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Hi everyone, I have just finishined the first complete version (1.0) of my own mod which will aim at making the game more balanced. My main objectives are the following : - Make all abilities/subclasses worth including in a build, - Ensure that Tier VIII and Tier IX are interesting enough to go Single Class, - Correct a couple of weird mechanics to make them more consistent with generic rules. I plan to deliver it on Nexus Mod a bit later probably within a couple of weeks. Important notes ; - This mod is designed for RtwP. I "think" most of its content should work for TB, but I haven't tested it, - This mod is in English only. It will work with any language setup though, but modified texts will appear in English, - This mod has been designed and tested with the content of PoE2 Community Patch (I own no rights on CP, but I wanted to promote it). - This mod will apply to any newly created character. For existing ones : The files, version 1.0 : The ones with most of the changes, mostly buffs or minor corrections : BalancePolishingModBuffs 1.0.zip The ones with nerfs for a couple of broken features (such as preventing Salvation of Time abuse, or Troubadour nerf). They will be described in red in the notes below. You may not want to use this package. BalancePolishingModNerfs 1.0.zip The one with Summon Rebalance, with a lot of tweaks (buffs and nerfs) delivered as a stand-alone package : BalancePolishingSummonRebalance 1.0.zip Installation instructions, In order to get the intended experience : Detailed list of changes : I didn't include the full explainations in this thread, but feel free to read them in the "Project for a Balance Mod" thread. Most of the descriptions should be up-to-date, but there might have been a couple of changes. Therefore, the release thread should be considered as the reference. Discussion References per topic : 1) Class changes : A) Fighter Inspired Discipline : 3 Discipline -> 2 Discipline Power Strike & Inspired Strike : 4 Discipline -> 3 Discipline 6s Stun -> 10s Stun 6s Staggered -> 10s Staggered Inspired Discipline only : +200% damages -> +300% Take the Hit : 4s Recovery -> 0s Recovery Into the Fray & Upgrades : 2 Discipline -> 1 Discipline 10 – 14 damages -> 5 – 10 damages Mule Kick : Most upgrades use the PL of the original ability. A PL 3 upgrade of a PL 1 ability used by a PL5 character will for example get a scaling of +4. There was a glitch that counted Mule Kick as PL3 instead of PL1, so I corrected it for ruleset consistency. This basically gives Mule Kick +2 PL. Toughened Fury :25% proc chance, as announced by CP (CP implemented only 20%) B) Paladin Light of Pure Zeal : 5 Zeal -> 4 Zeal Exorcism : 4 Zeal -> 3 Zeal Healing Chain (complete rework) : 2 Zeal Range 5m + 4m Jump Friendly Target + 50 Bounce (yes, 50) Heal 10 health per bounce (no reduction per bounce) Can bounce several time on the same target (0,3s delay) Hastening Exhortation & Upgrades : 2 Zeal -> 1 Zeal - Hastening Exhortation : Nimble for 15s- Zealous Exhortation : Swift for 15s- Hastening Command: Nimble and Strong for 15s Liberating Exhortation & Upgrades : 2 Zeal -> 1 Zeal 20s Duration -> 15s Reinforcing Exhortation & Upgrades : 2 Zeal -> 1 Zeal 12s Duration -> 10s Glorious beacon & Upgrades : 3s/4s Cast -> 0,5s/4,5s Cast 1,5m AoE -> 2,5m AoE 8s Duration -> 12s Duration (for all effects, including upgrades) Sacred immolation & Upgrades : 4 Zeal -> 3 Zeal 32 raw damages per tick -> 20 damages (I overrode the 3,5m radius from Community Patch) Wrath of the Fives Suns (Pallegina special ability) : Penetration : 7->12 Penetration properly scale with PL (currently it does not) Damages : 5-7 -> 5->15 (x5 Projectiles) EDIT : 2 Zeal -> 1 Zeal Greater Lay on Hands : 