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Nice going at the stock markets, good thing I dumped my tech investments a month ago. I thought I was playing it super safe by leaving this early, but apparently not. Hindsight says nigh perfect timing.

Finished the Lost Valley in Solasta. Did not expect the plot twist. Sided with the people and failed the actual job your party is originally hired to do. Had fun.

Seems likely the ideas came from computing*. They are, after all, all run through/ implemented by computers. Along with ubiquitous internet- though the idea of having to buy a dongle to stick on your M series to get its indicators working is kind of amusing. No doubt it would have happened anyway, but the blueprint is all based on software licensing because at heart that's what it is. *As an example, Steam. Gateway app that is hugely popular for being a gateway app, and people happily/ proudly give 30% of their cash to Valve for- most of the time- doing pretty much nothing. Which company wouldn't want to add 30% to revenue for doing nothing while being potentially thanked for it?

It would be a precedent. There is very little practical difference to requiring your BMW or Tesla to have an online connection for their seat heaters or requiring your game to be always online. I wouldn't call Conan Exiles triple A, but they sure as **** changed it to not support private local servers anymore (Unless they walked that **** back once I dropped my interest). Vermintide and Elite Dangerous also comes to mind.

I should buy some Intel stock.

Well, it's not gonna release on Xbox One anymore, I think? Speaking of which, for a game that's so close to release... I personally still have no idea what it's actually like. Except that it's gonna be another action RPG power fantasy set in the same universe as that piratey CRPG nobody has ever played. Except me. Btw, if companies can learn something from Larian, it's that they're good salesmen. And I don't mean that in an ironic way. The entire tagline of their campaign was, without spelling it out: "Do whatever silly you like. And share it for all world to see." Be that casting fireballs into goblins with your friends. Stacking crates to get into places we never imagined you to. Or... getting humped by a bear. Which all naturally fit nicely into that whole tabletop/D&D thing. (Anybody simply copying that bear stunt would completely miss the context of it all).

Well, I have half of the shrine already behind me, and From definitely placed the caster mobs in much more annoying way. I have not needed to use the Crossbow that much, as in Vanilla, just on very few mobs, I was able to melee down most of them with no issue. In Vanilla, I simply had no chance to get through the area without spending to much time sniping them.

Barbarian in PoE starts of... weak I must say. The main reason is the relatively poor accuracy (especially for Carnage) and the bad deflection which makes him squishy. At lower levels the impact of his big endurance/health pool cannot realy be felt and he cannot really make up for it because he misses or grazes often with Carnage. Fortunately Carnage counts as an active ability und thus gains accuracy with every level - up to the point where your Carnage has better accuracy than your normal attacks. And with a few levels and more endurance and health he doesn' feel as squishy anymore, especially if you give him decent CON. So do not get discuraged if he feels a bit meh at first, it will get much better. In the beginning it can help to give him a single weapon (+12 ACC) - the impact of the added accuracy is highest in the early game. Later you don't need that anymore. If he feels too weak and gets knocked out a lot another alternative is to give him a pike or quarterstaff. The most fun I had with a Firebrand Barbarian (no need to go Fire Godlike, was mainly for the fire theme): All weapons which have an "on hit" or "on crit" effect are good though. Also ones with "speed" because they let you reach 0 recovery time fairly quickly in combination with Frenzy (and Bloodlust and maybe dual wielding + two handed style).

Obligatory link to the Epic NPC Man Breastplate video:

