. You are able to really find excellent guitars available for under $400, and so do not assume much because a guitar is costly that it is gon na be best for you. My tip is finding the ideal Instrument for yourself and then save up the money of yours if necessary.

Most likely the most important options that come with a guitar are playability and tone. These 2 variables differ widely from instrument to instrument. A single coil Fender Stratocaster made out of alder will seem different from a mahogany bodied Gibson Les Paul built with humbucking pickups. The single coil pickups are going to give it a sweet, clean, rich tone. Good for actively playing the blues. The humbuckers are going to be much more appropriate for any rock or maybe metal music genres (although 1 can certainly play blues with them as well).

Alder wood gives a better tone than mahogany that's rich and deep. Guitars made out of basswood are a little less heavy sounding than alder, less than as strong sounding. This's extremely subjective of course. Many great guitarists as Joe Satriani have preferred basswood guitars for a long time. Basswood is lighter compared to alder which is significantly lighter than mahogany. Pete Townshend gave up actively playing the Gibson Les Paul of his on stage for two hours every evening because the point was very heavy (typically aproximatelly eleven pounds). He switched to some Gibson SG that's much more comfortable to play although it's a unique tone because of its smaller mahogany body.

Playability describes the way your fingers fit around the neck, the smoothness of the neck, its radius and width. Some guitars fit the hand of yours such as a glove and some make playing them a task. Everybody's hands will vary, some with longer toes or maybe smaller hands, therefore playability is a lot a private point. Though it's a very important thing since you'll be playing that guitar a LOT in case you're at all serious. The most effective necks I've previously played had been on an Ernie Ball JP6 and a Charvel So Cal. The most terrible was on a Gibson Les Paul Custom which has a painted neck plus was tacky (sticky) whenever your fingers perspired actually a bit of bit).

So for these reasons it's advisable to never ever purchase an electric guitar online only since it looks cool or since the preferred guitarist of yours plays it. It is okay to shop online and choose a couple of versions that you love, but always attend a local music shop and actually enjoy them before you purchase. Hear the variations in tone. Notice just how the neck feels in the hand of yours. It does not matter whether you cannot play yet. Try letting the product sales clerk plug you into an amp plus merely strum several simple chords. Notice just how broad is the neck? Exactly how heavy is the neck? Others are as a baseball bat and some are level and created for shredding.

Allow me to share several of my favorites:

For a guitar under $400 you are able to get an excellent used Mexican Strat off eBay. These guitars are made very almost and the American Strats except they're made particularly across the border in Mexico. Great value for money and an excellent guitar which almost anyone will love. However, usually play one first and also ensure it feels great to you. Then shop for a cost.

For the blues you cannot match an American Fender Stratocaster. These run aproximatelly $1200 brand new though you are able to always get a more affordable used 1 on eBay. They come with an assortment of pickup configurations so that you are able to buy a humbucker if you need one to play somewhat more raunchy numbers. Though the coils sound very fresh and heavenly (especially the 1969 reissue pickups) they are ideal for the blues.

I've constantly been partial to Gibsons, both Les Paul and also the SG models. Great for blues too but also great for rock, particularly the SG. These guitars are generally played with a bit of amount of distortion, so in case you are into metal or rock then these're generally a sensible choice. I do not just like the painted necks however because of the reason mentioned above.

Ibanez creates a big line of guitars covering nearly every style of playing. They're recognized to be well made and affordable when compared with Gibson or Fender. They focus on shredders and metal players a lot of the necks of theirs is flatter and thinner as in contrast to some other makes. Due to their affordable they make excellent very first guitar choices. However, constantly try before you purchase.

Find More Information: Guitarscamp

[hakunonon]

honestly nearly half of what makes the gawain fight suck is the god damn burn status effect. even if you try to build a team with good defences or use evades/invulns, that’s basically 1k of free, party-wide damage every turn. sure there are servants and at least one mystic code with debuff clear, and i don’t know how many options there are when it comes to outright resisting these debuffs, but whatever they are most are single target, and once they’ve been used the cooldown means you’re probably not going to get any more mileage out of them, not when gawain charges his np every 2 or 3 turns.

there’s basically no point to using defensive options here; you either dps race him, or rely on some gimmick comp like euryale charmlock strats

[misfit-among-the-angels]

His guitar tech

Word count: 1893 Genre: SMUT Pairing: Janick Gers x Reader Warnings: Little bit of alcohol drinking, smut and bad writing lol Summary: Being temporary guitar tech for Jan, having secret crush on him andtrying not to show him any feeling but in the end Jan’s knows everything. Pure smut with a hint of plot. You also can find this on Archive of our own

A/N: Pretty old fanfic, from 2016. My first Janick fanfic. 