8s Duration -> 10s Duration Hands of Light : 8s Duration -> 15s Duration C) Chanter Also refer to Summon Rebalance for changes specifically about summons. Troubadour : Brisk Recitation phrase take 4s instead of 3s. Set to Their Purpose, They All Knew Their Part : 6 Phrases -> 5 Phrases (as unupgraded version) (this was justified when it provided Brillant...) Far from Defeated, His Heart Filled with Joy : 6 Phrases -> 5 Phrases (as unupgraded version) +3 Phrases -> +2 Phrases Far from Defeated, His Heart Filled with Joy and Their Companion Braved the Horde Alone are now considered Offensive instead of Non-Offensive (important for Skald) ...Each Kill Fed His Fury : Contrary to the ability it is upgraded from, this ability provides mere +5 stats boost instead of inspirations. As it seemed really random, I replaced the stat boost by actual Strong, Fit and Steadfast Inspirations. Boil Their Flesh From Skin to Bone & Upgrade : Secondary Cones replaced by simple 2,5m radius AoE. This enables the Acid Explosion to be properly centered on the victim. ( I learned that the secondary Cones originated from the caster instead of from the actual victim. This changes also correct this glitch) His Laughter Rang Through the Halls : 8s Daze -> 30s Interrupt on Hit -> Interrupt on Graze His Heart Did Fill With the Light of the Dawn : +1 Ressource -> +2 Ressources Does not affect the caster anymore. D) Rangers Sharpshooter : +20% Range with all ranged weapons Hobbling Shot : Hobbled for 10s->15s Heal Companion & Upgrade : 2 Bonds -> 1 Bond Cast time : 3s/4s -> 0,5s/4,5s Range 4m -> 10m Note : I didn't follow Community Patch change for this one. Revive Companion & Upgrade : Revive with 50 health -> 100 health Vengeful Revival : +20% damage -> +30% Deadly Surprise : +100% damage -> +300% Bonded Fury : 3 Bonds -> 2 Bonds Cast time : 0,5s/4s -> 0,5s/0s Range : 6m -> 10m Twinned Shot : 2 Bonds -> 1 Bond Vengeful Grief : Duration 15s -> Infinite (note that DEX and MIG affliction still dispell the Inspirations you get) Heart Seeker : 4 Bonds -> 3 Bonds Shadowed Hunters : Pet's first bite after using the ability apply a 30s DoT effect (20 raw damages per 3s tick). Note that first pet attack doesn't break invisibility (this is true in the base game). Distracting Training : 6s -> 15s (not that this is the base duration. It will be lower in general because the ability use pet's Intellect) Pet Abilities Keyword :Added Beast Keyword to all pet abilities cast by the Ranger so they benefit from equipment with bonus to Beast abilities.Applied to Heal Companion, Revive Companion, Bonded Fury, Master's Call, Shadowed Hunters & their upgrades.Not applied to Takedown and Play Dead cause they are cast by pet themselves (and PL can be detrimental to Play Dead cause it rise its duration) E) Barbarian Mage Slayer : Removed the Spell Resistance entirely. Added -25% Hostile and Beneficial effect duration. Corpse Eater : Greatly buffed special food (and also replaced bonus MIG and malus INT by more varied effects) : - Kith Meat : -5 Diplomacy, -15% Damages received, +3 Corpse Eater PL - Corpse Loaf : -3 Diplomacy, +3 Health per 6s, +10 Fortitude, +4 Corpse Eater PL - Forbidden Pie : -3 Diplomacy, +4 Resolve, Mind Affliction Resistance, +5 Corpse Eater PL In addition, Kith Meat and Vessel Flesh can be bought from Vithrack and Imp vendors (Kith Meat price set to 100 gold) Instruments of Boundless Rage : 3 Rage -> 2 Rage Added Fire Keyword Heart of Fury : 4 Rage -> 3 Rage Savage Defiance & Upgrades : 15s -> 25s Stalwart Defiance : changed to Gain Concentration every 6s Leap & Panther's Leap : 6s Dazed -> 4s Stun Dragon Leap : 6s Dazed -> 6s Stun Panther's and Dragon Leap are now correctly tagged as Leap upgrades (which basically makes them scale as PL5 abilities -> effective +3PL) Carnage : Can now Crit (so can apply Blood Frenzy ) Accurate Carnage : +5 Accuracy -> +10 Accuracy Blood Surge : 25% Chance -> 50% Chance, but only apply to Hostile Targets (same change as Community Patch did for its Paladin equivalent) Blood Thirst : Cleaned the mess that causes it to proc twice on the same target and prevented it from being stackable with Crushing Blow. Now proc only once except sometimes when 2 targets are killed in a row (it applies twice then, cause Recovery is cleared before second target is killed, so you keep one charge) Barbaric Blow & upgrades : Removed the PR and Damages bonus to make the ability more focused. Now Barbaric Blow & Upgrades do : - 75% Hit to Crit chances - +75% Crit damages bonus (note : Crushing Blow do get this bonus, even if it does not get Crit Damages Bonus in the base game due to a bug) - +200% Carnage AoE (so roughly 2.5m radius instead of 1.5m) - Barbaric Smash : no refund, but cost reduced to 1 Rage - Crushing Blow : no recovery (not conditional anymore) Spirit Tornado : Spirit Tornado applies Stagger on any hit, not only Weapon Hits (as the unupgraded version) F) Wizard Conjurer : Summon Familiar cast time : 3s/4s -> 0.5s/0s (It's not very well known, but Familiars provide a +1 stacking and generic PL Bonus, as well as random +3 to one stat and a minor bonus.) Transmuter : Form of the Fearsome Brute changes : - Form of the Fearsome Brute Armor : +100% Recovery -> +20% Recovery - Form of the Fearsome Brute Fist : 13-25 damages, 6PR -> 18-24 damages, 7PR - Form of the Fearsome Brute duration : 30s -> 20s - Form of the Fearsome Brute duration : +1 Engagement -> +3 Note : these changes also apply to Form of the Fearsome Brute Potions Bewildering Spectacle : Cast time : 3s/4s -> 0.5s/3s Confusion : Added Interrupt on Hit AoE : 2.5m -> 5m Note : these changes also apply to Confusion Scrolls, Wael's priest and Trickster's versions. G) Cipher Wild Mind : Miscast : set to foe only, but damages lowered to 0.5 x Focus. Tenuous grasp : 0.5s/4s cast time -> 0.5s/2s Fractured Volition : Change Weakened for Enfeebled. Haunting Chain : Duration 20s -> 40s. Soul Ignition : Target Fortitude -> Target Will (due to Cipher's passive, this is a buff) 16 damages per tick -> 20 damages Duration : 15s -> 18s Mindweb : Now break after being damages 3 times. Note that this erases the changes from CP that were supposed to make Mindweb break after a Hit (but didn't work) H) Rogue Trickster : Sneak Attack 20% + 5%/PL -> 10% + 5%/PL Streefighter : Indirect nerf : Blunderbuss Modal : Distracted for 10s -> -10 Accuracy for 10s Smoke Veil : 2 Guile -> 1 Guile Shadow Step & Upgrade : 3 Guile -> 2 Guile Paralysis 6s -> 8s Shadowing Beyond & Upgrade : 3 Guile -> 2 Guile +50 Deflection that was weirdly cancelled on 1st or 2nd attack (without any explaination) -> +25 Deflection for whole duration Smoke Cloud & Upgrades : Interrupt on Hit -> Interrupt on Graze Finishing Blow & Eleminating Blow : +3% damages per % health lost from 50% -> +1.5% damages per % health lost from 100% Devastating Blow : +6% damages per % health lost from 50% -> +3% damages per % health lost from 100% I did not change the max value, but I made these abilities count from 100%. Sap : Hobbled for 30s -> Shaken for 30s Added impossibility to receive Concentration debuff on target for 30s. Perplexing Sap : Removed the weird Confusion on target's attack effect. Upgrade Skaken from changed Sap to Fighten. This version of Perplexing Sap is basically a Silencing attack, or a cheap source of Tier 2 Affliction for Resistant foe. Strike the Bell & Upgrades (complete rework) : - Still Full Attack that Interrupts on Graze, with +25% damages and +2 PR. - Now all versions adds a 15s Dazed effect - Melee 1 Hander adds a -25 