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I finished Disco Elysium. It seems like it is a new evolution in adventure games. It was very well done. The game definitely spoke to me on a deeper level. It helped that I was a beer or two in when I played it, and a bit deep in my winter moribundity. I didn't expect to have nearly this much in common with this down on his luck detective.

Camouflage 100 Speaking of which, my cats are black/brown/white calicos, and in the dark, they are nearly invisible. Their reflective retinas are the only thing that gives them away.

Umm… welcome to 1921 G? 🤔

@Sarex As long as the rent is paying off the mortgage, Id sit on the apartment. @Gorth A long time ago I was out back at work and I saw a big praying mantis on the dumpster. It was the first time Id ever seen one in the wild so I called my coworkers out back to see it too. As we all huddled around it took a dislike to one dude in particular and attacked! It was hilarious watching him run down the parking lot flailing his arms in the air.

Who knew something could get cancelled faster than Cowboy Bebop?

https://www.pcgamer.com/stalker-2-nft-cancelled/ Canceled the idea.

Maybe you already read the Boeroer' post about "Fast switching Shield" : (From the Ultimate Challenge Topic) This exploit work also with the Outworn Buckler (Timeless perseverence) but for reducing hotiles effects durations for the party. It is really good since it is not easy to deal with them (Supress Affliction only suspend them, Potion of Cleansing Purge reduce them, but none really purge them. About the Potion of Cleansing Purge, this is the only potion that scale with alchemy, except healing potions. They forgot this one in Patch 1.2 maybe). But switching per loop this small shield is very efficient and faster than a Supress Affliction ' cast! I tried also to exploit this with some bonus from weapon, but I found nothing. For exemple, %chance are cheked when the hit is rolled, then switching between two Marux Amanth or two Whales of a Wand doesnt enhance a "current %chance effect", even on persistents spells. The only good effect I got from switching weapon was for the Slayer's Claw increased might inspiration. In first, Strong became Tenacious, and after switched and came back to the Claw, Tenacious grade to Energized. This is pretty useful. There is a way to switch the armor in the other hand. I tried that to abuse from the Cabalist's Gambeson 10% beneficials effects during fight. When Spritishifted, the armor is switched by the Form' one. But that was not really nice since the modal cooldown is too long to be efficient : +10% of ben. effects every 6s * 5 with a shifter (druid form - shift form -(3s)- druid form-(3s) etc). I also used Glacierbane "Shattering" with my low int cipher on the druid, but once suspended, the Form is cleared. Find a way to switch the Blackened Plate armor with Death in life as quickly than a weapon would mean 4raw damages foeAoE per switch, too bad. Does anybody have any other idea to take advandage of the incredibly fast switching effect?

Hello, thanks to @Constentin Lévine's post about how one can use Kalakoth's Minor Blights to get the weapons of the Changeling's Mantle (when in Boar, Spider or Stelgaer form) I found something new. You see you can use Concelhaut's Draining Touch to persist the Great Sword of Citzal's Enchanted Armory or all Spiritshift weapons (Boar Tusks, Cat Claws and so on) and I posted about that some times in the past (the rest of the summoned weapons was patched so this doesn't work anymore). You basically summon Enchanted Armory or Shift and then summon Draining Touch. When the encounter ends you will end up with the the Great Sword/animal weapon in your hand and it is now a normal item (that scales automatically to your level). This doesn't work with the Changeling's Mantle because it deactivates casting. But Kalakoth's Minor Blights comes to the rescue! Because that spell cycles through different elements throughout its duration - and it does that internatlly by putting a new blight weapon into your hand. And the spell stays active and cycles thropugh its elemental variants even though you changed into a form that can't cast. What that means is that you cast K's Blights and then change into a Stelgaer/Boar/Spider - of course the initial Blight will be replaced by your natural tusk/claw/fang. But after a few secs the Blight spell cylces and replaces the claw/etc. with a new blight! Now, if you end the encounter then you will end up with a persisted claw/tusk/fang etc. So far, so good. Now I remembered that I always liked those Ogre fists from Form of the Fearsome Brute, right? But the Ogre's Armor is so bad that nobody ever uses the Ogre form. If you could have the fists without the armor though... They have great base damage (13-25!), dual damage types (crush/pierce) and the second best thing: they interrupt on crit, yeah. PEN is not great (6) but you have dual damage and that helps. Why on Eora is interrupt on crit only the second best thing? Because those fists make an awesome sound when they hit - as if a hammer hits an anvil. 😄 So if you ever wanted to smack things with your iron fists: now you can! Enjoy! PS: this should also work with Shifter's natural weapons - but they are not different from the other spiritshift weapons which you can also get with the help of Draining Touch. I have not yet found other summoned weapons/creature weapons yet but maybe there's more. Form of the Helpless Beast maybe? LOL! PPS: those fists are considered weapons, not "unarmed". There's no proficiency/modal for them. PPPS: the AoE in the screenshot is from my char's Carnage - it's no property of the fists themselves.

