Gromnir

so, deflection? you were the guy posting per capita gdp. now is a matter o' neighboring countries and dystopian futures? and yes, china could, possible, in the future, if they overcome their self-made population nightmare, become more economic prosperous than... mexico. have no problem agreeing with that. doesn't change how myopic and oversimplified were your initial observation. @kanisatha were a bit more generous with your non analogous numbers than is Gromnir, but am admitted no longer generous with comrade silliness. HA! Good Fun! ps oh and preach to the choir maybe 'bout the poverty issues the US could/should be addressing and how many times has we needed point out that more than 1/3 o' the recipients o' national and state welfare programs is children. add mental and physical disabled and such numbers increase. those who complain 'bout handouts should be ashamed when faced with such numbers, but aren't. point out most adult welfare recipients get benefits less than six months? is a inconvenient fact. point out how many us military veterans is homeless and living on the streets? etc. 'course you, as is typical, look external when the most immediate, pressing and solvable concerns is domestic. fix mexico is a big problem. get homeless veterans with mental health issues and medical conditions the help they need? can fix the veteran problem if we chose to. don't fix is more than a national tragedy and embarrassment but hey, you can talk mexico if you think it salvages your gdp generalization. pps minors current represent 44% o' national welfare program assistance in the US, and the % would seem to be a bit higher for states, but each state does their own math gymnastics, so is tough to come up with a reliable number. closer to 1/2 than 1/3? say 1/3 for those who quibble, but +44% is safe bet.

compare the population of ireland, a small homgenous nation, to the bay area of the US... just the bay area of california. ~half. ireland is half. similarly, compare per capita gdp for bay area to the nations you wanna cherry pick. heck, do for silicon valley and situation is even more extreme. the US is a large and diverse nation. apples and oranges. heck, china has the advantage o' being homogenous and the chinese per capita gdp is similar to kazakhstan and neck-and-neck with mexico. mexico? serious? so... is another situation where comrade reads something somewhere and w/o benefit o' any kinda serious researches or studies, he blurts out a generality which predictable will not age well for him short-term or long term. HA! Good Fun!

if am having to make a guess, is 'cause empowered and maximized blade barriers is complete cheese. pathfinder has most o' the d&d force spells, but by different names. obvious can't call stuff "bigby's __________," in a pathfinder game. is a number o' additional force spells which entered pathfinder with the psychic classes. dunno. HA! Good Fun!

the problem is boss immunities, which ordinarily include any force effect such as magic missile and battering blast. why? 'cause. even so, one o' the advantages o' nenio over ember is her flexibility. those sooperpowered gallu demons which you encounter every dozen or so paces late in the game seem to be especial vulnerable to battering blast, and they is one o' the few demons with visible wings which is subject to prone as well. if you have built your nenio as a blaster, then battering blast is actual a good option to take out those particular demons. 'course that is an issue with wotr-- is many foes which have A vulnerability, but none o' that matters if you overwhelm 'em with damage. such a crude approach is universal effective and tends to feel inelegant and a bit mindless. curious, while many mid and late game mooks is immune to mind affecting spells and conditions, the demon lords and achievement bosses is mostly vulnerable to such, with the obvious obstacle o' near impossible will saves to be overcome. the thing is, there is ways to generate shaken and fear effects in the game which is not subject to an ordinary saving throw. pathfinder is weird, 'cause d&d was weird. just is. HA! Good Fun! ps one o' those late game crusade items which disappeared from inventory is now capable o' being researched and you may turn it into a robe which adds 4d6 fire damage to any fire damage spell you cast... 'cause there just weren't enough fire damage boosting items in the game.

nicolaus cage ruined the apache for us. we literal walked out o' the theatre after this scene. HA! Good Fun!

