Gromnir

sounds fun. our current preferred sosiel caster build is to take one level o' cross blood sorc and go cold. is a relic shield which adds 1 point per die on cold damage spells. is wintersun armour which provides +1 per die elemental damage (including cold). through mythic feats, am gonna get 2 more per die damage for cold and am of course having ascendent element cold as well as the water elemental bloodline power which converts all energy spells to cold. 4 pts per die unavoidable cold damage maybe doesn't sound great until you do the math. quickened cold hellfire rays is resulting in +360 bonus cold damage in a round. HA! Good Fun! ps "maybe" were placed wrong

somebody is not paying attention or perhaps is aiming for willful obtuse. "loophole" is an inappropriate way to describe if it were determined that hurl and his wife paid $3k more than were appropriate. what hurl references were a settlement and not a punitive damages situation, which means hispanic and african american borrowers on average were likely cheated considerable worse than the $3k. and have had this discussion previous regarding cost o' living in places such as nyc and why the guy in san francisco who cleans p00p off of sidewalks made $70k a year as base salary. live in san jose is so expensive that hurl has little more disposable wealth than the teachers in rural tn and tx receiving a relative pittance. only monetary advantage for hurl over tx teachers is probable retirement 'cause he and wife may take their money earned over decades and then go live in brownsville, tx. HA! Good Fun!

our opinion is kinda reversed from yours, but that sure don't make us right. explanation: one reason blasters is popular in wotr is 'cause they do not rely on spell dc, and 'cause is ez to overcome high sr. touch ac is often a negligible hurdle to overcome . yeah, particular later in the game as you want your siroccos, chain lightnings and storm bolts to reliable do damage or prone and/or stun, the dcs for blasters is a real concern, and you may simultaneous raise your dcs o' at least one other school via the expanded arsenal mythic, but practical speaking, is only a few highly specialized wotr caster builds which is focused on generating high dc. the stat bloat kp laments requires highly focused efforts on behalf o' the player at generating proportional caster dc bloat. converse, an oracle angel may ignore dc entire and spam bolt and storm o' justice for wins, precise 'cause dcs is such a non factor for the angel spellbook. we went for eight levels o' court poet with seelah for our azata sorc run, and the sorc benefited only marginal from the dc increase o' +2. with a full court poet we coulda' managed a +3 modifier to charisma (and int), which ultimate were not worth the effort in our estimation as eleven levels o' paladin resulted in seelah having mark o' justice. worked out well enough for us particularly as seelah's mark of justice and smites were improved by her own court poet inspirations... and lann's celestial velociraptor also benefited. if you go the blaster route, ember only benefits a little from the dc boost and her hexes is so fantastic 'cause there isn't saves. converse, go enchantment with ember and and any dc boost is vital. is possible to make nenio an excellent blaster, with levels o' arcane trickster and a single level o' crossblood sorc, in which case dcs is again a nice bonus but not essential. instead go the illusion route with nenio to maximize impact o' phantasmal killer and weird makes court poet boosts valuable. etc. court poet is fantastic, but is the skald variation one need be most concerned 'bout building the ideal party to exploit. vanilla skald, on the other hand, is gonna benefit just 'bout any party. for example, if you got a party o' melee combatants, then the extra natural attacks and stacking bonus to natural ac (barkskin and the beast totem stuff stack) is gonna be a meaningful upgrade, and is not as if you are limited to animal fury and the beast totem powhaz. three extra natural attacks and pounce, all o' which make a crit more likely. if you built your party to take advantage o' seize the moment and ever ready, all those extra attacks is making essential crits more likely, yes? the lethal stance stuff is also representing a noteworthy increase in damage output for your party. we seen how folks mention that the only way to get 24 hour benefit from haste is with a lich build. not true. admitted is a capstone feature o' skald, but master skald simultaneous perma hastes and and removes any negative rage penalties, so even your casters is free to enjoy skald stance advantages at endgame. other skald stance stuff is gonna be useful although beast and lethal is our favorites. am less a fan o' the fiend totem stuff, but am able to see benefits. smell is underrated 'cause it acts like echolocation. the reckless stance line is underrated as is one o' the ways to generate stratospheric ab bonuses. unless it has been nerfed, inspire ferocity, which seems like a wasted ability for a skald, functional doubles the benefits o' reckless stance. so at level 20 you are seeing +12 ab? skald is kinda insane with the shared stances and is gonna benefit a large range o' party loadouts, however, if you is having dc focused casters and paladins in your party, then court poet is a serious contender as the best option. HA! Good Fun! ps am admitted still grumpy 'bout our waterfall fail with our azata sorc. was such a good plan to max conjuration dcs to exploit waterfall, and the spell works fine 'gainst mobs as the end game low 30s dc is more than enough to achieve cold vulnerability. however, as waterfall is an azata spell, you are not gonna get many casts per rest, so is not a spell to waste on mobs unless they is accompanying a boss. the reason we wanted waterfall were to up our boss killing game, and maxed dc 35 just weren't what we had envisioned. 35ish is not terrible, but is not reliable boss ending dc. is not as if there ain't a whole lotta excellent conjuration spells which were improved by our dc boosting efforts, but with a chance to do over, we woulda' gone with enchantment/evocation or illusion/evocation for our dc boosting scheme.

