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Good to hear you're ok, Hurl Pizza is technically bread, so I had bread for breakfast! First snow for the "winter" is here, and everyone is suitably perplexed by the white stuff on the road, and suddenly forget how to drive. And then there's me https://gfycat.com/joyfulflashyfirefly-snow

"The Global Hunger Index 2018 ranks India at 103 out of 119 countries on the basis of three leading indicators -- prevalence of wasting and stunting in children under 5 years, under 5 child mortality rate, and the proportion of undernourished in the population." https://www.indiafoodbanking.org/hunger 3000 children in india die of hunger every day. however, if it makes you feel better, india did improve its ranking by 1 in 2019. is now 102... but only 117 countries were evaluated in 2019. poverty has decreased in india in recent years, but has actual increased in many rural predominant agriculture dependant areas. edit: india shares most of border with china, pakistan and nepal, and is not like you can get a bunch o' people to hop in a rickety boat in the arabian sea hoping to make it to europe. HA! Good Fun!

Most Indian emigration is not to continental Europe, certainly. It's mostly to anglophone countries, and is mostly legit. But, it's not really a fair comparison and the underlying reason given is basically plain wrong. India may not be massively rich and powerful on a per capita basis, but they have a truly monumental amount of capita. Also, India has a long and storied history of famines brought about by, well, British colonialism and them selling cash crops or exporting food while other areas in India starved. That's stopped since the Brits got kicked out because now agricultural excess in one region can be used to help out in drought or whatever, and India is big enough to resist most of the pressures that see similar things happen in Africa. That's hardly a great example of a country pulling itself up by its bootstraps after colonialism though; it's more an example of the evils of colonialism being corrected when you're powerful enough to tell your colonists to FOAD and mean it. Which the vast majority of Africa isn't, hence them growing cash crops mandated by the IMF and relying on imports of cheap subsidised Euro/ US staples. Most of the current refugees/ economic migrants are also not refugees because they are literally unable to feed themselves. If you're going to Europe from, say, Ghana or Congo or even Mali you'd typically have a multi thousand km trip involving long journeys by vehicle or ship, have to pay people smugglers or bribe border guards etc etc. You're not likely to do well making such a trip with no money and being hungry in the first place since walking you'd be looking at months of travel through impoverished or desert areas where you aren't going to get food. It's the same with war refugees, if you have the money you can simply bribe border guards or people smugglers to get you in to Europe. If you don't... welcome to a squalid camp in Jordan/ Turkey/ Lebanon/ Iraq/ Syria/ Pakistan/ Iran and good luck if you try to walk into Europe without paying someone something. Most refugees or economic migrants to Europe are not dirt poor, at least not for their countries of origin, they just about have to have money.

It is suprisingly common for endurance athletes to struggle with GI issues. But the alternatives of high blood pressure pills, heart disease, etc. and are much worse long term. I was shaking during the entire procedure amd had to really calm it down. I was also very aware. But it was fast and nothing major seems to be wrong. There is some esphogal issues that I will be trying some acid blockers for. I am also back on bread, so super happy. Two days of fasting was no fun.

Hi there. In the absence of @MaxQuest i decided to continue our work, because CP have some flaws and missed fixes. I don't want to do anything radical, just collect feedback and add some nice things. Also i'm in aware about @Elric Galad mod development (his Balance Mod designed to work with CP), so we try to keep in touch and not interfere each other. Current fixes done: Fury Form of Druid attack - TreatAsWeapon=true (Fury attack now works as weapon) Pallegina five suns penetration - 7 > 9. Ideally i want to clear restrictions for other 2 upgrades for Pallegina. Kalakot's blights - Add Wands proficiency Shattered Pillar - Wounds trait fix (10 for Lesser Wounds) Distraction training. -10 Deflection for Attackers on Missed for Pet > +25% Melee weapon resistance for Pet, Disorientation on Miss for Attackers. So natural Misses will be connected to Resistance - it allow to apply debuff more frequently, regardless of foes accuracy + increase pet durability. Connected with +engage slots abilities, pet should effectlively hold the line and debuff up to 3 enemies most of the time. Keywords done: Symbol of Berath - Added Decay KW 4 spells Priest of Gaun - Brought back Plant KW Priest of Wael Confusion - Brought back Illusion KW Reworked all elemental damage weapons to work properly with elemental enemies: I've added new KW's for every weapon (Shock weapon. Fire weapon, Corrode weapon, Frost weapon) and added the same KW's to druid's elemental talents. So far it' works as intended - now you can hit elemental enemy with physical damage. The initial idea of new keywords was suggested by @Boeroer. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I'll be very appreciated for feedback about CP to do a preliminary "Need to fix/improve" list. My next step is to reduce crazy Megabosses HP pool and i seekeng for help with complete list of elemental weapons and abilities, which can affect on those weapons (including DLC) because i'm afraid to miss something.