Will debuff for 15s - Melee 2 Hander adds a -25 Fortitude debuff for 15s - Ranged Weapon adds a -25 Reflex debuff for 15s - All other effects removed. - The upgrades now allow their respective -25 defense debuff to last for the whole Combat (in a similar fashion as Gouging Strike) Confounding Strike : Start at -10 deflection malus, -2 per hit up to a total of -34 (doesn't stack with flanked) Fix the stacking not working from CP. Thanks @Frykas for pointing it. Persistent Distraction : - Deflection and AR malus doesn't stack with similar effect anymore, as for all others Distracted Afflictions. Thanks @Frykas for pointing it. Deep Wounds :Now applies 20% fixed amount of weapon damages in 4 ticks (2s ticks) as announced by CP. CP implemented 3 ticks (3s ticks) for a total of 15%. I) Druid Also refer to Summon Rebalance for changes specifically about summons. Wall of Thorns : No actual changes, but this ability displayed a base PEN of 7 which was wrong : it is actually base PEN 9, so I corrected the display Nature's Terror : - Casting time changed from 4,5s/3s to 3s/3s. Sunlance : - Casting time changed from 4,5s/3s to 0,5s/4,5s. - Added Interrupt on Hit. Nature's Bounty : - Now its effects (20 health restored, +2 PER and MIG, +20% Action Speed for 30s) will apply directly instead of summoning potion. - AoE reduced 5m -> 2,5m to compensate that it now affects summons and everything. Entropy : - Added 3 Base Bounce (Base 4 Targets) - Number of procs raised from 3 to 5. - Charges are not consumed by Graze and Crit anymore - Removed Interrupt part Tornado : - AoE set to 10m radius. - Range set to 20m - Added a true "Interrupt on Graze" effect, which is consistent with the Vertical Launch part. - Casting Time tuned from 6s/2s to 4.5s/3s Touch of Death : - Set casting time to 0,5s/3s instead of 3s/3s. - Add a +25 Acc modifier for this spell. So if your accuracy is equal or greater than foe's Will, the kill is guaranteed. Wildstrike Frenzy : - Changed from Procs on Kills to Proc on Kills Fury Strom Blight Weapons : - Now properly count as weapons (generate focus, etc...) J) Priest Also refer to Summon Rebalance for changes specifically about summons. Divine Terror : - Duration 20s -> 30s Salvation of Time : Change to a lasting beneficial effects which adds 0.5s to every beneficial effects every 1s. That effectively halves their ellapsing speed of buffs (including SoT itself : it lasts 20s with a base duration of 10s). Basically still add 10s but : - Now benefits from PL and INT - Now applies to effects cast after it (especially useful for Vanishing Strikes...) - Useless to cast several times in a row - The most important : now a single effect cannot have its duration more than doubled. It is still a very good spell, even better than before, but it is now impossible to abuse by combining it with Brilliant, and all other buffs will also have to be re-cast again at some point. Hand of Berath : - 5PL -> -10PL - Now auto-hit. Revenge of Skaen : - Range 5m -> 10m - Added a -20 Accuracy effect in addition to Blind. The -20 Acc does not stack with -10 Acc from Blind but the idea was to create an effect that goes through Perception Resistance Blessing of Wael : - +5 All defenses -> +10 - Now works vs any kind of attacks (not just melee ones) - Now targets Will - Changed the Blind affliction (which was too redundant with Skaen's Revenge) for a random effect of -10 PER, INT or RES. Symbol of Berath : Added acid Keyword Gaun Spells : - Added Plant Keyword (bugfix from CP, not base game) Wael Confusion : - Added Illusion Keyword (bugfix from CP, not base game) K) Monk No changes but fixed the glitch from Community Patch that prevented Shattered Pillar to get max 10 wounds after picking lesser Wounds (note that Community Patch add-on