a skald is gonna be able to multiply natural attacks for your entire party, though chances are you are disabling rage for your spell casters. now admitted 'cause o' the way pathfinder works, your critters is likely to get the most use from extra natural attacks 'cause they are the ones who is gonna have the appropriate weapon focus and critical modifying feats and whatnot. regardless, greater magic fang is particular useful with a skald buffing your party. as to trickster, we wouldn't have a problem with trickster if it were deadpool v. my little pony. unfortunate, trickster ain't some kinda wisecracking anti-hero but instead is philippe pétain, benedict arnold and regina george all rolled into one... w/o the funny aspects o' those three. the wotr trickster handbook would be titled, how to win friends and then betray them when it is convenient. we only played trickster in the beta and have no urge to play again. is no question the trickster mythic path is gonna be op for many builds, but we would prefer to chew aluminum foil than play a trickster. HA! Good Fun!

hmmm. am thinking you are misreading. the chart shows a correlation 'tween lower credit scores and purchasers in high minority areas. is not claiming credit companies adjust scores based on whether a consumer lives in an area with high minority population density. am prefect happy to rage at credit reporting agencies, but your criticism, even if were valid, is not valid 'cause o' the chart you linked. HA! Good Fun!

a quick caution regarding intimidation: in real-time, chasing a frightened foe is annoying. if you use dazzling display to cause fear in a mob o' foes, then the annoyance factor increases as those foes, on a large enough map, scatter to the four compass points. in tb, the frightened foe runs away round one, and even if you fail to be in range to intimidate 'em round 2, the foe needs run back to you, exhausting their move action in the process. in tb you won't need waste effort chasing fear broken foes unless doing so is to your advantage. unrelated: tb mounted combat is now mostly working correct, so for dlc prep, we were considering a mounted main and a party heavy on mounted companions. unfortunate, the build we kinda wanted to use, a beast rider/sohei, obvious won't support azata or trickster. am s'posing we could do some kinda legend build. could go cg and cavalier vanilla or cavalier + something-not-monk. oh well. am holding off on doing more wotr 'til the new patch is no longer beta or when the dlc is released... whichever comes first. am suspecting those events is simultaneous, but maybe the patch is released a bit earlier than the fifteenth? HA! Good Fun! ps a downside for mounted combat is related to the tandem trip bug for animal companions. is possible to choose tandem trip for a bully animal companion, but the feat will disappear at some point and you will be left with nothing to show for the wasted feat slot save the dreaded question mark icon on your critter's character tab. not a huge factor, but annoying.

one level o' thug is needed 'cause those who would be rendered shaken by your intimidation is instead frightened. might as well make level seven a thug level. gotta think hard on what you want from sosiel. for most o' the game the priest's best abilities/features is cast outside o' combat, so is possible to ignore any non combat feat, but going intimidation means you delay/lose outflank and other teamwork feats which is an issue if you want sosiel combat focused... and another reason for going azata as we functional save two feat selections by getting 'em free through life bonding friendship. so your first three feats is: 1) weapon focus: glaive (prerequisite for dazzling display), 2) dazzling display (not necessary, but reducing the entire screen o foes to a pants-wetting state is desirable,) 3) intimidating prowess. is possible to flip intimidating prowess and dazzling display, and such might be recommended if you play on core or higher difficulty. as often as not, fear locking a single powerful foe is more desirable than terrorizing the mobs, and bosses require a high intimidation check to be successful. IF you are staying focused on combat, and that is recommended, am gonna suggest your remaining feats be outflank, improved critical: glaive, shattered defenses and shake it off... not necessary in that order. make certain you invest a point into your persuasion skill at every level. worth considering: currently the animal domain is broken to your advantage. acquire an animal companion through a domain functional gets you the benefits o' boon companion for free, but am thinking this gets patched at some point. so if you take impossible domain: animal, then you may need consider adding the boon companion feat. drop shake it off. is many items which boost persuasion and intimidation specific. we mentioned a few/most o' the notables in the following linked post: with buffing spells such as greater heroism, you will have a +90 intimidation modifier by the end o' the game... if you go azata 'cause there is a couple spells and a sleep bonus which will add another +8-10 to your persuasion. even w/o azata, +80s is still kinda fantastic. HA! Good Fun!

