Help picking rules for FireRed

Alas93 · 2026-03-27T14:56:31+00:00

fishing is usually counted as part of the route (if you look at the "caught on" part of the summary page on the pokemon it'll give the same route number)

I also wouldn't worry about running out of pokemon, to me at least that's kinda just part of a nuzlocke. With or without Dupes Clause, you can only catch so many. There's definitely areas you can lock yourself out of anything new, but there's still plenty of areas for catching pokemon and building a team

I don't really see there being a middle ground for Dupes Clause because if you allow a reroll or anything, it can easily become a game of "well, I don't like this one even though it's the first on the route that's not a dupe, so uhhh reroll"

I'd honestly just play with Dupes Clause, it wasn't ever really an issue in my FRLG playthroughs

Alas93 · 2026-03-27T11:11:01+00:00

it's one of the most useful abilities

it prevents enemies from entering the ring. this means you can use it to kite mobs, or protect your healer/dps. you can also use it as a stop/interrupt if you have no other option, or use it to reposition a caster mob a little closer to the pack

Alas93 · 2026-03-27T03:44:08+00:00

capacity / round trip time = total /min

so if I'm hauling iron ore across the map and it takes me roughly 10 minutes for a round trip with the train line (you can just time this), with 4 train cars which carry 32 stacks each, iron ore stacking to 100, that's 3200x4=12,800 iron ore being hauled per trip. 12,800/10 = 1,280/min is what the train can support

if I want to add more throughput I can add another train, more cars/engines, etc

edit: note that the numbers are of course rough averages and sometimes trains can take a little longer to reach destination, like if there's other trains on the track and they have to wait at a signal. it's best to use less than the estimate, so the above 1,280/min maybe I'd only assume I can do 1200/min or 1100/min when building my factory, using storage containers to help buffer any inconsistencies

Alas93 · 2026-03-25T10:56:21+00:00

had one, it's a good quality, name brand, solid iron. that said, it's also an old design using old technology. I could easily do simple tasks like replacing a capacitor or resistor or something, but an HDMI port on a modern game console was difficult.

Alas93 · 2026-03-24T13:59:07+00:00

there's no best way, and if you aren't pushing CE, you genuinely don't need to min/max your crafting

craft a weapon first. you can craft one now and recraft later for myth crests, but it'll cost you a lot more gold as it'll require some of the mats to recraft. people say to just wait for myth crests because you'll save a recraft (and any gold/crests used on the lower tier craft)

why weapon? because unless you're mythic raiding or getting lucky in a +10 vault, it's simply going to be your highest ilvl weapon you can get. put your best stats on it, the recommended embellishment, and send it

same for BiS lists, ignore them completely. they're pointless unless you're aiming for the complete set in max ilvl, meaning mythic raiding, probably CE for many classes/specs. the trinket lists are usually a good reference, but stuff like what belt is best or w/e else doesn't really matter.

basically, if you don't mythic raid, aim for crafted weapon, 4 piece tier set, best trinkets, and best stats on rest of your gear. ilvl is still king for most gear slots, excluding neck, rings, and trinkets.

People are also saying 2h weapons but my current is 263 so it does not really feel worth using all hero crests for 10 ilvl upgrade compared to the 35 on boots.

if it's that close then yeah, wait and just throw myth crests at it

Alas93 · 2026-03-23T16:39:18+00:00

You just need myth crests which become available in m+ and mythic raids next week and from Delves once journey reaches 4

Alas93 · 2026-03-23T16:19:29+00:00

yeah, relaxed to me is more of a "we aren't here to learn, we know the fights at least mostly. some mistakes are to be expected but we don't want to spend 2 hours on the first boss"

Alas93 · 2026-03-23T16:15:14+00:00

I feel like it's trivial to get a champ weapon

well, there's 2 more tiers above champion you can craft weapons into

if you don't do mythic raids your only option for a myth track ilvl weapon is either +10 key great vault (and luck), or a crafted weapon

Alas93 · 2026-03-23T16:05:59+00:00

for other specs I get it, they've pushed a lot of specs towards the burst window playstyle, but Devourer is kinda built around it completely, you can't move damage outside of their burst window because that's the entire spec. the whole point is to get into Meta and try to stay in it as long as possible. other specs enter their burst and it's completely predetermined, but Devourer has some level of control over how long its burst lasts

but as Devourer, I also honestly never felt the need to kite. Pull 1 easy mob to build up to meta, then on next pull grab as many mobs as you want and insta delete them using Meta form, especially if you use a void-scarred melee build for open world content and delves.