Alena, Meadow Folk Priest of Wael (Solo)- Entry 3: Defiance Bay and Dyrford Storyline Quests Ok! Alena's posts are now, way, way, way behind her progress. And since we have a lot of super-cool stuff ahead, I'm going to rush through the pre-Twin Elms content. But before I do that, I'd like to preview some of Alena's recent achievements. Like lighting the forge. Hosting an ogre roast. Crushing bounty after bounty with no damage at all. And, yes, dropping a dragon, albeit an easy one. The point is that Alena is all grown up now and she's well on her way to a semi-completionist NR. Who knows? Maybe she'll get a chance at an Ultimate soon? We'll just have to see. But first: we need to catch up. And that brings us too... The Man Who Waits. This was easier than I expected. We dropped our shades and faded into Uscrim's cell. We then moved onto Shinning Beacons followed by Iconic Projections. We finished with Divine Marks. Some of you may have noticed a dearth of buffs and debuffs, in this fight and others. Have I been remiss in not mentioning them? Noppers. Alena didn't use them in the early game. They weren't needed. Perks of playing on normal, I guess. Interdictions and prone via Pillar of Faith were more than enough. Over kill, in fact. Moving on to Undying Heritage... Emulating Astrid, Alena stealthed through this quest. She fought one minor battle in the tower but that was it. On PotD this quest will look different: stealthing sans Shadowing Beyond isn't feasible there. On normal, Alena got a free ride. We'll take it. Onto Dyrford. Do you remember when I said I'd like to do an online marketing campaign for Dyrford, complete with jingly commercial? Well I've come up with the first few lines of the song. They're really stupid and that's why I love them. They go: It's little town with Skaenites! And the spiders really bite! There's an ogre who really likes to eat pigs. And a grieving mother in a garden digs. That amuses me way, way more than it should. Please do submit more lines for consideration, everyone! K. Back to the action... In Through Death's Gate Alena used Alia's modified stealth method: starting with mechanics 8, pulling and killing the sporelings, and then picking the lock on the final door. That worked great. It will not I repeat -not- work on PotD. There's no way to stealth through this room on PotD. A summons juke may be possible, but I think we'll actually fight the druids next time. Something to look forward to! The sporelings were pulled and killed. Alena had the luxury of using her book rather than scrolls. Shades->Iconic Projections->Shining Beacon We pulled all the sporelings this time -as in every single one. That made exiting easier than usual. I liked it. Just one more fight. Whispers of Treason + Animat + Gyrd did the trick. After that, we unlocked the door (Gloves of Manipulation + Aritificer Hall + Gjefa) and slipped on out. We're off to Twin Elms. Best, A.

