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Maybe I'm wrong, but from what I heard, the mic was cut because they'd announced the press conference was over and were trying to get the reporters to leave (before it cuts you can hear someone saying, loudly, "Okay, thank you, let's go...let's go). And this a reporter asks the President a question which he ignores, and the guy asks again and the President gives the guy a flip answer (after the mic has cut out). ... Why is there furor over this again? I guess if he'd just ignored the reporter he'd be 'dodging hard questions'; if he said 'we're not ready to discuss our plans' he'd be accused of having no plans; if he said "I'm not going to answer that at this time" he'd be accused of having forgotten the plan. Instead, he made a flip comment and now he's President Satan. Don't get it.

On topic, Black Geyser is now in early access.

I was tempted to put this in the political thread just for the snark...

Hubble captures gorgeous image of 'Einstein ring' from warped quasar light.

What can change the nature of a parazoan?

Your sister seems to be a bit of a bad influence

Nevermind SR, look what I have for you, kids! GOTY 2021

A Chanter - either Troubadour or Beckoner - in whatever combination. SC Paladin gets +2 Zeal via Divine Retribution from dying summons, too - so he will have enough Zeal to give Exortations, Lay on Hands etc. to everyone at PL9. *Singing with Freddy Mercury voice* "This could be Hastening for everyone my dudes could be healed my dudes could be fun..."

An assassin/tactician sniper can solo everything with ease and doesn't require heavy buffing or infinite dots to kill enemies. The big ooze is the only tricky boss, however there's a very reliable (and relatively fast) method to kill it using the Mechanical Marvel and a few Tornado scrolls. There's always the paladin/troubadour, but I suppose you already know it - he can also shorten a lot the Hauani fight using Tornado scrolls. Paladin/forbidden fist is also a good candidate but he will struggle much more against Hauani. Paladin/soul blade can probably solo everything too if you don't mind doing shoot and run against Dorudugan.

I just did some testing: Spiders continue to spawn when she is withdrawn. The stacks of Wrath of the Empress also happen while she is withdrawn (so she is increasingly pissed-off, she loses defenses and gain ACC for each spiderling killed also when she is withdrawn). That can open up some possibilities, but I don't think it can make Belranga fundamentally easier for builds that cannot already own her without Withdraw. (I realize that my sentence isn't clear....). So: any Rogue, Blood Mage, Paladin or a Brilliant Priest can completely own Belranga, with or without Withdraw it won't change much. Other classes that already struggle, will also struggle with it. And of course still anyone can do it with a couple reloads and True Lover's Kiss + Leaping Boots or Rakhan Field Boots. EDIT: however, I think this Withdraw trick can be marginally more useful in the Auranic fight, if you want to take a more frontal approach. Auranic and her Sigils should be withdrawable too! EDIT2: I love those little discoveries so Auranic can be withdrawn which is quite nice, but of course the Obelisks reflect direct-targeting spells so you end up withdrawing yourself if you use Withdraw on an active Obelisk.

Cipher - because of Disintegration vs. Huani which otherwise is such an infuriating encounter (unless using confused Withdraw like @Not So Clever Houndsaid). The rest can be done with any Rogue combo who uses endless DoTs (Lover's Embrace + Gouging trike for example). I did it with Assassin/Goldpact for example (Lover's Embrace + Gouging Strike + Brand Enemy). You could theoretically also do Huani with it I guess (using Ball and Chain + Crippling Strike maybe or Crossbow or Arbalest with modal and scrolls to prevent the merges) but I wouldn't want to try it.

The self damage doesn't scale with character level but power level. If you increase your power level (level-ups but also buffs from items, abilities and/or food) you increase your self damage. It also gets influenced by your MIG. More MIG = higher dmg. If you pick an Assassin or Helwalkers it gets boosted by those passives, too. You will die from the self damage if you don't heal. Maybe it's possible to not die If you boost your CON (never tried) but with a high MIG score and only mediocre CON you will die from it. Savage Defiance does help if nobody else can heal you. Also heal-on-kill stuff like Abraham pet (health on kill). Weapons/items that heal (regeneration gear) or heal on crit (see Devil of Caroc Breastplate for example). The healing on kill or crit also works on friendly targets - for example skeletons from a Chanter. Countermeasures besides healing is stuff that reduces incoming dmg. For example the Voidward Ring (helps a lot). There's also food etc. You can manage that - but it takes some time to fine-tune it. In the early game encounters are short and the self damage is lower - so it's manageable until you find your right setup. Bit it def. needs more attention than with other barbs. The shouts are extremely good at power level 9 (single class). Both of them. The Roar is doing tremendous dmg and had a CC component while the Shout has a huge AoE. For multiclass Barbs one must decide if they are worth it: besides the shaken affliction the one interrupts and throws down in a line (can be useful if you are playing a disrupter) and the other gives you +3 engagement (can be useful for a frontliner). If you are a damage dealing, multiclassed quarterstaff user for example they might not be worth it.