camellia sux at intimidation. apologies for being blunt. she doesn't have great strength or charisma and chances are you ain't boosting strength and or charisma. is a waste to be intimidating mobs. late in the game characters such as sosiel and camellia will have access to frightening aspect which causes shaken w/o any save or intimidation check, so intimidating display becomes genuine useless at some point. intimidation is a skill-based dc check which ignores sr and has no actual save. most bosses, save nocticula, is vulnerable to fear effects, but such foes tend to have stratospheric will saves. intimidation is a fear effect which does not offer a will save. sosiel has a background which switches charisma with wisdom for persuasion checks, and intimidation is a persuasion check. is some medium armour in chap 4 which boosts intimidation, which is kinda ideal for sosiel if you go intimidation, but is not a big factor considering all the other intimidation/persuasion boosting gear. most important is you are gonna be building sosiel to take advantage o' strength and wisdom and with the intimidating prowess feat you are gonna add both strength and wisdom modifiers to your intimidation efforts. is something we ain't seen anybody other than Gromnir suggest, which is so strange considering how op is intimidation in wotr, but one level o' thug for sosiel results in a companion who will fear lock most wotr bosses, including deskari, baphomet, and playful darkness as well as dragons and numerous other tough encounters. you not need any complex strategy or scheme for dispatching playful darkness if playful darkness is unable to take any action other than running away from your party. baphomet is no more intimidating than the staked goat from jurrasic park once you got him fear locked. etc. however, if you do not use sosiel for intimidation, camellia as a replacement is teh sux, 'cause a character whom you is building 'round dex will be a relative weak arse intimidator. you don't need a party intimidator. however, if you are gonna spend the feats and abilities on intimidation, you might as well get use outta it. not camellia is a good way to go. HA! Good Fun!

is a number o' ways to build lann so he has access to domain powers. am kinda a fan o' hunter (divine hunter) and inquisitor (sacred huntsmaster) when combined with either one or three levels o' zen archer. crusader is an excellent route for lann particular if you do want a bit o' additional heals. a full shifter build druid should be an option for lann, but we need us our domain powhaz, and am not wanting to make 1/3 o' sosiel's mythic abilities impossible domain:__________. healing becomes increasing less important as you get deeper in the game, particularly for a lich, but am s'posing it kinda depends on how you play the game. HA! Good Fun! ps complete aside, but another good reason for choosing an azata sorc is aivu. even with the new nerf from the beta patch, aivu is a fantastic late game healer so you may have sosiel or the assimar do other more useful chores. bugarup found azata silliness and whimsy unappealing, which is perfect understandable. even so, as a blaster caster, is arguable the azata route is most effective in spite o' the lack o' merged spell books.

sosiel's major contribution to our parties is from intimidation, a few select buffs and domain abilities. the buffs is useful, but is likely the lich will be able to replicate many o' those buffs. however, based on the way we play wotr, lack o' sosiel is well-nigh unthinkable. am often using sosiel as our party intimidator. unless you play as a trickster, whomever you choose to use for intimidation will likely suffice, but sosiel is the one potential companion who has near guaranteed fear locking potential v. mid and late game bosses, even on unfair. sosiel also has access to domains abilities, and a few domain powherz is representing the best buffs and debuffs in the game. if you do not use sosiel, then you are gonna need look elsewhere for the community and madness domain abilities... or you need do w/o. don't need sosiel buffs. don't need sosiel intimidation. don't need sosiel domains. have played lich a bit and am knowing we don't need such. however, we would much prefer a party with sosiel and seelah 'cause while we don't need 'em, they is the two most valuable companions from our pov. ... camellia is also a top tier companion in terms o' what she may do to enhance party efficacy, but is no way am keeping camellia around longer than necessary. HA! Good Fun!