also fixed it in parallel) 2) Summon Rebalance : Nerfs are hihjlighted in red, but are part of the same package. Weapon & Armor Scaling :The biggest change is now that all summons weapon and armor scale with level (as Animated Weapons, Summoned Weapons, Companion Pet's Weapons and a handful of other summons already do).They all follow the rules of the table in the link below (+1 PEN, +4 Acc, +15% damages for their weapons and +1AR at level 5, 9, 13 & 17) https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/pc/227477-pillars-of-eternity-ii-deadfire/faqs/76599/non-pl-scaling(Only exception are some of the Tier IX Summons because you get them after level 17. But most of them will have legendary quality weapons, or strong enough weapons anyway. ) Wizard & Monk : No Change Druid : Ondra's Whip, Watery Double, Lashing Vine : no changes. I think these abilities are balanced as they are (and they all scale at levels 5, 9, 13, 17 ).Summon Sporelings :Added Weapon & Armor scaling. All Blights Summons :Added Weapon & Armor scaling. Call to the Primordials :Added Weapon & Armor scaling. Reduced the number of oozes from 3 to 2. Reduced the duration from 30s to 20s. Bog Ooze removed from the list of potential summons, replaced by Lesser Bog Ooze (but with the added scaling, it's actually somewhat stronger).Fire Stag : (Weapons and armor already scaled) (minor) Change its fire shield so it procs on "damaged" as other fire shields, and not on Hit/Crit. Set Engagement limit to base. Adjust base damages to 13 - 19 with PEN 8 (equivalent of a sword with +2 PEN and fast attack rate).Explosion is now triggered by death instead of ability activation. That means Barring Death Door will prevent it from exploding and doing any damages. But when Fire stag is killed by foe, it explodes as if the ability was triggered. Fire stag can still kill itself to trigger the explosion. Explosion has been set to foe-only.Aspect of Galawain :(Weapons and armor already scaled) Adjusted base damages to 13 - 19 with PEN 8 (equivalent of a sword with +2 PEN and fast attack rate). (Wolf gets higher base damage, and Lion has bonus attack speed as previously). Adjusted armor : - base 5 AR -> base 8 AR, - 25% recovery -> 0% recovery. Bear gets +2 AR on top of this as previously. Added an Interrupt on Hit effect to its base attack. Priest :Spirtual Ally :Added Weapon & Armor scaling (its armor scales up to equivalent of legendary plate). Tune down duration to 25s because scaling weapons make him much better at high level and it was already a decent summon. Incarnates : Changed -5 PL for 35s into -1 PL (stacking if used multiple time) for 120s. This counts as a hostile effect and is decreased by Resolve and similar feat. Now for specific Incarnates : - Eothas : Equipment set to Legendary Quality. Replaced one of the priest incarnate by a copy of the first since it had an infinite recovery and could only act once. Duration reduced from 35s to 20s (triple summons would be too strong for 35s). - Berath : Equipment set to Legendary Quality Duration reduced from 35s to 25s (double summons would be too strong for 20s). - Magran : Weapon and shield set to Legendary Quality. Buffed to be a defensive juggernat : Set her CON to 25, RES to 25Armor changed to 14 AR without weakness apart Cold and its Recovery would be lowered from +67% to +34% (this value is the one from a Fighter with Armored Grace wearing a heavy armor). - Skaen : added +2 weapon PEN, +10 Acc, damages set from 14-20 to 18-25 (fast attack speed). +2 AR. (Basically similar to a scaling from Exceptionnal to Legendary.) - Wael : get scaling bonus (+4 PEN, + 16 Acc, +60% damages with weapons, +4 AR). I also gave him +10 CON so its health pool is more in line with other Single Incarnate, albeit still the