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Just finished my ultimate run. Nearly wiped in Ukaizo of all places because I forgot about the auto-rest and rushed into battle, quickly got smacked with some nasty debuffs and injuries, etc. Lost my resolve inspiration despite wearing Cap of the Laughingstock + Mirror Image up, also... Will be a while before youtube finishes processing the videos. Also don't know if anyone cares about ultimate runs anymore, but I just recently got into this game and I wanted to do it and I did it.

Back to work tomorrow. Checked my email and team clicked on for a week without me around. Guess I am redundant

Same as Austria (reading the post by@majestic). We "celebrate" on the 24th, kill our cardiovascular systems and livers on the 25th and nurse the hangovers on the 26th

A friend of mine is a very popular artist over here. At one of his gigs, someone from the audience shouted "Play something old!", as nostalgic fans are wont to do. Well, he looked at his bass player, gave a knowing wink, and off they went and played some Bach for a minute or two. Can't say that they didn't fulfill the request. Also, better late than never:

I've been playing an MMO called Zwift. Bit of a weird game, I joined a group and finished the session drenched in sweat. I reached level 4 and unlocked a helmet though, so that was nice. I am using the Zwift Hub Trainer in my garage. Perfect for a rainy day.

Confirms you are not a Russian at least.

hah, serves me right for being a smart arse while not checking. To be finicky, not much Ukrainian Orthodox presence at Christmas time, in Russia, though. Both the Ukrainian Orthodox churches still use Gregorian, at the moment. UOC allows services on Dec 25th though, as of this year.

Just in case Cap of the Laughing Stock only worked with summons or duplicates, I altered my script to keep up mirror image at all times. I STILL lost my courageous inspiration in the fight with Guardian of Ukaizo. Pretty sure wasn't from the auto rest because brilliant/energized were still up and in general time-based buffs I've extended to near infinity through cheese survive rests. Also in the video I cast psychovampiric shield but "steadfast" didn't pop up, meaning another buff was already up when cast. Think it was an attack called "Corrosive Strike" which happens at 1:26:15 and also kills Energized and Aware. I didn't see the red --Courageous-- but the next time I cast psychovampiric shield at 1:26:39 it did say "steadfast" so I had no resolve up and never saw a red --steadfast-- either. The script I wrote also keeps up psychovampiric shield at all times. I screwed up that battle pretty badly. Closest I came in the run to dying. Only did that fight once before, because on the parallel run I forgot I had "no forced rests" mod up and the battle seemed easy, so I didn't bother practicing it. So I started with my stats lower than they were normally, no dawnstar's blessing etc or any other rest buff (didn't realize I'd been forced to rest until already started the fight), decided to let the script handle the fight and it focused mostly on the adra animats and just let the guardian attack me. Normally my defenses and healing are so high it doesn't really matter. Also should have worn Effigy's Husk. Wore Magnera's Chain which is my default because of the +10 fort/will (and reflex, but who cares about reflex). So losing Energized was bad for multiple reasons, no longer interrupted the Guardian and lost the +2 pen so was underpenetrating. Had no source of might in my hands. The "Obliterate Essence" attack apparently hits several times, and although one missed and I resisted one I still got maimed (and proned, I think). Anyway. I eventually prevailed. Got hit with an arcane dampener during trivial fight with RDC though. Only one that hit me the whole run I think lol. My script cleared it pretty fast so was fine. Have lethandria's devotion in slot 1, outworn buckler in slot 2, squid's grasp and xoti's lantern in slot 3, script auto shuffles slot 1 and slot 2 if I lose all my inspirations at once and have no summoned weapon (which generally only happens from arcane dampener). Would have been pretty nasty to lose an ultimate run on Ukaizo... Pretty long run by comparison to most, 47 hours and 75 in-game days. I went out of my way to kill things and do quests I didn't have to, didn't take the best pathing etc. Youtube still processing videos. Guess I'll submit it to Obsidian when that finishes (assuming they still veryify ultimate runs), then post a build guide. Will be my first, you've done what, like 100? lol. Was pretty fun but kinda stressful. The worst part about an ultimate run is probably having to video everything. Worst Magran's fire challenge is Wael. Definitely Wael. I mean not the hardest but the most annoying. Can't tell how much money you have, your defenses etc., makes combat log very hard to read doing ? damage and combined with Magran almost impossible. Hardest trial is Hylea, though after you get used to taking care of Vela it isn't that bad. Woedica/Eothas combination also pretty bad, and combined with Hylea really limits class selection. EDIT: Figured out where I lost courageous, was in the Fonferrus encounter. Lucia Rivan has some kind of aura that isn't shown in the combat log but when she walked toward me I saw the red --courageous--. I didn't notice it at the time because I was busy casting withdraw on Vela. I didn't have mirror image up yet. Lucia immediately charged me. My buff routine is pretty fast (.2 second casts, like third cast) but wasn't fast enough here. So pretty sure Cap of the Laughingstock does not apply the deflection debuff or resolve immunity unless you have some kind of duplicate up (which includes mirror image). Should maybe move mirror image to be first thing to cast, before deleterious. At least for that encounter. Alternatively if I could figure out how to script casting withdraw on vela this wouldn't happen either, but I have to do it manually which is not very efficient. I've tried casting withdraw on ally but she isn't considered an ally apparently... AND the reason I didn't see STEADFAST when I cast psychovampiric shield in the Guardian encounter was because it missed, which is rather rare, but I had just lost nature's resolve, konstanten's boon, alchemic guile, etc.. I tried casting psychovampiric shield any time I don't have a resolve inspiration with no cooldown but sometimes it targets destructibles repeatedly and other weird behavior, plus rapidly draining focus (not that this matters this late in the game), so I put in a delay between casts. Oh well, one mystery solved. Still pretty sure Effigy's Husk does not always work but it didn't fail me in this run.

