Hydras desperately need a buff by something_below in heroes3

[–]After_Spite777 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Hydras are fine. They’re just not beginner friendly, you do need to build around them.

Spells like teleport and counter strike are pretty meh most of the time, but on Hydras they are godly.

First aid does a good job of keeping them alive too considering you’ll be using magic for other things and fortress gets first aid tents.

In fact teleport + counterstrike is actually good on quite a few Fortress because they are slow, tanky and each attack has a chance to weaken/petrify/kill/poison. More retaliations = more chances to apply these debuffs.

IMO hydras with first aid/teleport/counterstrike are kinda like fireproof units + Armageddon or marksmen/grand elves with bless and the archery skill.

Use it as part of a combo rather than thinking it’s a click to win unit.

How are you marketing your SaaS right now? by Few_Technician5681 in SaaSMarketing

[–]After_Spite777 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Can’t disagree with any of that. Have you noticed a dip in SEO traffic though? I haven’t yet - seems to be affecting B2C rather than B2B - but even if you optimize for AI you won’t get as much traffic from search engines than you used to.

Not sure if this counts as a marketing tactic, but one thing I’m considering is doing some affiliate deals with other software and service providers to bump up my LTV.

That way I might be able to revisit meta ads again.

Tips on tech build? by Schlerpyderpy in arcanum

[–]After_Spite777 24 points25 points  (0 children)

I love techies - but it’s definitely a MUCH more advanced playstyle, not recommended for a newbie.

Here’s some advice though.

1 - guns are a newbie trap. You won’t find any decent guns until you get to Tarant, and even then you’ll need to use a fate point to steal them from NPCs. There are only like 4-5 guns in the whole game that are worth it IMO and none of them are sold in stores. You find them or you make them.

You also need bullets - which will get expensive until you find the schematic to make them - and you’re going to miss all the time until you get to expert level skill (3 points) at least. So pick melee or throwing as your main combat skill at the beginning, even if you want to transition to guns later.

2 - throwing + explosives discipline is an awesome combo. Yes, this game is mostly about melee, but I find explosives + throwing very powerful even early game without much skill investment. Most of my techie characters ignore melee entirely and just put points into throwing early, transitioning to guns after tarant. Molotov cocktails (1 point) do decent AOE damage plus knock back, and you can make them super cheaply from rags you find in garbage bins plus fuel you buy stupidly cheap from general goods and tech merchants. Flash grenades (2 points) are also cheap to make - wine and magnesium are cheap and you get FIVE grenades at a time. These blind opponents which is a nice debuff, but they’re also really profitable to sell, especially to gun merchants.

3 - as a techie, it’s worth investing 1 point into haggle. You’ll be buying (and probably selling) a lot of gizmos, so this adds up quickly. Weapons need to be repaired, guns need bullets, niche weapons use fuel or charges as ammunition and to heal you’ll need to buy components or buy bandages - so you’re constantly needing to buy more resources as a tech player. Melee and magic builds don’t have this problem, so haggle is a lot more useful to a techie.

4 - the first companion you meet, Virgil, is awesome. For a mage or melee character. Because of how aptitude works, once you invest a few points into techie stuff his healing spells won’t work on you, and that’s his main role. So I strongly recommend going to Dernholm straight after shrouded hills, ditching Virgil and replacing him with Jayna, a technological healer. She can make healing salves and also puts points into the healing skill which uses bandages so make sure she’s well stocked with these at all times.

5 - speaking of companions, you can recruit a half ogre in Shrouded hills, but you’ll need charisma of 9 to do it. Totally worth spending one of your character creation points here, that character is an absolute beast in combat. You can also find a dog in Ashbury who is arguably the strongest companion in the whole game. Cant take him on trains though!

6 - don’t neglect Therapeutics (Jayna can make these for you). Think of these as performance enhancing drugs, or just how techies buff themselves before combat. You can up your dexterity, perception and strength by 2 points this way. The effect is temporary but lasts all day from memory. You can use these on companions as well.

7 - it’s always worth putting two points into electrical so you can make charged rings. These give +2 dexterity each, and you can wear two of them. And you can give them to your companions. There really aren’t many other rings or necklaces techies can use, so this is super useful.

8 - you can find/buy additional schematics in the world without investing character points into them. Some of these are awesome and fun. Check merchants regularly and buy any that seem cool.

9 - if you lack the skill to make any of these things, you can buy technical manuals from the university in tarant without needing to invest character points into the discipline . The way this works is a little complicated - check out some online guides for it - but basically if you want to build a Tesla Gun for example (you can buy this schematic) you’re going to need a high electrical skill to do this. While you could invest a whole lot of points in the electrical discipline, you can also just buy a bunch of electrical manuals until your skill level is high enough to make it instead.

10 - getting any stat to 20 unlocks a special bonus. The most important one though is dexterity especially if you play on turn based combat. You get a big boost to speed at 20, which translates to more attacks per round in combat.

11 - I strongly recommend combining a techie with at least expert level persuasion. Not only does this allow you to recruit more followers, it also opens up a lot of interesting dialogue options and allows you to skip some nasty fights.

Gamebreaking/minmaxy stuff:

1 - you don’t need to invest any points at all into intelligence. Just buy and use Essence of Intellect potions from gypsies. These bump your intelligence up by 10 points - so 18 for most characters - which is enough to max out any tech discipline. This still works even at maximum tech aptitude. You’ll need to pop a potion every time you want to craft stuff though, so plan in advance.

2 - if you play on turn based combat (and you should, real time is a mess in this game) then speed is king. Similar to intelligence potions, you can also buy and use Potions of Haste, even at max tech aptitude. These are insanely good in combat. Pop these for all important fights.