One might note that you can also get Blightheart relatively early, around lvl 8 or so, after you first visit Neketaka. With Sasha's Singing Scimitar and Blightheart you can have loads of fun empowering invocations and spells and getting phrases quickly restored for most of the game. Then the expansion items are icing on an already very nice cake.

Good riddance.

Last day before I'm off for 12 days or so. Fun week off of decluttering ahead.

WoT Ep7 TLDR; it was alright. Main problem, like much of the show, is that it should be better than it is and it's very uneven. Expanse s6e02 TLDR; another perfectly decent episode. Only criticism is that it does feel rushed and a bit linear, but with only 6 episodes I can't see how that's avoidable. Guess the positive alternative take is that they're culling the fat.

Helpful hint: That is merely because it isn't. Terrible line timing is really smoothed over because there's not enough time to notice it. Playback at twice the speed also adds the soap opera high frames per second effect to Discovery, which makes everything look cheap, and that's actually really helpful, because these half CGI, half terrible sound stage sets that look like leftovers from a mid 90ies FMV video game shoot aren't standing out so much any more.

And about Thick Grew Their Tongues, I found a way to always crit (when at less hit) with that (and some others spells). I will write about that tomorrow I think.

I got G's christmas present today. Well, her big present anyway. This lady buys nothing for herself. She is still using a iPhone 5 with a cracked screen. It's a HSDPA phone. 3G. Her service provider is shutting down HSDPA next year and she uses that broken old phone for everything. Well, it's time she joined the the third decade of the 20th century. She is getting a new 5G capable iPhone 13 and an new iPad Air to go with it. I also got her a customized and matching case for each. I wanted to get a gift for B also but was really at a loss on what. Her whole life revolves around school. I ended up getting her a gift card from the place she likes for clothes. And I also got both of them a day at a spa in town call the Salt Room. It's a full service kind of place, hair, nails, skin all that good stuff. I don't think they have done anything like that together in a long time. If ever. I got myself a new phone and new plan to go with it. Long past time. I still have my same number from Florida all those years ago.

This is really nice because anyone (in particular casters) can very easily get an extendable Strong from Frenzy (Lover's Quarel) on Lover's Embrace, right at the beginning of a fight. Then do a couple weapon switches and you're instantly Energized! And all your pulsing AoEs will interrupt on crit, on top of getting +2 PEN. This is amazing.

I think there's a distinction between "being damaged by a hit roll" and "being damaged" in general. Also stuff like Dance of Death doesn't stop from self damage or DoT ticks - only when damaged via a sucessful hit roll.

Most of it is only available (very) late in the game (Unstable Coil, Weyc's items, Storm of Holy Fire, Her Tears Fallig Like Rain etc.) but the class combo already works very well on the way there - because you can get Sasha's Singing Scimitar quite early (if you have the cash) and can enchant it with Refreshing Finale soon afterwards (if you have collected the right ingredients and again have enough cash). As soon as you have that sabre + enchantment you can start with empower 1/encounter. As soon as you get "Her Revenge" then you can also empower Priest spells 1/encounter and use the "Her Revenge" invocation to regain all the spend empower points (I mean all of them) so that the Empower mechanic becomes a per-encounter event not only for invocatios (as was to be expected with Refreshing Finale) but for Priest spells as well. And as I said you can even empower twice per fight if you use seal spells. The (most) Unstable Coil can be obtained earlier than the Weyc's items (still kind of late but earlier). After you get that your Priest side will increase in power even more - because with the Coil and the empowerment of Her Revenge (and later other invocations or spells that function the same way: counting as multiple empowered spells for the Coil, giving you all tier-3-inpirations most likely) you will gecome Brilliant (and Energized and Curageous etc.). Being Brilliat as a Priest means you can cast Salvation of Time over and over to again prolong Brilliant. Brilliat gives you back those SoT casts... This gives you unlimited Priest spells. Later (very late) the Weyc stuff puts the cherry on top the empowerment cake. So - it's not only a nice combo very late in the game but is also nice to play on the way there.