as noted earlier in the thread, greater shadow evocation is an alternative, but not available 'til late. technical, as is shadow, it is not sending anybody to hell. however, owlcat implementation is such that the spell is in all respects nothing more or less than heightened versions o' the laundry list o' evocation spells available. as an aside, is a whole lotta fantastic and potential op spells available in wotr. however, given the stat and hp bloat o' boss enemies, at some point you are gonna need to be able to do massive damage to foes and is advantageous if you are able to deliver the pain fast. from a pure damage standpoint, hellfire rays is the obvious choice to dish out hurt-- you need count on your casters to do damage or they is underwhelming during the most challenging combat encounters in the game. HA! Good Fun! ps fyi, sorcerer bloodlines which allow conversion of energy types is current not compatible with either of the shadow evocation spells. try and cast a greater shadow evocation hellfire ray as cold, electricity or whatever results in spellcast fail and a wasted spell attempt.

am suspecting few has read the description o' hellfire ray as they have ember spam the spell. HA! Good Fun!

... is this bruce? did you kidnap gd and hijack his account? HA! Good Fun!

if you really want metamagic, add levels o' arcane trickster and loremaster. 5 levels o' witch, one level o' vivisectionist, then go everything arcane trickster... finish off with loremaster for extra (cheaty or not) feats. nevertheless, am still not taking anything but heighten and perhaps empower even with such a build. if you keep ember as a witch, she just doesn't have superfluous feats. the owlcat folks gave her the right starting feats with point-blank and precise. obvious you are going with spell focus and greater spell focus and at least one o' the spell penetrations, likely both, yes? you took selective spell, correct? add heighten as a metamagic as well as weapon focus: ray and improved critical: ray. done. drop a feat somewhere and take elven immunities 'cause against bosses you need every bit o' spell penetration. is a whole lotta gear in the game which boosts spellcaster fire efficacy and catalogues, particular for spontaneous casters. we load up on such stuff and then blast away at everything. if you aren't playing at least core, then you likely don't need greater spell penetration and you can probable skip weapon focus in spite o' her blackened malus. the thing is, shrug off the occasional reflex check pass for chain lightning which she gets freebie with those bracers and maybe during a boss fight she misses a sr check, or two, which in the grand scheme if you is playing normal and has an angel doing storm o' justice won't matter or be noticed, but objective ember is less effective if she don't have boss level sr penetration and ab. rods is more than enough for meta needs. take heighten... perhaps empower. nothing else needed and each investment in meta requires abandonment o' something else. HA! Good Fun! ps but again, and am not just doing the bygone thing-- if ember is effective for you, then that is good enough. have pointed out previous how our whole build philosophy is based on making boss battles easier, 'cause am not seeing the point to being able to snooze through trash mobs only to be stymied during boss battles. our way is not right.

separate post 'cause is not related to the ember discussion but is instead related to shadow evocation spells. is not something most casual wotr players would be aware, but shadow spells are not shadow as implemented in wotr. a wotr shadow evocation spell is for all intents and purposes a heightened evocation spell. end of story. similarly, if you cast hellfire ray from greater shadow evocation it behaves in all respects as a hellfire ray, but heightened to level eight. there is no will save. there is no reduced damage. as such, powerful shadows mythic does nothing in wotr and if you have spell focus: illusion as a feat, it won't do diddly when you cast shadow evocation spells. you gotta take evocation related feats and mythic feats to boost your hellfire ray cast with greater shadow evocation, and you need ascendant element: fire if you want the shadow hellfire ray to do full damage to demons. also, if you are a conjuror, then you may even get the benefits of spells such as grease heightened to level 9 with all your conjuration feats modifying it by casting shades. shadow spells are a curious option. unfortunate, feyspeakers are no longer able to cast shadow evocation spells (inexplicably they have always been precluded from casting shadow conjuration spells) but this little quirk does offer a number of sorcerer builds, and a few other classes, a unique way to expand a spell repertoire and gain the benefits of heightened spells even if one does not have the heighten feat... although chances are you have heightened anyways, 'cause. HA! Good Fun!

if you are using ember as a blaster, then 'course the stuff you want to use with reflex is gonna be the spells you pump with metamagic. and your list o' genuine feat needs maybe different than ours, but it won't matter 'cause whatever is on the list is stuff you can't simple replace with metamagic rods. but again, if she is effective for you, then that is all that matters. HA! Good Fun!