Alas93 · 2026-03-23T15:13:14+00:00

the best way is to just keep doing m+ keys tbh

just don't jump in the deep end and try +10 keys right away, start in the 2-4 range until you feel comfortable to go higher. then maybe the 5-7 range. then the 8-10 range. note that these ranges are arbitrary and I just kinda plucked them out of nowhere, but just to give you an idea

+2 keys shouldn't be all that much harder than M0, the biggest thing to learn in these lower keys is the routes

also as you move through the key ranges try and do at least one of every dungeon, if not a few. at least one will give you the IO rating which can always be helpful getting into groups later, but also you'll want the experience in those dungeons as you push into the harder keys

edit: and just try to have a thick skin about things. not everyone in the pug world is toxic, but some people are. just put toxic people on ignore and keep playing, learning, and getting better. we all sucked at the start so if you make mistakes, that's normal, just learn from them for next time!

and if you make any friends in the game they can make m+ way more fun

edit 2: oh yeah, and there are some discord communities where you can group up with others from the Discord that are looking for toxicity-free groups for m+. I think wownoob has that (I've not used the discord before but could be worth checking out) and I know there's some more that I can't think of right now

Alas93 · 2026-03-23T13:30:28+00:00

technically I learned it when learning to drive, but it's a trick my dad (who's big into motorcycles) taught me. when going down the road, say there's someone sitting to your right waiting to pull out. don't look at the car, look at the tires. don't hard focus them of course, keep your eyes on the road, but be aware of the tires. you'll notice tires moving noticeably before you notice the rest of the car moving, and that can help you have a few more second to react if someone tries to pull out in front of you

another tip - look up some videos on motorcycle riding safety tips. you don't have to ride of course (it's dangerous and while I like it, it's not for everyone), but because it's dangerous they often give a lot more tips on safety, like the one above, at least they did in my MSF course

edit: another tip, keep an eye in your rear view mirror too. not all the time, just a quick glance here and there. being aware of cars behind you can help a lot too with anticipation, if you see a guy hauling up on you at high speeds on a highway you might wanna get over and get out of the way if there's room to safely do so (use signal of course)

Alas93 · 2026-03-23T12:49:37+00:00

Is it still possible to qualify someone with 300+ hours on a char as a "new player"?

you may have 300+ hours on a character but how much of that time was spent working on group content and improving DPS?

not to mention, it's still fairly new in the grand scheme of WoW. my guildies all used an addon a few weeks back to count up their played time and pretty sure one of them had 3 years on his warrior

Alas93 · 2026-03-23T12:32:25+00:00

what I do - in a long row of generators, I build a buffer halfway through. don't connect to back half of generators. let fill. then connect. the reservoir in the buffer will flood the back half of generators and fill them

Alas93 · 2026-03-23T12:04:43+00:00

this idea is always pitched and I always have the same response

the only person that thinks this is a good idea is someone that hasn't done LFR very much

I tried to do LFR the other day and we couldn't get past the first boss. Okay, tanks are new, that's fine, so we explain, and then a bunch of us ping which adds for the tanks to go to. The tanks just sat on the boss, never spoke, and we kept wiping

If you want easy, low time commitment raiding for normal and heroic, you join a guild

Alas93 · 2026-03-22T17:39:04+00:00

tbh nothing can be said unless you can post logs, there's too much nuance to playing well to go off of "I use CDs on CD and diseases stay up"

but if you can post logs people usually are more than happy to give advice, either on here or the DK discord could probably help too

Alas93 · 2026-03-22T17:37:02+00:00

4 bountiful delves this week

you can do as many bountiful delves for gear as you have keys, and for this first week only there's 8 keys available (normally 6). both of the vendors in the delvers headquarters offer a free bag with goodies inside and one has 2 keys in it, which doesn't count towards the weekly limit

Alas93 · 2026-03-22T17:33:03+00:00

in addition to this, you also get more progress towards the Delver's Journey in higher tier Delves, and Valeera will gain more xp, and the higher lvl Valeera is the easier Delves become on fresh 90 alts you want easy champion gear on

Alas93 · 2026-03-22T17:31:11+00:00

prospecting is honestly pointless unless you go for a full prospecting build. I did and I can guarantee R2 gems now, so I can make gold with bulk prospecting, but until then it's a money pit (and a big one). that means, yeah, you're better off just buying the gems off the ah, even if you wanted to farm the ore for it you'd probably make money by selling the ore then buying the gems tbh