frailest. I also added +5 DEX, +5 PER. - Rymrgand : No changes to this monster. Chanter : Skeletons : Added Weapon & Armor scaling. They start as poor so they have "exceptionnal" weapons at level 20. Note : "Many Lives..." phrase skeletons don't really scale anyway. Phantom : Added Weapon & Armor scaling. Phantom upgrade duration : 25s -> 60s. Wurms : Added Weapon & Armor scaling. Base Duration lowered from 25s to 18s. Upgrade cost : 4 phrases -> 3 phrases (I have already aligned all chanter upgraded invocations with the cost of their original ability) Wisps : Added Weapon & Armor scaling. Ogres : Added Weapon & Armor scaling. Set their active abilities to 1 per encounter. I didn't want them to be better than Drake at AoE or better than Wisp at Interrupting. Changed their "Down the Hatch" ability : it doesn't provide Tenacious and Robust anymore : this would have lead to too much AR and PEN if added with the scaling. Now "Down the Hatch" is renamed "Ogre Defiance" and only provides 10 health per 3s for 20s. Disoriented drawback has been removed. I added 2 PEN to their attack abilities to compensate for the loss of Tenacious. Drake : Added Weapon & Armor scaling. Duration 25s -> 35s. Added : Ground Immunity, Fear Aura and Dex Resistance that all other drakes have (Dragon Summon gets an improved version of Fear Aura). Knockdowns : - 2 per Encounter -> 3 per Encounter - Damages set to 15 - 25, base PEN set from 7 to 10. - Only affects Hostile Fire Breath : - 1 per Encounter -> 2 per Encounter - PEN set from 6 to 9 Dank Spore : Added Weapon scaling. AR already scaled, but I aligned it with other summons progression. Duration 25s -> 35s. Foul Thing explosion on death : - added 40 - 55 raw poison damages - set Sickened affliction to Infinite duration as announced by the ability. - only affects Hostile - corrected a bug that prevented the Sickened affliction from being displayed. Animated Weapons : Are currently already fully scaled. No change. Dragon : Will receive the benefit of full weapon / armor scaling. In addition to scaling, I'm going to change Dragon stats because they currently don't make sense, with a bottomless pit of health but lower AR and attack than the drake : - Armor 7->10(+4 from scaling) with resistance to Fire and Slash and vulnerability to pierce. (Based on the (scaled) version of the Drake, +1 AR) - Health 200 + 50/level -> 100 + 30/level - Attack : 16-22 CRU/PIER, 7 PEN, normal attack speed -> 20-26 CRU/PIER, 9 PEN, fast attack (+scaling) (this is based on the drake attack, but slightly improved). 3) Miscellanous Changes : Fire Godlike Fire AR : 2 -> 4 Martial Casting : 15% Action Speed -> 100% Action speed when casting summoned weapons. Quick Summoning : 15% Action Speed -> 25% Action speed when summoning. Adra Ban in shop :Added Adra Ban to Una's Shop, for 10000 gold per unit.Binding Block :+15 Accuracy -> +20 Lasting Empower :Corrected CP bug (duration increase applied to many stuff including non-empowered attacks), but I had to go back to base Game version. Bashing Shield : Now Bashing Shield (Magran's Blessing and Best Defense) Accuracy, PEN and Damages upon attacking increase according to the shield quality (example for excptionnal shield : +8 ACC, +2 PEN, +30%) Special thanks to @Noqn for implementing this very clean ruleset. Not applied to Tuotilo's Palm (its stats increase according to Transcendant Suffering / Monastic Unarmed Training as in the base game) Damages and PEN set to base 7-10 with base 7 PEN to match their scaling. Magran's Blessing Fire Shield slightly reduced to compensate for the scaling applied also to retaliations : - 5-7 damages for base Fire Shield - 8-12 damages for greater Fire Shield Last but not least, the expected Cuttlefish nerf !!! : +1 Crew Morale -> +0 Morale

