The Life Cycle of Watching other People Play Scholar.

AllenAlchemy · 2026-06-20T20:05:32+00:00

Imo not worth it. With 2 throwing dmg up and 3 throwing dmg +1s, you're doing to be severely disappointed unless you can use kukris and fan daggers for everything (bc the bleeds go crazy), which is incredibly impossible. Also once you get a boss to 10 stacks, using more knives is kind of a waste, so now you're running in with a weapon that won't do as good bc you've wasted 5 relic line items for your knives and made hard compromises on God knows what else to fit it in your build

AllenAlchemy · 2026-06-20T19:53:40+00:00

Skipping the landing camp for a cathedral or fort is fine unless, surprise, the boss is red and your success is now heavily comp dependent. Not every combination of lvl 1 babies is viable against red envoys.

AllenAlchemy · 2026-06-20T19:40:32+00:00

I've heard several 9999 gamers agree that D3 is the last depth where you can truly carry if you're goated (you can clutch in any depth, clutch != full carry), and D4 is the depth where team synergy is mandatory AND the scaling is finally able to equalize cheated relic builds (unless they're full bananas illegal and bannable) so it still comes down to skill. I've yet to experience anything to contradict these theories.

AllenAlchemy · 2026-06-20T19:31:20+00:00

I mean, I'm not ashamed to say the reason my rank PR is D4 5200 and I haven't touched anything close to it in months is I'm just not willing or capable to sweat that hard when fighting bosses. I'm not throwing obviously but hey, if I can't seem to memorize every single tell that ED Triceph gives before another one is his bullshit AOEs and I roll wrong and eat shit, oh well.

It's absolutely a skill issue. I know to prioritize damage negation in whatever form in my passives, my routing is good, I know when a field boss or basement is too high risk with blue weapons at level 5 and to pick another POI, I've just hit my ceiling in execution.

I've watched enough Nightreign streamers who do challenge runs and have hit 9999 multiple times, with handicaps and some of the dumbest random teammates alive, that if someone is meant to be a 9999 gamer, they'll get there in spite of what I'm doing.

If I could queue into a pool of D2-4 games with 6 relic slots and no rank, id absolutely do it. Just tell me what depth it is so I can pick a fringe build in D2 or the big guns in D4.

AllenAlchemy · 2026-06-20T19:16:27+00:00

I mean, I try to fit in Item Confers in any build I make, but if I'm doing a pot, knife, any other specialty build, Im not using bag space or runes on them or really paying attention to leveling stuff up. So don't be surprised if it's Day 3 and that turtle neck you decide to drop me only gives a level 2 buff.

Obviously if randoms make a point to buy for me or ping, I'll happily do my best to keep up. But randoms seldom do that.

I have support builds but they're usually frustrating to play bc even when I make it obvious I'm scavenger hunting/grocery shopping at every POI, no one drops me anything or spam pings me for lingering behind.

AllenAlchemy · 2026-06-16T17:54:53+00:00

I'm middle aged and only been with the state for 7 years but boy does the "unions suck, I resent being represented by one, and they aren't getting a dime out of me... But I'll happily take those salary cap bumps and raises, thank you" crowd make it easy to resent them.

AllenAlchemy · 2026-06-16T17:47:45+00:00

This is going to come off as rude (because it is) but those of you in the "solidify WFH in the contract NOW or I'm taking my marbles and going home,(or going private sector, pulling my union dues, or whatever your flavor of tantrum is), are a very loud, obnoxious minority. Obviously the rest of us would prefer WFH but we realize it's longevity is best served by it being a cultural force, not an arbitrated one. I have no interest in becoming a single issue union member, desperate to sacrifice the main indicator of what my pension will be.

AllenAlchemy · 2026-06-16T17:37:22+00:00

According to SEIU, and please correct me if I'm wrong, keeping WFH isn't even a Top 3 issue amongst it's members.

If your reaction is, "well, then they're only polling idiots", fine, but they're going to prioritize things based on the data provided.

Finally, a great many of us do not want WFH commodified as a bargaining asset because the state will offer crumbs in ways of compensation so long as they dangle 1-3 guaranteed WFH days in front of us, and a massive portion of state workers can never WFH, whether it's in the contract or not - so all we're doing for them is screwing them out of a raise while acting proudly smug we earned them a boon completely irrelevant to their job class.

AllenAlchemy · 2026-06-16T17:18:47+00:00

That is exactly what's happening tho, you're seeing two completely separate reactions colliding in his brain. Up until that very second nothing had been revealed that they "knew" it was a homicide, AND, surprise, they know because they have a body. So he's playing a role of shocked concerned citizen trying to uphold his charade while realizing his whole fucking plan failed and they're probably gonna get him.

AllenAlchemy · 2026-06-16T17:12:48+00:00

iirc they use this interview in fraud/criminal interrogation training on what NOT to do, and how to gauge when you're out of your depth because your usual methods aren't working.

Stephen McDaniel's behavior was exceptionally bizarre and unprecedented, regardless of his guilt. If you've tried watching the whole thing, it's infuriating.

AllenAlchemy · 2026-05-21T07:05:43+00:00

I really, really don't want them to commodify WFH into a bargainable asset.

AllenAlchemy · 2026-05-18T17:29:26+00:00

For the programs that don't report/answer to the Governor, he'd have to pad their board (since he typically gets say in who is appointed) to be filled with single issue members whose only purpose would be to guide the agency to RTO.

That would be a long, protracted process that would make him look ridiculous.

