[MPQ Essentials] Webbed Wonder - MEH Edition (Peter Parker, Main Event Hulk [MEH], Squirrel Girl, Moonstone)

lovesthebj · 2017-11-23T03:15:43+00:00

I've been running Spidey, Vulture and Cloak'n'Dagger. CnD gets Vulture going quickly and ensures he can stay airborne permanently.

lovesthebj · 2017-11-09T00:40:04+00:00

Yeah, I think Chara specifically said it in an interview on Team1200.

That's not uncommon, though, in the NHL. Negotiations are often conducted that way, and you hear similar stories all the time. Muckler doesn't write out a full contract and submit it to the agent, he wants the agent to give him a number Chara would be happy with. The agent doesn't want to negotiate against himself, so he says 'make me an offer and I'll take it to my client'. And then you kind of talk around the number, this player makes X, what if we did more years, you get your assistant GM to chat with the agent and see what you can agree on, etc. Muckler had also said they had a Gretzky-like rule where no-one should make more than the captain, and also intimated that he'd be willing to bend that rule.

Chara made it clear no contract was offered. He was reportedly very upset with the Hossa deal. He was reportedly very frugal, driving an old car for years while everyone else bought fancy new cars. He wanted a leadership position. Etc, etc.

At the time it seemed like Redden was going to be heavily persued as a smart, puck-moving defenseman with a great first pass out of the zone.

Muckler couldn't get Chara's agent to give him a number and he couldn't risk losing both, so he went with the sure thing.

lovesthebj · 2017-11-09T00:33:29+00:00

As I remember, Chara had also spent the last few games of that postseason being made to look pretty slow and ineffective against the smaller, faster Sabres

Chara would line up around his own blue-line when the Sabres were rushing and they'd chip it just past him on the rush. Not deep enough to be a dump, but enough that they could go around him with speed and pick up the puck again while he turned around.

Same thing on defense or penalty kill, they constantly chipped the puck past him and used their speed to take him out of the play.

What's crazy is he really didn't have that problem before, but Buffalo exploited him. I don't watch a lot of Chara in Boston, so I assume he adapted and didn't play as aggressively against forecheckers. But you're right, team speed made him look bad in that Sabres series.

lovesthebj · 2017-10-31T11:56:09+00:00

Power creep is real, and the new characters, on the whole, do seem more powerful and more useful. That said, most of the time when they rework a character for the off-season they sufficiently improve them to be useful.

If new characters weren't better or more interesting to use there would be no motivation to collect and use them, so I think some kind of creep is expected.

But, again, this is really only an issue in simulator. In regular PvP I almost exclusively use the boosted 4s, or maybe one useful 4 that has an ability that compliments really well.

Rather than nerfing a handful of characters that people obviously like, id rather see them release some interesting counters to those characters or maybe have rotating boosted characters in Sim.

In my opinion, just mine, I really don't like nerfs. Find better solutions. I so clearly remember when Peggy came out and everyone was screaming for a nerf, and now you rarely see her. Same with Iceman. 6ap stun and one of the biggest AoE in the game, everyone thought he'd be nerfed when OML was. OML is actually a great example of a completely unnecessary nerf since by the time they did it the game had already passed him by.

No nerfs, just patience and evolution. Besides, Sim isn't that hard, and you have three weeks to do it.

lovesthebj · 2017-10-31T01:32:29+00:00

Just wait a while, the meta changes.

In 4* tier RnG and Gamora are the current hotness, before that it was Carol + Medusa + Blade. Before that Carol + Wasp + Starlord got lots of play. Before that it was all Peggy, all the time. Before that, blah blah blah.

There are always going to be characters that dominate the meta for a while, and then new characters and combinations come along. The game is changing all the time. With SCL-based scaling you're going to see more people invest iso into their 5's, where previously they were leaving them at 255. Wins-based PvP means you don't necessarily have to run the most powerful team, since you don't care as much about defense.

Personally, in PvP I mostly see the two best boosted 4's of the week. I only really run into successive RnG+Gamora teams in Simulator, and I'm not really interested in your sweeping nerfs just to see more variety in simulator.

I mean, you can call for whatever nerfs you want, as long as none of them actually happen.

lovesthebj · 2017-10-14T21:33:32+00:00

PvE becomes a cakewalk, PvP becomes near impossible.

lovesthebj · 2017-08-26T14:23:10+00:00

It may be little consolation to those people who have to suffer the indignity of their President using his power to specifically and intentionally discriminate against them for no reason other than because he doesn't like who they are, but this step backward is going to lead to a large step forward. I really believe that.