Corona style baptism

So we did our long 7 mile walk this morning, it was great and well worth it but I learnt some lessons and things to avoid Firstly we weren't able to finish it due to certain delays and due to our 9 am curfew we had to take a taxi home the last 20 minutes or so. Secondly there were just far too many people on the beachfront roads ...it wasnt pleasant as you spend more time avoiding people than appreciating the actual walk. So we will avoid busy routes in future My partner took the pictures below, its a nice summary of this hike which starts off in the suburbs, takes you around a local mountain and you end up at the beach in a coastal town called Camps Bay and then you head back to town where I stay

I do believe in myself like that, I wake up every morning dreading my inevitable collapse.

On office social call got tired of being nagged to turn on webcam, so finally did. Turned it to face the sun.

Gaemz:

On twitter Sawyer said the game reached the break even point. That's not bad news. And the game slowly continues increasing the sales. https://twitter.com/jesawyer/status/1263677679527620609

i showed this to some italians. they were confused about the bottle part and then they googled it and called the pope to start a crusade against USA for this sacrilege against cheese

It has begun...

I recently bought a new computer and gave my son my old one, which opened up an entire world of new games for him. Basically he can now play anything in my massive Steam library, whereas his previous hand me down PC was pretty limited. He is almost 10, and it's been fun watching him discover all these PC games that I've played over the years. His first two that he got into were Baman: Arkham Asylum and Assassin's Creed 2. He doesn't have a controller yet (possible birthday gift) so I've been impressed by his ability to work the keyboard on these game sthat play better with a controller. I was worried AssCreed might be too violent, but I figure it also give me a chance to lecture him about the Duomo di Santa Maria Del Fiore and Da Vinci. The other game he wanted to play was Lord of the Rings Online. I've played this off and on for 13 years. I hadn't been back in awhile, so it didn't take much to convince me we should team up and play together. I let him use my old account with all the perks and content and started from scratch. I even set us up on Discord, since the computers are not in the same room. I was surprised how hooked I am again. They added two new races. One is a High Elf, basically a really old elf that fought in the big battle against Sauron back in the day, but has been in a coma since the 2nd age. Bleh, not an elf fan. The Stout Axe Dwarves are the other new race, and they are fantastic. You start out as a slave in Mordor, and escape around the same time Gollum does. It's a great way to work you into the whole Fellowship story. So far I'm really enjoying just exploring the beginner areas. They look graphically much better than they did over a decade ago when I first played, and the attention to story details in this game has always been its strong suit.

i was in QA and later worked as technical designer for a while.

I just commited a completely untested hotfix to our production system that touches two seperate processes, one of them business critical and happening over night, meaning quite frankly right now during night shift. I'm thinking about ordering this:

Hello, Nomad's Brigandine has an echantment named "Tactical Withdraw" that makes you immune to Disengagement Attacks. While I always thought this means immune to Engagement I now realized that this is not true. Instead you will still trigger Disengagement Attacks - but they will miss 100% (with a combat log message like "[...] but <charname> is immune!"). I just made a Monk with Nomad's Brigandine and Imagined Pain. Running around some Xaurip Champions to fill my wound count to max in a matter of seconds. Also Riposte and Offensive Parry do trigger on those "misses" (might be a way to make both worthwhile in Turn Based Mode). Have fun with this info!

OK, I heard a good one today. How many Republicans does it take to change a lightbulb? None. Trump will just tell them it has been changed and they will all sit in the dark and applaud.

Not to a spelling bee. But far...

Orcs automatically get max charisma 'cause they're orcs. Anyone who says otherwise is a dirty elf.

Starts at 7 minute mark and ends at around 53 minutes. Rest of the time is spent on Q&A.

I was just surprised that he posted something that listed Taiwan as a separate country.