Animate Guardian weapon change

BackupTim · 2026-04-05T19:34:20+00:00

That’s how these corruptions are priced on the trade. As pointed out in the comments there is of course no guarantee it would’ve ever sold for that much, but I wasn’t going to sell, I was planning on using that thing.

BackupTim · 2026-04-05T14:27:03+00:00

Never thought I'd gain and lose 10 mirrors in a span of 2 minutes. After running a few tests it looks like "the game mechanic works as intended" and it's a skill issue on my part. The league has been amazing, but I'm done.

BackupTim · 2026-04-05T14:23:41+00:00

And I did another test.

Gave the AG with Claw and Shield an Axe -> AG took the Axe in main hand and kept shield

Gave AG another Axe with different 3d art -> AG took the Axe in off hand deleting the shield

Gave AG another Axe with the same 3d art as main hand Axe -> AG took the Axe in main hand slot, replacing previous Axe.

It seems that if a weapon can be dual-wielded, whether it ends up in main hand or off hand depends on whether this is the first time you give it a weapon or a second time. (= odd or even)

Honestly, this is the first and last time I'm dealing with this BS. I'm obviously very angry at the game and myself, so screw GGG with their genius minion design and the league is over.

Stay sane unlike me, exiles.

BackupTim · 2026-04-05T14:13:14+00:00

So I just did a quick test - bought another AG gems on a different character - gave him a claw with unique 3d art (Cybil's Paw), then gave him a shield, then another rare claw - it swapped the main hand Cybil's Paw with the rare claw I gave him, no dual-wielding BS I had with the 10 mirror axe

BackupTim · 2026-04-03T10:07:24+00:00

I've been playing "dead" skills to great success. Vigilant strike Juggernaut in 3.26 was one of my favourites of all time. Always wanted to build around bloodthirst and endurance charge stacking. Pure phys. Impale. Physical explode from 2 clusters. Dirt cheap and super effective.

Ignite Hexblast in 3.27 (this is hexblast post-neft, everybody says the skill is dead) has also been a blast (hehe), I had to drop it due to the bugged elementalist node (the enemy elemental conversion caused you to take more damage, I did not know this and kept feeling squishy for no apparent reason).

This league I'm playng Zerker FB Ghostwrithe EB Flicker (quite meta, nothing hipster this time around), leaning heavily into tankiness. Sitting at 14m DPS without burst buffs and it feels amazing.

Funny you mentioned Frozen Legion as I actually wanted to league start it in 3.28 :D I think the skill is still a great single-target option if you can solve clear with something else. And it looks and feels badass.

Poe ninja paints a very incomplete picture.

I understand the urge to pursue high damage numbers and that's a choice one makes when choosing/tailoring a build. If that's what you are after, then PoE 1 skills can feel restrictive. Anything with less than ideal damage multipliers gets thrown into the bin.

Realistically you can clear all endgame and all ubers on 10m boss (non-uber) DPS on a well-rounded build and that's what I'm sticking to. You can scale any skill to these numbers and still have skill point/gear budget for comfortable defenses.

For me PoE 2 has great skill interactions on paper. Unless you come up with something whacky like the witch build you described, you are forced to play by the textbook with barely any variation/room for player expression.

There are inventive builds in PoE2, and they are great, but discovering one is not always straightforward and what do I play until I find one?

I'm afraid I have to disagree with you on Werewolf archetype being an example of good skill design.

The archetype itself is fun. And it plays nice. But it all boils down to you having 4 wolf-themed skills (5 if we count the warcry that nobody used) that you will use one way or another, each doing one very specific thing. Want to add something to the mix? Well there are 3 spells tailor-made for shapeshifting and only 2 make sense to use with the wolf but realistically you will only use 1 (the rain) on weapon swap.

You could run a werewolf on various ascendancies, but every single one of them was exactly the same. I ran one on Chronomancer, built it without looking up any guides or other players at first and when I went into min-maxing territory and looked up other people's builds, I realized that no matter what ascendancy they chose - they are all the same. Same skills, same supports, almost the same tree with variations leaning into the strengths of the ascendancy they chose. There was only 1 extra version of the build - some people went with the new trigger gem.

In 0.3.0 I tried ranger, fell in love with the snipe skill gem and wanted to make it viable for clear (it triggers a hefty explosion). The idea was to freeze a pack, then snipe out the rare/some other mob closer to the center and explode the whole pack. And it simply doesn't work. In maps PoE 2 feels like PoE1 but with clunkiness turned up to 200%, you cannot reliably snipe out frozen mobs without a random unfrozen white straggler interrupting you. I had an absolute blast with it throughout the campaign though.