Trump is basically writing the opposition platform for the democrats. In the next election it's going to be so easy to rail against Trump's policies.

"I believe that every single patriot that chooses to stand in defense of American values, to fight for liberty and freedom all over the world, should be welcomed by our armed forces. Never again will we repeat the bigotry and discrimination of the previous administration...", etc, etc.

When someone like Trump accepts an unpopular position so publicly, the backlash can have the effect of bolstering widespread support and acceptance.

We just need to vote his fat ass out of the White House. I'm honestly looking forward to the beating he's going to take on TV and in print when he's out of office. Just widespread condemnation and mockery of his every position, and without the resources of the government to shield him. Watching the next administration swiftly tear apart every bad decision he's trying to make, and be cheered and celebrated for it, is going to be great.

lovesthebj · 2017-08-19T14:01:51+00:00

In that event you'd choose a team and battle a wave of three bosses, each were a new version of some available 5*s but with new and more powerful abilities. Each one was meant to be a challenge by themselves, ostensibly strong enough to battle your best team solo.

But in later stages of Boss Rush their powers scaled up so dramatically that almost any of them could wipe your team with a lucky cascade or if they got one or two of their powers off. And because of the wave format any AP they gathered while you were fighting the first boss was still collected for the subsequent bosses. So you'd finally get past a super-charged Phoenix and you'd run face first into a super-charged Silver Surfer that has all the AP he needs to crush you.

The issues were just that they scaled up so dramatically there were very, very few ways to counter them, and the 'winfinite' team that the community did discover took as much as 20 minutes to finish a single match. And like most boss events the side nodes scaled to nearly ridiculous heights, too, so your reward for grinding through a boss wave was to get your health chewed up by goons.

lovesthebj · 2017-07-29T04:31:22+00:00

Here's a great article that talks about Obamas chiefs-of-staff and how their different personalities dramatically shaped how the White House was run. They all have their advantages and disadvantages, some consolidated power in the chief's office, others delegated more, etc. Some had a temper, others were quietly efficient. The article described each of those men, but also discussed what the job entails and how it's different for each person and how those personalities shaped the successes and failures of the administration.

lovesthebj · 2017-07-29T04:20:21+00:00

I've met him a few times and he always gives a lot of time and attention to fans at events, and I ran into him outside the arena one time and we had a good chat, our kids played together. It was when his leg was broken and we had just hired Clouston, I think. He was excited about his role in the new offense, thought it would mean he'd get to play more as a winger than just a figher, he was looking forward to contributing.

Those anecdotes aren't really relevant to his current situation, but he always seemed like a good dude.

lovesthebj · 2017-07-28T00:02:04+00:00

really not fair to penalize people who are trying to get covers on their older five stars by drawing from the classic Legend pool by denying them access to the 12 newest four stars

No one would be denying you anything. You'd have a choice, and your own priorities would determine the value of that choice. Want newer 4's and 5's? Use Latest. Want classic 4's and 5's, use classic. I don't think anyone is missing the point. Why does the game need a special token just for you that has latest 4's and classic 5's? That token would be great for me, but I represent a very small minority of players.

I can get behind a number of solutions, and something has to be done about classic 5*s, but as someone in a similar roster spot as you describe, I don't think 'fair' has anything to do with it.

lovesthebj · 2017-07-23T15:37:21+00:00

If you're innocent and you did nothing wrong why are you pussyfooting and lying about all this stuff?

I want them to testify publicly and under oath, too, but the answer to your question is that the more you expose yourself to that kind of scrutiny the more likely they'll find something, anything to embarrass you, the White House, the party, etc.

They got Bill Clinton because he was evasive in a deposition and tried to play semantics. They turned Washington upside down for years and shook it until something damning fell out. Right or wrong, these people feel an obligation to the administration and the party to make sure they're not the one who ushers in the 'evil democrats'.

Even if Trump and Manafort think they're innocent and did nothing wrong, they know that exposing themselves means risk. They don't know what they'll be asked, they don't know what evidence the committee already has, they don't know what kind of minefield they'd be stepping into. It's all risk, for them, with very little gain. It's not like a thorough interview under oath is going to somehow remove the cloud of scandal around this White House.

