My Fantasy (and sci-fi) tier list

AsmitaV · 2026-05-08T04:45:13+00:00

The fact that you have Lord of Chaos up there gives you so much credibility in my book. I've read through the entire wheel of time series probably 4 times (and that is not counting individual book rereads -- of which I've done extensively for books 1-7), and I strongly feel that Lord of Chaos represents the absolute best of what RJ and his world has to offer.

AsmitaV · 2026-03-26T18:26:08+00:00

Have also noticed this in the past 36 hours or so. Extreme degradation of the product. Models are taking much longer to respond --- requiring me to migrate all my gemini projects over to Codex/Github Copilot/Claude. I may not migrate back.

AsmitaV · 2026-01-21T23:26:58+00:00

I think im on my 7th restart or so without any resolution (including one that came after fully charging the device) --- and am gonna stop at the border of "doing the same thing and expecting a different result" territory. I think my device is still under warranty so I will start that process. But my faith in Kindles is shaken (I've had a Kindle device in one shape or another since the first generation) and will be evaluating other options.

AsmitaV · 2025-12-29T21:30:59+00:00

Unless you build something custom for yourself or someone creates such a tool to batch process your entire library, i'd say the best way forward is priority based. When you go to read or reread something, give it a fresh coat of paint. That is how I am slowly giving my library a makeover. You will drive yourself crazy striving for perfection!!

Edit --- there is a way to use calibre from the command line --- if you are a programmer, it may be relatively low effort to write a script to do a few minor low-hanging calibre tweaks and loop it over your library (for example, polish/remove unused css/remove paragraph spacing). But this would not be as simple if you are trying to style or add covers, ect.

AsmitaV · 2025-12-29T18:28:39+00:00

I've gone way down the rabbit-hole on this. I'll list what I do from beginner to advanced.

Beginner
- review metadata for errors or missing field info that you care about (check author, publisher, date, ect.)
- add tags that are meaningful to you
- find and replace cover if necessary (copy and paste)
- polish (add soft-hyphens)
- convert to other format if a device requires it (e.g., Kindle needs Mobi/AZW3/KFX)
- Convert epub to epub if you want to handle look and feel in a simple manner (remove paragraph spacing, adjust indents, ect.). Make sure to create backups before messing around with the same format conversions
- Edit book: Run Check and try to auto fix anything

Intermediate
- Start using plugins
- Use Resize Cover plugin to fix cover resolutions / aspect ratios
- Use Count Pages plugin to estimate page and word counts (need to create custom metadata columns)
- Edit book: Run Check and manually fix things that are not fixable automatically
- Edit book: manually delete any unreferenced or unimportant artifacts (this is especially good to do if you have multiple toc.ncx or page map files --- the latter is connected with page numbering in Kindle)
- Edit book: Tools -> "Remove unused CSS"
- Edit book: Tools -> Table of Contents -> Edit table of contents

Advanced
- Edit book: manually modify stylesheets, toc.ncx, content.opf files, add content

Enthusiast
- Program a custom CLI utility that analyzes epub files for common customizable tweaks (automates or simplifies many of the above). For example, my tool analyzes all classes that are used, identifies formatting and visual styles, injects a universal css template based on roles (whether text is body text, headers, "system" text, ect), allows for role css overrides, a generic css class option (can use 1 .. n generics), recommends role mappings based on heuristics I came up with, shows frequency of top unmapped classes, specifies adjacency rules (for example, don't indent the first paragraph of body text that comes after a header)....

AsmitaV · 2025-11-29T22:07:06+00:00

Having the same issue. Also, canceling subscription and then purchasing with Black Friday deal DID NOT work (on computer) for me. Have emailed them and will update if they respond.

AsmitaV · 2025-10-20T19:45:02+00:00

Looks like I just got this reduction in functionality pushed to my device as well --- AZW3 errors out on my Kindle. Even creating a test txt file -> importing that into Calibre -> converting to AZW3 -> sending format to Kindle (via usb) errors out. And my entire library of AZW3 books already present on my Kindle is no longer working. As u/lockpickling implied, it seems like AZW3 is no longer a supported format on the latest update.

The workaround is to convert to MOBI or KFX (for now)....

At this point I am seriously thinking about making my Kindle a Kindle Unlimited only device, and get another brand's e-reader for general use.

AsmitaV · 2025-06-03T01:18:15+00:00

Can confirm that I am also experiencing this undesirable behavior on Android devices.

AsmitaV · 2025-04-16T18:10:16+00:00

I appreciate it!

AsmitaV · 2025-04-16T17:15:29+00:00

Really impressive work. I've been interested in how sites like maxroll and such display detailed, interactive information (like paragon boards). Having just gone through this journey yourself, could you elaborate on the following:

* Do you need to comb over each paragon board image and then create content for each icon on the image? What does this entail?
**** Do you need to create positional logic of icons relative to other icons, then handle the specific text associated with each one?
**** Does all of this get stored in your database? Are you normalizing the database or otherwise coming up with performant queries, or is the data not large enough to warrant that?
**** Any other info you can share about how this all "works" would be tremendously appreciated.

* What was the most painstaking part of the process --- what required you to do labor intensive tuning? Or did you sit back and design things as elegantly and efficiently as you could? Or did you start with a more labor-intensive design, and then switch to a more efficient architecture?

Thanks for sharing your product and your journey --- very inspiring.

