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I guess we've reached the stage of occupation forces murdering people in broad daylight in Trump 2.0. Someone from Minnesota, like @Bartimaeus I believe, may correct me on it, but this is apparently a 15 walk from where George Floyd was suffocated. Really ****ed up, ICE needs to be abolished and Nuremberg 2 should happen for ICE specifically but probably the whole US government. It was.

Once upon a time, I reported one of Volourn's posts by saying that I and a few other people would start re-framing everything Volourn said as supporting dog-****ing if staff didn't tell him off for constantly re-framing everyone and everything he disagreed with as being or supporting Nazis, and while I never heard back from staff, he coincidentally decided to take his ball and leave the forums forever literally immediately after that. Food for thought, people.

uh... most western media articles am having read appear stress how divisive is pahlavi even in 2025 iran and there is a recurring tone o' perplexity coming from writers as they try to explain why some people in iran would offer their support for the 65-year old israel supporting son o' the former shah. real link Few analysts think Pahlavi has a real path to the throne or leadership in Iran. His improved reputation in recent years says more about the mounting discontent with the Islamic Republic than it does about a genuine desire by Iranians for a return of the monarchy, analysts said. Many Iranians see him as everything the current regime is not: pro-Western, secular and capable of ending Iran’s economic isolation. “Over the past decade, Pahlavi’s popularity has increased, reflecting not just nostalgia, but a sharp contrast of what the past was and what the future could be in Iran,” said Behnam Ben Taleblu, Iran senior director at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington think tank. “This rise in popularity correlates with increasing secularism and nationalism.” ... “The Islamic Republic is so bad people will accept anything in replacement, and he offers a simple solution,” said Javad Chamanara, an opposition activist and member of Iran’s Kurdish minority who favors a federalist system in Iran. Pahlavi is seen as a divisive figure among ethnic minorities, which make up close to half of Iran’s population, because of the monarchy’s past refusal to grant them some autonomy, he said. end quotes "western media" is hardly monolithic, but the stories am reading at nyt, time, washington post, cnn and npr are hardly effusive in praise of pahlavi. "Pahlavi's efforts to position himself as a leader for a future Iran have prompted sometimes heated debates inside and outside the country. And while protesters have shouted in support of the shah in some protests, it is not clear whether that is support for Pahlavi himself or a desire to return to a time before the 1979 Islamic Revolution. "His public support of Israel has prompted significant criticism in the past from ordinary Iranians and other members of opposition groups, particularly after the 12-day war launched by Israel in June 2025." ... am having seen opinion pieces at wsj and elsewhere that got more skew, but unless you are in an information silo, suggesting that admitted non-existent monolithic western media is "pushing Pahlavi as the hero of the revolution," is at best misleading. HA! Good Fun! edit: added a few more links... the time piece is noteworthy as a western media take on pahlavi-- The most damning similarity between Chalabi and Pahlavi is the legitimacy deficit. Chalabi failed not because he lacked American support but because Iraqis didn’t want him. He was seen, correctly, as an American creation—a man who had spent decades outside Iraq, spoke Arabic with an American accent, and embodied foreign interference rather than indigenous resistance. Pahlavi faces the same problem squared. The Pahlavi dynasty left Iranians with bitter memories: the 1953 CIA-backed coup that overthrew Mohammad Mosaddegh and restored the shah to power; the brutal SAVAK secret police; the Rastakhiz Party that antagonized formerly apolitical Iranians with compulsory membership and heavy-handed interference in daily life; the corruption and inequality that sparked the 1979 revolution. While most Iranians are too young to remember these horrors firsthand, a substantial proportion—those over 50—lived through them. They remember the torture chambers, the disappeared dissidents, the rampant corruption, the grotesque inequality. They participated in, or supported, the revolution that overthrew the monarchy. Their children have grown up on the stories.

https://i.imgur.com/qZAZKTk.mp4

On your Easy, did you slide every slider full to left? Because one setting controls the numbers. Less/Normal/More, something like that. I left it on Normal because I don't care how many there are in most cases, as long as they die easy/don't kill me in one hit or whatever (bosses mostly, mobs are nothing). The enemy I had to farm is a flying one and it simply doesn't spawn many in the few shroud areas it can spawn. I only found one larger area where maybe 3 spawned, other spots just had one. I have now found coal, which means I can craft a hand-warmer, but I also need a certain kind of leather, which I do not have. Hehehe

It was very sad to watch that event this morning; the woman was clearly panicking and trying to flee, and was murdered for it. This administration is starting to rack up quite a body count, and I can only expect it will get worse. Well the anti-ICE folks now have their cause célèbres, so the protest will likely ramp up. I'm not opposed to anti-illegal immigration policing per se, but somehow it needs to be made clear to this administration that the abuse level is completely unacceptible. However, I suspect that all the protesting in the world will have little impact on this ruler. He's just not quite right in the head.