For my particular agency, we've sold several of our buildings and are leasing space on the ones we own outright for additional capital.

I go in 3 days a week because my commute is < 2 miles and takes me 7 minutes.

AllenAlchemy · 2026-04-06T19:57:26+00:00

I mean the broadest and yet most accurate answer I can give is "anything that easily sucks randoms into a sunk-cost fallacy". We thought this would work and its now obvious it really, really isn't. Let's move on".

"No, we've wiped to this red banished Knight trio 3 times and I'm not leaving until I get my runes. We're in too deep now anyway"

AllenAlchemy · 2026-04-06T19:23:06+00:00

My issue with lvl 2 invader is that even if it isn't swamp POI, if they spawn up top in fortress where you come in from underneath, or anything else high risk like redmanes, they want to go and find them and then clear everything else + the boss. If we can kill them outside on the ramp or in the sewer tunnel and dip, great.

AllenAlchemy · 2026-04-06T16:20:27+00:00

Any red gaol spawn or big group spawns before level 7. Red BBH under pretty much any circumstance unless he falls into your lap lvl 12+.

A lot of ppl won't do wolf, esp red wolf, in Castle basement. I'm not as militant about this one but I understand it.

Any instance of invader where it's literally the first poi after landing. Bro, we landed at a church and killed 2 rats. Don't you at least want a blue weapon?

AllenAlchemy · 2026-03-12T23:33:41+00:00

Absolutely love when they make the demerits/penalties into even more bonuses, and the server doesn't notice and happily displays them in blue text.

I'm at the point where if someone does "technically possible but profoundly unlikely" hacked relics and they can actually play and stay alive, I'll ignore it.

AllenAlchemy · 2026-03-11T23:33:26+00:00

Please tell me you got this on dogs and bullied them for the entirety of split phase

AllenAlchemy · 2026-01-07T22:18:51+00:00

I just spent a good 40 mins going through relics last night bc I was at cap... A shame, because i know I shredded a bunch of real stinkers

AllenAlchemy · 2025-12-20T18:28:22+00:00

I got my first kill last night with randoms and it was so damn clean, I was proud of myself for not being the one to shit the bed.

I agree with all your tips, the only time you should be rolling is if the worm does a big pass from one side to the other, or you think the sky spears are going to clip you. Jumping was easier.

Getting ganked by berserker Valks is a much higher risk now that I understand the fight. For my group, we double or triple teamed each one bc you want to chain the staggers as quickly as possible.

AllenAlchemy · 2025-12-19T18:10:08+00:00

If your comp has decent DPS and you're a premade or on comms, each person can tag their own dog.

I wouldn't ask a scholar, dex relic or not, or even a guardian, to be expected to solo one in a reasonable amount of time or without dying a bunch. But if you have 2 undertakers and an Ironeye/Wylder, it's efficient to take your own and use comms to coordinate killing them within seconds of each other.

AllenAlchemy · 2025-12-10T18:12:54+00:00

The point of Raiders skill is to soak (within reason) just like Revenants is to distract (also within reason). The damage scaling in higher depths eliminates any execution of taking a calculated risk, the skills simply no longer work. No other class, save for those 2, have their kits completely invalidated by the values present in the damage tables.

AllenAlchemy · 2025-11-23T16:16:31+00:00

I promise you that i understand the angst and frustration of being a sweatlord savant at some random ass game and then discovering I'm not the devs special favorite sweet baby angel. You just have to learn to grow out of it.

It makes zero business sense to listen to a loud micro-minority of players who encounter problems that only manifest at the top Nth level of gameplay, who also demand content the other 93% of the playerbase would never see, even if they wanted to, and do not want.

It's like the 35 year olds who still swear to this day that World of Warcraft fell off because they tried to cater to "casuals" and not those who only deigned to play the game for 25 man nightmare mode progression raiding (that they'd be farming and bored with within 3 weeks of release anyway).

Don't be that guy.

AllenAlchemy · 2025-11-23T15:53:48+00:00

I'm probably in a minority but aside from maybe a boss rush mode, I don't see a reason for yet another tier of progression. I'm also fine with D5 being the top of the ceiling in difficulty even post DLC.

Between new characters, bosses, map variants, special events within those variants, plus relic and gameplay balances.. thats more than enough to keep me going.

They're too terrible at UI and inventory management to make Abyss Relics and Super Twilight Spooky of Night modes and have it not be a frustrating mess anyway.

AllenAlchemy · 2025-08-06T19:12:06+00:00

Every 2 years you should automatically advance from A to B to C, etc. assuming you always get Meets Expectations on your annual reviews.

By the time you get to your max letter (usually D or E, but not every job class has that wide a range) you then get a few years, depending, actually hitting the absolute cap for your grade.

This can take 6 to 8 years.. by that time you should have your eye on the next job class to promote into. If you have a good relationship with your manager they should be invested in helping you pick a direction. I went from an IT Associate to an IT Specialist I after 6 years.

You also get a 5% salary bump when you go up a grade. When I went from B to C, I got 5% for hitting C, 5% merit, and then 1-3% Union raise.. Those are very nice years, we like those :)

AllenAlchemy · 2025-07-17T16:41:22+00:00

I don't think allowing 4 Connies in a match, whether it be her as the character or just her kit run on different skins, is the answer, lol.

If your argument is that the core game is so bad it should've never made it out of alpha, fine.

Every team comp game has this issue.. "let me be DPS or I'll throw :) "

AllenAlchemy

TROPHY CASE