"Let's go to the Golden Dragon and ask for protection." "Why should we go to a fancy exotic restaurant? How are they supposed to... Ahhh - THAT Golden Dragon! Right!" - Two shop owners who got bullied by thugs - Menu of the day: Appetizer: a fresh shout served with an echo First course: fiercest barbarian yelly Main course: sliced heart of fury with a taste of hunt Dessert: sweet minor fatigue, served with a bit of anger - Menu card of The Golden Dragon - The Golden Dragon is the wild, unconventional, but also posh counterpart to a usual bodyguard – distinguished by his frightening and threatening presense and his recklessness and his predilection to substitute raw aggression for discipline, but also by his showy style and his bravado. Lacking the accuracy and strong deflection of a fighter, the Golden Dragon makes up for this through intimidation, savagery and abilities tailored for repelling groups of enemies. The Golden Dragon is a challenge to deal with on a battlefield, though he is vulnerable if his nice shiny armor gets splattered with gore too much. The Golden Dragon loves to show off and uses illeism - usually referring to himself as "The Golden Dragon". Some say this man wasn't even born, but created by two animancers who realized their ideas of a perfect bodyguard... =================================== The Golden Dragon =================================== Difficulty: PotD v. 3.03 -------------------------------------------------------------- Class: Barbarian -------------------------------------------------------------- Race: Pale Elf -------------------------------------------------------------- Background: Old Vailia - Colonist -------------------------------------------------------------- Stats (character creation): MIG: 18 CON: 03 DEX: 04 PER: 16 INT: 19 RES: 18 -------------------------------------------------------------- Skills: Stealth 0, Athl. 4, Lore 6, Mech. 0, Surv. 14 -------------------------------------------------------------- Abilities (a=auto, r=recommended, !=important) Elemental Endurance (a) Barbaric Yell (!) Heart of Fury (!) Threatening Presence One Stands Alone ® Dragon Leap (!) Savage Defiance (!) Thick-Skinned Echoing Shout ® Talents Veteran's Recovery (!) Weapon & Shield Style (!) Stalwart Defiance ® Superior Deflection ® Spirit of Decay Weapon Focus: Ruffian Accurate Carnage Bear's Fortitude ® --------------------------------------------------------------- Items (*=additional echantments by me; !=important, r=recommended): Weapon set 1: Bittercut (*legendary, *corrosive lash, *durgan refined) & Dragon's Maw Weapon Set 2: Captain Viccolo's Anger (*corrosive lash) & Little Savior Boots: Fenwalkers Head: Liripipe of Thinking Armor: The Golden Scales (*Durgan Reinforced) Neck: Cloak of Comfort Belt: Binding Rope Rings: Ring of Deflection, Ring of Protection Hands: Siegebreaker Gauntlets Quick slots: stuff ----------------------------------------------------------------- First of all - the basic idea for this build popped out of Jojobobo's head in a threat about barb tanks some months ago. We discussed some things and afte a while agreed that I would post the build (if it's viable) while he wanted to follow some different build ideas in detail (look at his Silver flash chanter build!). So, thanks Jojobobo for all the input! Your ideas proved to be very viable: this was the best main tank I ever played so far. Some people may know that I absolutely loath those pure tanks who can only soak damage and do nothing else - well, this is not one of those. Thanks to Heart of Fury and Bittercut, ombined with certain bashing shields, this "tank" did TWICE as much damage as my dps wizard in the same party - while being VERY sturdy even with dumped CON (more on that later). The main idea of this build is not only to stack defenses, but also to debuff enemies' ACC values. This not only helps our barbarian to tank better, but it's also benefical for our whole party's survival. Although he's slow, he should also be able to dish out good damage per hit. This is important for carnage and esp. later for HoF (attack speed doesn't matter there). When thinking about lowering enemies' ACC, things like dazing (-10 ACC and also -2 PER which leads to -12 ACC overall), frightened (-10 ACC) and so on come to mind. A barbarian can lower enemies' ACC in an AoE with abilities like shouts & leap, via items with auras, via spell binding or scrolls and also via carnage: ACC debuffing abilities: - Barbarian Yell frightens in a faily big AoE (-10 ACC) - Barbarian Shout terrifies in a really huge AoE (-20 ACC) - Dragon Leap dazes in an AoE which size is comparable to carnage's (-12 ACC) - Echoing Shout dazes in a ridiculously long AoE line (-12 ACC) - Threatening Presence causes sickened in a quite small AoE when you don't move. PER gets reduced. (-1 ACC) ACC debuffing via carnage: - Glittering Gauntlets daze on hit (-10 ACC) - Captain Viccolo's Anger causes Minor Fatigue on hit (-10 ACC) - Lost Thayn's Reach causes interfering on hit (-5 ACC) ACC debuffing via aura: - Executioner's Hood's Intimidating Presence causes frightened in a quite small AoE and has reduced ACC (-10 ACC) - Redfield's Harbinger aura causes -3 ACC in a quite small AoE (-3 ACC) ACC debuffing via spells/scrolls: - Elryn's Jacket has a spell chance of Eyestrike that blinds (-29 ACC) - Stuck via Binding Web or Binding Rope (-5 ACC) - Forgotten Tear of the Beloved has a daze spell chance (-10 ACC) Maybe I forgot something. Of course you could also use a weapon with overbearig or stun to lower enemies ACC to 0 if you crit - because disabled foes can't hit you. Based on this, I developed the barb you see above. Of course not all the things I mentioned above stack. So I tried to develop a char which isn't too micro-intense, can stack a good amount of ACC debuffs without too much fuzz, who is sturdy and - maybe most important - looks nice. At the same time there are only two bashing shields that are good with carnage & HoF: Badgradr's Barricade and Dragon's Maw. This limits the style options significantly I'd say. Here you see the outcomings. Let's talk about how I do encounters with him at lvl 16: 1.: The barb enters combat and then casts Echoing Shout, prefarably if a priest buffed his ACC. Enemies who run towards him get damaged and dazed: -12 ACC. 2.: The barb casts Stalwart Defiance - I know, why start healing right from the start? Well, because it also gives you +10 to all defenses and the start of the combat usually is the time where a main tank needs defenses the most. Think about the opening salves of Lagufaeth, wizards and stuff. His defeses are now +10. 