Gromnir

am gonna suggest a priest. only two classes benefit from being played as the main character: paladin and priest. with a large catalog o' buffs, the priest is a powerful force multiplier for a party, but the class also has offensive capabilities which have, 'til recent, been extreme underrated. take scion o' flame and burn everything with your numerous fire-based spells. seal spells count as hazards, but they target as foe-only, so you can get silly kinda accuracy from a number o' powerful spells. take your deity's weapon focus talent and you can be effective with 1-2 weapons, and the soulbound opportunities late in the game make for curious additional options. we would recommend a two-priest party for anybody wanting to play a main character priest. the party buffs for a priest are so efficacious, you will likely find yourself doing little other than buffing/healing. buffing/healing can be boring. two priests frees up one priest to do all those other things at which which priests excel other than buffs. again, only two classes benefit from being played as a main character. priest is one o' those classes. priests are extreme powerful and highly flexible. HA! Good Fun!

am also thinking we woulda' worked out something different for snowden lucky for him we weren't in charge o' anything. HA! Good Fun! ps mostly joking... kinda.

I didn't say it, I just paraphrased what a pundit said. *chuckle* been down this road 'fore. you got our sympathy. and in reference to earlier comments, yeah, libby got 30 months (don't quote us on that number, but am reasonable sure we is at least close) for perjury (2 counts?), obstruction and making a false statement to feds. not espionage. chelsea got a 35 year sentence for espionage. HA! Good Fun!

http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/counselors/freshman/profiles/ other than riverside, santa cruz and merced, the median gpa is better than 4.0. gonna be similar in texas and ny and other states with major public university systems. am suspecting this is part o' the conundrum for universities when utilizing gpa. if everybody is getting good grades as kinda a participation trophy, they don't mean much. how does one distinguish students and determine likelihood o' success? we can't speak to open enrollment... at all. we know community colleges exist, and if we were to advise a young person 'bout college in ca, we would much recommend spending first 2 years at a community college, and saving a whole lotta money. from having taken a few cc classes over the years, am recollecting one needs only have a pulse, proof of residency and enough cash to cover ever increasing tuition for admissions. so am kinda confused 'bout what we are speaking o'. HA! Good Fun!

so gpa has been a factor. also, the ca system has been in place since 1971. http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/freshman/california-residents/index.html top 9% statewide or local, and local is not taking standardized test scores into account at all. is one reason uc had to open uc merced. ca residents were no longer being able to attend uc schools in spite o' achieving 9%. dunno. most private schools is actual more flexible and willing to take a gestalt approach as they need not answer to statutory guidelines. find a good candidate who not have ideal test scores or ideal gpa or some kinda other issue, but nevertheless impresses admissions, well then Private has always found ways to admit. and the big state schools, such as texas and ca, frequent use similar to what we linked 'bove... and is almost always tethered to class rank... which is obvious dependent 'pon gpa. HA! Good Fun!

am not aware o' the major university which had previous ignored gpa, so... HA! Good Fun!

if that were the case in real life, as 'posed to a couple o' studies, then just as many kids from schools such as Gromnir's would be having success in university as would those from exeter. we had typical bell curve. we also had many kids be accepted to university. we didn't go to our reunions, but our school, CVS (not the drug store) were part o' a study showing just how terrible were inner city schools at producing college graduates and working professionals. resulted in massive changes. grades is important as it reveals diligence 'n such. universities do not discount grades. grades is still important. many will claim grades is most important... while at same time providing median sat/act scores and acknowledging how negligible amounts o' incoming freshman score below a certain number on the standardized tests. why? universities don't have any motivation to wanna fail students. universities work very hard to increase diversity, and not simple racial. get more students from diverse backgrounds has been a goal at most universities for decades. let's not discount the studies which show how it is unfair to students to place 'em in universities where they is predictable (based largely on sat scores) gonna fail. mere recognizing such studies got Scalia in trouble, but they is real and it is clear that while Universities don't wanna be hamstrung by such, they is behaving as if sat scores is still pivotal. reliance on sat is not 'cause the folks who run Universities is dumb or obtuse. folks most likely to actual observe student success and failure at university is the ones still using sat. just as we don't discount hurl observations 'bout standardized tests being an accurate measure o' student learning, we sure ain't gonna dismiss university behavior. standardized tests is crude, and woeful ill fitting for certain subject matter. they do not reveal a student's capacity to learn. however, they do measure what students have learned, and they is still a mighty useful tool for Universities when predicting success. HA! Good Fun!

