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New Kinich EN VA is a mixed bag for me. It's somehow in-between in-character deadpan and monotonous to the point of not sounding great.

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KE's 27/3/25 KR Balance Patch

We have a lot to discuss here, so let's not waste time and get into it.

Way of the Sword The gauge and all mentioning of it in the tooltip will be removed. Vitality/Destruction Aura will always be active. Press the V key to switch between mode.

This is probably the biggest change that affects all Elsword and Elesis's paths. It means there will no longer be gauge management. Once Gexa comes in, you can immediately spam your DPS skill without worrying about the gauge running out. This makes them more suitable for the Gexa era gameplay like other characters. Initially, I proposed that the gauge be revamped to be affected by Special Resource-related buff, but this is a lot better.

Wind Slicer Special Active cooldown reduction condition is changed from activating Wind Slicer to being in the awakening state. The cooldown reduced is 25% (PVE)/12.5% (PVP).

If the change in the WotS is not enough, they also change his cooldown management. Before the balance, he needs to command every 5 seconds to reduce the cooldown of Special Active skills. Now that it's gone, you only need to focus on using skills. On one hand, this makes his gameplay simpler. On the other hand, this is a direct nerf to his cooldown management. He could reduce 7/3 seconds every 5 seconds, which is equivalent to 40% cooldown reduction. Now it's reduced to 25%/12.5%. I could see his CD problems from a mile away, but I will need to playtest his new rotation before judging on this change.

Counter Patience The activation condition is changed from receiving debuff/abnormal status to using a skill with the corresponding Way of the Sword aura. The new Physical Attack increase value is 2% per stack (max 10 stacks) with a duration of 20 seconds (reduced by 5 stacks when the duration ends.)

This is the biggest change in his team formation. He no longer needs CA or OM in his team, and thus being the greatest QoL he receives from this patch. Although the maximum value decreases from 33% to 20%, it's an acceptable trade-off, consider the flexibility he gains, and because there's also another damage buff down the line. Initially, I have already expected the value from this passive being nerfed considering how strong it is, but this is even better.

Grand Cross The casting speed before hitting the ground increases by approximately 40%. [Overwhelm] debuff is now applied on hit without needing to be fully charged.

Also one of the biggest change he gets. Grand Cross takes about 2 seconds to fully charge, and half of that is spent on the jumping animation alone. Reducing that by 40% brings the total time to fully charged to 1.6 seconds, which don't seem like a lot, but considering that recent bosses require nimble and precise movement, this improves his flexibility. The [Overwhlem] debuff being applied immediately on hit also means that in a pinch where you need to reapply the debuff before doing something else, you can just tap the skill and be done with it. However, I'd still suggesting the fully charged version because it's still one of his main source of damage, and only use the tap version when it's almost time to Gexa.

Battle Ready The passive is renewed. When starting dungeon/battle, gain [Battle Ready] buff: - Recover 3%(PVE)/1% (PVP) HP/MP per second - Increase all speed by 3% (PVE)/1.5% (PVP) - Duration: 30 seconds When [Battle Ready] buff ends, gain [Fighting Will Towards Victory] buff: - Reduce MP consumption for Special Active skills by 10% (PVE)/5% (PVP) - Increase all speed by 10% (PVE)/5% (PVP) - Increase damage dealt to boss/mid-boss by 20%

Also one of the greatest change to his passive, which was hard to utilize before. You only need to stay alive more than 30 seconds to permanently receive the benefit of the second buff. This is effectively a compensation for the damage loss with the change of Counter Patience. However, with both changes in consideration, it's about a 2%-4% damage loss overall because Counter Patience is multiplicative while boss damage increase is additive.

That's all the changes related to KE. Now to theorycrafting.