I watched the original. And a movie, I think. I will check these new ones eventually. For now, I started Steins;Gate. Only 2 episodes so far, so not much happens. Or maybe a lot. Who knows, it's about time travel...

OK, it works now. Each Vessels/Spirits in the 5m AoE generates its own raw damages scream. Now we can discuss further about balancing the ability. Note that a creature can affect itself with the scream. I'm not 100% sure it was the case previously, but anyway it can be tweaked. I'm still with the opinion that foe-only might be too good, but the 1.5m radius suggestion from @thelee makes sense, so I'm going to think about it. Also reducing the initial AoE so it could be a bit more controllable is an option. It shall be centered on a spirit / vessel though.

Indeed, IMO. But I'm not yet playing the game with your mod so maybe my opinion is irrelevant. Anyway, I think it's a trick that doesn't totally break the game, that you can only abuse with a lot of prep/focus on it, and which most significant advantage is to help give alternative solutions against HoW (which is fair... come one this merging blob routine is in my nightmares now ). And it has the drawbacks you listed. Its imbalance is balanced I think . I have no idea what you're talking about. With SoF, my little Shadow Camembert Assassin only got to 110,000% Deltro Lash and 100,000,000,000s durations of Vanishing Strike. It still felt a bit unsafe. I feel like you're trying to make me feel unsafe. I feel triggered. 🤣

If you are in a party, you can use a Berserker/Wizard to cast Confusion on everybody and build around a completely bewildered party. And then you can cast Pain Link on enemies (who get attacked by enemies you charmed - or on charmed enemies who get attacked by other enemies), attach Antipathetic Field to party members, Ectopsychic Echo to enemies, Amplified Wave on enemies, Withdraw and Dimensional Shift on enemies, Grimoire Imprints on party members, Combusting Wounds and Brand Enemy on the guy with Rekvu's Scorched Cloak and so on... 😄 Edit: what happens if a confused Priest casts Hand of Weal and Woe on a guy who has Rekvu's Scorched Cloak? Does that guy get the healing and 20% of fire dmg as healing, too? 🤔 Same with Divine Immolation...

It works, and it can be interesting in certain very specific situations. However, a confused Priest healing enemies is the worst, so once you've used this trick you might want to switch to Modwyr or use an INT inspiration to get rid of Confused...

LOL dystopian Miami. As if there was any other kind!

I do like that these movies have moved away from the save the universe storylines and are more like "Dr. Strange messes up a spell, hijinks ensue."

Thare are some that are even worse than XClads. Also some already high AR foes do drop Llengrath's Safeguard which pisses off new players regularly who then come here an complain about it, haha. 😄 The solution to that can either be to lower the AR/PEN ratio* or raw damage. For example there are two weapons that have raw base dmg (one pistol and one sabre). Or use raw DoTs. )* meaning: lower AR and/or raise PEN

Potentially early encountered Iron- and Steelclads are quickly dispatched by either raw dmg DoTs (e.g. Arterial + Gouging Strike + Strike/Ring the Bell) and/or by using Essence Interrupter (shock dmg which Iron-/Steelclads are vulnerable to). A ranged Berserker is rel. easy to keep alive since the most common source of dmg will be his own. In combination with Blooded it's actually a nice thing to have. In combination with a Devoted and Penetrating Strike you'll have less risk of dying (Constant Recovery) but you will have amazing +9 PEN without any consumables (+4 Penetrating Strike, +2 Devoted, +2 Tenacious, +1 Ring of the Marksman) and also good attack speed with good accuracy - or even great attack speed with reasonable ACC (Hunting Bow + modal - e.g. Essence Interrupter). The Berserker's crit conversion and Carnage will not work, but imo that's a small price to pay. Later Blood Thirst will be amazing. I didn't play this though. Besodes a few tests it's theorycrafting. You can also combine Berserker with Streetfighter (combins solid PEN and raw DoTs) and use the self damage to reach bloodied (Blooded + Heating Up will kick in). This combo has less PEN (although plenty with Tenacious and Crippling Strike) but insane attack speed with a hunting bow + modal (and isn't devoted to a single weapon proficiency) and incredible dps. It has no build-in healing besides Savage Defiance though. I played it and it's a lot of fun especially in the very early game - despite combining two subclasses that seem to be made for something else. The attack speed is just so high that you can shoot down the entire Gorecci Street in no time - and it doesn't matter much that you will miss a couple of shots due to lowish ACC (from the Hunting Bow modal). It's literally *twang-twang-twang* because you will barely see the recovery bar. Kind of in between: Berseker/Sharpshooter. With Driving Flight though you can bring St. Omaku's Mercy or Veilpiercer to their full potential: the 50% recovery skip on crit also works with Driving Flight. And Blood Thirst will add to this skipping later on. I played this for some time. It's very good against mobs and especially low defense enemy casters. Against high defense single targets I then preferred to use a Hunting Bow (speed) or Arbalest (interrupts/prone). I guess the most hands-off would be Devoted/Berserker. And its PEN comes online very early so it's suited to take on Whateverclads very early, too. The most jawdropping is Berserker/Streetfighter I guess. At least in the early game.