our pov with having played an azata sorc blaster appears a bit at odds with a few other posters. by level ten, still relative early in the game, our azata sorc/vivsectionist/arcane trickster 5/1/4 were doing impressive damage with ascendent element cold scorching rays. additional, we were generating 12 potential casts o' haste per rest, and haste remains from early to late one o' the best party buffs available. we were able to do a bit o' crowd control, but am admitting it weren't our focus. by the end o' the game, boss battles were laughable brief on core and hard as our blaster single-handed erased stuff, and we likely coulda' been even more effective if we went enchantment/evocation 'stead o' conjuration/evocation on spell focus efforts. the azata waterfall spell ended up being a dud, but we coulda' had impossible high dcs for our enchantment spells simultaneous to going blaster. also, 'cause as we noted how waterfall is depressingly meh, fire is the way to go with a blaster given all the fire boosting gear. is shocking how easily overlooked is a few o' those stacking 1-point-per-die elemental damage boosts. sorc is a good choice for azata as there is a couple abilities/spells tied direct to the azata's charisma modifier. for example, is three teamwork feats we near always take for party members, including animal companions: outflank, seize the moment and shake it off. we didn't realize life bonding friendship functional nullified the usefulness o' last stand, so our seelah had one useless mythic ability, but consider how with a party o' 3-4 animal companions, aivu and your full compliment o' companions, by taking life bonding friendship and making sure you got seize the moment and shake it off (or whatever), you are feeing up ~20 other feats for your party. life bonding friendship, now that it works correct, is linked to your charisma modifier-- the number of additional hits a deadish companion may endure before they go from mostly dead to all dead is linked to the azata's charisma modifier. is just one example. *shrug* low level casters tend to suck in pathfinder and wotr follows the pnp trend. pnp pathfinder sorcs become arguable op from level twelveish (our opinion) onwards, and with wotr mythics, sorcs is effective a bit earlier than level twelve. in HA! Good Fun!

we played on hard with our sorc blaster and did need two rests in the shield maze. the rests were kinda temporal proximate. we only do the water elemental after making sure lann has a composite bow and seelah has a decent weapon as well as the ring o' protection and whatnot, so water elemental is gonna be near the last thing we do before hosilla. animal companions take cold damage from attacking the elemental and we ordinarily lose one. we have seelah use the one resist cold potion available in the maze, activate camellia's spirit power, and buff as much as am able: enlarge person on seelah as well as bear endurance and shield of faith along with bless and the prayer scroll for the party. our sorc character contributed near zero to the fight. keep in mind am always making lann a hunter these days so he gets an animal companion too, though the elemental is neutral-- no benefit from the velociraptor smite. gonna observe our sorc were near useless in the hosilla fight as well as he were afeared due to the marching terror effect. spent initial part o' the battle running away and then getting almost dead from the spawned quasits. lann used the cold iron javelin 'gainst the quasits 'cause we were too cheap to purchase cold iron arrows from the mongrel vendor. good times. low level pathfinder casters kinda suck, and low level wotr on higher difficulty is disproportionate challenging 'cause you got so few options and limited action economy. the water elemental and hosilla on hard is more difficult than any demon lord fight on unfair save nocticula. HA! Good Fun! ps we actual took ear-piercing scream (and grease) for our sorc as we find the daze effect is particular useful at low levels.

kinda thinking the problem is people more than religion or faith. erase any memory o' the sky fairy and you think people would be more kind and compassionate? erase existence o' the bible and sudden the people o' the world become more tolerant and less bigoted? is not difficult to point to nations which is largely antagonistic and/or ambivalent regarding faith and yet they is capable o' the exact same stoopid as those primitives who continue to believe creation fables and follow the guidance o' long dead (and perhaps neverwere) prophets. we suggest the fundamental problem is a failure to recognize human nature, and people is the one constant you is never gonna be able to remove from any social, political, religious endeavour. am willing to be critical o' religion but the problem for us is the recognition religion is inextricable linked to personal and varied notions o' faith. 'course once every couple o' years is enough to remind us nobody is ever gonna have their mind changed 'bout religion based on the crpg board posts from a guy who tortures pronouns. is a dead end issue, so the rest o' you may feel free to crucify or canonize religion w/o us. HA! Good Fun!

both pg&e and smud serve sacramento county... edit: we see you got clarification. HA! Good Fun!