Former CEO of Google spearheads 4 next-gen telescopes — 3 on Earth and 1 in space | Space

Poor Bruce.

Enshrouded: I found the snow biome. Or rather, I found some edges of it. I guess I didn't notice before because I've been using double-jump, gliding, and a lot of pickaxing to reach places before the game wants you to, I think. So I'm often in tunnels, or it's night, or --- Anyway - I glided and then made a tunnel upwards in this one spot. I hit patches of snow and new granite/blocks (I can now build snowmen). At one flat cliff ledge some way up, I plopped a base-altar. Good thing, since about 60 more seconds of tunneling upwards through rock, I wtf dropped dead, apparently from cold. Tried again, paid more attention, saw the tiny "frost death imminent" timer bar this time. So I went sideways. Found another snowy ledge, but this one had a nice, empty, pre-built fancy stone house. So I put a base altar in there as a foothold. there was a path upwards. So I tried again, just walking. Worked for a while, then that bar showed up again and I had to rush back down. I think it's "altitude" based, not the actual snow. Guess I need frost protection. I have zero idea how to get it. My altar stage is still only lvl 5, that's probably some of it. Each altar level (for me so far) has at least one (shroud) material required that is so annoying to get, even with 25+minute shroud-time. Either because of grind or getting lost finding a POI area or a spawn area etc. Dangit, guess I gotta grind.

The sad thing is, Volourn at his worst was never as bad as BruceVC at his best: at least Volourn was always exactly how he presented himself. I can appreciate that sort of sincerity, even if his behavior was generally kind of awful and usually not worth engaging with: he had real thoughts and beliefs, even some ones that didn't seem to follow what maybe anyone else in the world thinks, and he wasn't afraid to share them...and that's much better than all the "oh won't you please poop directly into my mouth" takes that BruceVC has always had.

Spent all day fighting with my AI agents and not in a cool Matrix way. The only bright side is that our jobs are safe for now. Happy New Year!!!!!

Most important thing in the trade deal is that coffee price should drop. I am am willing to let farmers to lose their livelihood for cheaper coffee

Why not, it's time to create new markets given how difficult China and the US have become.

@Bartimaeus reflecting on the motivation to get out a narrative asap (you can tell much about an individual's intellectual dishonesty by observing how they pick and choose which issues need immediate judgement sans reflection,) so that facts won't lead to provable defamation, it occurred to us that something more terrifying could happen post the recent tragedy in minneapolis. the officer who somehow managed to hold onto his cellphone and simultaneous shoot a woman in minneapolis in spite o' being struck (or almost struck... narrative keeps changing,) is gonna have a more difficult time explaining his actions precise 'cause he were the only law enforcement present who fired his weapon. rule: is legit to use deadly force in self defense, and defense of others, if there is a reasonable fear o' imminent bodily harm or death. there were multiple law enforcement present, and nobody else fired their weapon in defense o' the guy who were s'posed almost run down? is a reasonable person standard and there is other cops present who didn't feel compelled to shoot? what if border patrol and ice training changes to address this potential problem? in the past, an investigation would take place after a tragedy such as the one which occurred in minneapolis and then the relevant law enforcement agency would decide whether to sacrifice the officer as a bad apple, or to defend at all costs. the President, vp and secretary o' dhs all came out and defended the cop's actions within a couple hours o' the shooting, so am not expecting any kinda meaningful reflection. furthermore, given how this administration is attempting to avoid any accountability, there is the possibility that a reasonable and logical approach post shooting of ms. good is to train officers to be less reserved about shooting... seeing as there is no political cost being exacted by the republican base thus far, the lesson learned from this incident could very well be similar to the defamation conundrum. as ludicrous as it sounds, the chances o' suffering legal repercussions could be decreased by an intentional effort to behave less responsibly. am not saying ice and border patrol pedagogy will be altered to ensure agents shoot more reliably, 'cause that would be insane, right? ...