sorta. the crusade feature has timers. let the ai do crusade and you have no problems. however, if you lead the crusade, then it is possible to capture a fort too early, 'cause is no other forts to capture and you need capture an enemy fort every thirty days or begin taking a morale penalty. is also possible, though less likely, to beat all enemy armies in act two before you has finished all world map content. gotta beat a new army every four days or you begin losing morale. defeat all enemies too quick and is no way to stave off morale loss. act v, if you choose to do the ascension route, has a particular annoying timer. you functional need to advance the calendar many months to a specific date which may result in a catastrophic hit to your army morale even if you has literal beaten every fixed demon army in your stretch o' the worldwound. annoying? it is an owlcat game, so... HA! Good Fun!

I miss being redundant...

Got Chaos Gate Daemonhunters for Christmas. Strange that some rando cultist with a stubber is that dangerous to a Grey Knight. Janky cutscenes and voice acting, but that was to be expected.

Nah, here that only applies if it's bad news for your team.

...and head to the gym, completely committed, on January 2nd. (Supposedly. I'm guessing a bit here.) Dang, if only it was possible to bet against other people's New Year's Resolutions. There'd be some serious easy money in that.

I largely didn't give about the mystery in Dark, I ain't gonna give about the mystery in a show that's a complete stylistic clone of Dark. All the characters who are belligerent and crappy to each other, the long pauses and vacant looks they give each other before they deliberately withhold information or lie to each other ad nauseum, the same annoying musical cues, THE BIG MYSTERY (which is probably simple in the overall idea but ultra-convoluted in execution)...come on, I already watched this show and more importantly, I didn't care for it, so I'm not watching it again. If someone here watches 1899 and likes it but you haven't seen Dark, go watch it, it's the same thing. Now, as has been well-documented, I don't really usually care for THE BIG MYSTERY in shows/movies/games/books, but I click on a crappy looking teen drama show... ...and the very first scene is of the same character having apparently recently bathed head to toe in someone else's blood while running on the streets. Now that's a mystery I'm curious to learn more about.

These days it probably needs to be specified as Russian Orthodox as Ukraine's Orthodox church moved to use Gregorian calendar and had their Christmas already

Indeed, we're also giving all the presents on the 24th. The other two days are mostly for family meetings and feasting.

Gorth is right, it's Jan 7th.

My Serbian friends are doing it all wrong then They (always) celebrate Christmas on the 7th of January. Dang heretics!

I guess it shows my age when I think of this as "new" music...