Since the WotS is changed so that you can permanently maintain any aura, "filler skills" like Mortal Blow, Kick, or Power Smash are no longer necessary. This allows for more DPS skill to be registered. However, considering his current skill bar, there's not a lot of rooms to wiggle. Here are his core skills:

[Mod] Double Slash (Tran slot)

Grand Cross (Trans slot)

Iron Body

[Mod] Armor Break

[Mod] Sandstorm

Triple Geyser

[Mod] Unlimited Blade: Growing Fortitude

[Mod] Armageddon Blade

You can see that they already take 8 slots, which leave us only 2. Since we no longer have to bring cheap Vitality skills, we can consider other DPS skills:

[Mod] Flame Geyser: Knight's Will - The 2nd best DPS skill after [Mod] Sandstorm. Easy to use and great on grouped enemies.

Vertical Slash - Weaker than [Mod] FG but has greater range. You might need to swap it with [Mod] FG depending on the situation.

Impact Smash - I only see it being used in normal dungeon.

Spiral Blast - Nope. There are better skills.

Imperial Crusher - Can be used for clearing but Vertical Slash and Sandstorm are way better.

[Mod] Windmill - Great for grouping enemies. Could also be used in tandem with Fortitude to maintain yourself mid-air for certain situations. However, it has the weakest damage out of all Strength skills.

From these, I think [Mod] FG and Vertical Slash are best options mainly because of their damage. But let's look at how his CD works after the change. Since he can no longer reduce flat cooldown but get a 25% CDR at the start, we need to calculate the initial cooldown from the top. Let's take [Mod] Double Slash as an example:

Before: 21 x [1 + 0.20 (Heavy) - 0.35 (CDR stat)] = 21 x 0.85 = 17.85 seconds. If you activate Wind Slicer immediately, you get 10.85 seconds. After 5 seconds, the cooldown is 5.85 seconds, you activate Wind Slicer again, and you'll able to use it immediately. This effectively makes its cooldown only 5 seconds. However, it cannot be done reliably due to how random Wind Slicer is, I'd say the average cooldown is somewhere around 9 seconds.

After: 21 x [1 + 0.20 (Heavy) - 0.35 (CDR stat) - 0.25 (new Wind Slicer)] = 21 x 0.6 = 12.6 seconds. Although it has a higher cooldown than before, it's completely consistent. However, I have concerns about his rotation resulting in a grey skill bar, even with maximum CDR stat. Now that his skills' animation is faster than before, downtime is inevitable. To match his old CD management, he'll need about 1.4x CDA.

From the calculation, it seems that rotation is going to be more difficult without some CDA, so getting CDA buffer like CC, AV, DM, or DA (after balance) is more preferred.

Before this patch, KE can utilize the Reset effect from Rexa as it's counted as a debuff for Counter Patience, and as such using Antenna Earrings in tandem is preferred. Now that the debuff is no longer required and his rotation becoming stricter and without filler skills to build the Logic stack back up, detonating the stacks seem more unlikely. However, if you insist on using it, there is a perfect skill for that: Counterattack. It has 0 CD and since the gauge is no more, you don't have to worry about its aura alignment. It will also quickly build up the revamped Counter Patience. If you want, replace Vertical Slash with it.

Also, if a dungeon requires a Tenacity skill, you can replace Counterattack/Vertical Slash or [Mod] FG with it instead.

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A summary of KE's new Mod skills

Flame Geyser: Knight's Will

This skill is very situational. The damage is quick and constant, but the only case where it beats Mod Sandstorm in damage is when the mobs are grouped together and they are small. The El's Flame is generated per line per an entity that the line hits, so using it on any enemy will give the same result. Considering that Sandstorm has better reach and damage in general, it is still preferred in dungeons. However, this skill can be used in PvP, especially 2v2, because it has a quick cast and great reach.

Unlimited Blade: Growing Fortitude

The much-needed frontal clearing skill KE needs, and it's also a Vitality-aligned Bravery skill. The normal range is about half of the screen, which can be extended to about a screen after hitting something (about the same as Silent Abyss). It will only count a single hitbox per entity and does not deal splash damage, though. It is super useful and deals high damage, surpassing even Mod Sandstorm against single enemy. The only cases where it loses are when Mod Sandstorm can deal full hits or against multiple enemies grouped together. You can either trade Mod Sandstorm for this skill if you want better rotation, but I suggest finding CDA buff from teammates instead. It's also viable in PvP because it is Vitality-aligned, has Light trait and quick cast.