A GoFundMe for the fallen warrior is up

Started Octopath Traveler. Seems very good. Lots of JRPG tropes, but gameplay is interesting enough, I'm enjoying it. Looks like it has some hard achievements to get, but I'm a sucker for those, so I'll probably end up completing it.

It is better because it already has superb quality and an additional enchantment (Preservation) - but if you have a second shield user in the party it's better to let them use Little Savior (because everybody can equip it) and leave Outworn Buckler to Pallegina (because only Paladins can equip it). The main reason is: the Herald enchantment stacks with everything, even itself, so with both shields in the party you will apply +10 to all defenses instead of just +5. If you only have Pallegina as shield user in the party then yes: Little Savior is the better shield and you should use that instead of Outworn Buckler.

Thanks. I used Little Savior as her shield as that seemed like a straight upgrade to Outworn Buckler.

More amused than anything else, especially as I was so out of wack with my chronically terrible sleep that I got too sleepy and actually went to bed at 8 so I didn't see the game (though I did just watch the highlights after waking up a little bit ago), so while it's certainly another horrifically embarrassing and painful playoff loss (bonus points for being against the Bears!), I did at least have the good fortune of not watching it live. Deja vu of three weeks ago against the Bears but somehow even worse this time: 25 points given up in the 4th quarter? Yowch! It's been a very Jekyll and Hyde season for the Packers, but really, the Packers have been having these sorts of horrific playoff collapses under LaFleur since he got here, wonder if he's now in real danger of being let go after that. This Packers team did not have the legs to go the distance after losing about half its starters, most of them late into the season, but I did think there was a real possibility of them knocking off the Bears. Whoops. To fumble it like that is pretty inexcusable.

am lighting a candle and saying a prayer for the soul o' @Bartimaeus following the improbable packers v. bears playoff game. is only a few games we recollect with so many wtf moments. Matt LaFleur 'not coaching for his job' vs. Bears per Ian Rapoport hmmm. HA! Good Fun!

thank you President Drump

Exploring. Wonder what happened to them? Hmm, death by frozen pond. Poor lost souls. But they don't need that anymore - I'll take it, thanks. Stopping for the night.

The Varangian Guard would like to have a serious conversation with you

am not doubting doxxing is a genuine concern for federal law enforcement, but such has been an issue for all kinda cops for years. cops got a license to use force ordinary citizens do not possess. seems like an issue where we reasonable weigh the possible harms, yes? am admitted a teeny bit surprised just how passive the freedom loving and gadsen flag waving folks has been as fed cops in dark glasses and masks has become the norm. yeah, am getting that with the current polarization in the country, as long as the feds are attacking them (minorities, non south african foreigners, libs) as opposed to us, (white christian nationalists) then any possible hypocrisy accusation or shame is nullified, but we nevertheless thought a few more o' the don't tread on me people would be worried about what happens when the libs got power and began erecting their fema concentration camps targeting god-fearing americans. ... not joking about the fema camps thing. serious, do a search: alt-right, conspiracy, fema, concentration camps. but shame is dead, or dying. the internet provides anonymity to d-bags who wish to say things they would hesitate to utter aloud in public. cops who might otherwise hesitate to twist-up an abuelita 'cause o' fear somebody could be filming them is gonna be less restrained when wearing a mask. doxxing is a newish and real concern for law enforcement and am not completely numb to the fact the cop job, as difficult as it is, has become increasing hard 'cause who wants the aggravation? selective edited video could make saint francis appear to be a psychopathic animal molester. most cops cop get paid pretty well, but they also need take a whole lotta abuse and 'cause firearms is so widely accessible to the american population, the stress o' the job is rare worth the money. everybody expects cops to be superheroes who will run into oncoming fire to protect and serve, and given the nature o' the job, chances are high that if they make a mistake, somebody is gonna get hurt... and maybe even dead. unlike some, we don't expect every cop to be a highly trained sooper soldier with lighting fast processing skills and fantasy hero courage. at the same time, 'cause cops is authorized to use force on Gromnir if they got probable cause (recently a fed judge revealed that far too many dhs officers and leadership were under a mistaken belief that reasonable suspicion were enough to trigger use o' force,) am thinking it is not too much to ask that they is denied the faceless anonymity o' an internet troll. shame is not necessarily a bad thing... and am not just saying that 'cause we were raised catholic. HA! Good Fun! ps a weird auto-correct of "weigh"