1899, episode 1: it's Dark but on a boat, or rather two boats into the trash it goes

The library resolves much differently if you don't do it before the tavern gets attacked, and maybe visiting Daeran's mansion will play differently if you wait. I'd go ahead and do those before the tower if possible. That random encounter is forced so unless you rest for three days at the market, you're doing it. If you do the Tower quest before the attack you get time added to the timer. But it's a hard fight unless you can pass a couple of checks, so much so the game advises you to wait. I like them when done well, but I think this timed event has too many things that can blow up if you don't deal with them first. One could say that the things you should do before and the things it doesn't matter if you do before should be more......balanced.

Doing the last minute prep and checking that dad's going to be good while I'm away, before getting up early manana and heading to the airport. Here's hoping no strange weather keeps hitting San Diego. I really don't want an 11 hour flight being diverted while friends are waiting. I saw a lot of that was happening at the weekend for folks traveling there. Still, y'all have fun as the New Year approaches.

Off for a run in what I hope is not the forecasted freezing rain event! Then ending the day with welcoming a friend who is one of the few people I know whose flight has not been knackered!

Indeed, sometimes it's really difficult to tell whether these guys are basically trolling the world or whether they're actually serious. Here's a clergyman giving everyone an extremely important message, definitely worth checking out. Never once does it seem to occur to this fellow that one actually does not have to choose between two kinds of idiotic deaths -- and that it is entirely possible to live a life that doesn't end in either. The contrast between the rather beautiful backdrop and the drivel this guy is spouting is also pretty good: sometime in the past there has been a culture worth recognizing, but right now there's this fellow representing it. Way to go, guys.

Same thing happens

So bald old baboon commissioned nine rings as presents for CIS leaders and his precioussssss self, and again I'm thinking there's a creative and very bold saboteur in Kremlin's PR team.

U.S. Dept. of Energy Plasma Discovery Unravels Odd Solar Phenomenon, Offers Clues to Cosmic Mysteries - The Debrief

The list is getting quite long. Though, of course, all of those deaths are just accidental and in no way connected to the war effort.

Christmastime in Russia. This is a bit like the fires: given the kind of country Russia is, is this an indication of something, or is this business as usual? I don't know.

You naughty Well the weapon bond isn't bad per se, but generally the mount seems to be better because you get better movement and a tank (and more carrying capacity), plus a bug allows you to make full attacks when your mount moves (though this may have been fixed, TTT fixes it by gating it behind a feat that requires 14 mobility, which is pnp accurate). You may also be able to trick the game by using reduce person on yourself before getting the mount and being able to select the wolf or dog instead of the horse, which have more impressive stats but take until you hit level 7 to be able to mount. You may not be able to enlarge the non-horse mounts though, I think TTT fixes that but the vanilla game counts the size increase as a permanent buff that doesn't stack with spells. Yeah, the TTT mod adds a couple of things to help Heavy Armor characters, you go full 20 Fighter and spend 2 Mythic Abilities and you'll get a whopping +11 AC and +14 to the Dex Cap, but that takes a lot longer to come online than a monk dip and has a much higher cost. If you're not a Fighter you can still get +6 AC/+10 Dex cap for two Mythic Abilities....but there are more appealing choices there. It is broken, but you know another way to phrase broken? Unbalanced.

Hilor is always present once you reach Defender's Heart (first at the tavern, then at your crusade camp, later in the cites), and as far as I know there's a certain amount of free respecs you get before he starts charging.