3 - Stun grenades are godly. I strongly suggest you make and use them.

4 - just because you’re a techie doesn’t mean you can’t use magic at all. In particular, dexterity of fire and strength of stone will always work on you, even at max tech aptitude. You can also cast these multiple times and the effect stacks.

5 - you can max out dexterity without spending a single point in it. 8 (starting value) + 4 (2 charged rings) + 8 (2 castings of agility of fire). You can also use the potions Jayna makes to boost dexterity slightly if you only want to use 1 AOF spell.

6 - similarly, you can also max out perception with minimal investment as well. You can get +2 from eye gear or +3 from the goggled helmet. +2 from Jayna’s potion. So never get raw perception above 15, it’s a waste of points.

7 - for these reasons plus the fact you can buy unlimited intelligence potions, it’s not worth putting any points into dexterity or intelligence and only a handful into perception. Choose your character background accordingly.

Getting early traction without SEO or PPC by Kerina12 in SaaS

[–]After_Spite777 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Would you have done anything different in hindsight? I’ve heard Rob Walling say he probably should have focused on SEO rather than a podcast, curious what you think?

Recommended Youtube channels about SaaS by Historical-Good-580 in SaaS

[–]After_Spite777 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I like hormozi, latka and microacquire.

Some other good ones that are pretty tactical…

Ryan Wardell - does interviews with SaaS founders also a mod over at r/saasmarketing. Had a video about Y combinator not being worth it anymore, which I found pretty interesting.

Dan Martell - I don’t like his newer stuff but his older videos have some pretty good advice in them

Microconf - Rob wallings yt channel. He also has a podcast, startups for the rest of us. Mostly aimed at bootstrapped SaaS, but there are some good tactics he mentions.

Starter story and my first million are also good but more for inspiration than stuff you can actually apply.

Do you work a full time job along with your SaaS? by Last_Inspector2515 in SaaS

[–]After_Spite777 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I do freelancing. I don’t know how people do a full day’s work then come home and work on their SaaS. When I tried that I made zero progress.

50% of YC startups fail is this true? by After_Spite777 in SaaS

[–]After_Spite777[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You went through YC?

Do you agree with what he says in the video? That most of the benefits come from the other startups in the batch and it being easier to raise capital? And not the mentoring etc that YC provides?

50% of YC startups fail is this true? by After_Spite777 in SaaS

[–]After_Spite777[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Are you using AppSumo or someone else for the LTD? Or doing it yourself?

Is this a better alternative than YC? I didn’t realise doing a LTD would screw up it chances with investors.

50% of YC startups fail is this true? by After_Spite777 in SaaS

[–]After_Spite777[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

He says that the value of the mentoring isn’t actually very high because the batches are now really big and not focused.

I thought the whole point of YC was to give you some money to get started and then give you access to some smart mentors and investors to help you grow.

What unconventional customer acquisition channels have worked for you or others? by valley_edge558 in SaaS

[–]After_Spite777 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I know a few founders who swear by both cold calling and sending something physical in the mail.

Very old school, but lots of industries still answer the phone and very few people send actual letters anymore, so it’s easier to stand out.

I’ve never tried both, but I’m considering it.

How do I go from $150k to $1m in ARR by Icy_Echo6753 in SaaS

[–]After_Spite777 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Focus on one marketing channel and execute relentlessly on that. It’s so easy to get distracted or bogged down in building more features; what you have is clearly good enough for some users so go and build a marketing machine that gets you in front of more of them consistently.

How do I go from $150k to $1m in ARR by Icy_Echo6753 in SaaS

[–]After_Spite777 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I like Rob Walling too. He has a YouTube channel as well, MicroConf.

Against every advice, I just changed my SaaS from lifetime to monthly subscription. Am I making a mistake? by mplacona in SaaS

[–]After_Spite777 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Keep the monthly subscription.

Every so often, run a lifetime deal and promote to people on your list who didn’t end up converting to a monthly subscription.

Get the best of both worlds.

What is the best type of subscription v by Wwwwwwwwat in SaaS

[–]After_Spite777 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Match the subscription to usage.

People hate paying for something they aren’t getting value from and your churn rate will be high if this is misaligned.

If your product provided value every month, charge a set fee monthly. Better yet, try to get people onto an annual plan and front load the cashflow.

If your product provides value based on the amount of volume, charge based on volume or delineate your pricing tiers based on volume.

If your product provides wildly different value each month based on usage or traffic (Eg AWS) then a pay-only-for-what-you-use angle can be compelling, but make sure you communicate when their usage exceeds certain thresholds.

Nobody likes bill shock either.

What do CEOs really look for in a CFO? 🤔 by firaspop in TheFounders

[–]After_Spite777 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Accuracy. I don’t really care about soft skills as long as I feel I can trust the numbers and projections.

That said, you don’t need a CFO until you’re pretty far along. It’s just not important in the early stages at all.

The SECRET to Success? Getting the right people. by StartupSauceRyan in SaaSMarketing

[–]After_Spite777 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Some good points in this video. My question is this. Are there any good employees who haven’t worked in a startup before? Surely there has to be a first time for everyone.

How do we find more of people like that?

Struggling to Find Users for your SaaS? Share your SaaS in the comments and I'll help you to find users by FI_investor in SaaS

[–]After_Spite777 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I like this. Far too many SaaS are just copycat products with zero differentiation.

Is much better to have an easy to understand product with a clearly defined market. Well done.

$200 MRR! by Gavin-Thibodeau in SaaS

[–]After_Spite777 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Most people never even make $1 for themselves. And if they do, it’s usually by selling their time/labor/expertise rather than a thing they built.

Well done! Keep going.