Skill build after new mods:

[Mod] Double Slash (Trans slot)

Grand Cross (Trans slot)

[Mod] Armor Break

[Mod] Armageddon Blade

Triple Geyser

Iron Body

Any Vitality active/Tenacity skill of your choice

Any Vitality active/Tenacity skill of your choice

Choose 2 from the following:

Sandstorm for general dungeons, otherwise [Mod] for bossing

Fortitude

Any Vitality active/Tenacity skill of your choice

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El House Improvement Ideas

Increase house size; add backgrounds, layers and sub-regions.

If whales want mansions, give them castles. Backgrounds can be anything other than just a square box. Layers and sub-regions can be in forms of stairs, elevators, jump pads, waterslides, wind currents, warp portals, etc.

NPC placement and interaction

"NPC" here refers to both playable and non-playable characters. Playable characters can be the default class already customized based on the class's lore, or from other characters in your own accounts, for which you can set idle quotes, interaction options and conversations (insert typical content filtering and censorship here). For other characters from your account, you cannot delete that character until you remove them from the House. For non-playable characters, such as town NPCs and some monsters, unlocking criteria could be used. For example, in order to place Denif in your El House, you must defeat him in his MR dungeon Hell Mode XX times, or collect a random drop to unlock him from a catalogue (or you can improvise the monster card system here). Examples of interaction are: Greetings, Hobbies, Like, Dislike, Teasing, Flirt, etc.

Preset function

A preset will list furniture required. Can be separated into official and customary presets. Official presets are the ones that are fixed and set up by KOG themselves. Customary presets are the ones create by the community. You can save a preset code and share it with others. Others who want to copy the preset must have the furniture required for the set.

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Genshin Impact "Starlight Reverie" Web Event Avatar Collection

Happy 4th Anniversary, Traveler! ~

An avalanche of character illustrations from the "Starlight Reverie" web event are here! Come choose your favorite one and make it your avatar to celebrate the 4th Anniversary together!

[Character illustrations for all 80+ characters can be found here (Mondstadt, Liyue, and Inazuma) and here (Sumeru, Fontaine, and Natlan).]

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Some balancing ideas for supports

DA:

Riveret Crest (Base/Mod): Enemies hit by the skill will be inflicted with [Riveret Crest] debuff which decreases physical defense by 30% for 10 seconds.

Transcending Declaration: While [Holy Declaration] is active, when [Pioneer's Blessing] buff from Pioneer's Dignity passive is activated, reduce Special Active skill cooldown of allies, excluding yourself, for 1 second.

Bonus Opera: Lead-up time before Chung opens his wings decreased. After fully recovering party's HP/MP, grant all party members 10 stacks of [Bonus Opera] buff which generates a shield equals to 20% of the caster's max HP for 10 seconds. When the duration expires, consume 1 [Bonus Opera] stack to regenerate the shield.

Dius Aer (Stage 3/4): [Dius Aer] buff duration increased from 15/3 to 20/5 seconds.

OM:

Stimpack: Skill size increased. Changed to an install-type skill. The skill will stay in the field for 5 seconds, dealing multiple hits over time. Hitstun only on the initial hit. Damage per hit is adjusted so that the total damage remains the same. Players or enemies that come into contact with it will receive {Stimpack] buff and debuff.

Detoxication (Base/Mod): All Skill Damage Increase increased from 12% to 15%.

Defibrillator: Skill size increased.

Molecular: [Genetic Modification] Stage 4's Special Active Skill Cooldown Speed Increase is changed to Special Active, Hyper Active and Master Skill Cooldown Speed Increase.

Mass Examination: [Mass Examination] buff duration increased from 50/25 to 70/35 seconds.

Trolley Dilemma: [Trolley Dilemma] buff duration increased from 50/25 to 70/35 seconds. Players that are not selected will receive [False Trolley Dilemma] buff which reduces Special Active MP usage by 10% and Special Active Cooldown Speed Increase by 1.25x for 70/35 seconds.