also gonna make the obvious observation that the cost for a human to increase charisma from 19 to 20 is 4 points. math suggests is best for a human to start at 19 charisma as 'posed to 20 but such a choice is most certainly not make or break. one o' the things poe developers addressed were the asinine even v. odd number aspect o' attribute benefits. even v. odd attributes is a silly concern one needs make in wotr. have mentioned previous how greatswords is... fine. is not anywhere near the best or worst weapon choice. am assuming a paladin is taking leader background in part for the greatsword bonus, 'cause two-handed weapons is typical better unless you dual-wield and a 10 dex paladin is most obvious not gonna be dual wielding. regardless, greatswords is hardly a best choice but is more than good enough for core or lower difficulties. however, is worth noting there is only a couple decent greatsword choices in the game, and particular since finnean has been nerfed/fixed, it means that in a game spanning many tens of hours o' gameplay, you is only gonna have a couple greatsword drops which is noteworthy. the paucity o' great greatswords won't make game unplayable or too difficult, but w/o meta is ez to miss the one decent act 3 greatsword. miss the holy greatsword and is gonna feel like you are underperforming based on nothing save fact you made a "bad" level 1 choice. aside, pickpocket is kinda the obvious win background for most builds particular if you play turn-based or higher difficulties. initiative is all too often underappreciated. warrior of the holy light loses spell casting. maybe doesn't sound like a big deal, but paladins get some very powerful buffs. is a serious penalty which may not be obvious at first glance. on core, a heavy armour tank is viable. our first run had a sword & board seelah as a tank and we managed just fine. the holy avenger is a nice weapon and it is gonna be useful the entire game. is also a couple o' shields which is providing extreme useful benefits beyond their ac increase functionality; chances are you are gonna want somebody in your party capable o' wielding at least heavy shields. seelah is the obvious companion for the role. if your main is a paladin and you don't bring seelah along, then is worth considering going sword and board + heavy armour, 'cause none o' the companions is an obvious sword and board choice. some o' the most challenging content is early, so is worth considering taking a level o' sohei, gendarme, oracle or whatever to acquire your mount as early as possible. with one level o' sohei, you may choose the spirited charge mounted feat which will double your weapon damage on a charge and you will maintain max bab... but that will mean your mark of justice comes one level later. regardless, the easiest way to flatten the difficulty curve sans moving the difficulty slider is with animal companions. HA! Good Fun!

It's a problem of scaling. Take your paladin there, for instance. If you slap one of the heaviest armors on him that you can find, you'll get +15 or something AC. Sounds nice, yes? If you take the character you made, add a level of Scaled Fist Monk [CHA to AC, when not wearing armor] and Oracle with Nature's Whispers [CHA bonus works as DEX bonus] and remove the armor, you're now at +10. Essentially, you're starting the game with an Adamantine Full Plate, and the Paladin abilities provide a really nice saving throw bonus. You're wearing your charisma as armor, basically. Your AC is 10 + 2 * CHA-Bonus, and if you spend all your points in charisma and add a +6 item you're looking at 30 CHA (or 32, with a Kindred Half-Elf) without any buffs or other abilities, giving you +20/22 AC, and your smites a +10/+11 to hit against pretty much every enemy in the game that warrants it. There's no armor speed penality on your character, no armor penalty for skill checks and it leaves you open to add other sources of "armor" - like Bracers of Protection or the best option there probably is, the Archmage Armor mythical ability that adds your mythic level (goes up to 10 over the course of the game) to Mage Armor, which adds +14 over the long run and although you're not spending a whole lot of time at Mythic 10, but you're getting to +7 or +8 AC out of that ability rather quickly. Any character can procc Archmage Armor as long as they're the source of Mage Armor, so potions work for everyone. On the other hand, you can just have Lann turn into a Divine Hunter and have a leopard pet, that starts out with 31 AC and can last you for a while. Arguably the entire game on Core if you buff the pet well enough, and here's a tip: treat your pets as well as your characters, they'll be really helpful. But, actually, that's not even what I meant, although it is a part of it. Core was not designed to be played like this: You don't need to go all the way and break the game in every way possible like you would if you wanted to do a full unfair run - like the CHA/AC scaling which you could do simply because it's easy and convenient and you have the charisma for it anyway - but you should have a more than decent idea what you can and cannot do in the game. Play around until you get a feeling for what you want to do. Drop back to normal when the going gets too tough. Enjoy the game. Nobody's going to laugh at you for not playing on Core. Paladins get two different mount choices: horses, and black horses, but that is not bad, horses are good because you can still ride them when enlarged, provided you and your mount are enlarged by the same size factor. PARANTHESES ARE DEATH.

Oh? That's interesting. I don't know, can I get a dragon instead? I didn't plan a build, I'm just winging it. Don't even know at which level I get to pick. If I get stuck at some point, I'll redo it I guess, but I haven't come across a fight I could savescum yet. Also the way I play these games I'm usually way overleveled for the main story. Still suggestions are welcomed.

I also just picked up this game on sale and plan on playing it over the break.

I spoiled the story already, but I do not play it for the story mostly. I even put it on core difficulty so people don't make fun of me here. edit: My character sheet

From the point you are at it only gets better and better. I keep waiting for the second part of the manga to hit its stride.

But what about the mystery ? Surly you must agree it is super exciting !

Maxwell Fraser/Maxi Jazz. Guess he'll finally get that sleep. Man, feels weird when people from one's childhood start dying.

I guess that'll ever be the Enigma.