we often get thickened soup with a surfeit o' bones, but am admitting this last iteration were... unique. we could slide our soup outta the container and cut off slices as needed. heck, am suspecting that with a transparent straw driven in the center, we could sculpt a venus de milo analogue outta the mass and it would retain its shape... although with the greenish-yellow hue and bits o' animal and vegetable matter it would be a venus + toxic avenger kinda monstrosity. maybe something to think about for next halloween. as an aside, am knowing we mentioned once or twice, and am suspecting shady were already keen aware, but for others reading, powdered gelatin will replicate the thickening and moisture retaining properties o' bones or veal. gelatin is fantastic stuff. the collagen from veal which keeps your meatloaf or meatballs tender may be included via a bit o' gelatin powder sans the veal. in fact, nowadays we never use veal for squeamish reasons, and gelatin makes us feel the loss almost not at all. also, instead o' thickening a stew with cornstarch, potato starch or flour, it is possible to achieve similar results with gelatin... although you gotta add the gelatin earlier in the cooking process than you would flour, so it takes a smidge more practice to get the quantity just right. part o' the problem with reducing a liquid is that as you cook off liquid, you are also cooking out flavour... the more wonderful is the cooking aromas in your home when making a stew, the greater (if still small) the tragedy 'cause all that beautiful smell is escaped flavour. 'course you are also concentrating the flavour by reducing, so... in any event, instant pot and gelatin is nifty options for keeping the flavour in a dish which ordinarily requires long cooking times and/or significant reductions. bone broth umami won't be replicated by gelatin, but in some instances you won't need the extra meat flavour. HA! Good Fun!

"The strikes came in response to a December attack on the residence of Russian leader Vladimir Putin, which Russia blamed on Ukraine." I thought everyone agreed already this never actually happened.

I'm sure you can appreciate the sad irony for your eternal refrain of waiting for the full story to come out against the actual legal reality requiring that someone speak as soon as humanly possible if they want to safely tell lies or drive an agenda...

I made a few delicious Jell-o soups before because of too many bones, and I always thought they were great too. Wife occasionally likes (for me) to make aspics, so I guess it all kind of fits.

am more likely to make pierogi, but am finding we like most dumpling variations, regardless o' cultural origin. however, am posting 'cause o' your mention o' bone broth. made chicken soup. is one o' the few soups we don't need add broth to 'cause am making the broth by boiling the chicken, right? the thing is, we still have a bunch o' frozen turkey bones from our thanksgiving birds and so we added turkey bones (which we had roasted in an air fryer before freezing) when we were boiling our chicken in anticipation o' making soup. ... perhaps we added a few too many bones, 'cause the couple quarts o' soup we did not freeze and instead refrigerated has become a solid mass o' gelatin. we got a weird looking and extreme dense jell-o mold instead o' what you would expect from a soup. tastes delicious, so... whatever. HA! Good Fun!

am thinking @Malcador and similar posters learned their lesson and am not seeing the need to embarrass them with their initial failure o' imagination (reasonable and understandable) followed by a curious obstinate reluctance to ignore just how different were the trump threat compared to previous examples o' bad Presidents from post ww2. converse, people who has invoked TDS as a response to those critical o' trump post january 6 deserve the same scorn and ridicule as the seth rich conspiracy nutters... and people who set off fireworks after midnight multiple days before or after holidays such as new years, chinse new years and the fourth of july. it were raining here on new years, so once the weather cleared a few folks in our neighborhood felt justified in firing off their unused arsenals a couple days later. not cool. sadly, suing kriti noem for her defamation is gonna be difficult... and perhaps surprising, her dhs post ain't what is insulating her from deserved legal punishment. maybe hurl has heard us caution people against speaking out before facts is clear. has been a few doozy examples where we highlighted that the rush to craft a narrative in the absence o' evidence has a tendency to mark the lightning quick pundits as clowns and fools... not that such happening over and over again has slowed those most egregious purveyors o' stoopid even a little. so it goes. unfortunate, the lack o' facts, or at least the possibility o' a counter-narrative before accepted facts is widely available, results in a legal defense to slander even if such behavior is moral repugnant. most o' us believe that government figures should have facts straight before they make accusations o' criminal behavior or moral turpitude, but that ain't a rule for kristi noem anymore than it is for the clowns posting on this board. when discussing matters o' public interest, or when speaking o' individuals who is loosely defined as public figures, you may only receive damages if you are able to prove that the speaker knew (or should have known... which gets a little fuzzy at the margins, eh?) they were lying when they made their outlandish utterance. krisit noem has shown time and again that she is not only extreme ignorant but that she will speak before it is even possible to know a truth. as far as we can tell, her definition o' domestic terrorist is less a legal identifier than it is a label o' political affiliation, and at the moment, there is literal millions o' fox news, newsmax and oan viewers who has only seen selected video o' the incident which could be interpreted in such a way that the victim o' the minneapolis shooting were trying to run down an ice agent. go after kristi noem for her abject stoopid is no easier than winning a court judgement against your fellow boardies who misspoke about police shootings in wisconsin or the unfortunate events at Uvalde. is functional your right as an american to blow your ignorant load. ... also, and am feeling gross even mentioning, but the victim o' the shooting is dead, so kristi is further insulated from legal pain. is much more difficult (although not impossible) for surviving family members to be successful plaintiffs in defamation cases. if the victim had survived, brought a defamation claim, and then died, her family might be able to continue her defamation claim, depending on the state. regardless, as a general rule, you cannot defame a dead person... except in texas. aside, even if kristi noem were held legal responsible, american tax payers would cover the damages. HA! Good Fun!

