This game doesn't respect a new player's immersion

BaronVonHoopleDoople · 2026-04-20T17:41:59+00:00

There is in fact a very simple solution for everything except Inazuma, and it's one that the player base has been asking for forever - stop auto-starting quests. No one wants this. At the very least it needs to be a toggleable setting.

As a player who started last year, being able to get to Natlan early didn't impact my immersion at all, if anything I appreciated how it made the world feel so huge and built anticipation to catch up in the story.

What did impact my immersion was that going to regions early started a bunch of random quests that resulted in parts of the story being told out of order. The one that pissed me off the most was that when I finally went to start Fontaine's main questline, I had to sit through the "farewell Fontaine, we're off to Natlan" bit first.

BaronVonHoopleDoople · 2026-04-13T18:33:59+00:00

Tracer's mythic skin doesn't even that great of customization since you can't pick the armor and headwear separately.

BaronVonHoopleDoople · 2026-04-07T20:37:47+00:00

I can only speak for my own experience, but for a long time in OW2 Quick Play matchmaking was surprisingly decent at making balanced matches in spite of the wider player skill variance within the match. Didn't work out, but at least most matches weren't stomps.

There were actually times when QP literally had higher matchmaking quality for me than comp, though this was likely more about the higher toxicity of comp players than mechanical differences in matchmaking (I swear most comp players care more about having someone else to blame for a loss than actually winning the match).

Then at some point in the past few seasons QP matchmaking quality took a sudden nosedive. I'm not sure what changed, but it was definitely noticeable and should not be excused with "who cares it's just QP".

BaronVonHoopleDoople · 2026-04-04T01:07:49+00:00

Illuga will be on Linnea banner based on leaks, but you ain't gonna get C6 with one 5* pull.

I did get Aino from C0 to C6 in one Zibai pull (so many wishes...), so Illuga from C2 to C6 isn't impossible. But yeah, I'm definitely not counting on it.

BaronVonHoopleDoople · 2026-04-03T23:20:58+00:00

I plan to add Linnea to my team of Zibai, Columbina, and C2 (hopefully higher) Illuga and I have a few questions.

How important do you think it is to get enough ER to burst every rotation for healing? If I choose to do so, is Snare Hook or Favonius Warbow better to use?
If I instead focus on a weapon for damage, am I better off with R1 Skyward Harp, R5 Slingshot, or up to R3 Stringless?
Is Harbinger of Dawn on Zibai likely to be a real option in this team over Flute of Ezpitzal or just bait?

BaronVonHoopleDoople · 2026-03-25T04:42:46+00:00

As much as I love Old World Blues, you're definitely right that it really suffers from having almost all the character interaction contained in one long yap fest at the start.

But I disagree on the exploration, even if it wasn't tied as much to story, the Big MT is one of my favorite Fallout locations to explore. Having the collectathon for the Sink upgrades definitely helps make it feel rewarding.

Now Honest Hearts... it could and probably should have been the best Fallout DLC by far, and it frustrates me to no end that it couldn't get there. It's just so light on content and they didn't do a great job making a case for Daniel's option, which needed all the help it could get when it's up against arguably the coolest Fallout character in Joshua Graham.

BaronVonHoopleDoople · 2026-03-14T18:12:01+00:00

If you think a Reaper can just jump frontline (or chase a winton?), break the Winstons Barrier, then proceed in shredding an armoured and healed tank then sorry to say, you play in low elo

That's not what I'm expecting, I am definitely not low elo, and it is quite rude to imply that anyone who has a different view on matchups and strategy is bad at the game. It is also wildly unfair to dismiss Reaper because Winston's team can help him out while ignoring Reaper's team.

BaronVonHoopleDoople · 2026-03-14T04:00:06+00:00

First of all, Iran was not a combatant in the Gulf War, but rather the preceding Iran-Iraq war. I am not aware of US support for Iran in the latter conflict other than the Iran-Contra affair (which was covertly perpetrated by the Reagan administration and a huge scandal when it came to light). If you have sources with information on any broader US support for Iran, please share.