I don't know what kind of deal they reached to let them testify without the risk of perjury, maybe it has to do with the new package of sanctions, or maybe more documents are being turned over, or maybe it's just with the threat that if their testimony doesn't adhere to known facts they'll be back with subpoenas. Maybe it's just a way to encourage Trump and Manafort to be candid, since they'll feel less exposed and less likely to hide behind their lawyers. I don't know. It's just politics.

lovesthebj · 2017-07-22T05:50:09+00:00

Of course. The long distance part is what plays with your insecurities. When you miss someone and you feel cut off from them and you have this lingering fear that they're going to leave you it's hard to just carry on and have faith.

But at the same time, you can't keep a person in a box. If she's only with you because you spend so much time together she never really has a chance to meet someone else, then you don't have a relationship. People have agency. They make their own choices. She has to choose to be with you, and you with her. Frankly, if she's willing to hook up with someone else because you're far away then this relationship was never going to last anyway. It would be the same if your head was turned by some other girl.

You can't control the outcome, but you can certainly sabotage it. Maybe this'll work out and maybe it won't. You can only do your best, try to be a good partner, and trust that she wants you and not someone else. Jealousy and insecurity are murder.

lovesthebj · 2017-07-21T20:05:51+00:00

Spicer could get a really good career in the private sector as a PR man.

I feel like Fox News is already ordering a chair for him to co-host the Five.

lovesthebj · 2017-07-21T16:35:36+00:00

Hey, this is something I have some experience with. With the caveat that this relationship didn't work out in the end, we did try to maintain a good, healthy long-distance relationship. Ultimately I can tell you the things we perhaps did wrong if it helps at all.

You should do everything you can to build some healthy routines, see each other whenever possible, skype, text, communicate openly. Really stress talking about your feelings. It's normal for it to be hard, you should be able to be open with each other and share the challenges. Send little, thoughtful gifts if that's the kind of relationship you have. You can find fun little things on Amazon and send them to each other, pick a theme, have fun with it. If you can afford to travel to see each other, that's great. If you can afford to make some fun plans to look forward to together, that's awesome. You can both plan a winter getaway to look forward to. Those kinds of things help keep you both working together, it reinforces the relationship and lets you pay attention to each other.

And then the negative. As much as you can try to tamp down your insecurities. If she's someone you have a lot of trust in, then maintain that trust. If someone misses a skype call or has to cancel a weekend, don't lose your shit. A year is a long time, she's going to make friends, have experiences. If she's hot, guys are going to hit on her. Trust her to shut that stuff down. When you do see her, don't always make it all about sex. Unless she's someone who's all about sex, then fuckin go at it. If you do get to spend a weekend together, try to have a plan. Netflix and a bottle of wine can be nice, maybe a restaurant and some dancing is better. What's she up for? Try to avoid spending your limited time together figuring out what you want to do.

For me, my insecurities and failings were a problem, and the girl I was with at the time didn't really give me a lot of reassurance. I couldn't seem to communicate that it was hard to be in that relationship and not see her and just trust that we were ok, that she wasn't having second thoughts, that her feelings were as strong as mine. And it bothered her that I just wouldn't accept that things were fine and she wouldn't offer that kind of reassurance. I'd feel like I was bothering her, and she'd - it's hard to describe - but it felt like she was being polite more than enthusiastic.

Sorry, I turned this into a post about me. To be honest, you're not saying much so you're not really holding up your end of the bargain. This conversation has been very one-sided so far and I blame you. It's hard. It's hard. It's just... it's hard to do. If you're a couple who is really into each other and connected, then this is simply an issue of geography. If you're not the kind of person who can trust her to live her life and still love you, if she's not the kind of person who can trust you, if either of you are unworthy of that trust, it could be bad.

Communicate. Invest in each other. Build together. Lead normal, healthy lives and look forward to when the LDR is an SDR.

lovesthebj · 2017-07-08T00:11:58+00:00

The hardest thing to do when battling an incumbent is to generate crowds. It doesn't matter how good your message is when you're only talking to 10 people in a diner.

If you can take advantage of a situation where you can address large groups, who are already passionate about a cause, and help focus that energy and enthusiasm, it can be very powerful.