Honestly, the vast majority of series would probably be improved by swapping out the ending for playing Come Sweet Death while humanity is merged into a collective being. Unironically, Omedetou out of nowhere is better than 90% of what actually happens. But at the very least in this case, it would show exactly what Vecna was trying to do. The Mindflayer is already capable of manifesting irl, or at least was until they retconned it into a D-tier Godzilla enemy, so his plan had to have been more than just bridging the gap between worlds to invade it from Mexico The Abyss. I'm struggling to articulate this well, but my thoughts on the final season is that it is at the same time too long and too short (ie bloated runtime without doing anything real) as well as that it feels like it was made to end an alternative series where evil Sarah Connor was a threat from the start or the supernatural hell dimension was always just a bridge. Like my memory is not the best but the Abyss just came out of nowhere and just contradicts the feel of every existing monster.

JD Vance is a sniveling pig man who doesn't even have the spine to defend his wife and children.

Wrecking Crew looks fun.

I'm hoping the family of the deceased go after Kristi Noem for calling her a domestic terrorist. The lack of accountability in our government is crazy right now. In most administrations these types fo terrible comments would lead to resignations. In this administration, it is just another Tuesday.

I guess Terra Invicta released version 1.0, so I might give it a whirl. I played it like 3 years ago, so who knows what it is like now.

Necro'ing to say that this build was as fun as advertised. Thanks for the work to build and share it. I completed a BPM Triple Crown - kill all the things - run and the poet carried the group! I swapped out chanter for Fury Shaper barbarian, which was slightly less fast (if my math is correct), but equally fun. I found myself not messing much with the imbues because of expert mode, but it ran on auto-pilot for the most part, which is another kind of bonus. @Aestus and @thelee talk about this in their class tier list conversation, but having a strong build that can run well without much micro, is great in RTWP party play, where there is a finite limit to player micro capacity. Great for Megabosses - somewhat trivializes HoW and Belranga, who can be interrupted.

A non-democratic government can clearly be legitimate, in the sense of being legal in the context of that nation's judicial system. The validity of their claims to be a democracy is another matter; no I don't believe Venezuela is a democracy any longer. They're what I dub a "mockracy" -- pretending to be a democracy for propaganda purposes.

There is an attack roll. Most likely you only fought vessels who have weak deflection so far. Two consecutive hits doesn't mean you're not allowed to miss in between. You can hit, miss and hit again and Double Tap still destroys the vessel. The thing with the Red Hand's Double Tap is: only works against enemies of lower level than you. And it only works against vessels. It's awesome in general, but that are its limitations - which means you cannot rely on it 100% as backup weapon. If you meet vessels who are of equal or higher level it will not destroy them. If you meet pierce immune, non-vessel enemies (some blights for example) it will also not help you. It also gives you -10 accuracy because you are devoted to pistols. But if it works for you so far then that's great of course. Still I would try to get Eccea's Arcane Blaster at some point. There's a scripted interaction on the way there you need to pass with some skill checks. If you did that successfully you can catch Eccea (the foe who carries the pistol) while she's alone, guarding the entrance to a cave. There it's not too difficult to kill her and loot the pistol. Return later for the rest of her party (it's quite a challenging fight). Then you'll have an excellent backup weapon for all sorts of enemies. No one is immune to raw damage and you'll have a pistol with no accuracy drawback. It also has a very good second modal that adds elemental damage on top.