Genetic Recombination (Stage 4): [Genetic Recombination] buff duration increased from 25/15 to 35/25 seconds. The buff can stack up to 200 seconds.

Nyx:

Chilling Rage (Base/Mod): Changed from Awakening Charge Increase to All Speed Increase (10% base; 15% Full Moon).

Moon's Origin: Stacking is removed. Base healing over time is increased from 6%/0.6% to 9%/0.9% (Full Moon: 12%/1.2%.)

Silver Moon's Calling: Skill size increased.

Salvation: Added the effect to reduce all party members' Skill Cooldown by 100% (except Force Active, Bonding Skill, HA and M. Skill) upon activation. Added the effect to grant a shield that is 15% of the caster's max HP to all party members for 15 seconds upon activation.

Storming Sea: [Storming Sea - Confession] Physical Attack buff is increased from 8%/4% to 10%/5%.

Brilliant Moon: Added an effect that whenever this passive activates, reduce Salvation's cooldown by 1 second.

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I like when offmon smile like this 😏

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Every wolf furry in a nutshell.

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I saw many people said that EP. 3 of the Demon Slayer Hashira Training Arc was just filler and should be skipped as fast as possible, but I have to disagree. While plot-wise, nothing much happened, but this episode showed how the 'common folks' aside from the main cast were struggling with this whole ordeal. We are too acquainted with the protags and the Hashiras that we forgot that the Demon Slayer Corps wasn't just composed of only them. There were many more men out there trying their best to fight the evil. Tanjiro joining the training definitely boosted his colleagues' morale to endure the harsh future that awaits them and seeing them getting motivated was refreshing. We also got to see how Tengen and his wives were doing. Tengen could still pose a threat even with one eye and one arm missing. Moreover, the anime has been doing well foreshadowing the new Upper Moon 4's power from the Infinity Castle appearing and disappearing in the first EP and then this EP where her eyeball stalked the patrol teams. It's bits and pieces of suspense, relaxation, and anticipation like this that keep the momentum of the episode going. I enjoyed it very much.

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Happy Birthday, Gorou!

"The Yae Publishing House's editors are so thoughtful sending me all these thank-you letters from the readers! I'm just so glad to have been able to be of help!"

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Happy Birthday, Gorou!

Good morning! I was just about to start my training routine. Why don't you join me for a few rounds of strength training?

Regular training is crucial in order to respond to the various emerging situations on the battlefield.

On top of that, warriors must have a profound understanding of tactics— Oh, you want to know the secrets behind my formations?

Let me give you a demonstration. With your intelligence and talent, I'm sure you'll get the hang of it in no time!

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Speculation of the new armor

The history of armors in Elsword was wild. From simple crafting to incomprehensible RNG hell. Here is a brief history (at least from when I started playing):

Normal dungeon gear: Pretty much straightforward. Just a regular gear with higher stats.

Henir gear: This starts having some interesting unique effects. It can be upgraded via grinding Henir.

Secret dungeon gear: Similar to normal dungeon gear but with unique set effects.

Heroic gear: This was the first gear that had RNG components, having to roll 3 lines of IDs for the stats you want. It also came with a set effect of 3 variations.

Elrianode gear: Even more RNG hell with the Tears. The set effects also have 3 variations.

Amethystine Prophecy (AP) gear: The first set to have a Reforge system as an additional grind. The set effects have 6 variations. However, this is the first set since SD gear to not have any RNG involved in the set effects but rather on the Reforge system instead, which, in my opinion, is more acceptable. After it's changed to be bank-sharbale, the value of this gear for early game players increase significantly since it's a common gear that can be equipped on all characters. The reforge system may prove to be daunting at first due to reforge durability, but it's become more friendly after the material requirement nerf and many events and season pass also alleviated that.