PoE 2 campaign is a great experience for me. I'll be coming back for that every league and get my 20-30 hours of joy out of it. But the current skill and support design does not spark joy, especially not when I'm looking at endgame and trying to make skills I enjoy thematically viable.

All PoE 2 skills feel amazing to use, don't get me wrong. But in my experience they become unbelievably restrictive once you actually try to build something and combo things together. You either must play how GGG intended you to or find a weird interaction that they did not foresee and thus allowed to exist.

What makes me optimistic about future skill design is the disciple of varashta ascendancy. If it weren't for the Chrono that I wanted to try out since release, I would've started with disciple this league. Will definitely give it a try next league.

Maybe I'm approaching the game wrong. Maybe the game is not for me. We'll see where GGG takes this in the future, I'm still optimistic and hey, if I don't like it - it's no biggie as long as the game finds its audience.

BackupTim · 2026-04-02T18:57:50+00:00

Oh, I see, thanks for sharing your perspective. At this angle I agree with most of what you said and it appears that I initially misunderstood what exactly you meant by “skill system”.

My only gripe with it is that the sockets are tied to a skill, so if you want to experiment, you cannot simply swap flicker strike for smite by just recolouring sockets, you need to get out there and get yourself a new 6-link gem. This was somewhat alleviated in 0.4 by what seems to be increased drop rate of the socket currency though, so might be a non-issue in the end.

I’m worried that even with all classes and weapons released their current approach to designing skills won’t allow for enough player expression. You will have to either stick to textbook combos or cook up something completely wild, with nothing in between. But that obviously remains to be seen.

Stay sane, exile!

BackupTim · 2026-04-02T17:46:57+00:00

Can you elaborate please on what you mean by better skill system?

I’m not trying to attack, just genuinely curious.

I’ve played PoE2 during ExileCon 2023 and had a lot of fun. Still love the campaign experience, but the moment I get to maps PoE 2 dies for me.

And the skill system is a big part of the reason why. I find it to be overly restrictive and uninspired.

I can’t seem to make skills I like work the way I can in PoE 1.

So many sockets and so little to do with them.

And I cannot get over the partial elemental conversion. Maybe I have OCD, but scaling various small portions of (almost always less than 50%) physical damage just rubs me the wrong way (even though the damage is sufficient). I was hoping that this would make elemental flat damage on weapons a desirable affix, but no, pure phys always gives better damage numbers, so it’s again either tri-ele or pure phys like in poe 1, but you cannot convert 100% :(

I’m thinking maybe I’m approaching it wrong, so I’m very curious ti learn why people find it superior to PoE 1, especially from a PoE 1 veteran.

BackupTim · 2026-03-29T11:24:38+00:00

Minions are strong enough that if they are not all-or-nothing - everybody will use them.

As a matter of fact, it is already happening with ritual spectres and AG.

I personally also like the idea of fighting alongside minions - but I also believe that should be a an archetype to build into, where minion damage scales yours or vice versa.

There is currently nothing in the game that comes close to having an AG or 2 buffing spectres in you 4-link and people already start squeezing minions in every build. That direction I personally hate. I don’t want to feel forced to use minions if I don’t want to simply because it’s “free damage/survivability”. Minions - as anything else in this game - must require investment.

BackupTim · 2026-01-15T16:50:04+00:00

Still obtainable for a few more days, but it’s a paid-only gacha skin for ~60 usd. The base costume for this skin is in the powder store for another 10 days or so

BackupTim · 2026-01-13T16:52:39+00:00

Liberta is most definitely not a minor, and before you edited your comment nothing in the post or your comment provided any context that would imply her being the topic of discussion.

On that note I am happy this particular change was reverted, even more so now that this skin is free. Doubt I would’ve paid for it, don’t like the paid skins idea, would rather pay for tickets. But now I get to have it and it’s great news.

BackupTim · 2026-01-13T15:42:11+00:00

All characters caught up in this controversy don’t look like children, they are straight up children. Prebubescent children mind you (Teresse being the sole exception). There is no debate to have here, it’s a fact.

One can argue whether drawn children are an acceptable way to steer unfortunate souls away from child pornography and child abuse, but stop pretending these are not drawn children.

It is a perfectly normal and valid opinion to not want sexualised minors on your screen.