Strange but true (from the examinations on the subject I've read) - even with acknowledging grade inflation, High School GPA is a better predictor of Freshman college success than SAT/ACT scores. have seen the opposite. sure, there is an oft cited study from 2014 which claims gpa is more important, but the methodology has been called into question. understandable. 3.5 gpa at Grumm Public High School in hoboken is a far different thing than a 3.5 from St. Thomas Aquinas Private Academy. hurl is a teacher, and so too is his wife, no? she works with a less privileged cross-section o' the student demographic, no? is a B awarded for same level achievement at her school as is at hurl's? doubt it. lord knows the high school we attended were a joke. show up to class and don't get busted for drug or weapon possession would result in starting point o' a C. heck, we had to pass through a metal detector to get into our school. would be silly to assume we were getting same level o' education and being awarded similar indicative grades as the kids going to Exeter. am thinking most important is recent studies show how in spite o' the 2014 study, universities still value sat/act most. why? 'cause universities actual must place students and counsel students and fail students. universities got the actual experience o' dealing with those incoming freshman. and personal, we loved the sat. were impersonal. were bloodless. were fair. go ahead and assume Gromnir don't belong and only got into Cal 'cause of affirmative action if you want to, but be sure to compare your sat to ours 'fore you get all uppity and self-righteous. we honest considered getting our sat and lsat scores tattooed on our bicep, but we suspected our grandmother woulda' been mighty disappointed. HA! Good Fun!

am thinking the problem with standardized testing is more 'bout how, as implemented, the system influences the teaching o' subject matter. few teachers will admit, but there is significant pressure, at multiple levels, to teach the test. schools don't meet benchmarks and they suffer. teachers don't meet benchmarks and they suffer. for any number o' subjects, standardized testing is an imperfect measure o' student learning, but it is objective and far more useful than many teachers would wanna admit. literature and poetry? *sigh* fiction is rare crafted like an essay and yet we ask for similar analysis from students. different authors have different process. nevertheless, even if an author is a compulsive outliner, rare does a finished work take us where the author had original intended us to be. for many, writing is 'bout achieving a state wherein the author believes himself to be a conduit for the story or characters or poem or whatnot. ask what an author's intent is/was will be doomed 'cause author, if honest, frequent don't know complete and certain why they described __________ as ___________. ask an author ten years removed from writing and you might even get a different answer. such subject matter is not gonna lend itself to standardized testing. the thing is, much education nowadays is complete bass ackwards. particular with access to the internet, knowing facts is less impressive than it once were. 'course the internet also makes it more difficult for kids to genuine learn to learn. learn How to learn is the most important skill, and yet the internet has a tendency to stifle the growth o' such ability. before internet access, one could ask students to look for symbolism and extended metaphor in moby **** and then compare and contrast to mary shelly's frankenstein. even if your high school student were finding much on such subjects in a local school library, being able to compare/contrast shelly and melville woulda' required individual analysis by the student. today? rather detailed analysis is gonna be available for any work an instructor is likely to have access to. internet has also made such subjective analysis less so. get enough internet sources repeating a specific conclusion 'bout frankenstein and what were once an interpretation becomes the interpretation. teaching lit 20 years ago to high school students were less 'bout making sure students knew the answers, but rather it were 'bout the process o' a student discovering and creating answers to questions w/o a genuine answer. nowadays, kids will, in a matter o' nanoseconds, have access to even the most esoteric knowledge. no sweat. no toil. no uncertainty. no new pathways created in the brain as the child tries to puzzle and problem solve. teach kids how to learn should be #1 goal. standardized tests measure what a kid has learned. is a disconnect. is nothing wrong with the standardized. unfortunate, far less effort is going into teaching kids how to learn. HA! Good Fun!

more mr. hamill reading trump tweets as the joker https://audioboom.com/posts/5495377-return-of-the-trumpster in case you missed the first bit o' magic. https://audioboom.com/posts/5471405-the-trumpster-quote-1 HA! Good Fun!

or perhaps HA! Good Fun!

boxlessness is an art, but boxing is the sweet science. ah, the beautiful vagaries o' language. the only art Gromnir has mastered is transcendental napping. HA! Good Fun!

what is terrible is how some folks will never realize what is lost. as a southerner, am expecting gd has experienced a college football game day, yes? watch a college football game or baseball game at the actual sporting venue is not the same as watching on tv or via internet. in fairness, is not always better to watch spectacles live and in-person, but such entertainments is different when experienced direct. live entertainment offers a whole range o' sights and sounds and smells and Scale not capable o' replication via any kinda media. and like it or not, as social primates, a spectacle experienced as a group o' thousands touches 'pon some primitive part o' our ape brains. is different. perhaps all things do fade, but we can nevertheless feel diminished. HA! Good Fun!

closed for business http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/ct-ringling-bros-circus-shutting-down-20170114-story.html kids can still run off and join a circus, but they cannot run away to join the circus. end of an era. maybe a good thing? animal rights activists will no doubt applaud. dunno. we first saw the ringling bros circus at the original madhouse on madison back in the early 70s. the event were pretty spectacular for a kid from the rez. oh well. HA! Good Fun!

am agreeing with one exception: the caps. am realizing the wehrmacht uniforms, which clear inspired the empire design philosophy, included field caps similar to the empire officer bonnets, but c'mon man. such hats is more apropos for pasty, english school boys in short pants than military officers. HA! Good Fun!

suggestions: lokai or bele. shady or manifested might get it w/o google help. HA! Good Fun!

http://cdn01.androidauthority.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/soccer-stadium_stubhub.jpg am actual hoping it takes a long time to build a new stadium. would love to watch pro football games at such a cozy stadium. HA! Good Fun!

condolences to manifested. that being said, am serious considering buying a couple o' tickets to charger games while they play (prospective) at the stubhub center. no doubt am gonna need pay ridiculous prices, but will be worth it. 'cause who wouldn't wanna watch an nfl game at a 30k field? HA! Good Fun!