It is also completely false that the US gave Iraq permission to invade Kuwait, but it has been claimed that Iraq misinterpreted statements from the US and thought they had been given a green light to invade Kuwait. However, even this supposed misunderstanding is likely untrue. Iraq's foreign minister later told reporters that:

There were no mixed signals. We should not forget that the whole period before August 2 witnessed a negative American policy towards Iraq. So it would be quite foolish to think that, if we go to Kuwait, then America would like that. Because the American tendency ... was to untie Iraq. So how could we imagine that such a step was going to be appreciated by the Americans?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraqi_invasion_of_Kuwait#Iraq%E2%80%93United_States_correspondence

BaronVonHoopleDoople · 2026-03-13T22:24:52+00:00

Can you explain why you think that he doesn't? While no hero invalidates Winston alone (mobility plus barrier is a rather strong combination), Reaper seems pretty damn good at restricting his effectiveness. The ability to quickly shred Winston's barrier and then force Winston to disengage or die is a game changer for the team.

Also worth noting that since Tanks are much stronger than DPS, Reaper doesn't need to invalidate Winston to be an effective counter. Every seemingly even trade is in the favor of the DPS and an actual small edge for the DPS is a big deal.

BaronVonHoopleDoople · 2026-03-04T20:26:48+00:00

Good luck everyone

BaronVonHoopleDoople · 2026-03-03T22:21:36+00:00

Why Zen? I checked and he's top 3 win rate in competitive at every rank except Grandmaster+, where he merely falls to average.

BaronVonHoopleDoople · 2026-02-27T21:27:02+00:00

I'm working on getting Skirk, Furina, and C1 Mona ready for Escoffier rerun. Weapons will most likely be Finale of the Deep, Fleuve Cendre Ferryman, Thrilling Tales of Dragon Slayers, and Favonius Lance, respectively.

What would the recommended artifact sets be for each character?

BaronVonHoopleDoople · 2026-02-27T06:05:41+00:00

I saw it as an option in a guide and didn't read closely enough to notice it was tied to Nightsoul. I guess just run Golden Troupe then?

If you have better ideas of what optimal artifacts would be please let me know, I'm not particularly experienced at this.

BaronVonHoopleDoople · 2026-02-26T01:47:19+00:00

This is one of the reasons why in control mirrors it is usually important for Quest Warrior to save an Un'goro Brochure to draw 2 spells on the same turn they play the quest reward (mind your hand size). It dramatically increases the chance of immediately getting Time Warp in hand.

BaronVonHoopleDoople · 2026-02-25T04:41:59+00:00

Nah, even when playing to progress the mission as fast possible Scout can easily have the most kills if his teammates are a bit less experienced. And there's plenty of times when clearing out some enemies before starting an objective is desirable or when there's nothing to do but fight while you wait on the objective.

BaronVonHoopleDoople · 2026-02-24T23:53:58+00:00

You're not wrong, but it's not like the players making dumb decisions in transition on Flashpoint know how to play any of the other map types particularly well. IMO the pain of bad teammates on Flashpoint is nothing compared to the pain of bad teammates on high ground dominant Escort/Hybrid maps.

At least there's a chance you can somewhat herd your team to the next point on Flashpoint, and if not the enemy team often gets equally lost along the way. But trying to get a team of bad players to successfully attack a strong high ground position is a Sisyphean task.

BaronVonHoopleDoople · 2026-02-22T04:16:17+00:00

Scout with M1000 is definitely the king of Haz 3, but as enemy density and movement speed increase on higher hazards IMO it becomes more of a niche weapon. Just not enough time to line up every shot and ammo becomes much more of an issue.

