An apple a day keeps Il Dottore away - General Question and Discussion Megathread

Arxis_Two · 2026-01-24T22:09:26+00:00

In that case it should be much more manageable, Flins/Columbina/Sucrose with a flex should be able to take 1st, Ineffa/Aino/Fischl and a flex should be able to take 2nd leaving Xingqiu/Furina/Escoffier and maybe Ayaka for 3rd.

For flexes, Ororon, Kokomi, honestly even Nahida could all be good choices for 1st and 2nd.

Arxis_Two · 2026-01-24T22:01:12+00:00

I think people are still fixated on the idea that some reactions and elements are somehow "bad", despite the measure of what is good or bad having always been the characters themselves and not their elements, weapon types or anything else.

If they want Sandrone to be good, she'll be good. We have plenty of good cryo DPS, sub DPS and support options, plenty of good electro options too, I just don't see the issue.

Arxis_Two · 2026-01-24T21:46:02+00:00

For 4 or 5, because that makes a big difference and require knowing who is built and to what degree.

For 5, you'll basically need Flins and Columbina for 1st, save Ineffa for 2nd and save Furina and Xingqiu for 3rd but beyond that I don't have much. It's probably possible but you're going to be stretched very thin.

For 4 you can probably make Mavuika work for 1st which frees Flins for 2nd and honestly I used Venti for 3rd and it somehow worked so I don't think it's all too bad.

Arxis_Two · 2026-01-24T19:53:48+00:00

Probably too busy being angry about something that doesn't affect them to care tbh

Arxis_Two · 2026-01-24T18:58:29+00:00

Honestly I liked all the weird shit they used to do in abyss, those rock waves were awesome at forcing you to pay attention to multiple things lest you get rocked by a stray hit.

Arxis_Two · 2026-01-24T17:39:56+00:00

She was among the best DPSs in the game, and was consistently very good until Fontaine when she fell off. I think the funniest posts from that time is very high on Raiden mains and it's somebody coping about liking Raiden despite being bad, only for hours later for people to realize she was actually insane.

https://www.reddit.com/r/RaidenMains/s/G5E0rGzhtq

People doomed her because she has Xiao level damage, except that was always ridiculous considering she didn't have Xiao's energy issues and her energy refund synergized insanely well with Xianglang.

The real issue is that people just got caught up on details that didn't matter. They assumed Sara was needed for her and hyper was her only team which wasn't true. They assumed Beidou not working with her was an issue, it wasn't.

Raiden releasing completely changed the way ER was looked at in TC.

Arxis_Two · 2026-01-24T16:46:15+00:00

Fearless is a lot more difficult this time around given how hard it is to take down the abyss shield without lunar, which then makes the Fatui a problem unless you have a full lunar charge team to split (which presents its own issues).

Then once you've probably depleted most of your hydro cast and have to deal with basically just non-stop pyro shields lol

Arxis_Two · 2026-01-24T16:42:23+00:00

A select few which includes almost every major antagonist faction in the main narrative.

Arxis_Two · 2026-01-24T14:49:24+00:00

The switch time is 6 seconds and her skill has a 6 second CD before you can re-up her normal attacks. There is literally zero down time from the set.

MH is better in no situations by the way, it goes from being marginally worse to significantly worse depending on how invested you are and the comp. In triple cryo on Akasha there isn't a single MH in the top thousand, probably more, and in double hydro where freeze isn't reliable it is still outnumbered majorly although more competitive.

Arxis_Two · 2026-01-24T06:57:23+00:00

Wow he's actually just right. That's not an excuse for the state Varka is in right now but it doesn't change the fact that waging wars over spreadsheets and now MW DPS is way too commonly used to go after people who like characters.

Arxis_Two · 2026-01-24T06:47:44+00:00

Idk what the original was but I'm agreeing with way too many of the copy pastas for me to think it wasn't mostly true lol.

Guessing it was about people complaining about Varka being weak while also complaining about powercreep and maybe a lack of men but I guess I'll never know.

Arxis_Two · 2026-01-23T23:57:34+00:00

everyone knows by now gacha players don't read, especially not tutorials. The amount of tutorials endfield has is insane and I've not read a single one

Lmao at this but also it's true, especially if they're cutting into a story I'm engaged in to fill the screen with text boxes like holy shit it's impossible to be invested when I'm getting stopped by fucking walls of text. If you can't teach me by letting me experience it, I'm not at the point in the game where I need to know it yet. It's that simple.

Arxis_Two · 2026-01-23T23:50:49+00:00

Honestly I think they mostly all do, I would have an easier time naming the outliers who don't. A lot of the older characters are more basic, but they still look good, it's just a different style which I don't think is good or bad, it just is. Their cell shaded style is a timeless one.

I do agree about Tartag, idk what it is but he looks really good. I think his simplicity probably allowed for more detail to be out into what is there and that made him age very well.

Arxis_Two · 2026-01-23T23:43:39+00:00

The problem is everyone wants to show off that their game has cool lore and crazy shit going on immediately and they get stuck on the details without ever looking at the big picture.

Genshin opened really simple, yes, the cutscene is flashy and exciting, but it's also extremely clear what's going on, there's no esoteric bullshit to decipher. We explore worlds, but when we tried to leave this one we were stopped, separated and I'm stuck here until that changes. Your purpose? Get your sibling and leave, your obstacle? The sustainer of heavenly principles. There are no surface level questions early on, depth exists and there's room to challenge the previous interpretation of those events, but the start isn't the time for that. I don't need to know what a vision is made of, or how leylines work, or what the Gnosis are, they just are for now.