=================================== The Valkyrie of Gaun, Ultimate Edition =================================== Difficulty: PotD v5.0.0.0040 -------------------------------------------------------------- Class: Contemplative (Harvester of Gaun + Sister of the Reaping Moon) -------------------------------------------------------------- Race: Meadow-Savannah Human -------------------------------------------------------------- Background: Readceras (Farmer) -------------------------------------------------------------- Stats (char creation, no Berath's Blessings): MIG: 11 CON: 12 DEX: 15 PER: 12 INT: 14 RES: 11 -------------------------------------------------------------- Active Skill: Athletics (!) Passive Skill: Religion (!) -------------------------------------------------------------- Weapon Proficiencies: Small Shield (a) Dagger (a) Hatchet (a) Crossbow (a) Quarterstaff War Bow ® Greatsword ® Flail Arbalest -------------------------------------------------------------- Abilities (a=auto, r=recommended, !=important) PL1 Priest Blessed Harvest (a) Restoration (a) Suppress Affliction Monk Swift Strikes (a) Force of Anguish PL2 Priest Withdraw (a) Spiritual Weapon Monk Clarity of Agony Common Two Handed Style ® Weapon and Shield Style PL3 Priest Vile Thorns (a) Consecrated Ground ® Dire Blessing (!) Monk Swift Flurry (!) Efficient Anguish PL4 Priest Circle of Protection (a) Devotions for the Faithful (!) Monk Thunderous Blows ® Duality of Mortal Presence (!) Rooting Pain (!) PL5 Priest Wicked Briars (a) Revive the Fallen ® Barring Death’s Door (!) Practiced Healer ® Monk Enervating Blows PL6 Priest Minor Intercession (a) Salvation of Time (!) Monk Turning Wheel (!) Iron Wheel (!) Common Improved Critical ® PL7 Priest Wall of Thorns (a) Resurrection (!) Cleansing Flame Monk Heartbeat Drumming (!) --------------------------------------------------------------- Items (*=additional enchantments; !=important, r=recommended): Weapon set 1: The Twin Eels (Renewal*!) (!) Weapon set 2: Saint Omaku’s Mercy (Sacrifice of Saints*!, Galawain’s Harry*) (!) Chest: Furrante’s Breastplate (Love of Life*!, Intervention*!) Helmet: Helm of the Falcon ® Amulet: Bone Setter’s Torc (!) Trinket: Waidwen's Sundial Cloak: Nemnok’s Cloak (!) Gloves: Hylea’s Talons ® Ring: Halgot’s Warmth (!) Ring: Voidward ® Belt: The Undying Burden (!) Boots: Footprints of Ahu Taka (!) ----------------------------------------------------------------- Xoti is one of the most maligned Companions in the game for many reasons, not least of which concerns her role in the party. As a Harvester of Gaun, she’s a variation on the Priest of Eothas that doesn’t offer that much of interest compared to Priests of Skaen or Wael; as a Sister of the Reaping Moon, her starting lantern and sickle doesn’t give her enough DPS to take advantage of her subclass’s ability to gain Wounds on kill, and is crippled even further by the increased Wound cost for her Monk abilities. And as a Contemplative, she loses access both to the useful Tier VIII and IX Priest spells, as well as 2 PLs on her Monk fists; with no apparent synergy, a multiclass Xoti can seem to combine the worst parts of both her subclasses. Small wonder then, that most would recommend keeping her either a single-class Priest or Monk. That said, there is a way to make a multiclass Xoti not only viable, but also more effective as a combat support specialist. With this build, Xoti can keep her party members topped up on health while contributing to damage at the same time, generate plenty of Wounds to feed her increased ability costs, and make her party that much tougher simply by being there; in short, she’ll truly fulfill her role as Gaun’s Chooser of the Slain. (Note on “Ultimate Edition” builds: With the release of the Ultimate Edition on PS4 and XBox, there will be many first-time players of Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire who will be searching for builds online, only to find that most available builds were created for earlier versions of the game. While many of those are still viable even in the final version of Deadfire, this would not be apparent to new players; thus, builds such as this will be tagged as “Ultimate Edition” to indicate that they’ve been tested for version 5.0.0 of Deadfire, including all DLCs.) Xoti, the Reaping Most people who note the ability of Xoti’s Monk subclass to gain Wounds on Kill seem to think that she has to be built as a DPS to make use of it, and thus are left disappointed when Xoti’s Sickle inevitably fails to make the cut as a weapon capable of dealing sufficient damage. And while letting her rely on her Monk fists lets her do decent DPS, it only works best for her as a single-class Monk; making her a Contemplative makes her Monk fists less effective due to the loss of PL. That’s why her sickle as well as Xoti’s Lantern are usually seen as trap choices for Xoti DPS builds; it would be a different story if her lantern could be used as a bashing shield, and both it and the sickle scaled with Monk levels like Tuotilo’s Palm, but there’s no accounting for the dev’s design choices. That said, I feel that’s the wrong way to look at it. To make use of her Wound gain on kill ability, I don’t think Xoti has to be a DPS. She doesn’t have to deliver that much damage, nor throw as many attacks as Monks tend to do. All she needs to do is throw one good hit. Specifically, the last one. With that in mind, the sickle and lantern still isn’t going to cut it; she needs a weapon that can help her killsteal her own party members as reliably as possible. Ideally, the weapon would; - Have high base damage so Xoti can land the one good hit for the kill; that pretty much means a 2H weapon. - Has enchantments that helps with maximising the damage per hit as much as possible, and - Comes with an on-kill effect to further incentivise Xoti making the kill. Now, if you’re anything like