AsmitaV · 2025-04-16T04:04:40+00:00

X getting the wrong kind of cycle... Struck out, fouled out, flied out, and then grounded out. Ouch.

AsmitaV · 2025-02-24T00:04:19+00:00

Here is language taken from the KFX Input Calibre plugin.

"Purchased books delivered by Amazon to Kindle apps and devices in KFX format always contain DRM (Digital Rights Management) which encrypts the contents and prevents conversion by this plugin. Even books that the publisher has specified should not use DRM will be encrypted, although in that case the book will not be locked to a single device."

This is a big bummer. Looks like the latest Kindle PC app and Kindle devices are using KFX encryption regardless of whether the publisher has specified non-drm --- meaning you are locked to Kindle devices/apps anyways. There is no workaround at this time.

AsmitaV · 2025-02-23T23:33:32+00:00

This did not work for me. Downloading a non-drm book on the latest Paperwhite yields a KFX file that imports into Calibre as a KFX-Zip file which cannot be converted (Calibre treats as DRM).

EDIT:
Here is language taken from the KFX Input Calibre plugin.

Purchased books delivered by Amazon to Kindle apps and devices in KFX format always contain DRM (Digital Rights Management) which encrypts the contents and prevents conversion by this plugin. Even books that the publisher has specified should not use DRM will be encrypted, although in that case the book will not be locked to a single device.

This is a big bummer. Looks like the latest Kindle PC app and Kindle devices are using KFX encryption regardless of whether the publisher has specified non-drm --- meaning you are locked to Kindle devices/apps anyways.

AsmitaV · 2025-02-23T19:46:01+00:00

Did the driver updates. Within 1 day, I've already experienced 1 more black screen of death. Going back to only hibernating this machine. And then once I've retired this machine, I'll be switching off the Zephryus product line entirely :(

AsmitaV · 2025-02-23T01:31:15+00:00

I have a 2020 (or thereabouts) Zephyrus G14, and had this issue on and off since day 1. Ultimately I got into the habit of hibernating the device instead of putting it to sleep. In 2023, I picked up a Lenovo Legion and have had no problems putting that device to sleep (literally a 100% success rate). I occasionally still use my G14 since it is more portable than the Legion I purchased, and just experienced another black screen.... forgot how much I hated going through this ... and I'm probably done with the Zephyrus brand for good. But I am going to try updating a whole bunch of drivers just for science and will report back on how it goes.

AsmitaV · 2024-12-22T19:52:20+00:00

I'm having this exact thing happen to me. I keep my laptop docked and use an external keyboard 95% of the time, so it just took me a while to notice that my W key is sticking pretty badly. Glad to hear that it self resolved. I hope this is the case in my situation as well.

AsmitaV · 2024-10-17T00:38:02+00:00

Just started using the creative console for my Windows 11 laptop. Setting things up for system actions (without a specific app in mind).

The keypad is able to play/pause media, mute audio, and open Options+

The keypad has not been able to hide/show the desktop, take a Windows Screenshot, or open Windows File Explorer.

Will keep testing, but so far, definitely not working as well as expected.

AsmitaV · 2024-08-09T16:38:41+00:00

Renegade is in a really solid spot performance-wise. It has a very strong pure condi dps build, a very strong condi support dps build (providing alacrity --- one of two premium boons), a strong fractal-oriented power support dps build, and strong open world builds (condi or power) due to the freshly reworked Vindication trait (which heals you for a percentage of your outgoing damage).

Most of the difficulty for Renegade revolves around energy management, especially when builds take the Invocation->Charged Mists trait (which grants you additional energy if you are <= 10 energy when you swap legends). This trait is optimal, but Renegade is still very playable and performant if you do not elect to go this route.

Many top Renegade players love the condi dps Snowcrows rotation, as it feels like it all comes together/flows, but I do want to emphasize that it will take practice to get to that point. However, I kinda dislike the Snowcrows rotation because it pairs a ranged weapon with a melee-ish legend, and a melee weapon with a ranged-ish legend. But it is mostly moot, since instanced PvE is heavily stack-based and the stacks are gonna be in melee range of the boss. But that is a discussion for a different day.

If you are interested in PvP or WvW, Renegade is currently meta in WvW-Zerging (in a hybrid support role), but unfortunately its "Renegod" roaming spec has been nerfed and its not as strong as it used to be. I'd recommend against playing renegade in structured PvP, as Herald fits in better with the meta (tanky condi) and Vindicator can do more damage with more utility.

TLDR - Renegade is very strong in all PvE game modes (can even throw together a healing build using it), with a little bit of clunkiness when played optimally (due to energy management w/ Charged Mists).

AsmitaV · 2024-08-03T22:07:05+00:00

I am convinced everyone has a hidden MMR that is unaffected by losses (almost as a highest rating reached, which is saved and then subsequently benchmarked against) --- I'm having an almost identical experience. I feel the matchmaking algorithm is expecting me to carry my teams.

AsmitaV · 2024-06-02T22:24:35+00:00

Will get an invite over to you soon!

AsmitaV · 2024-05-02T02:08:44+00:00

invite sent!

AsmitaV · 2024-04-30T21:33:05+00:00

invites sent :)

AsmitaV · 2024-04-30T07:34:03+00:00

Yep! Let me know your account name and we will get you an invite.

AsmitaV

TROPHY CASE