His accent, his personality, his hair, his arms, his neck, his presence on stage, his everything…

I was new in Killer crew, Jan’s guitar tech got sick few days before the tour, so I ended up being his temporary guitar tech. I’ve never thought that I will develop crush so fast. I made sure that this crush would be the secret one, so that even other members of the band wouldn’t know anything, at least I thought so. But here I am, it’s the fifth concert of this tour and I’m watching Jan from the backstage and daydreaming. He’s playing another solo now and ‘damn, that neck of his, I want to bite it so badly. Oh and those arms with strong and long fingers, I wonder-‘. My thoughts were interrupted when I noticed that Jan was looking at me, can he even see me? Probably can’t. I took some deep breaths and shook my head trying to get rid of all those dirty thoughts. The rest of the night went pretty good, though Jan again ‘fucked’ his Strat. After that he came up to change his guitar and I was red like a tomato and hoping that he couldn’t see how red I was, but he just smiled and I gave him another guitar and he went on stage again. The concert was over and I thought that I got away with my secret crush, but oh boy, I was so wrong.

I love talking to Janick, he’s smart and well educated, so we were sitting in his hotel room, drinking our beers and talking. The rest of the band went to sleep, since they have the day off tomorrow, but not Janick. Even in a regular day he likes to stay up late either talking with fans, if he can, or talking with me, if we’re on the road. There was a small silence between us and I took a chance to admire him once more and I got caught.

‘I’ve seen ya watching me tonight,’ Janick broke the silence and looked at me with his blue eyes.

‘I’m watching you almost every show,’ I tried to keep my cool while taking some sips from my beer can.

‘Yeah, but you’ve been biting your lip this time. And what is with you blushing?’ ‘Oh shit, he noticed!!’ I felt that my cheeks started to burn and couldn’t think what to say, ‘It was just hot, that’s it. Nevermind that’. I was avoiding his gaze, though I saw wicked smile playing on his lips, that gorgeous bastard have something in his mind. I stood up and walking to the window. I couldn’t say I was embarrassed, but I just couldn’t stand his gaze.

After some time I’ve felt his presence. I did not know what to expect from him, since Jan is free spirit and like to improvise. Then I felt his hands on my waist slightly pulling me against him. My heart was beating fast and I was just waiting what will happen next.

‘I know that there’s something you’re not telling me, what it is?’ his northern accent thickened, which caused me to bite my lip. I cursed in my mind for being such a weak person, but I wouldn’t lie if I’d say that his accent does things to me.

‘It’s nothing. Really,’ my voice sounded so small. And at this point I was leaning against Jan. I wasn’t even trying to keep my cool now, I was hopeless.

The blonde guitarist chuckled and whispered in my ear, ‘You know, you’re terrible liar. Don’t wanna say what is it, then I’m gonna make ya’. After that everything went so fast, somehow I was turned around and backed to the wall. My hands were pinned above my head. He pinned them with one hand. 

‘Don’t bite your lip too hard, luv,’ I wasn’t even aware that I was doing that, but I didn’t had time to think about it, because his lips crashed on mine. The kiss was heated and passionate. Soon Jan bit my lover lip and I moaned for the first, but not last time in this night. Janick broke the kiss, but only to kiss his way to my neck. He kissed and nibbled at my neck while his free hand traveled to my boobs and giving them a light squeeze. And then he suddenly pulled away, admiring his work to make the hot mess of me, which I definitely was. That bastard was smirking...

I took a few deep breaths, calmed a bit my mind and looked straight him in the eye, ‘you’re right, Jan. I have something to say’. I stepped closer to him, not breaking the eye contact. Janick was still smirking. ‘The reason behind my blushing is… you. You see, I really like the way you shake your hair while playing-‘ Jan was a bit taller than me, but I managed to took my hand to caress his blonde strands and suddenly I pulled his hair just a bit, just to expose his neck ‘-but what I like more than your hair, is your neck. To be really honest, I was biting my lip tonight, because I was thinking about biting this perfect neck of yours,’ I was still pulling on his hair and I could swear I’ve heard and felt Jan growl while I nibbled at his neck. I smiled against his skin and then pulled away, releasing my grip of his hair. Janick was breathing heavily, when he finally opened his eyes and met my gaze I could see his pupils dilated. I was teasing him and he knew that. But I wasn’t finished with him, not yet. At least that’s what I thought.

