Keyrock

Squeenlight.

Agreed. Not having to taint your party by including a filthy elf is always a bonus.

Might be able to get away with an all hybrid caster party: 2 X Shaman 2 X Rune Priest Both classes can master in melee and both can wear medium armor. No dark magic, though.

I would imagine there's little to no getting around an all caster party being a serious drain on your money, since even with high mysticism skill and spirit, you're still going to be chugging mana potions or using up supplies all the time due to not having anyone in the party that can effectively deal good amounts of damage without spending mana.

I'm assuming that once you complete the quest for the astrologer in Seahaven he will leave my party and I won't be able to hire him any more, correct? If that is the case I will avoid finishing his quest for as long as possible so that I can keep him in my party and get the 10% exp bonus he grants.

Another night, another monster performance from KD. Slim Reaper dropped 41 on the Hawks on a highly efficient 15 for 25 shooting, including the game winner with 1.5 seconds left. This is now the 11th straight 30+ game for KD, the longest since T-Mac's EPIC 14 game streak in 2003 (pre-injuries T-Mac was a force of nature). Durant is shooting close to 60% during the streak. His season PPS (points per shot) of 1.58 is tied for the league lead (with LeBron and Dwight), meaning he's not only scoring more points than anyone else (by a large margin), he's also doing it with maximum efficiency. I'm definitely looking forward to the game in Miami on Thursday. It should be a really fun game to watch. Too bad Russ won't be playing, but at least it seems D-Wade will, so the star power is still going to be spectacular.

So after I beat the game with my current party, the challenge will be to beat the game with an all archer/crossbowman party, on warrior difficulty, naturally.

I'm not particularly concerned with min-maxing the game. I just play the character classes I want to play.

Oden played 13 minutes in a win over the Spurs yesterday. Didn't put up much in the way of stats, but it's nice to see him getting minutes more regularly. Stay healthy, big fella.

I haven't gotten into late game yet, but, at least early on, bows and crossbows are far from useless.

You can, and I have. Besides, the analogy fails because a tie is a fashion item, its sole purpose is aesthetic. A greataxe is a weapon, its purpose is functional. That top spike serves no function because i's too short.

It seems like, much like the Witcher games, the protagonists look is set in stone. This would obviously make much of the development much easier, not having to allow for different body shapes, sizes, and looks in equipment design, cutscenes, etc. Also, as Zoraptor stated, medieval Europe was a very mesculine dominated society. Allowing you to play a female character would force extra work for the programmers and designers in tailoring equipment to different body shapes and changing the responses of NPCs to the gender of the character (if you're not going to have different responses depending on gender, what difference does it make whether you play a male or female character?). You can get away with gender choice in fantasy games because you can always just say that in this world genders are treated more or less equally, but if you're going for something historically accurate from the medieval period, then males and females would need to play differently. So the question becomes, is the extra work in allowing gender choice in the budget? Also, is it worth the extra work involved?

I personally think the day/night cycle is pretty close to just right. It could stand to be slightly longer, but as it is it's pretty well set up to allow you to take full advantage of shrines. Shrines are not automatically marked on your map, but you can make your own map markers and notes. I always make a note to specify whether the shrine is active during the day or at night. Then I plan out my trip so that I hit up a night shrine right near the end of the night, then hit up as many day shrines as it is convenient on the way to a dungeon (or vice versa). The effects last long enough that getting buffed up from three or four shrines can make a massive difference in the dungeon.

I got the axe weapon augment from the CtA event: Why include a top spike on an axe if it doesn't extend past the axe head? Anyway, I'm done with the event. i don't care about brutal enchantments and no other rewards interest me.

I just always assumed this sort of thing happened (and still does) all the time. When I read these reports I just shrug and say "par for the course". It's pretty standard practice for large, powerful corporations (not just in the video game industry) to use their wealth and power to sway public opinion, either by paying off people to speak more positively about their products, or to dissuade people from their competitor's products by spreading FUD and threatening legal action (patent trolling and such). This sort of thing has existed in one form or another since the beginning of civilization.

Another hint for people starting out: Level up Primordial Magic to expert early on and buy the Identify spell. It will save you a lot of money in the long run.

Off the top of my head: Roy Hibbert, Paul George, danny Granger, Lance Stephenson... ... that's all I got. Paul George has arguably been the 3rd best player in the NBA this season.

Yep. Co-signed.

I just killed Mamushi on my 3rd try (he knocked me off the top of the lighthouse the first 2 times). I had brought just enough mana potions as I had none left after the fight, though I did have a couple of elixirs and a bunch of health potions. That's one fight that definitely would have been easier with a mage-heavy party since Mamushi blocks physical attacks so much and deals retribution damage. Good times.

It is. Slim Reaper was back on the court tonight after resting his sore shoulder for a game. He had a run of the mill 32-14-10 triple double with 70.5% shooting. It's his 10th straight game with at least 30 points, matching the longest such streak in the past decade (LeBron and Kobe are the others to have a 10 game streak in the past decade).

I've been playing mostly Might & Magic X. I did the bandit lair and I've cleared out most of the lighthouse. I think I've gotten the whole thing cleared except for the boss fight at the top, but I headed back to Soprigal to stock up on potions and to repair my worn equipment. The battle where I was surrounded by 2 Kenshi and 2 elite Kenshi was brutal on Warrior difficulty and I needed to use up a lot of my potions to survive. The boss fight should be pretty epic. I also played a bit of Neverwinter Online, doing the current Call to Arms skirmish event. I'm halfway to getting the weapon augment, which is the only thing that interests me in this event.

I am no RPG nerd, my good sir. I am a RPG dweeb. Blackguards has been mentioned many times in various threads, mostly the "What Are You Playing?" thread. It's definitely a game I plan to pick up eventually, but my cup already overfloweth, partially due to the M&MX you mentioned.

This is the same complaint I have about GRID and GRID2. They constantly place you at or near the back of the pack and the races aren't long enough that I can wait to pick and choose my passing locations, like I would were this a real race (and I a real race car driver). On the higher difficulty settings you simply cannot afford to wait for good passing opportunities because the lead pack will be so far ahead of you half a lap into a 3 lap race that it will be physically impossible for you to catch up to them and you can forget about a podium finish. So what I am forced to do is stuff the car in kamikaze style in the first couple corners and pray the bounces go my way and I don't wind up spun out. The vast majority of the times I get spun out and I have to restart the race. Lather rinse repeat an average of 10 times or so until I get the miracle start I need to have a chance. That's not racing, that's rolling the dice and frustration. There is no skill involved it's the racing equivalent of save scumming. Save scumming is not fun.

If FG% is the end all and be all of what makes an MVP then I guess DeAndre Jordan is the league MVP. Also, I'd argue that it was Dwayne (I always spell that wrong) Dwyane Wade that elevated LeBron's game. How many championships did LeBron win before he joined Flash's team? Before LeBron joined the Heat, and even during the first season with the Heat, LeBron lacked the mentality to be a killer and wilted in big situations (remember when the Celtics made him pretty much quit on his team?). It was Wade that instilled the assassin mentality in him.

So you're predicting that the Pacers will knock the Heat out of the playoffs, Volo? Dang, while that's certainly a possibility, I wouldn't go that far. The Heat have always (always meaning the last 2 years) been able to flip a switch in the playoffs and take it to another level. We don't know if what the Pacers got is enough to beat Miami running on all cylinders and in 5th gear, or if the Pacers can put it into 5th gear themselves. That's a bold prediction, man.