3.: Then he yells his finest yell and causes frighten all around him in a big AoE. Best thing, again, would be to yell after your ACC got buffed by a fellow priest or so. The enemies' ACC is debuffed by additional 10 points. 3.: He jumps into the place with Dreagon Leap where he will hit most enemies with his HoF. If there were enemies without dazing, now they usually are dazed and even more damaged. 4.: He triggers HoF with Bittercut + Dragon's Maw, dealing tons of damage with the high dmage of bittercut and Taste of the Hunt from Dragon's Maw, not only diond raw damage but also completely healing (if even neccessary). Most of the time this means death for all enemies in range. It's awesome. 5.: If enemnies survived, he switches to "full tank mode" with Captein Viccolo's Anger & Little Savior and causes Minor Fatigue via carnage while buffing his and fellows' defenses via herald enchantment: -10 ACC of enemies, +5 to all our defenses, add. +5 to deflection. If you want, you can take Brbaric Shout, too. It#s a very strong debuff and totally fits the theme, I also had it for some time. But I realized I seldomly used it because usually the yell was enough. It doesn't stack with frightened and is per rest - so thought I'd take something else instead. All the debuffs and defense buffs stack, meaning we will have the equivalent of up to +47 points to all defenses - on top of your already great deflection and other defenses (which are balanced). This can be buffed further by any deflection or defense buff: the things the barb does stack with everything which is a great plus. So, for example a Circle of Defense would lead to +62 to all defenses (if you add up ACC debuffs and defense buffs). YOu could even buff deflection further with Shields for the Faithful - stacks! This is also the reason why I could easily dump CON to 3: you seldomly get hit. And even if: survival bonus (+60% healing) combined with Veteran's Recovery and Taste of the Hunt lead to full endurance all the time. And even with 5 CON (3 base + items) this barb has as much endurance as a fighter with 10 CON. Of course the early game is a more challanging this way. And sure, fortitude is a bit low - that's why I took Bear's Fortitude so that my defenses may be balanced. Of course you will meet enemies that are immune to dazing of frightening - but it's not very common that enemies are immune to both. And even then those encounters are not the toughest ones, so it doesn't matter at all. By the time you get HoF you can have Badgradr's Barricade, which works perfectly well with this build. In fact I'd say for offense it's even better than the Dragon's Maw - so it's a matter of taste. Down below I will also add a variant of this build with Badgrad'r Barricade. I took it until I got Dragon's Maw. Before the WHite March I used a large shield without bash with a common sabre - and thanks to the high PER it worked quite well for me. Because Dragon's Maw has this special look, for me the only armor that fits to it are the Golden Scales. And since now everything's golden, I had to put on th Liripipe of Thinking, because it's the only headgear with an enchantment that looks cool with this outfit. Of course there are better helmets out there - but I can't play when I must always fear that the dyrwooden style militia may arrest me because of fashion crimes. --- Variant A: The Golden Dragon with Godansthunyr ------------------------------------------------------------------ When using Godansthunyr, you can skip Spirit of Decay and take Vulnerable Attack instead. It also works well with HoF and it looks really badass with the shield and armor. Variant B: Veildancer ---------------------------- When using Badgradr's Barricade until the end things get difficult with your outfit. You can either use a generic armor that can be dyed (crucible knights' plate looks nice) or you choose the monk's robes from the Abbot of the Abbey of the Fallen Moon. It's ok to have lower DR. Thick Skinned + Second Skin will give you +5 to physical damage and you will be faster. It's a bit more dps and a bit less sturdyness (while still being very sturdy). You could swap a bit MIG for CON if you want, but I tried it with the original stats and it works fine. Too bad there are only unenchatned helmets that look cool with this outfit - but on the other hand: the game is so easy later on that you can favour style over power, right? This doesn't look as a golden dragon at all - hence the alternative name. Also: Bittercut's green stain doesn't look so great with all that turquoise, so I took Resolution instead which also works really well - with Thrust of Tattered Veils you'll do crush damage, so the singe damage type isn't too bad. And annihilation with HoF is nice of course. Here you can also skip Spirit of Decay and use Vulnerable Attack or something else you like - Penetrating SHot works with Thirst of Tattered Veils without slowing you down in melee - this can also be a good pick. Or Gallant's Focus maybe?