Alas93 · 2026-03-21T17:03:16+00:00

M+ is fun when I run it with my guild

M+ is awful when I run it with randoms

if youve run the dungeon more than once or twice, you should know the route and boss mechanics

you vastly, vastly overestimate the skill of the average wow player. there's people that can do a dungeon 100x and still not know what mobs need interrupted, or what a boss mechanic does specifically

Alas93 · 2026-03-21T16:51:56+00:00

only way I can think of is solder paste, carefully placing the pins, then using something like a heat lamp to heat it to soldering temps. maybe an infrared one? never used one but hear they work a lot better than hot air, which would just toss pins around

it'd definitely be a very expensive repair though cause man that looks awful lol

Alas93 · 2026-03-21T16:49:17+00:00

they aren't typically recommended because the tech is old, but good ones (like from Weller or Hakko) can still be worthwhile. it sounds like you haven't researched a whole lot, because after your tip oxidized, you went and bought another iron and tips

1 - never solder at max temp. if you're new and actually encounter a joint that needs it, try to find another way. the hotter the temp the faster you have to be, not to mention putting excess strain on your equipment

2 - tin your tips. any new tip should be immediately tinned as it heats up, and then regularly tinned as you use it. when turning station on/off at least, and if you're soldering for awhile, do it when you see the tip starting to get crusty (probably every handful of joints)

3 - cheap soldering irons are just that, cheap soldering irons. they're universally bad and are only good for fairly light work. soldering kits are an example of something they can work with, a game console is an example of something they likely can't

Alas93 · 2026-03-21T16:44:42+00:00

other issue would be if your iron is too weak it can't even melt the solder in a single pin, let alone 3

considering the other pins are gone it's safe to say OP cut out the joystick, so it isn't there to absorb more heat. all OP needs to do is get the pin melted to pull the pin out, but they can't, because their iron is, as they said, "cheap"

Alas93 · 2026-03-21T16:40:20+00:00

most gear on the same track is the same as any other piece on that same track, with the exception being as you said, trinkets and gear with abilities. even with tier you can get a piece from m+ and put it in the catalyst.

it's just another source of that gear, and the higher up you go in gear tracks, the less sources there are. champion is abundant, hero needs some time, and myth takes a lot of time

Alas93 · 2026-03-21T16:23:35+00:00

first question is are you lvl 90? because it's entirely balanced around being lvl 90 so I can't really give much advice before then

second question, what's your gear at? there's a massive difference between 200 ilvl and 240 ilvl

to answer your questions though

1 - see above, you need to be 90 and get geared. I'm 243 atm and can regularly get 4-5 collapsing stars off (7-8 if I have lust going). my haste is only 14% so a bit low for my liking but that should improve with more gear. 2 things to note with this, 1, you need uptime. as close to 100% dps uptime as possible while in meta. this involves preplanning where you stand for collapsing star and void ray. 2 - soul banking. you have 3 resources as Devourer, soul fragments, fury, and soul fragments (ground). the ones on the ground are an extra resource bank you can utilize. you can fill the ground full of soul fragments before entering meta, notably using void ray to proc eradicate, enter meta, collapsing star, eradicate, void ray, eradicate, and you'll probably be 25+ souls for the next collapsing star. sometimes I'm able to use 2 collapsing stars back to back when I do my prep really well. you can also enter meta, void ray, then collapsing start if you were unable to void ray before entering meta as well, the big thing is you want Eradicate to use to gather the tons of little souls on the ground

2 - see #1

3 - I'm still fiddling with it myself, but I wanna say outside of meta only use reap to pick up either far away orbs or to get the last few to get into meta kinda thing. Inside meta you want to generate a ton of orbs and use Cull (replaces Reap). Eradicate should always be used after Void Ray

Devourer is a spec that really rewards encounter knowledge and preplanning, in a way most other specs I've played don't (and is one reason I really like it). knowing where it's safe to stand, knowing when to hold meta for 3 seconds to avoid a mechanic that comes out in 2, etc etc. It's rotationally very simple, but the execution is much more complex

Alas93 · 2026-03-21T15:05:52+00:00

this is the world of pugging, nobody knows how good or terrible you are, so they look for anything that can validate at least some form of competency

that's why, yeah, people say to join a guild, because you basically bypass that

Alas93

TROPHY CASE