Tenebrous (Tene) gear: A DIY set that you can mix and match the effects by yourself with more interesting effects that do not exist in earlier gears. The reforge system is inherited from AP. However, the Shadow Effect RNG is the worst out of all sets released. With so many combinations possible, it can be difficult to obtain the stats you want. Moreover, the armor is character-specific, meaning you cannot share it with different characters unless you purchase the conversion tickets from the item mall, which is very expensive.

Now the criticism:

AP: After many adjustment, this is the set that players seem to like the most due to how straightforward it is. Craft the armor of the set you want > Reforge it to R21 > Done. You can use it on any character in your account.

Tene: Though stronger, players hate it for how many of the stats are locked behind RNG hell. Firstly, you have to get the Shadow Effect you want. Secondly, you need to roll the max value on that stat. Thirdly, if you want another effect or want to reroll, you have to extract the desired option from another piece and roll it again. At initial release, the chance of extracting the desired effect was not 100% but 50%, so there was even more RNG involved. As a result of these factors, many players were unable to enhance their gear to an acceptable level and raised a concern during KOG's new armor release plan last year. KOG acknowledged it and postponed to this year instead while also reworking the planned armor to become Harconium Tuning Reactor, which is compatible with Tene.

Now the speculation:

Given that Harconium was supposed to be the new armor, it could be surmised that, based on the appearance of the item icon, the new armor will return to being common and bank-sharable.

Given how reforge system is in Tene, it might reappear in the new armor as well. And if KOG is being greedy, they could demolish the existing Chlorite market and release a new item as a replacement for Chlorite to be used for the new armor instead.

Harconium or a new substitute could also be used on the new set.

Since the release of the armor will come before the new raid, we can surmise that the armor acquisition can be done without having to raid. This could be done by gathering materials via gridning or daily/weekly quests and crafting like AP/Tene.

Since the armor is common and bank-sharable, the quest will have to be account-wide to prevent rapid acquisition of materials.

The DIY Shadow effects of Tene might return. There could be stronger effects or more lines to identify. Whether it will retain the RNG elements depends on KOG's mercy. (I hope this is the case because god I love the Tene Barrier so much like can you imagine 60% barrier?)

Now regarding Raid, which is required to enhance the armor. It could be in a form of Stages like Raid weapons or doing account-wide weekly quest to get materials. If we have to do Stages like VoS/SoA, it could be challenging if our armors weren't fully prepared.

There could also be items that can be exchanged to NPCs like marks we obtain from helping 0% people completing the raid which can help accelerate things.

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Sethos TC

From reading his initial kit, I think he can be played in two ways: either Charged Attack focused or Burst + Normal Attack focused, and they should not be played with each other because they all need energy for something.

Charged Attack focused

This path will focus on his 2nd-tier Charged Attack: Shadowpiercing Shot (SS). He will need full energy (60) to deal full damage. From his A1 passive he will consume up to 20 energy to reduce his SS charge time, so with 60 energy, he can fire up to 3 SS consecutively. Because his energy is already spent, he cannot benefit from his burst. If he is at C6, he will be able to fire an additional SS.

He can use E to recover some energy, but using it during the barrage is going to be tricky due to Electro application from earlier SS clearing out other elements. If the energy is not full at first, this can be used as an opening move to easily trigger elemental reaction and receive particles afterward. If energy is already full beforehand, it might be better to use this last after another element is already applied.

Because there are so many passives and constellations that focus on his SS, it can be surmised that he should be played this way rather than focusing on his burst.

Burst + Normal Attack focused

This method is more straightforward. Use his burst and spam normal attack for 8s. Although the DMG boost multiplier is high, it is quite inferior compared to SS support. However, since you cannot move while using SS, this burst gives more flexibility to deal with more enemies. SS is limited to only 3 shots at full energy (4 if C6), while during burst, he can move freely and fires as many shots as he wants and able to deal with more enemies.

So if we face a small group of enemies, SS focused is better. And when we face a large group of enemies, burst focused is better. Unless you have someone who can group them together, then you can just use SS to kill them all.

Weapon

Cloudweaver (4* 4.7 Event Bow) - I think this is his F2P BiS. It gives EM stat when the wielder loses/consumes energy, which perfectly fits his kits. Its main stat is also EM, which also fits his scaling.