me, you probably max’d out Xoti’s Religion passive skill as a reflection of her… evangelistic tendencies. That said, doing so makes one weapon in particular hit all three points above; specifically, The Twin Eels Greatsword. The offensive potential of The Twin Eels lies in its Death’s Embrace enchantment, a Hit-to-Crit percentage that scales with Religion; in other words, perfect for Xoti who’s likely to have the most Religion in the party. This can be boosted with an additional Hit-to-Crit roll from the Bone Setter’s Torc Amulet, increased attack speed thanks to the Helm of the Falcon, and complemented with the Swift Flurry-Heartbeat Drumming Monk combo. And the fact that Xoti can gain Wounds for each kill means that she can access a synergy specific to her alone; it turns Rooting Pain from a retaliatory passive into an offensive one, since Xoti earning 3 Wounds per kill also means she gets 3 rolls of the dice to activate it on enemies unlucky enough to be in the vicinity. And when all of this comes together, it can look like this; Also, there are a number of weapons with on-kill effects in the game, but only The Twin Eels has a Heal-on-kill that also scales with Xoti’s Religion skill. With max Religion, plus healing boosts from the Love of Life enchantment on Furrante's Breastplate, Bone Setter’s Torc, Footprints of Ahu Taka and Practiced Healer, the Health that Xoti can heal with each killsteal can add up to a pretty decent amount indeed; With this setup, Xoti is best played not as a DPS per se, but positioned just behind the frontline doing Priest things such as healing and buffing… until her party members have reduced an enemy to Near Death, at which point she becomes an opportunistic killstealer charging in to deliver the final blow, gaining Wounds and healing her party members when she lands it. This let's Xoti contribute to the fight while not neglecting her healing duties, making the best of both her subclasses. Xoti, the Sacrificing With Furrante’s Breastplate, Xoti makes her party members that much tougher thanks to the Bodyguard enchantment, which makes them take 10% less damage as long as she sticks close to them. This comes with the flipside that Xoti herself takes 15% more damage from all sources, making her squishier than usual. This would be bad in most cases, but as a Monk, it also helps to fuel her Wound generation as well, making it a win-win proposition. She can double down on that with the Intervention enchantment, which gives her access to the Take the Hit ability usually reserved for single-classed Fighters. This makes her party members even tougher for a short period of time, at the cost of causing more damage to Xoti herself… fueling her Wound generation even further. And at times when a party member is close to dying and desperately needs a burst heal, Xoti can provide with the Sacrifice of Saints enchantment from the Saint Omaku’s Mercy Warbow; With max Religion, Xoti can heal any party member from dying up to near full Health once per Rest, which comes at the cost of Xoti herself eating Raw damage… which again fuels her Wound generation. Along with Priest staples such as Restoration, Consecrated Ground, Revive the Fallen, Barring Death’s Door and Resurrection, Xoti can thus keep her party alive that much longer simply by being there. However, all this utility comes at a cost of making her pretty damn fragile. So, how do I keep Xoti alive in the face of all this? Xoti, the Undying I do it by giving her The Undying Burden Belt, which reduces the incoming weapon damage Xoti suffers by up to 30% as she loses Health (it also gives her a second use of Second Wind, which is why I recommended Athletics as her active Skill). On top of it, I also gave her the Voidward Ring, which reduces the Raw damage she takes by 25%; very useful for minimising the damage taken from Sacrifice of Saints and Take the Hit in particular. But the key piece of gear that really helps keep Xoti on her feet is Nemnok’s Cloak; while it makes Xoti even more squishy by making her take an additional 15% damage, it also gives her Spirit Shield and Ironskin when she falls below half Health. Together with Iron Wheel, Xoti can go up to 22 AR; It certainly doesn’t hurt that the Cloak also gives Xoti a free Barring Death’s Door when she’s… well, at death’s door. And should all these defenses still not suffice to keep her from falling to 0 HP, the Renewal enchantment from The Twin Eels (which also scales Health regained with Religion) lets Xoti automatically revive for free once per Rest, letting her stand up to get right back it again; This means that Xoti is capable of saving lost fights single-handedly, bringing her fallen party members back to their feet in turn. All these means that despite taking more damage than the rest of the party, this build makes Xoti a tough cookie in her own right, and capable of filling in as an off-tank in a pinch. Final Thoughts Pros: - Contributes to party DPS and Health at the same time by killstealing for fun and profit. - Makes her party members tougher just by existing, and is capable of pulling them back from near death. - Is unexpectedly tough in her own right, and can save seemingly-lost fights by her own hand. Cons: - Several key pieces of equipment are late-game gear (Furrante’s Breastplate, Nemnok’s Cloak), which means this build will not be fully realized until rather late in the game. - Tier VIII and IX Priest and Monk abilities are some of the most powerful in Deadfire, which means the Valkyrie build, despite its effectiveness, still involves trade-offs. - As effective as the Valkyrie of Gaun is, it doesn’t do anything to mitigate Xoti’s zealous and sometimes-annoying personality. Last but not least, see the attached file for the AI script I created for Xoti as the Valkyrie of Gaun. Xoti Custom (Contemplative) (Druid Monk Priest) (e38db4a0-68b9-4f2c-ac8a-5bd58d0a69e3).customai

