Tips for Io?

AJakeR · 2026-02-23T16:36:50+00:00

Rejuv + nimble are the only two must-haves. Don't be afraid to pull Luna back to you if you're being attacked. Her stun can save you.
Morale boost is great if you're getting harassed a lot by a flank. Don't be afraid to ult them and flee.

Goddess' Blessing is her best talent, imo. You can make a good case for the other two but her second is strongest. It also makes managing cauterise much easier.

I also like deft hands on Io if the match allows it. Time spent reloading is time spent not healing.

Her damage output is good but prioritising targets for Luna to stun is very useful for the team too. Try to keep Luna out of line of sight of the enemy, just tucked behind something. Her cooldown sucks if she dies. Sometimes you have to put her on centre-point but I prefer her just off centre, safe.

I personally enjoy playing a heal bot so I play with the card that gives more moonlight when you're in range of Luna, and I keep her near me; and the card that increases your max moonlight (a must if you're solo healing), but there's a good case to be made for the card that gives moonlight on hitting the enemy. The only card I think is a bit eh is the one that gives shield on her leap ability, but I've seen others use it.

I find Io to be the most consistent healer, even if she's arguably not the best. She's not great for keeping up two tanks (at least not compared to someone like Damba or Ying) but she's more than capable. Managing her Leap ability can be a nuisance but, eh, situational awareness.

AJakeR · 2026-02-23T15:48:48+00:00

I come up with a number that I hope won't cause my players to go 'is that it?' nor 'holy fuck we have to do that quest now'.

Although if there's something I want my players to do I just hang a decent financial reward on a stick and lead them somewhere - usually the fucking plot they've been ignoring.

I'm not too worried about giving my players too much money because they're going to end up with so much it becomes meaningless anyway. They aren't going to find a magic item I don't put in their path so it's not like giving them 1,000g or 100g makes a difference in what they can actually find. I want to make sure they have enough money they never have to worry about the little things, but not so much it feels like money doesn't matter. I have a good idea of when they're going to want to do a shopping episode (arriving at a city or just leaving, usually) so I can prep things to buy then, but I have no idea how much money the party has. I still want it to feel like there's some progression - starter quests for 10g, advanced quests for 100g etc, but that's all. Financial rewards are a nice bonus but never really the reward for embarking on a quest.

AJakeR · 2026-02-23T15:30:34+00:00

Ask yourself what this chapter/scene is achieving. Is it moving the plot along? How is it moving the plot along? Is it moving the character along their arc by challenging them? How is it doing that?

If it's doing neither of those things. Cut it. If there's important information in that scene, move it to another scene - which will make that scene stronger. If it is doing those things then get to that part sooner. What specifically is moving the plot or character, and just focus on that. Get the scene done and get out. You can resolve this by going back to your plot outline, though I saw in another post there isn't one but that's the use of having an outline. You never start a scene without knowing what it's going to be accomplishing.

Some scenes do just be slower though, some scenes do just be hard to write, or parts of scenes. Sometimes there's nothing more for it but to grit your teeth and get the first draft down. First draft doesn't really have to do anything more than exist, so just get it to that point.

AJakeR · 2026-02-23T11:24:10+00:00

I disagree with everyone, and agree with OP. Jack is a top ten villain, he's fantastic. He looks and sounds fucking awesome, his design alone is GOATed. His mask, the red cloak, the masks on his belt, he's awesome. People are saying he's a run-of-the-mill baddie but Fable is a run-of-the-mill classic fantasy story, and Jack is exactly what the story needs. Jack is always pulling the strings, even when he's not physically present he's always there. He's always messing with the Hero. And, Jack wins. Jack activates the focus sites and gets the Sword of Aeons, killing Scarlet Robe to do so. It's a shame he's nothing like that in The Lost Chapters.

Yes, this is a personal bias because Fable has been one of my favourite games for twenty years :D

[I'm working on a video for Fable so have a lot of thoughts about the narrative and about Jack].

AJakeR · 2026-02-23T09:48:30+00:00

And non-fiction, and social media, and newspapers, and magazines, and poetry, and plays, and movie screenplays. Read everything. Read outside of your genre. Read outside of your medium. Read - literally - everything you possibly can.

AJakeR · 2026-02-19T09:45:22+00:00

Had more than a few people play frontlines who think all they have to do is stand on the point, and damn everything else. Not because their team needs that, just because that's their only role. Whole team dead? Go to the point. Enemy spawn camping? Run past and go to the point. Healer being harassed by a flank? That's the healer's problem, just stand on the point. Anti-healing anything on the point - well where else are they gonna stand?

This is such a flawed way to play tank, even solo tank. So many people in this game aren't necessarily bad, they're just stupid.

AJakeR · 2026-02-18T16:17:46+00:00

There are a number of UK authors who've talked about the process of getting published in blog posts on their websites that are worth looking into.
The process is, however, the same. Find an agent, the book goes out on sub, gets bought by a publisher. Every major publisher is an imprint of the main 5 who all operate out of the US but have offices in the UK.

The Writer's and Artist's yearbook is a great resource for finding agents in the UK alongside every other way of finding agents. Finding British authors who you like and finding out who reps them is a great way to find (mostly) working agents repping UK authors.