this spring we told our remaining tenants that they could have until end may o' 2022 to find new accommodations, 'cause we would not be continuing leases. give a year after lease technical expires to find a new place were generous but possible a bit foolish in retrospect. 'course now am kinda sweating it. is a crap time to buy but a great time to sell, and typical those concerns don't matter much if you is selling and buying at same time as the situation tends to cancel itself out 'tween the loss on one end and the gain at the other. however, am not a buyer. if the bottom drops out o' the market am most assured not looking to do as we did in 2008-2011 and buy cheap. am sell side exclusive... and tell our self a huge loss would cut our capital gains is not as reassuring as you might believe. we weren't complete joking 'bout the smaug portfolio we mentioned earlier. am expecting things is gonna turn bad for sellers ( and just 'bout everybody else) very soon and am not expecting a quick rebound neither. am hopeful "very soon" stretches into six months and perhaps is delayed 'til after the midterm elections, but we need at least 'til june/july 2022. am serious not wanting to go back to work. wouldn't need actual do that even if our property became literal worthless, but if our ira also sudden tanked... have taken precautions, but... HA! Good Fun!

you mean other than the three feats beyond heighten which coulda' been replaced with stuff you genuine need and cannot replicate with rods? to bump up scorching ray? dunno. am not seeing the benefit from the numbers and the forced abandonment o' sorcerous reflex. can't say how much difference bolster makes 'cause have been avoiding since is busted and we don't use mods specific as it screws up our bug reporting. 'course if you feel like you are getting use from your ember build then you are. shadow evocation spells have sudden stopped being castable for a feyspeaker test merc we built. am knowing shadow evocation is broken, but not this broken. shadow evocation was working on a sorc we made earlier, so am not sure what the issue could be. HA! Good Fun! ps am genuine a bit perturbed with the feyspeaker thing. for our next wotr character we kinda decided to go azata, and we wanted to do something much different than our angel inquisitor... other than fact am @Guard Dog level o' appreciation for dogs, albeit am speaking o' wotr dogs. trip machines. we did leopard with our inquisitor, and the cats is fantastic tanks, but dogs is likely the superior option. so for the azata we wanted an animal companion caster build, and preferable a charisma caster. nature oracle, sylvan sorcerer or feyspeaker druid were the obvious choices. might be stuck with the sorc by default. were a distant third 'mongst ouroptions too.

spontaneous casters has meta spells turned into full round actions, so there is a downside particular if you plan to exploit sorcerous reflex mythic. however, if you wanna have scorching rays and hellfire rays at pretty much every level, then heighten is a good ember option, but likely the only good metamagic option. use rods for every other metamagic need. is an act 3 crusade relic which lets you maximize six spells a day, which is kinda keen. don't let the unholy aspect concern you as demons n' such take damage from unholy. and then there is the late game grandmaster rod, but such is act v, so is hardly the kinda thing 'pon which you build a character. ... ember is a sore subject for us as she has the blackened curse, which is arguable her best feature. irony? the problem is blackened curse is still bugged and so most o' the oracle builds we has considered is on hold until blackened actual provides something other than just burning hands and an attack malus for a player character. as to metamagic, depending on how you build nenio, heighten is pure gold. ... y'know, for nenio we just use rods too, save for heighten, and maybe persistent... and then mostly for phantasmal killer. so, metamagic is key only if you go full illusion for nenio 'cause you want the dc for pk and weird as high as you can get it. 'course you can multi nenio into an evocation-based acrane trickster blaster who puts ember to shame using heightened hellfire rays n' such. our current build problem is fact our angel inquisitor ended up being so good. loads o' skills and ended up doing reliable +800 damage per round during boss encounters even w/o crits. anything we play from this point save a couple pure cheez builds is gonna feel serious underpowered. HA! Good Fun!

bolster is current gonna cause friendly fire splash w/o zippy. if scorching ray were annoying, am gonna suggest not using magic missile. the damage calculations are (were) busted and the splash damage were devastating to friends and foes alike. we were seeing +120 damage from magic missile using a mere second level bolstered slot. am s'posing using the grandmaster rod would only make matters worse. but again, the splash damage were a party killer, so... HA! Good Fun!