- The equipment and other info is taken from the wiki, so it could be wrong or incomplete - Thanks for everyone who gave me advice, especially Boeroer and Thelee - I am not the ultimate expert, so I am happy about any feedback I get PILLAR OF ETERNITY, the engaging riposte rock The idea is simple. You stand there like a rock. You engage as many enemies as possible. They try to hit you but they miss and you get many riposte attacks. Almost all of your attacks heal you. Version: 5.0 Difficulty: I never played PotD, but I hope it could work solo: high defense + lots of self heal, it could work (not tested) class: steel garrote paladin / trickster rogue race: wild orlan ( resolve is your main stat, so you don´t want to lose it) background: Aedyr, select skills dependent on your equipment stats: mig: 14 con: 8 dex: 8 int: 14 per: 14 res: 20 talents: lv1: Flames of devotion, crippling strike (apply affliction without casting) lv2: deep faith lv3: lay on hands lv4: paladin auras, weapon+shield style lv5: inspiring triumph lv6: divine purpose lv7: eternal devotion, riposte ! lv8: dirty fighting lv9: escape lv10: exhalted endurance, persistent distraction ! lv11: tumbling lv12: adept evasion lv13: rightous soul, deep wounds lv14: iron gut lv15: clear head lv16: virtous triumph, slippery mind lv17: bears endurance lv18: snakes reflexes lv19: stoic steel, deathblows ! lv20: bulls will profiencies: large shield, spear, club equipment: weapon1: Kapana Taga (club, crush/slash damage, daze on hit, +damage per engaged enemy, +2 engagement, immunity to flanked) weapon 2: stalkers patience (spear, +1 engagement with modal, hamstringing, wounding, extra damage against flanked targets (just engaging flanks them, scales with stealth) shield: Akola´s Apex Ward or Wintertide Bulwark (both can proc an attack when missed in melee) head: Blackened Plate Helm (+engagement) or Champion´s Helm (+riposte) Neck: Token of Faith (+2 resolve) armor: Reckless Brigandine (+engagement, +attack speed per ennemy engaged, Into the Breach (damage+AR up when health down) rings: Entonias Signet Ring, Ring of Protection shoes: Boots of the Stone, Boots of speed if you wish to provoke disengagement attacks cape: Cape of greater Deflection hands: Bracers of greater Deflection belt: Upright Captain´s Belt pet: Nalvi (+1 resolve, reduced armor penalty) Why??? Steel Garrote paladins heal themselves when they damage a target that has any affliction, rogues are good in causing affliction and with persistent distraction you afflict them just by engaging them. Paladins have high defenses and Tricksters can improve defense even more with wizard spells. If you get missed in melee you can have a riposte attack, an instant full attack without recovery. If you have several sources of riposte like effects, all of them can proc on a missed melee attack (talent, champions helm, shield). So I chose to maximize my defense and engagement slots to engage (and afflict) all enemies around me to provoke riposte attacks that heal me. The club (Kapana Taga) is fantastic. Two damage types, +2 engagements and immunity to being flanked (-10 deflection) and the club modal reduces will. You could use this to terrify enemies around you to provoke disengagement attacks. For enemies with weaknes to pierce attacks use a spear+modal and stalkers patience is the best spear. The spear modal penalty (- walking speed) is meaningless because of large shield modal. You cannot move, but you take 50% less damage from ranged and reflex attacks. Thanks to the belt you cannot be moved by enemies and stoic steel improves your AR when standing still. You can still move a bit with escape and this does not count as moving, so protective effects do not end. If you wish to be a bit more active you could move around to provoke disengagement attacks from enemies. If they miss they can proc riposte from you. If you think your defense is high enough without shield you could equip Whispers of the endless path and upgrade it to defensive parry. You attack several enemies at once and attacks that miss you proc AoE riposte from you and all of these attacks can heal you. I selected the talents and equipment as defensive as possible. On lower difficulties or if you still feel save without them you could replace some defensive talents with more offensive ones. I am not sure if sacred immolation would heal you much if several enemies around you have an affliction. You need guile for wizard spells so there is no need for active rogue abilities. Paladins may want sworn enemy and abilities that assist the party. Practiced healer does NOT increase healing from drain effects, like Steel Garrote attacking afflicted enemies. It is strongly recommanded to play in rtwp mode. In rtwp enemies need to roll a 31 to graze, in turn based a 1 is enough. Edit: Changed cape because you can get cape of greater deflection also without Beraths Blessing.