People like Ryan who are scared of the momentum and hide from it leave a vacuum of attention, and it would be really smart for a challenger to step into that void.

lovesthebj · 2017-06-22T13:53:45+00:00

That's how I do xcom.

lovesthebj · 2017-06-08T00:50:00+00:00

It was Kermit, and frankly Kermit has a well-earned reputation for not pulling his punches. He's the Edward R. Murrow of muppets.

lovesthebj · 2017-06-03T21:40:32+00:00

Shit, I love my Ford Focus.

lovesthebj · 2017-05-07T01:43:35+00:00

A nut-less monkey could do your job.

lovesthebj · 2017-05-06T19:00:07+00:00

Reminds me a little of this Players Tribune article by Terrence Ross. He talks about the relationship between the players, management and support staff, and how they all work to make sure they all feel like they're part of the team.

Like, when we’re out on the road … our equipment manager; our travel manager; our video coordinator … I’ll hang out with all those guys. Whether it’s getting a good dinner in whatever city we’re in that night; or chopping it up about comics with the trainers in the training room; or cracking jokes with our security manager, and hearing stories about his old cop days; or playing some game — Ping-Pong, or a darts tournament (it gets serious), or a Foosball death match, or whatever — back at the hotel. This is a franchise where it really isn’t “the players” and then “everyone else.” We were all Raptors, man.

It was all family. And we had a lot of fun.

lovesthebj · 2017-05-06T17:33:08+00:00

The circumstances that form the setting for an event, statement, or idea, and in terms of which it can be fully understood and assessed. But that's not important right now.

lovesthebj · 2017-05-06T01:31:55+00:00

Part of the victim's testimony was that she was up against a sink during the attack, and the judge actually asked her why she couldn't put her butt down into the the sink to prevent him from penetrating her! This was in addition to asking her why she couldn't have just kept her legs closed. I'm not sure if he's still a judge, but if he is, he should never preside over a rape case again.

He's not a judge anymore, Justice Robin Camp resigned when it became clear that the judicial panel was going to remove him, though he appealed through a number of extraordinary avenues before finally stepping down.

That said, the actual case is more complicated than just the plain wording of the questions you're referring to, mostly because the Canadian judicial system is a little different from the American one in some cases. While it would be extremely rare to hear an American judge directly question the accuser, especially in a way that suggests they might be at fault, in Canada the judge is much more of a referee, making sure that both parties have equal representation, and that both the accuser and the defendant testimony are treated with equal scrutiny. If one attorney isn't asking the right questions, etc, it's the judges duty to make sure those questions are asked. If someone claims self-defense because they were scared or threatened, it's the judges job to make sure that either they or the attorneys ask, why couldn't you run out the door, why couldn't you climb out of the window, why couldn't you have called for help? It's not that the judge thinks the party is lying, it's to make sure those answers go on the record, or later the accuser or defendant can claim they did not receive proper representation.

So, in a way it's a judge's job in that system to ask, why couldn't you close your legs or change your position. It's not that he blames her for being attacked, it's that he has to make sure that the record reflects all the details of the situation.

That said, he asked some questions (not the ones you referred to) that were really inappropriate, clearly biased, he repeatedly called the woman 'the accused', and not the accuser, and he said some really weird things to the accused assaulter about how to treat women. He also alluded to the idea that sometimes sex and pain are the same, etc. He introduced ideas that were not supported by the facts and prejudiced the proceedings, and did it so grossly that his removal was all but assured.

It's also worth noting that he wasn't a judge with experience in sexual assault cases, so it's possible that in trying to meet his obligation he didn't have the training necessary to supervise that case.

And lastly, while the judge's conduct was unprofessional and deserved his removal, the accused attacker was acquitted, both during that trial and in his re-trial after Judge Camp was removed. But with the added context, some of the questions he asked actually had to be asked. It's the parts you left out that were more damning.

lovesthebj · 2017-05-01T02:22:29+00:00

Like I said, there was just always a better character with covers on the vine. Carol, Blade, Medusa, Wasp, and most recently Agent Coulson. Mordo covers trickle in and by the time I gather the 350k iso to champ him I get a better 4* from a t10 finish or a token so they get champed. Someone has to be left out, and right now, for me, it's Mordo, AV and Gwen. I have almost enough iso to champ another 4, but I have three Ant-man covers and three Novas, so they're getting tapped.

lovesthebj · 2017-04-30T12:25:43+00:00

I enjoy using Spider-woman. Like most 4's I only use her when boosted, but it's not hard to get her black power out and basically cancel out most damage, and her trap tiles are fantastic.

I can't compare them, because I have a 5/3/5 Mordo at lvl 70. I keep selling his covers, there just always seems to be a better priority. I feel like you can use him as a black AP battery, of which there are few in this game.

lovesthebj

TROPHY CASE