The First Great Magic (5*) - This is a good weapon because of Crit DMG main stat with ATK and CA DMG boost, but because his team comp consisting of 3 Electro characters might be hard to achieve (because others might steal reaction from his E), he might not be able to fully utilize the ATK boost passive.

Hunter's Path (5*) - Also a great weapon with Crit Rate, Elemental DMG bonus and increased CA DMG based on EM. I think this is his BiS 5* bow. Sadly, you can only obtain it via Chronicled Wish.

Thundering Pulse (5*) - Crit DMG stat stick. He can only utilize the ATK increase passive and not the NA DMG boost because both SS and Dusk Bolt from burst is considered CA.

Aqua Simulacra (5*) - Crit DMG stat stick. The DMG boost passive requires an enemy nearby, which might be hard to achieve because he should be firing from far away.

Polar Star (5*) - Crit Rate stat stick. The passive is almost useless on him. His burst can't even hit enemies at all.

Elegy for the End (5*) - While ER can be useful to upkeep his energy, the passive is hard to proc because his E has an 8s CD and his burst can't hit enemies.

Amos' Bow (5*) - An OK bow with a passive that is in line with his kit.

Skyward Harp (5*) - Crit Rate stat stick with a somewhat useful Crit DMG boost. An OK bow.

Range Gauge (4*) - An OK bow if you run a healer (i.e. Baizhu, Yaoyao)

Song of Stillness (4*) - Same as Range Gauge but more F2P friendly.

Scion of the Blazing Sun (4*) - An OK weapon that fits his kit. But in a group fight, you'll need someone who can gather them together so that the Sunfire Arrow can hit all of them.

Ibis Piercer (4*) - An OK weapon with EM buff.

King's Squire (4*) - F2P friendly. Usable, but he must be on the field for the duration of the buff.

Hamayumi (4*) - F2P friendly. Usable, but you'll never be able to keep your energy at 100% so this weapon isn't that interesting.

Viridescent Hunt (4*) - Crit Rate stat stick

Blackcliff (4*) - Crit DMG stat stick

Sacrificial Bow (4*) - Here's the thing. While the aspect of him using double Es to quickly regenerate energy is great, we don't know his E's ICD yet. So this could be a great weapon or not at all. Furthermore, you'll want to use a bow with offensive stat more.

The Stringless (4*) - Good for EM scaling, but can only use half of the passive with E.

Favonius (4*) - Should be used on your teammates instead.

Slingshot/Raven Bow (3*) - Fine.

Artifacts

Stats: EM/Electro DMG/Crit Rate or Crit DMG

Gilded Dreams - Probably his BiS

Hunter - If you run Furina then ok

Wanderer - Easy to farm

Thundering Fury - Triggering reaction on E will reduce the initial CD by 1s. After that, you can use SS to trigger more reactions (depends on SS's ICD ofc). So this is also an interesting set to use.

Shimenawa - Here's also an interesting one. When you use E, you'll lose 15 energy, but due to the skill's effect, 12 energy will be recovered if the skill triggers one of the specified reactions. So the actual cost for the 4-set effect is actually 3 energy. Probably still inferior to GD but hey, it's a thing.

Team comp

Definitely needs some resistance to interruption because during SS he can't move at all, so any shielder/Dehya is appreciated.

He'll be using Aggravate a lot, so Dendro unit is also a must. The rest can be buffers or healers.

Example: Sethos, Nahida, Baizhu/Zhongli/Dehya, and Kazuha/Bennett. If Furina is included, run a healer. Kazuha/Venti/Sucrose can be useful to group mobs together so that his SS can damage everything.

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I'm sorry Veemon, Guilmon and Gatchmon. I love you guys.

But Gammamon is just too fucking adorable.

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FF7 Remake has a theme song based on Cloud.

FF7 Rebirth has a theme song based on Aerith.

The last one in the trilogy will probably have one based on Tifa.

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They finally noticed it after like, what, almost 20 years???