Well, I do love guns, cars and hamburgers

Alena, Meadow Folk Priest of Wael (Solo)- Entry 2: Defiance Bay and Dyrford Sidequests Alena and I are an odd pair. She's an overachiever; I'm not. To illustrate: over the last 24 hourds Alena has conquered many upon many foes, making a name for herself across the Dyrwood and beyond. I, in contrast, haven't even gotten around to posting on her progress. If you imagine she's getting frustrated with me, you're right. She thinks her adventure deserves better coverage. She has a point. Sadly, I have by now forgotten many of the details of Alena's early adventures, and so coverage will be disappointingly sparse. Apologies, Alena: I promise I'll do better on your PotD run. Anyhoo. Defiance Bay! Alena's early item goals were: 1) Oaken Scarab; 2) Obsidian Lamp; 3) Rotfinger Gloves; 4) Munacra Arret. Does that sound familiar? It should. Astrid and Alia did the same thing. Alena, as a priest, had more options available to her, but that 4 item combo is too good to pass up. I'm pretty sure very nearly any character of any class can make it to Twin Elms using stealth and those items. Someday I'll restrict them. Today is not that day. At this point Alena found herself in a bit of a Catch 22. To get experience, she needed the Obsidian Lamp. But to get the Obsidian Lamp, she needed Mechanics 7, which required experience. The solution? You guessed it: Fetch quests! Something Secret, At All Costs and Rogue Knight got her close to her goal. Never Far from the Queen, which was completed with stealth, took her the rest of the way. Her first fight was with Helig. That went well. She opened with beetles and then dropped a Pillar of Faith on Helig. That was effectively check mate: it killed Helig and knocked his undead on their tuckuses. Pillar of Faith is one of those rare low level spells that's useable at any level. The damage may be middling but that long, long duration AoE prone is skiddly-diddly. We did Supply and Demand next. Oaken Scarab->Pillar of Faith->Iconic Projection(s). Having leveled up and reached base Mechanics 3, Alena headed north to Guilded Vale, seeking the Gloves of Manipulation. It was nice to be able to kill these people for once: While in town Alena finished the remaining Guilded Vale quests: Buried Secrets and A Mother's Plea. With a base score of 3 and the Gloves of Manipulation, Alena was ready to claim the Obsidian Lamp. Base + Gloves of Manipulation + Fletcher's Stay + Gjefa yields 3 + 2 +1 + 1 =7. The shades saw their first use in His Old Self. They did great- nearly killing Nyrid on their own (don't let the piddling damage in the screenshot fool you). IIRC, we used Iconic Projections and Pillars of Faith here almost exclusively. Fortunately, we had one pillar left over for the final mercenary. Note that we targeted our beetle instead of our enemy: sometimes prone is better than damage. In All Hands On Deck Alena fought much like Astrid and Alia: Figurine->Touch of Rot X 3->Whispers of Treason->Figurine->finish stragglers. The only real distinction was in the final phase: Alena used Divine Marks where Astrid and Alia used finishing blows. Ditto Built to Last. And A Two Story Job We shelved the Rotfinger Gloves in favor of priest spells in the Parable of Wael. Most of the damage was done by Iconic Projections cast from behind the beetles. Pillars and Divine Marks were used to finish. Here Alena's path diverged from that of her rogue predecessors. While the rogues completed all of the Defiance Bay quests before leaving for Dyrford, Alena went to Dyrford before The Man Who Waits and Undying Heritage. What was the logic here? While the rogues had been able to complete The Man Who Waits and Undying Heritage with stealth alone, Alena would need to fight. In light of that, she sought additional experience. By now the Rotfinger gloves were seeing less and less use. Alena passed on them in Cat and Mouse. But she did bring them back for Nest Egg. I think -think- they saw their last use in Changing of the Guard. In any case, Alena was by now approaching level 7. Blood Legacy would get her there. By level 6 Alena had a base mechanics score of 4, allowing her to open the door to the sacrifice chamber with Gloves of Manipulation + Fletcher's Stay + Gjefa's Boon. What she lacked, however, was the stealth score to make it to the final chamber. Exiting and taking Hedge Maze + Iqali's Boon would have let her stealth through, but she chose instead to fight the final crew. Happily, they were pushovers. The shades took down the skaen mindbreaker with ranged attacks alone. Iconic Projections, Pillars of Faith and Shinning Beacons did the rest of the work. After a quick trip to the lighthouse... Alena was ready for the story line battles. I'll post on those soon. Best, A. NW: Apologies for the lack of build details. I had rushed through this section of the game and hadn't taken notes. To my recollection, her first three talents were Interdiction, Painful Interdiction and Deep Pockets in that order. She took mechanics 4 and put the rest of her skill points in stealth. Anyhoo, you will see her final build soon. Spoiler Alert: She's currently ~400XP point from L16!