Wife and her friend had made pelmeni so i cooked up a bone broth because I love them in broth. Topped with sour cream and Russian mustard and green onions and dill. Kids literally drank the entire pot of broth.

Devoted with pistol is a bit difficult because there is only one pistol that doesn't do pierce damage. So if you face enemies who are immune to pierce damage you are a bit screwed(you'll have to eat a -10 accuracy malus if you want to use any other type of weapon or pick Monastic Unarmed Training for fists). The pistol that does raw damage (Eccea's Arcane Blaster) is not easy to get early. But I would try now. Critical hits do PEN *1.5 automatically. I don't recall if Penetrating Crit does add +2 before the 1.5 multiplier or after. Before would be better of course. If it doesn't display the bonus at all it's maybe bugged? Since crits already do PEN*1.5 (which is more than enough, especially on a Devoted), I never bothered with Penetrating Crits but chose the +25% damage variant instead.

Hello, So in both Grounded and Grounded 2 we all see them all over the place when enter Ominet facilities. It would be nice if we can collect some of those coffee mugs and display them at our bases. While I have that in thought, why can't we have a display for all the trinkets that we find in our adventure instead of throwing them in a chest. I may be asking too much here but it would be cool to have a few plates at our kitchen table. I hope the Creators will think on this. Anyway, I am having a good time playing both Grounded and Grounded 2. You guys are doing GREAT!!!!! Thank you

Here's the pitch..... Eugenics.

There are three viable paladin builds for solo: paladin/troubadour, paladin/blood mage and paladin/forbidden fist (technically the priest works too, but any class works with the priest and the paladin isn't the optimal choice). There are no specific builds because they follow some simple principles - stack defenses, armor and healing. For the herald you can also see the solo videos on YT for items/stats/abilities/skills. The paladin comes with increased passive defenses (Faith and Conviction), armor and healing (Exalted Endurance, Stoic Steel), while the other class adds more healing and especially pets (which combined with Bardatto's Luxury ability will add basically another 2AR). Some key items are Magnera's Chain (which allows to achieve high resists against all damage types on top of for/will buffs), Lethandria's Devotion (main shield giving more healing and defenses), Wintertide Bulwark (backup shield used for the deflection buff which stays the entire fight even when you switch to another shield), Cadhu Scalth (backup shield used for increased deflection, damage reduction and modal). For weapons - Bardatto's Luxury, Modwyr and Animancer's Energy Blade. Another key element to these builds is stacking resting bonuses. For example, the herald can achieve over 170 in all defenses, 19+AR and heal 40+hp every 3s, which makes him virtually unkillable.

Arcane Archer/Ascendant with Frostseeker/Essence Interrupter is very fun and versatile. Pale elf mystic of course with bear pet bodyguard... Once you can use scrolls of Avenging Storm and Imbue:Eora you will feel almost like cheating. If you equip a companion with items with "Reflect against Spells" (Mirrorback, Collar of Eothas' Light, Cabalist's Gambeson) you can also reflect Ancestor's Memory on yourself if you repeatedly cast it on him. For companions Eder, Aloth, Pallegina and Xoti are solid choices.

Essence Interrupter of course - for the shock damage and the range mostly. Amaliorra or Eccea Arcane Blaster are also viable but require a penetration buff and you have to be closer to Dorudugan...

I think Helwalker/Priest of Berath is a nice combo. Monk's/Helwalker's abilities increase melee as well as casting capabilities. You can add two further lashes (shock and burn) as well as up to +15 MIG and +2 PEN to the Spiritual Great Sword, have +10 INT for huge AoEs and long durations and so on.

Assassin/tactician using Eccea's Arcane Blaster works very well for solo, just as with an arquebus.

This build wasn't intended for solo play, but I guess trying it wouldn't hurt. Merciless Hand just gives a bit more crit damage which isn't very helpful in the really difficult fights (in which you won't crit a lot in the first place) - so I personally would go for Second Skin. At least that will give you some value in every fight.

A very big point of the game is to play with other people, to not be alone, etc, and having no spliscreen defeats that purpose. I can’t play with anyone without splitscreen, and I know I am not the only one.

I second this. I really hope this will be fixed as soon as possible since this is a very frustrating bug.