also, the bug where loremaster free feats ignored prerequisites remains and is now worse 'cause you are able to choose trickster feats. HA! Good Fun!

did blm activists kick bruce's dog into oncoming traffic or something similar? HA! Good Fun!

mythic weapon finesse is no longer working with ranged weapons, but it still provides bonuses when using glaives, great swords and every melee weapon we tested. HA! Good Fun!

is the best holiday. yeah, the celebration has religious roots, but as celebrated in us it is almost entire secular---nowhere near the religious baggage that exists for christmas or easter. is not 'bout patriotism or celebrating a cultural icon who likely ain't the hero you were taught to admire in school. on halloween, kids dress up in costumes, pretend to be sooperheroes or monsters or whatever, and then neighbors, many o' whom the kids has never met or spoken to, give the costumed kids candy... or a small box o' raisins if the neighbors is jerks. if it weren't for the fact so many pets is tormented and abused by little psychopaths on halloween... HA! Good Fun! ps a few people getting their house tp'd is a small price to pay for general halloween goodness.

is not as if there is a california weather. bay area and sacramento is not distant, but weather, particular during summer, is considerable different. similar, a short trip to the east o' sacramento has you in the sierra nevadas, which receive, during ordinary years, considerable snow. in fact, the first snow o' the year in our part o' the sierras occurred a couple weeks past. HA! Good Fun!

'course you weren't scarred. converse, not being able to endure the ordinary and everyday competition o' adult life mighta' scarred you. first team on your high school football team is the gifted program for football players. those players get more attention from coaches. more coaching and more opportunities to make plays means a better chance to get recruited by power conference d-1 programs, and the cycle only continues and becomes more savage. we mention 'cause we find amusing hurl actual used an nfl team as an example to support his position-- the worst player on the 49ers had to survive years o' the most bitter and unforgiving competition simple to make an nfl team. most real world jobs involve competition, although not to the degree a pro football player had to overcome. a minor ankle sprain limited your participation during spring practice o' your sophomore year at usc or alabama, and that were enough to prevent you from ever being a starter? didn't start in spite o' being all-everything in high school and chances you get drafted by the nfl is approaching zero? not fair? is real. am fine with hurl pov as he is teaching middle schoolers, but at some point we are not helping kids by sheltering 'em from real world brutal. yeah, as an educator hurl should be more concerned with actual educating kids in subject matter as 'posed to shattering their illusions, and is not much evidence the gifted programs produce smarter students. if you start with high achieving kids, is not exact a surprise those kids end up achieving at a greater rate, yes? the results o' gifted programs is dubious, but am also recognizing educators got blind spots, and they selective ignore how they themselves teach math classes. at some point in high school, kids who didn't achieve in math are taught separate from the kids who did. and guess what, the kids taking calculus in high school is more likely to attend college than are the students taking remedial maths. no doubt we waste a great deal o' human capital by stressing competition as 'posed to maximizing potential o' everybody. tragic. unfortunate, until hurl manages to alter society as a whole, he is stuck educating kids many o' whom is going to eventual join a workforce where the jobs which offer the best compensation also require competition which far exceeds whatever you experienced on your math team. HA! Good Fun!

HA! Good Fun!

"at all." hilor does not offer a respec option. period. can hire a merc. can discuss nightspinner. can't ask for training for you or party mates. HA! Good Fun! ps checked in both act ii and act v. did not check i, iii, or iv... although iv wouldn't be hilor. pps according to owclat community feedback (not a developer, never a developer) respec were never intended for core and above, and Gromnir were testing on core. removing respec were considered a bug fix.

as an aside, and perhaps a belated warning, am no longer able to respec with the new beta build. HA! Good Fun!

act v battles got sooper ez 'cause o' mage power and that one crusade ability which allows you to multiply random army units by some formula involving your mythic level. make certain to split off your favoured range unit so is the only kinda unit in a specific army and then every couple o' weeks you are able to add almost 400 marksmen... or whatevers. HA! Good Fun!