some o' that is valid. ... with weinstein in the news, am recalling the first time we saw kill bill in theatre. saw in a relative full theatre and Gromnir and friend were literal the only two people laughing. ludicrous doesn't bother us. heck, we mentioned how much we like the admitted terrible last dragon. *shrug* HA! Good Fun!

About Mage Slayer : First I have a problem with Fire Pokemon subclasses : a Fire Pokemon subclass is a subclass that is good at killing Ice Pokemon, just because of the Fire and Ice Keyword. Debonaires are a bit this way vs Kith (even if they have some bonuses that work vs everything), but that's the reason why I'm suggestion to make their Charm universal (at the cost of half duration). Mage Slayers are really a Fire Pokemon subclass : they are good vs Spell casters and... that's it. Furthermore, their Resistance make friendly fail randomly... and to be honnest, most people don't like random abilities, especially when it could block Healing spells. What I have in mind is simply replacing their resistance by : -25% Hostile effects duration (so it would be useful in much more situation, including Forbidden Fist buildsfor example) -25% Beneficial effects duration. This lower many effects, but is at least predictable. They would still have their signature spell disruption. Maybe it could be added to the effect of barbarian abilities (Leap, Shouts, etc... ) ?

I didnt say you were qq-ing over their TBI but qq-ing over the updating of the numbers. Someone has some reading comprehension difficulties, and I'm not convinced it is me. Anyhow, all I'm saying is I find your weird obsession with this, well, weird.

Join Game Director, Adam Brennecke, Senior Programmer, Roby Atadero, and Environment Artist, Sean Dunny, and our special guest moderator Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb as they discuss our upcoming survival game: Grounded! The team will walk you through footage of the game, giving you an inside glimpse into life in the backyard! Plus, there will be time for a Q&A session that will allow attendees an opportunity to ask questions about the game. Date/Time: Saturday, February 29th, at 1:30 PM ET / 10:30 AM PT Where to watch at PAX East: Dragonfly Theater Where to watch online: See you all there!

in theory, yes. but if you actually want to do something practically effective and not just theoretically effective, you need to yell at Versus Evil.

That's an interesting point of view. When it comes to breaking barriers, you could well be right, but the rest of what you say about that shows that breaking barriers is in no way necessary: BG2 combined excellent storytelling, immersive world-use (can't say world-building because the Forgotten Realms were already there) and player-friendliness exceptionally well, which made it a classic. As for it not even holding a candle to the newer RPGs, I'm simply going to flat-out disagree with you on that. And the fact that BG2 is still generally ranked very high in most "best RPGs of all time" lists will show you that your view is probably not that widely shared. However, what I'm more interested in is this: why do you think it doesn't even hold a candle to the newer RPGs, and what specifically are some of these newer RPGs? I'm very interested in your answer. For me, BG2 is better than P:K, for instance. It is also a lot better than PoE, and better than Deadfire. Both P:K and Deadfire are veritable competitors, but BG2 edges them both out -- which is not to say that BG2 doesn't also have problems. Games like D:OS2 are so simplified and veer so strongly towards showiness (i.e. graphics) at the expense of proper writing that there isn't even any competition, BG2 simply wipes the floor with them. Incidentally, this is not nostalgia talking. There are some old games that were absolute classics at the time and still remain viable, NetHack being by far the best example. That one is from 1987 and it's still superb. There are other old games that were brilliant at the time but are completely outdated now and not worth bothering with. Ultima IV, Ultima V and Dungeon Master are all good examples of this. Baldur's Gate 2 is old, but it hasn't become outdated. Everything works. Interestingly enough, Neverwinter Nights (which wasn't very good to being with, mostly because of the 3D approach and terrible storytelling) has aged a lot worse and looks simply unplayable these days.

Hello friends! For the first time, Obsidian will be offering an official summer internship program! There are plenty of positions open, from Audio Design, Concept Art, Community Manager, and more! For more details about the program itself, and to see all of the positions open, visit the Jobs > Internships page today!