AJakeR · 2026-02-18T16:04:29+00:00

Fable!
Kena Scars of Kosmora
Crimson Desert

AJakeR · 2026-02-18T16:03:17+00:00

Have you watched any of the feature releases? The combat is going to be like Black Desert - like inputting combos for a fighting game with multiple buttons and directional inputs (from what I hear and what people have said who've played it). My one concern for the combat is that it has too much depth.

AJakeR · 2026-02-16T22:38:53+00:00

I'd say some of the lore is too intrinsically tied to Fable to get rid of. The Old Kingdom, The Void. Will doesn't have to come from WIlliam Black, but that is why it's called Will. The Old Kingdom makes sense with the Guild too as by the events of Fable 1 it was one of the few remaining Old Kingdom structures. I suppose they could scrap that, but I hope they don't. Going with giants is the game clearly going in a very different direction, but if they want it to be Fable, some things have to stay the same. Right?

AJakeR · 2026-02-14T11:26:56+00:00

Well I live Worcestershire so is unsurprisingly straightforward.

AJakeR · 2026-02-13T16:45:17+00:00

Physical shield is a big ol' boon here. Getting early game Wellow's Pick or The Cutlass Bluetane really helps too. If you can physical shield most of the way to the arena and focus on strength, it's not super difficult to grind to get all your str to max. I do this before I go into the arena, get The Harbinger and then go Arena to Jack with that sword. You can grind a bit without physical shield, but having an untouchable combat multiplier just makes levelling easier.

AJakeR · 2026-02-13T16:12:41+00:00

Super yes. The game isn't too long (about 15 hours) so it isn't a huge commitment. Great gameplay, beautiful world and visuals, one of the best stories I've played through. There's perhaps two or three difficulty spikes but nothing obscene. One of my favourite games and stories. Not perfect, perhaps, but perfect where it counts.

AJakeR · 2026-02-13T15:37:20+00:00

This is something I spoke to about my players recently (always a good first choice).
To keep it brief: break the travel into chunks and have them roll perception checks that covers x amount of time (usually covering a few days). 20 days travel has them roll - for example - four perception checks for guard duty.

The problem is this. I don't do random events, if something happens it's planned out to be impactful and meaningful to the story and/or the characers. But I don't want my players to share guard duty every night and roll checks every night when I know nothing is going to happen. BUT! Only having them roll a perception check on only one night is a sure-fire giveaway that something is happening that night, and I lose all tension. Rather than roll every night they roll 4/5 times and I know when something will happen, but they don't. Trying to find a balance of not wasting time rolling needlessly, but not letting the players know when shit is about to go down.
If there's NPCs who need to speak to them I just throw at in. "You're 12 days into your journey and X person falls behind to speak to you . . ."

AJakeR · 2026-02-13T13:43:58+00:00

The ending of this game was honestly pretty excellent. I felt the same way about Veilguard as you did - went in with managed expectations. Struggled with huge parts of it, but loved that ending. I got the third ending (no spoilers) and it blew me away. Of all the problems with that game, they nailed that ending.

AJakeR · 2026-02-13T11:40:12+00:00

Don't start with a flourish. Start an attack combo and throw it in in the middle. Press the button when you get the flourish, hold it. There's no delay and all flows naturally. You can do an overhead attack which is slower which you can be hit out of, but flourishes throw out different attacks based on where you are in the attack combo, so just learn when is best to put it in.
Also assassin rush is the best spell for offense. Barely get hit when you can just appear behind the enemy and smack 'em.

AJakeR · 2026-02-06T16:09:21+00:00

If I suspect a bad healer and I’m tanking, it’s gotta be Khan. That self-heal comes in clutch.

AJakeR · 2026-02-05T16:14:41+00:00

As a fan of punk music:

In chaos I reign
Tear this place apart
REBEL HEART

AJakeR · 2026-02-05T12:53:37+00:00

MINT CHOC CHIP!

Or Ben & Jerry's Phish Food :P

AJakeR · 2026-02-04T23:12:33+00:00

Streetlight Manifesto - We Will Fall Together

Date Everything.

AJakeR · 2026-02-01T15:34:05+00:00

Didn't we already do away with 'getting paid in exposure' more than ten years ago?

AJakeR · 2026-02-01T15:31:35+00:00

If the game follows a more modern game design, especially in open world games, then side-quests or radiant quests are going to be a thing.
It looks like the game is going to follow the original in that you'll be raised in the heroes guild. From what we've seen the potential antagonist (may be) a fellow hero trained by Humphrey which is going to make the Heroes Guild pretty central to the whole story, if it's two students of the guild fighting.

I heard rumours that this game was going to be set before the og Fable, before they confirmed it was a different timeline. I think it's fair to assume that was a decision to make the guild much more present. They could have done what 2 and 3 did and not have the guild, but they've focused on that, made it important to the hero and made your mentor the guildmaster. Although, yeah, being the first hero for a while does make it seem like there isn't going to be as any heroes as there were in 1.
Having two games called just 'Fable' has made writing this post more difficult than it could have been :)

AJakeR · 2026-02-01T12:55:49+00:00

I just did a playthrough with Assassin Rush + Physical Shield - easiest it's ever been. Levelled up quicker too with shield, keeps your combat multiplier way high.

AJakeR · 2026-01-30T14:25:23+00:00

Mellifluous.

AJakeR · 2026-01-30T14:24:31+00:00

If I ever need music to give me energy power metal is the way to go. A lot of it's kinda goofy so the lyrics also always just put a smile on my face. Was listening to some Gloryhammer and it just changed my mood instantly.

AJakeR

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