I wanted to continue my teasing, but he spoke first, ‘and what about my fingers, luv. You clearly forgot ‘em’. I wasn’t expecting this, ‘how he even know about this, am I that obvious?’ I lost my cool, my domination over situation. I was backed up against the wall again, but this time Jan wasn’t wasting time. My shirt were first to go, then my bra.

‘Oh yes, I know. You’ve been too obvious about this. Always staring at my fingers, but let me hear what you truly think about ‘em,’ Janick squeezed my boobs and started to pinch my already hard nipples. Pleasure shot straight between my legs.

‘Jan…’ I couldn’t keep myself from whimpering his name, I was completely at Janick’s mercy. He stopped what he was doing, slightly pulled away, ‘Hun, I’m not gonna continue unless you gonna say what I asked ya’. His accent will be the death of me, I fucking swear it!

I was shaking because of anticipation, but once again, I tried to regain my coolness and maybe the domination, though at first I stuttered a bit, ‘You-you are right. I was thinking about your fingers quite a lot-‘I paused, closed my eyes for a second, trying to collect all my will power, and when I opened them I was ready to speak again ‘-they seemed quite fast and long. And I love how they are working while playing solos. I wandering what else these fingers of yours could do…’ I was biting my lip and I noticed that this action was driving Janick crazy, well, judging by the bulge in his pants.

‘Good girl,’ Jan smiled at me. ‘But I’m not so sure if I should give ya what you want’. His smile and his voice tone gave away what he had in mind. Janick doesn’t know how to be subtle, neither do I.

‘Oh for fuck’s sake,’ I knelt before him and unzipped his pants, leaving him just with his boxer briefs. ‘Do I need to drag you to bed or you gonna walk by yourself?’

‘Oh, I’d love to see you try,’ the blonde teased me, but did what I asked and oh dear, that view of him laying on the bed… I wasn’t wasting my time and pulled his boxer briefs down releasing his cock. I licked my lips, then leaned down and swirled my tongue around the head of his cock. I did this few times more, just teasing him and making him moan. I was taking my time, I licked all the way through his length. After few licks I wrapped my mouth around his cock and started sucking and using my tongue. I felt his body tense up a bit, so I looked up to see him throwing his head back, exposing his neck. His eyes closed, his lips slightly parted. This view alone was almost too much for me to handle. I moved even faster, feeling that Jan is soo close. Then I again swirled my tongue around the head of his cock and he was done for. Jan was quite vocal when he came, which was pretty hot.

I looked at him, smirking and when I tried to stand up, he moved fast, grabbing me by the waist and slamming me on the bed, ‘I’m not done with you, luv’. Again pinning my hands above me, Jan leaned to nibble at my neck while his other hand was pinching my nipples, then traveling to my pants. Janick pulled away only to get rid of my pants. I wiggled out of them quickly and Jan just threw them somewhere on the floor. ‘I bet you gonna sound better than my Strat’. Bastard was still teasing me! He kissed me and for a few second our tongues were battling for dominance. Jan broke the kiss and his right hand slipped into my panties, ‘You’re basically dripping. I’ve never thought that I will have this effect on you’. He pulled my panties down and I spread my legs wide, giving him better access. Jan took his index finger and applied a minimal pressure on my clit.

‘Fuck,’ I whimpered and slightly arched my back at that single touch. Jan only chuckled at my response to his little action. His finger was making circles on my clit and occasionally teasing my pussy, but not giving me what I really wanted. Jan literally got me at his fingertips. He leaned in to suckle on my nipple and then I felt one single long finger slipping inside me and slowly starting to slip in and out of me, while his thumb rested on my already sensitive clit.

‘Oh god, Jan,’ I couldn’t suppress my moans. I almost came when he slight bit my nipple. Soon he slipped second finger and now he was fingering me faster and making tiny circles on my clit with his thumb. My orgasm was slowly building up, I was bucking my hips to meet his fingers.

‘Cum for me, luv, I know how badly you want it,’ Jan whispered into my ear. He pumped his fingers in and out even faster and it was it. With a lot of curses and his name on my lips I came hard on his fingers. I could swear by all the gods, Janick definitely knows how to use his fingers.

I was still breathing heavily when we’ve heard loud bang in our room wall followed by angry voice of Steve, ‘Bloody hell Janick! Can you be quiet? I’m tryin’ to sleep here!’