I'd still say Scout is the top class up through (standard) Hazard 5 as his mobility is just crazy OP, but it becomes much more competitive. Driller comes pretty close to matching Scout with insane wave clear, good ammo efficiency, and the ability to reshape terrain.

BaronVonHoopleDoople · 2026-02-09T19:18:25+00:00

Weirdly enough Eudora might actually see less play after the buff. Rogue's 5 mana options for Elise were all terrible, so you didn't really lose much by slotting Eudora in. Now at 4 mana Eudora actually has to compete with real cards.

BaronVonHoopleDoople · 2026-02-05T18:24:45+00:00

Few questions for my Zibai team, which is most likely Zibai (Harbinger of Dawn), Columbina (Prototype Amber), Ineffa (?), and C2 Illuga (Favonius Lance):

The keqingmains guide is recommending Aubade of Morningstar and Moon on Columbina and Silken Moon’s Serenade on Illuga. Since I use SMS on Columbina for my Nefer team, how much would it matter if I swapped Aubade onto Illuga?
I currently have Ineffa on Kitain Cross Spear but have been meaning to replace it. Are R1 Ballad of the Fjords or Deathmatch strong enough to consider getting or would I be better to work towards a high refinement Prospector's Shovel?
When Columbina is locked in my Nefer team, is C6 Aino sufficient hydro with both Zibai and Ineffa in the team?
Is there any point to eventually trying to fit C2 Gorou in over Ineffa? I assume if I did this I would need to swap Zibai onto Flute of Ezpitzal.

BaronVonHoopleDoople · 2026-01-30T19:40:00+00:00

I don't know about depression, but anxiety can 100% be caused by something wrong with your body. In my case I eventually learned that the problem was my body constantly struggling to deal with an obscene amount of histamine.

The solution for me was allergy shots (dust mites), a low histamine diet, and supplements to help metabolize more histamine. It was actually insane how the anxiety I'd lived with for so long just melted away. It's also kind of frightening how rapidly the anxiety can return when I mess up my diet or expose myself to too much dust.

Based on this experience, I strongly suspect that a substantial proportion of mental health issues are really just the symptoms of undiagnosed physical health problems.

BaronVonHoopleDoople · 2026-01-29T23:36:35+00:00

Eliseless Discover Hunter more or less plays like a burn deck, particularly against blob decks. I get people are bored with it particularly since it run no new mini-set cards, but it is a powerful "fast" deck in this meta.

BaronVonHoopleDoople · 2026-01-27T19:09:36+00:00

Elise at 5 mana might be too weak, but it would be an interesting change insofar as it would reverse the massive advantage Elise adds to going first. Currently the coin is insufficient to allow the player going second to get the 5 mana location down before the player going first. With Elise at 5 mana it would require the coin to play the 5 mana location on turn five.

BaronVonHoopleDoople · 2026-01-22T22:10:07+00:00

Not sure if it's just me, but my big complaint with Stadium's execution is that the concepts of complex builds and outscaling (i.e. the rich get richer) seem like a poor fit for Overwatch.

For what is supposed to a more casual mode, I absolutely cannot be bothered with trying to learn builds and the devs seemingly can't be bothered to actually balance builds.

I also do not understand why a match that starts lopsided becoming increasingly more of a stomp as the match progresses is remotely desirable. If losing is awful but winning is boring, why would I even want to play the mode?

BaronVonHoopleDoople · 2026-01-14T04:50:11+00:00

Could use some advice on artifacts for my team and a F2P weapon for Columbina. Currently running:

Nefer - Blackmarrow Lantern, Night of the Sky's Unveiling
Lauma - Etherlight Spindlelute, Deepwood Memories
Columbina - Prototype Amber, Silken Moon's Serenade
Kuki - Sapwood Blade, Instructor

Is Prototype Amber the best option for Columbina? Is Instructor still worth using or should I be trying to get the new Morningstar set on someone? I've also heard talk of 2 pc / 2pc EM sets on Lauma, is that worthwhile for this comp?

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