I don't know what species it is, but I am 100% certain it has a vulnerability to fire. So...

The bellower works well with a priest/wizard who can prolong every buff (the +5 PL buff of the bellower included) for the entire fight (using SoT/WoD). The priest has a slight advantage because of better buffs, Barring Death Door and also because SoT is easier to use. Sasha's Singing Scimitar (with Refreshing Finale enchantment) allows to use Empower every fight on Her Tears Fell Like Rain. Empower will trigger the enchantments from the Robes of the Weyc (Muse of Mistery, Omnipotence), Weyc's Wand (Attuned Channel, Follower of the Obscured) and the Least Unstable Coil (all tier 3 inspirations if Her Tears.. hits 6 enemies). Then all those buffs can be instantly prolonged using SoT/WoD for the entire fight which won't last very long. After the first cast of Her Tears... you switch from Sasha's + Weyc's Wand to Blightheart and all the kills (combined with Muse of Mistery and Brilliant) will restore the phrases very fast allowing you to spam Her Tears... (or alternate with Storm of Holy Fire if needed).

Nice find/testing about Obfuscation! Shadow Form prolonged by SoF is a known tool for sneaking around particularly for The Ultimate. Personally I like it on a solo Char with very strong single target DMG because it can turn you into a mini Assassin: you can start encounter > obliterate an enemy > turn invisible and run away > reset encounter > repeat. Can help you punch above your level in terms of doing the bounties. Obfuscation/Eye of Wael seems more useful, but is more of a pain to use practically. But if you want to permanently extend it on a Summoner with SoF, it's very good indeed. Like a SC Beckoner who can purely rely on summons to get things done. (yay, 8xmini animated weapons with 2xFoD, 2xarcane assault, 2xknockdown, and 2xwounding shots). That said, if you want to summon in peace at the beginning of a rough fight without getting completely wrecked (e.g. when doing something like Trial of the Nagas in SSS where half the map rushes to murder you with certain enemies at 150 ACC and all have Interrupt, Enfeeble etc...) then you can just gulp a potion of invisibility right at the beginning > summon > gulp another potion and do something impactful. etc. With the right sequence, timing, placement, it works. and no need for SoF.

In fact, the buff triggers upon starting the invocation cast. This has a perverse effect where if your intellect and dexterity are a little low, it is actually possible that the buff wears off before you can even benefit from it on slow-cast invocations. And, as I think mentioned before, the Eld Nary upgrade will most likely see only minimal benefit because the spell effect is so slow compared to the duration of the PL increase. It's a weird implementation of the effect to be sure. It does mean if you play turn-based mode, SC bellower is much better than RTWP. SC bellower using the upgraded Eld Nary in turn-based mode is guaranteed to complete the spell before their PL buff disappears, which would probably be akin to opening a fight with a spell like Greater Maelstrom in how much of an advantage it would get you in the first round.

It be Thor's day, and therefore... time to get hit by lightning, and not in the good way. On the bright side, I recently developed a new superpower, and that's helpfully turning playback speed to 2x where I can still get what's going on, but the torture is lessened so much. It's not like there's any artistic vision behind this. If @AlexKurtzman is offended when he reads my post (lmao), hey, you offend me each week, so shoo off. Star Dreck: Whatever, episode something, season one too many. Burnham crying counter now 1:4. Not sure if it was watching at twice the speed, but this one wasn't nearly as terrible as the others in the season. Now, add some proper pacing and a bit more of show, don't tell and you'll actually end up with a watchable episode. Also, come up with something else than a new character that's essentially a McKay expy. This wasn't a great episode by any means, but at least it didn't make me want to pull my hair out. Each season so far had one or two of these, so that continues a trend of a sort.

These are important considerations. However, with a couple of chanters you can flood the battlefield with summons, mitigating the -5 acc/-1 pen problem. And it's even easier to mitigate the flanking problem. You can either acquire one of the gear items that make you immune to being flanked, or you can just use luminous lobster, captain's banquet or svef to make you immune to the lowest tier of mind afflictions. Getting immunity to flanked or low level mind afflictions is pretty much a requirement for any tactician build, with the exception of those that want to make creative use of the confused affliction.