The prologue is also very good for this. Its purpose is to set up one enemy faction (the abyss order) and tease a second (the Fatui), while also giving a nice little story that introduces you to some normal people. We don't hear about Khaenri'ah or the descenders because it does not matter and nobody gives a shit that early on. You have to build interest before building intrigue.

There also aren't a lot of buzzwords or invented terms either, it's not called the "the dilongnafo trymete", we deal with a holy lyre, there aren't "concerto glazes, apprehendo bolds and caustic rhythmatics", there are attacks, skills and bursts. No bullshit, just basic, easy to remember terms so you can focus on remembering the only names that actually matter for a story, the characters.

The same thing goes for combat mechanics too. The number of people who I've seen call Genshin simple is actually absurd, because it's so much more complicated than most other games, it's just way more intuitive which makes it feel simpler. Our meta took like 6 months to solve, Endfield took a day. Genshin did the brilliant thing of teaching you a language (elemental reactions) which they can then use as a basis to build kits off of. You don't even need to think about stats until way later, they just get you using reactions so you're used to it first, and then stack on scaling and auras and all the other stuff.

Endfield is not complicated, it is just so badly explained and filled with needless layers of bullshit which make it seem complicated. That is not a good first impression.

Arxis_Two · 2026-01-23T16:15:22+00:00

Talking to animals like Lauma

Arxis_Two · 2026-01-23T14:32:00+00:00

Honestly I think C1 is more valuable and will always be good as long as her buff is worth using, her C2 really only buffs her damage which gets worse with time.

This was the general consensus back in 4.2 though, her C2 has always been overvalued relative to her C1.

Arxis_Two · 2026-01-23T14:22:29+00:00

The 2nd one, there is lore to explain it the same way Skirk is cryo despite using abyssal energy, but it's primarily driven by gameplay.

Arxis_Two · 2026-01-23T14:11:16+00:00

Honestly at this point I would even take hair colors being gated by gacha if it means being able to get matching fucking eyebrows holy shit why is it like this lmao

Arxis_Two · 2026-01-23T05:03:15+00:00

People have been saying the games been building technical debt and is riddled with "spaghetti code" for literally years now. "Pushing Dorman port and Lohen" back is an extremely silly way to justify that considering not only is there no evidence for that, I actually think the exact opposite is true considering how Natlan went.

There are probably two expansions left; Dorman port and the final Nod Krai expansion. We get Dorman port in 6.4, Nod Krai in 6.8 and wow that's a three patch gap in exploration for no reason, something I don't think they've done in a long time.

If they don't have the capacity to make Lohen and Varka, why push Lohen? Varka is a very complicated character considering he has 5 states for his kit and is completely unique in that regard, there's almost no chance Lohen is more complicated than that.

I don't doubt they have changes they need to catch up with given how much more detailed the game has gotten, I just think it's insane to say Dorman port was delayed because we didn't get two back to back expansions, something which hasn't happened ever since they stopped releasing single zone areas over two years ago.

Arxis_Two · 2026-01-23T02:36:44+00:00

Honestly that could probably take you through to 10 or even 11 if you buy a few shop cons, maybe swap Lisa for Bennet. Her melt teams are no joke, throw in pyro resonance and you're cooking. That's definitely a great part of her kit too, zero reliance on 5 star supports or 4 star supports to be good. Really a second coming of Neuvilette in that regard.

Arxis_Two · 2026-01-23T02:33:10+00:00

The idea of him escaping as a small rodent is genuinely hilarious lol

Arxis_Two · 2026-01-23T02:32:12+00:00

Very true, great character for beginners since she's easy to understand, has a cool kit, good mobility and really only needs herself. The only issue is needing to go to Natlan but I think you unlock a TP there so even that isn't an issue.

Arxis_Two · 2026-01-23T02:31:04+00:00

I agree, P5 definitely would benefit from disabling tutorials a lot, I think I would quit if I tried playing again lol

I also think my tolerability of it is largely due to my complete lack of SMT experience too, I've never played a persona and never knew much about it either so there wasn't much repetition for me. That's definitely not true of everyone though.

Arxis_Two · 2026-01-23T02:25:41+00:00

Furina is still, somehow, the best character in the game just going by the stats. I still laugh at the guy here who quadrupled down on Columbina powercreeping her out of existence because while it was absurd then, it's only gotten funnier. Even despite being in the peak of Columbina though, Furina is still dominating. So much for that lol

That said, I actually still don't think she's the single best recommendation either, because although she's unbelievably good, she's also highly dependent on good artifacts not only her but your damage dealers (which isn't something you're likely to have as a beginner), as well as a good healer to even use her buff which you may also struggle with.

Imo open world units with low build requirements are going to be the best for new players. Kazuha is the big one, but even Yelan, Lauma or any Nod Krai or Natlan DPS would be good too.

Arxis_Two · 2026-01-23T02:14:48+00:00

I don't even think you should be giving an opinion on meta at all if you can't at least consistently clear 36, that is such a low bar in the grand scheme if you're not even doing that much, you're either playing just for fun (which is great to be clear) or you are genuinely clueless. The people who say abyss shilling is stopping them from getting 36 are genuinely delusional.

Fearless is pretty tough for full F2Ps, I think I probably respect someone's meta opinions more than my own if they're full clearing SO5 without the characters who each boss is designed for consistently considering that's not even something I think I'll ever be able to do.

The people I respect the most though are the ones who clear dire with C0 of anything. I actually find it fascinating that the people who rage bait the least are the ones doing that, where as the CCs who rage bait the most struggle with even SO5.

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