I wouldn't go that far, but it is Josh's particular sensibilities and interests which made PoE what it is. I would be interested in seeing what PoE under his full control would look like, and I would be interested in seeing what a new lead would do with the game - I did enjoy all three DLCs after all. What I am not terribly interested in, is a non-isometric PoE. The world doesn't have that much appeal to me, to automatically transfer my interest in PoE3 into another genre - it would need to sell me on the concept mostly from the ground up... that being said, being made by Obsidian is, for now, still a good start.

Biomutant in the final stages of development. I am still interested in this game.

https://www.wired.com/story/youtube-gaming-scams-cheats-livestreams/

I'm sure he has developed a thick skin in his 20 years of game development, but some things just have too high penetration. Some recovery time is needed.

I can only imagine the feeling of that punch in the gut: Divinity:OS sells well --> PoE sells well --> Divinity:OS II sells like hot cakes --> Josh expects the same for Deadfire --> Deadfire tanks (despite good critics). I mean that sure does hurt. It's like when I was young and doing websites for clients in my freetime and I would always include four designs: three that I really worked on and which i liked and a forth that was just trash cobbled together. And every time clients said: "Oh we like the forth one best!" Ouch...

There are two actually. One is unnamed and scheduled for a 2028 launch. That one will include a rover or, possibly, a submersible. To prepare to that is the Europa Clipper launching in 2025: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/europa-clipper/

About half way through this one: I have read MANY books about the intelligence and cognitive abilities of canines. The truth is... no one really knows except the dogs. And you can't ask them. You can observe behavior but you can't really KNOW causation. I think dogs are extremely observant and really quick to remember patterns. I also think they are very sensitive to subtle body language queues. This book is interesting but it isn't plowing any new ground.

No it isn't. It's not even a terribly reliable historical document. I was just playing devil's advocate with Gfted

Bandcamp, please!

Greetings employees of Halcyon, We are thrilled to share with all of you that The Outer Worlds soundtrack is currently available to listen to on Amazon Music and is being made available on multiple streaming services over the upcoming weeks! We are so excited to be able to get this out to all of you and hope you enjoy listening to the soundtrack outside of the game. Soundtrack Locations (will be updated with links as the soundtrack is released on these platforms): Amazon Music Google Play Spotify Deezer iHeartRadio Tidal iTunes/Apple Music Amazon On Demand Pandora (coming soon) Napster (coming soon) TikTok (coming soon) Shazam (coming soon) Gracenote (coming soon) ToucTunes (coming soon) Thank you, everyone, for your continued support, and we hope you all enjoy listening to The Outer Worlds wherever you are! Now we would like to allow Justin Bell, Obsidian's studio Audio Director and the composer for The Outer Worlds, to share a message with all of you: Almost every day since The Outer Worlds' release, I've received messages of appreciation from folks who played the game and enjoyed its soundtrack. Many have wondered where they can listen to it online. Many more have sat on the main menu, volume full blast, unable to start the game because they have been transfixed by the title theme. To all of you who have been moved by TOW's score, I want to say "thank you" from the bottom of my heart. Your support is incredibly meaningful and is a continual source of inspiration for me. I'm so happy we're finally able to share the soundtrack to The Outer Worlds with you. Thank you for your patience and enjoy your musical journey throughout the Halcyon Colony!

Pizza for breakfast. Azdeus, are you sure you aren't an American?

Glad to hear you have no major health issues, Hurlshot. If it makes you feel better, I haven't had bread in 5 weeks.

The capital letters Refugee Crisis was almost entirely from two countries that had been directly invaded by the US and a western protectorate- Iraq, Afghanistan and, which always makes me lol, Kosovo. The only one of the top four that hadn't been directly invaded was Syria where instead they merely armed nutbar jihadis- often directly, eg Timber Sycamore- and created the conditions for ISIS by invading Iraq. Which is hardly much better. But nowadays the refugee problem is largely Africans leaving countries that have been asterisked over by (neo)colonialism but that influx is at least theoretically sustainable and- economically at least- desirable/ essential due to there now not being a single EU country with above replacement level birthrate and, to be frank, most Euros considering themselves far too important to pick up the garbage or clean toilets or pick vegies for minimum wage. Probably the best anti refugee measure for the present issue would be to stop the IMF/ WB being all about 'economic development' and shift towards actual self sufficiency. Which ain't going to happen. And, for war refugees, to invest in the countries effected without it being directed solely at improving spreadsheet numbers or being verboten due to the 'wrong' side winning. Which also won't happen.

I miss Josh.