You can diminish the gap between PEN and AR with other tools and classes than Berserker, which IMO is not super useful if you're doing a ranged weapon char (it's still great for e.g. Bloodmage/Berserker). Devoted/Cipher for example can enjoy +3 PEN with a chosen weapon, then you have the Sharpshooter ring for +1 PEN... the Assassin conditional bonus is of course amazing too. You also have potions, spells/invocations... The Iron and Steelclad constructs in particular are weak to Shock damage, so you can use Essence Interrupter, Lord Darryn and of course spells like Chain Lightning, invocations like Her Revenge... to your advantage.

a few times. is worth recalling that judges, within the confines o' the courtroom, is the closest thing we got to stereotypical royalty in the united states. judges who claim to not be arrogant is presumptive liars and a few ( a ridiculous small %) forget or is unconcerned with maintaining an appearance o' humility. also, judges is people, with all the flaws which go along with being people. try and handpick a group o' flawless saints with unimpeachable intellects and am guaranteeing if the size o' your group o' people gets large enough, you is gonna end up with a few villains and at least a couple fools in your collection o' ideal humanity. HA! Good Fun!

Thank you Boeroer! I'm actually considering dropping it. Thing is I'm going to play ranged. Do you think chugging potions for the +2 pen and armor is worth it still? I got obsessed with pen for new characters after doing Arkemyr's mansion. Because I got so mad killing one iron golem took like 10 minutes Arkemyr's mansion, and other encounters with high armor enemies - are SUCH a slog!!! If I can get through iron golem+ armor with pen I'll be happy. Maybe if I'm just looking for pen - as ranged - rogue is better since they have 1 resource +2 pen attacks dunno.

A mod could change that maybe? Don't know how it would handle the class specific enchantments but I guess it's doable. One could also do a non-soulbound version and just take the model of the Ch. Mantle. What I really don't understand is why those awesome pangolin gladiator armors from SSS (arena staff mostly but also at least one to pick up) don't have a unique version: https://pillarsofeternity.fandom.com/wiki/Light_Ceremonial_Garb

Can More Information, FDA Approval Sway Prominent Vikings Towards COVID Vaccine? Mike Zimmer and the Vikings aren't giving up in their efforts to improve the team's poor vaccination rate. They brought in Dr. Michael Osterholm, a "renowned epidemiologist and infectious disease expert," to speak to the team on Monday morning, as first reported by NFL Network's Tom Pelissero. Dr. Osterholm is the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota and a member of President Joe Biden's COVID-19 Advisory Board. He's "one of the top specialists in the world," to use Zimmer's words. ... fast forward to today so, am thinking kirk cousins is a fan o' mr. rogers. HA! Good Fun!

I solved it by getting a mod that allows helmets for godlikes. Despite clipping issues, a black hood is a PERFECT fit

Geez, I must be getting jaded like you folks, because both the X-MenCom game and Saint's Row didn't really spark my interest either.

They could've managed something atleast, but really, it just felt neutered, inoffensive. I was secretly hoping to see Gat or any old face on a rooftop blowing them all up.

Tacticians become brilliant when their opponents are all flanked and no one on your side is flanked. This is easiest achieved when you play solo or with small parties, of one or two companions. Psyblade or battlemage are probably the best MC, since both wizards and ciphers have powers (chill fog/curse of blackened sight and eyestrike/phantom foes) that will flank enemies. A tactician/soul blade MC would be a fine combination. Brilliant periodically restores class resources, including fighter discipline, wizard spells, and cipher focus. But it's much better for wizards, who get back a spell at a random level, while ciphers only get a measly +10 focus per tic. Invisibility works a bit buggy with brilliant tactician. If I recall correctly, turning invisible will trigger brilliant tactician, which sounds nice, but often battle ends as well, which is not so great, since you'll lose whatever buffs you had (including brilliant) without your resources being restored. Personally, I prefer playing tacticians either solo or with a small party. Playing a party, say, of three tacticians can be fun.

i love this new tech. does belranga need to be present for little spiderlings to keep spawning? i'm wondering if this can also be used to safely sequester belranga when her defenses are high while working down the spiders. this would take so long you'd need some resource regen somehow, but just spitballing.

Firaxis does a tactical Marvel RPG type game thing:

If you're Confused, cast an Intellect Inspiration, or better, go have a whisky in real life, and then come back. I promise it will all make sense. Seriously, it is about the fact that being Confused can make you cast beneficial stuff on enemies etc. (i.e. it lifts certain targeting restrictions) which opens up a lot of tactical shenanigans for those interested.

See if https://www.nexusmods.com/pillarsofeternity2/mods/136 can help.

Ok, so conditional + AoE is possible, so either the non self target of the cipher powers somehow made it fail OR there is something rotten in the attack encapsulation. Anyway, first I need to fix the spell, then we could discuss more about further tweaking it.

Afaik this can only be done with a mod (if at all).

Yes.

that would be my ideal life.