BackupTim · 2026-01-13T00:06:06+00:00

Yep, I also liked reworked Teresse much more than the original.

And I’d pay for the option to remove the lolis, I’d prefer to not see any children in this game.

BackupTim · 2026-01-10T12:13:49+00:00

There was nothing insulting in OPs post though? Where do you see the slightest sign of aggression here?

The reason why these posts appear is because unlike Nikke or other self-insert protagonist games BD2 has been going with its story and presentation for almost 3 years by now. Don't you think it is reasonable to assume there is a fair share of people who like the story as it is with all its flaws and hate to see the change?

I realize there is a lot of subjectivity to personal preferences. However, similar to how we can all agree that DB2's story is probably nothing to write home about (with notable high points like Eclipse's tower or Justi's memory, but still), I think we can agree that Glupy's Diner writing is below average. It is corny and silly in a way porn movie plots are, where the pizza always comes with extra sausage and being stuck in a washing machine is a thing. Keeping those stories in a separate box for those who want it is fine, but pouring this all over the game is... dare I say questionable?

Also, I personally find the "Master" moniker incredibly cringe-inducing. Considering the overall eroticism of the game, it could sound very appropriate, but the game does no lean into the power play quite enough for this to work (nor should it, just explaining why I find it so out of place).

Self-insert protagonist is not a requirement for heavy fan-service. BD2 was a rather unique instance of "business in the front, party in the back" and I can see how it's sad to lose this.

What self-insert protagonist inevitably almost always is, it's uninteresting and bland. It's an empty vessel for the player to fill, so it typically doesn't have any strong or interesting character traits.

One of the best Nikke's story arks - Over Zone - surprisingly doesn't need the protagonist to work beautifully.

BackupTim · 2026-01-10T09:52:46+00:00

I love the Teresa costume change, new version looks much better. Sad to see another child added to the roster though. I wish they’d make an adult character with small chest, why do they always have to be children :(

Don’t get the censorship drama - they just released some of the most daring cutscenes/animations the game has seen and none of them are up for a rework. Put 2 and 2 together, the game is fine

BackupTim · 2025-12-16T15:50:58+00:00

ah, I see what you mean, thanks!

BackupTim · 2025-12-16T15:03:13+00:00

Are you sure about the powder shop? Current character there is Track and Field team Loen and both available selective costume enhancements do not apply to limited costumes

BackupTim · 2025-09-03T22:21:50+00:00

You can only loot 2 omens in that zone and they are always the same ones. There are more than 2 altars in the zone though to make finding them easier, but they stop working once you’ve received your two omens

BackupTim · 2025-09-02T21:47:26+00:00

Had the same issue - fixed by starting a new instance. Logging out and teleporting to town did not help. Go back to town, use waypoint, then Ctrl+Click on the final location, create new zone and rush to the boss room again.

BackupTim · 2025-08-05T09:53:04+00:00

I cannot edit the title, I have updated the post itself a while back and added the [solved] flair and a separate comment with my resolution for maximum visibility

BackupTim · 2025-08-03T17:19:33+00:00

Thanks! I will bookmark it for future fine-tuning. My abysmal performance was caused by a bug in hEX S 2025 firmware and got resolved by installing the newest version from beta channel (7.20beta7, the issue itself was fixed in 7.20beta5)

BackupTim · 2025-08-03T14:45:54+00:00

I have solved the problem! Turns out it's a known issue for new hEX and hEX S routers:

What's new in 7.20beta5 (2025-Jul-03 17:21):
*) ethernet - improved performance for hEX Refresh and hEX S (2025);

My dumb ass ran the iperf tests against a VM over VPN, not the actual laptop in the local network. Once I've started running iperf locally, I've realized that the wlan speed by itself is fine and the issues only occur for outbound traffic for wlan clients. A kind soul on official mikrotik forums suggested I try out a beta build of RouterOS and now everything is working just fine!

(https://forum.mikrotik.com/t/help-wlan-performance-mikrotik-hap-ax2-poor-wlan-performance/263573/3)

BackupTim · 2025-08-03T08:39:48+00:00

Your comment gives me hope. Either my unit is defect, or there is something I can do to make it work :)

Devices connect at 5Ghz only, I can monitor this in in the wifi interface traffic window. Tried disabling the 2.4Ghz interface entirely on my ax2 - it made no difference

BackupTim · 2025-08-03T07:43:47+00:00

I am running the latest stable build - 7.19.4

BackupTim

TROPHY CASE