I have heard same promises thousand times already. Any game, which wants to use my computer as a mining rig can go duck itself...

and one more. HA! Good Fun!

Cat that has trained an entire apt. complex to do its bidding.

Actually I try without succes to cast on myself this form to get (maybe) the Citzal armor!

And Slicken!

Yes but they count as an attack. Stuffs like pure DoT spells are Status effects, not really the same.

This has to warrant a build . I really like this new way of getting Energized for anyone super easily. Before I would use Resounding Call + Slayer's Claw, but I personally don't often go into the Vault in the Bardatto/Valera quest so I often miss out on this possibility later. Now you don't have to. Sorcerer might officially become the best interrupter in the game. Sure a Troubadour with "Thick Grew Their Tongue" is awesome but... layers upon layers of Chill Fogs, Wicked Briars, Malignant Cloud, Venombloom, Freezing Pillar, Wall of Draining (!) plus Returning and Relentless Storm..!

A Darcozzy Troubadour who do nothing else that casting Each kill... and Set to their purpose and switching between Sasha smitar/ Lethandria's Devotion and Slayer's Claw/Outworn Buckler when permanently chanting Their Tongue + zealous aura (chants are not interrupted by weapon's switchs) is awesome as Epileptic offtank Protector !

I think this is also why Unbending doesn't proc from things like Berserker frenzy, DAoM etc. it only procs from incoming attack damage. But I don't think it's about having a hit roll or not, because AFAIK Thrust of Tattered Veil, Minor Missiles or a Grub's Crush attack will trigger Unbending and they're unerring - they don't have a roll.

Yes, Outworn Buckler is another great option for switching. You can also put LDevotion and OBuckler in weapon set 1 and 2 and switch back and forth to get healed AND reduce hostile effects - each at half the rate as if you would use a copy - but still incredibly fast because switching (with AI) happens multiple times per second. I haven't found any other items so far that can be used in a similar fashion. Cool that Slayer's Claw works - that wasn't on my list.

Learning to cheat [editor's note: not applicable to personal relationships] is an important skill for life in general...but especially for getting past these TERRIBLE SHOWS more quickly! Carried by the Wind: Samurai Ran, episode 11...the episode in which Ran, a samurai, basically says and proves that all the trappings of samurai and their pride and honor are all stupid. Episode 12, the episode in which Myao accidentally becomes a wanted criminal as a result of trying to help out some people who were getting murdered for their dishware...and also learns to use her "womanly wiles" to get out of deadly situations in which she can't solve with her claws...er, fists. Final episode 13...the episode which is the final episode of a too short show, . I don't know what Ran is eating on the right there, but it sure looks like unappetizing mucky filth. Myao calls it "lees" and basically says it's about as close to garbage as you can buy, but a quick Google search didn't turn up anything relevant. Wait, no, apparently I just needed to add "Japanese" to my search. Of course it's a byproduct of sake, why wouldn't it be? Surprisingly enjoyable and good show - these two dolts were great. Now that I've watched the silly and fun samurai show, I can finally get back to the dark and depressing but also still fun samurai show, Samurai Hairdo.

it came out september, so it's relatively new, but the depth and amount of bugs is still quite astonishing, especially if you want to be mean and compare it to where deadfire was four months out. some critical class features are completely nonfunctional, a lot of feat interactions work incorrectly, allegedly act v is a mess and obviously they ran out of time to QA it (i'm not that far in so can't speak personally). personally speaking i also had a lot of crash bugs early on before finding a sweet spot for graphics settings. (also, the dumbest bug i personally found and reported - i could not rebind the "W" key. Only that key. All other keys on the keyboard I could rebind.) edit - some of this stuff would be much less of a big deal if being able to respec your character (to get around surprising bugs) didn't automatically knocked your difficulty into "custom mode" which, unlike p:k, irrevocably locks you out for the current adventure from achievements. more back on topic, meteor swarm certainly kicks butt but my problem is that its range is *very* limited compared to its area, which poses more problems for me in most situations. missile salvo is very easy to deal with.

Edit: And yes, I know that isn't actually the fully correct story, but the focus is on the picture..