am part o' smud, the sacramento municipal utility district. ordinarily our most expensive bill o' the year is the one which covers december, which is curious 'cause january is usual the coldest month. *shrug* our december bills (we do get a bit o' propane delivered which is just for our oven) were $213.42. ~2800sqft home. is a mistake to think o' a california rate. is massive differences 'tween what we pay compare to humboldt county v. san jose. we can't complain. the costs o' utilities is govt. subsidized, so places where is extreme cold often get a lower rate. am actual most surprised by how little, relative speaking, we pay in july and august compared to december january. am from the midwest, so winters don't feel particular cold to us in sacramento. summer is when we has had rolling blackouts, so you would assume sky-high rates. HA! Good Fun!

a few stations is having a bit o' fun with the news. edit: philly wasn't gonna let this opportunity pass. HA! Good Fun!

grease and glitterdust are two of the best spells in the game and they remain useful until act vi. however, you need apply both the heighten and selective metamagic feats to get use from them past the early levels. shield, mirror image and barkskin is gonna be regular casting options from start until well into late game. we have archers using hurricane bow and sense vitals the entire game. etc. there is numerous useful lower level spells. the thing is there is a whole lotta pathfinder spells we would never use and quite a few spells which eventual become useless, but unless you know pathfinder and owlcat's take on pathfinder, is improbable you know which spells and feats and weapon categories is worthwhile and which is bloat. HA! Good Fun! ps owlcat decided creatures who is able to fly is immune to prone, including prone effects from grease. however, not all creatures who is capable o' flight in pnp and/or have visible wings are immune to wotr prone. as such am gonna suggest owlcat actual is a bit more generous with stuff such as grease than would be the ordinary pnp gm who needs ref encounters with high cr foes. be thankful for this fact when fighting the ubiquitous endgame gallu warmongers. converse, in pnp it often feels as if every high level pathfinder spellcaster is flying and a significant % o' cr+12 critters is otherwise capable o' flight... a situation made worse by the fact archers tend to suck in pnp pathfinder with the exception o' inquisitors.

for camellia, take fencing grace at level five if you are concerned 'bout early damage output. use o' a buckler does not count as rendering your off-hand otherwise occupied. so, with a high crit weapon in the hands o' a high dex character such as camellia, particular when she adds spirit hunter buffs to exploit mythic elemental barrage at some point, camellia will be doing admirable damage... but as early as level five you should be able to squeeze decent damage outta her via fencing grace. 'course is other ways to go with camellia, but if you want early damage improvements, take fencing grace at level five, which is gonna happen before assaulting the gray garrison, yes? HA! Good Fun! ps (edit) via the beta patch, the aeon receives a whole bunch o' new gazes options. https://imgur.com/a/dKtqZUM ... damn.

@Guard Dog as an aside, europe is nice enough, but with spring not far off am gonna recommend the american southwest, in particular a few places in arizona. @ShadySands is gonna be offering better insights regarding arizona than we may provide, but is few places on the planet more stunning than arizona deserts in the spring. admitted, our last couple trips to europe kinda turned us off to a return 'but that was a few years ago when many places in europe were struggling to come to grips with the recent influx o' immigrant populations. maybe the situation has improved, but for somebody who looks like Gromnir, we found european welcomes far less friendly than when we had visited back during our post university days. were disconcerting. regardless, if you ain't been to the american southwest in spring, and you is looking to travel, our suggestion after a bit o' reflection would be to ask shady for arizona recommendations. HA! Good Fun!

had one o' those "best-laid plans" moments yesterday... brilliant scheme were undermined by all too predictable Gromnir error. mr. cash woulda' understood. HA! Good Fun!

is indeed an exploit, and is part o' the reason we only use on unfair. after all, from our pov, unfair is 'bout having a scheme to take advantage o' pathfinder and owlcat loopholes. however, for the folks who look at wotr enemy stat bloat and see as inherent unfair, there exist in the game numerous exploits similar to cackle extending the duration o' protective luck and fortune... stuff no real flesh and blood gm/dm would ever allow. seeing as how the fan base doesn't want such exploits o' pnp rules addressed and recognizing that owlcat has eschewed near any effort to close pathfinder loopholes, am suspecting the recognition o' cheese such as our observed cackle is part o' wotr design. HA! Good Fun!

san sebastián. am not a resort town person our self, but for a week duration trip is worth considering. am recommending not so much for the beaches n' whatnot but rather for the food-- is our second favorite euro city for food, and #1 is in eastern europe, so... HA! Good Fun! ps is in basque country, so you can hit the other basque highlights as well.