If you want to maximize tha damage of Heart of Fury you'll need higher INT. You'll also need a Ring of Searing Flames (or a wizard buddy). Accurate Carnage it's good enough. Carnage gains +1 accuracya per character level and thus can reach better accuracy as your initial attack. Accurate Carnage shifts this break-even point 5 char levels down. WF: Soldier Ruffian is the WF for sabres. Sabres are a good pick - especially Bittercut because it ahs dual damage (corrode/slash) and gets +20% damage from Spirit of Decay. Other good ones for a dw setup: War Hammers. It's mostly about maximizing Heart of Fury damage because that has the biggest impact. Savage/Stalwart Defiance Savage Defiance is only needed if party is limited healing options. Stalwart Defiance oly if you want to tank a lot. TWS yes Frenzy/Greater Frenzy Unless you are using fists (Novice's Suffering) I wouldn't pick Greater Frenzy. Frenzy itself is a no-brainer. Vulnerable Attack Very good for Heart of Fury - turn it off once HoF was executed Heart of Fury must-have Brute Force ? most of the time not worth the cost - unless you have hefty fortitude debuffing options in your party (wizard, druid etc.) Threatening Presence can be a death trap against enemy ciphers who have psychic backlash - you will get perma-stunned. So: watch out with that. You can't turn it off since it's a passive ability. Savage Attack I'd pick it at higher levels Eye of the Storm nope Barbaric Shout nope Veteran's Recovery good if picked early - not necessary with good healing options in party Things that can be good for dw barbs: Bloodlust (stacks with Frenzy etc. and often triggers after 1 kill already) Blood Thirst: one of the best abilites of a Barb. Less impact for a dual wielder than for a two hander barb, but still great. One Stands Alone: great to have - especially for Heart of Fury Blooded: good option at higher levels (when half of your endurance pool is still enough to be safe) Thick Skinned: combine with Blunting Belt als thick armor: makes you a lot more sturdy Dragon Leap: very good for landing in the midst of a mob and triggering Heart of Fury right away. Apprentices Sneak Attack: if you use a weapon that causes prone or stun on crit or if you use Threatening Presence or have a wizard/cipher/druid in th party then it's a nice dmg addition Aspirant's Mark: if you have not many debuffing option in the party this is nice for a barb Interruptiong Blows: also works with Carnage and can be nice to perma-lock enemies if your PER is already high and you have a good interrupting weapon (e.g. The Vile Loner's Lance) and high attack speed and maybe even Mourning Gloves later on.

Oh please, you can't seriously be thinking that.

Got my scheduled surgery for tomorrow cancelled, so yay, food. And I don't need to take 4 disinfectant showers.

One Hour Photo (2002) Robin Williams plays a workaholic photo counter guy in a legally distinct Wal-Mart in an unknown part of the US. It's very good, you feel both second-hand embarrassment for Sy and also get very creeped out by him, Robin absolutely nailed this role. Everything else is good, it very much feels like parts of my childhood in a way that will probably make sense to US kids who grew up between the 90s and aughts. Ikarie XB-1 (1963) A soviet era sci-fi film that feels like an alternative Star Trek. That's perhaps underselling it, but it was an incredible film that manages to make space feel more ordinary and lived in that what hacks like Villeneuve do. Tarot (2024) An unremarkable PG-13 horror where a group of college students unleash evil when drunk and not so horny.