Fair point, I should have said "some people" - it's definitely not the first time I've seen someone talk about high Intellect making no sense for a Barbarian - but you're right that for many people the problem is more that it's just replacing one norm (dumb muscled brute) with another (intelligent low finesse brute) rather than giving allowing a new option. I'd say the Obsidian came a lot closer than most (class based) CRPGs in achieving the "there are no bad stats" and "every class can benefit from every stat" objectives, but I agree that the Barbarian is one of the classes where this feels less true. as much as we loathe class-based systems, we have to admit obsidian did a fantastic job making the gameplay o' each class unique while also maximizing options and freedom. can find dozens o' threads in which we applaud obsidian initial class building efforts. which is why Gromnir is genuine surprised as developers continue to use the genius barbarian as a poster child for poe's flexibility. is so many better options to illustrate what poe does well 'stead o' using an example which would be one o' the most glaring development flaws o' the barbarian class. as you observed, obsidian largely took the "dumb muscled brute" and replaced it with another equal limited "norm." HA! Good Fun! ps am less than approving many o' the post release obsidian improvements of classes. in a rush to improve classes via patches and the expansions, am thinking obsidian often broke more than they fixed. the fighter, for example, were much transformed post release, and not for the better. sure, the fighter became more powerful, but it now resembles something it was clear intended to avoid: a d&d 1e-3.5e fighter. go back and look at the class intro threads posted during development. http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/66380-update-81-the-front-line-fighters-and-barbarians/ am thinking something were lost in all the various class additions post release.

our poe hours, as measured by steam, are gross inflated. 'cause 'o long initial population time of saved games, we will frequent load poe menu, and then... nothing. get busy with work or whatever, but game runs and generates hours of gameplay while Gromnir is doing something complete different. similar, after playing for thirty minutes to an hour, we might quit to menu w/o complete exiting game. heck, have had more than a couple saturdays and/or sundays during which we accumulated +8 hours of gameplay while we were actual walking the dogs or making a white bean cassoulet or whatever. HA! Good Fun!

It might be a case of things getting lost in translation, but that sounds a lot like "Barbarians shouldn't use Intellect" to me. As for Intellect being required for a Barbarian, I'd agree that it is perhaps the most obviously useful Attribute for the class, but you're not going to be gimping yourself that much if you went with, say, Intellect 10. Dumping your Intellect down to 3 is probably possible too, though you'll essentially be playing without Carnage and so the Barbarian will be rather different. disingenuous as josh. you made a generalization 'bout "people." plural. and your own suggested build in this thread? no recommended build in this thread uses less than 15 for int. so, let's be honest, yes? and yeah, as Gromnir has noted elsewhere, the starting attributes is less important in poe than in most other crpgs. that being said, josh (more than once) specific used a high intelligence barbarian as an example o' how a player can play against stereotype in poe. regardless o' your personal notions, even the developers were tacit conceding that the norm for a barbarian would be other than a genius barbarian. one need only look at this thread to recognizing how a genius barbarian is hardly a quirky-but-fun build. in poe, the genius barbarian IS the norm. as we observed earlier, you can play a low-intelligence barbarian, but you are clear working 'gainst the game mechanics by doing so. possible more than any other class in poe, the barbarian overwhelming benefits from a single ability and a single attribute. is poor design considering the espoused poe development goals, and josh observation 'bout genius barbarians is backasswards given he is speaking direct 'bout how much freedom poe gives the player to create different and unique builds. the poe genius barbarian is norm and not an example o' quirky unique. in a game which boasts o' character generation options, it is more than passing strange how playing the barbarian crpg stereotype would actual be the challenging proposition. HA! Good Fun!

seems to be confusion. the problem with the barbarian ain't the possibility o' being smarty, but rather how poe makes smarty an essential barbarian quality. developers said multiple times how a goal o' poe would be abandoning class defining abilities and attributes. carnage is 'bout as class defining as anything in d&d editions 1-3.5, and intelligence is inextricable linked to carnage. so go ahead and make a barbarian in poe who ain't smarty. you can do it, but you are clear handicapping self... which is antithetical to poe character development goals. so when josh crows 'bout how you can play a smarty barbarian in poe, we can't help but think o' old mr. boffo. HA! Good Fun!

all those years o' fantasy movies and novels has ruined us. we look at the scenes o' snow at the acropolis and it feels incomplete. am waiting for the swarm o' winged demons, and perhaps an angry greek god to emerge all backlit and spookified. HA! Good Fun!

To be fair, we were in the 8th iteration or so of that thread, so it got locked as much because it had run its course than anything else. well, it is 2017, so the thread were always on borrowed time. just sayin'. HA! Good Fun!

there is extra lines of dialogue for a priest of wael. 2 total? however, in a supreme bit o' irony, one needs honest disposition of at least 2 to access. deceptive is a wael disposition. soooo... HA! Good Fun!