am recalling back in october @Agiel mentioned the usefulness o' the protective luck hex, particular when used with cackle. slipped our mind at the time, but as we were indulging in prebuffing cheese for an unfair pathetic quasit fight, we sudden 'mebered we were gonna share a curious exploit but got distracted with other things. you may use cackle outside of combat, and you may spam it. as such it is possible to extend the durations o' the protective luck and fortune hexes to minutes as 'posed to seconds and you may do so before you enter combat. the fortune hex is limited to one use per day per character/companion, but with cackle and a willingness to spam cackle for a bit, you may provide your entire party with the benefits o' both protective luck and fortune and those hexes will remain effective for the duration o' a boss fight. is tedious indulging the silliness we describe, so is not something we do other than unfair boss fights and even then we limit to a couple characters, but the hexes is extreme powerful as agiel recognized and with pre battle spam o' cackle, the one shortcoming to the hexes (their duration) is eliminated. HA! Good Fun!

talk 'bout gaslighting. "the soviets declarations and their intent to invade Hokkaido ahead of a planned US invasion o' the Japanese mainland is considered by modern historians to be as much a cause o' japan surrender as were the dropping o' the bombs." was the quote you responded to with your manchuria and hokkaido observations. we keep referencing the soviet deceleration o' war as a 'cause and you did indeed reject saying were the collapse o' japanese forces in manchuria a week later... and that the hokkaido fears were never meaningful. is not a quibble. you focusing on timing o' hokkaido has always been deflection. can read our old posts. we said bombs weren't enough and were soviet declaration o' war and fears o' lost japanese homeland territory which eventual resulted in capitulation o' japan. you rejected this position, and you were very much focused on your curious hokkaido timing silliness, ignoring what is common held belief 'mongst credible historians (see the half dozen or so links we has made) that the soviets did indeed have designs on hokkaido. was soon as soviets declared war and invaded manchuria that the calculus changed dramatic for the japanese, though not enough to cause immediate surrender. regardless, fears o' a hokkaido invasion were anything but fanciful at this point. so selective quote all you want. again, 'cause we need do again, again. "no sooner had the marriage of convenience uniting right-wing Japan and the communist Soviet Union broken down than the Japanese ruling elite’s fear of communism sweeping away the emperor system was reawakened. to preserve the imperial house, it would be better to surrender before the USSR was able to dictate terms. on august 13, rejecting Anami’s request that the decision to accept U.S. Secretary of State James Byrnes’s counteroffer (the “Byrnes note”), which rejected Japan’s conditional acceptance of the Potsdal terms, be postponed, Suzuki explained: “if we miss today, the Soviet Union would take not only Manchuria, Korea, [and] Karafuto [sakhalin Island], but also Hokkaido. this would destroy the foundation of Japan. we must end the war when we can deal with the United States.”[68] furthermore, when Shigemitsu had a crucial meeting with Kido on the afternoon of August 9 at Prince Konoe’s request, which eventually led to Kido’s meeting with Hirohito that persuaded the emperor to accept the “sacred decision” scenario, Shigemitsu stressed the negative effect of further Soviet expansion on the fate of the imperial household.[69]" august nine were contemporaneous with the soviet invasion. the bombs, soviet declaration o' war, the very real threat o' a soviet invasion o' japanese islands all contributed, but as has been stated many times over, the japanese were very much aware o' soviet plans and desires to occupy hokkaido and by now anybody but zor would admit the soviets clear had designs on hokkaido. the loss o' soldiers on the mainland were not what were gonna give the soviets leverage to "dictate terms." fighting continued in manchuria until september 2 btw, the actual end o' the war. regardless, the japanese had previous believed they had 'til 1946 to need worry 'bout the soviets. declaration o' war and simultaneous invasion were a curious surprise and changed the game entire. the bombs weren't enough. and 'round we go with you deflecting and cherry picking. so, say something new, 'cause by now just 'bout every historian mentioned in this thread has disagreed with you regarding japanese concerns regarding hokkaido and the soviet intentions to invade. HA! Good Fun!

am suspecting merkel stepping down played a part in putin's choice to instigate this situation now as 'posed to earlier. from our pov, germany has been the nato member most notable for their absence o' concern regarding russia insofar as the current ukraine situation. is hard to imagine merkel remaining taciturn. given covid mishandling, the world bank projections on diminished growth for 2022, and the recent protests, putin no doubt needed the win you were referencing. however, while is likely an overstatement, merkel stepping down in december is possible worth considering as an overlooked contributing factor. HA! Good Fun!