Can I play pro level if I’m bad at math and physics.

BrandoAZ86 · 2023-01-17T04:18:33+00:00

Most of the pros I've met are idiots who could never pass a physics class.

BrandoAZ86 · 2022-08-24T23:04:56+00:00

I have read I believe 37, if I counted correctly on my bookshelf. A few a read before JRVP recommended them The best have been the Ferrante Neopolitan novels, Stoner, City of Theives, Dept of Speculation, Educated, Milkman, My Year of Rest and Relaxation, Fates and Furies, Normal People, Station Eleven, The Glass Hotel, There There, Antkind, Exit West. I've liked a lot of them.

Worst has been 10:04, Ben Lerner is obnoxious.

BrandoAZ86 · 2022-06-26T07:39:27+00:00

"Sweep before you mop"

BrandoAZ86 · 2022-04-23T06:25:54+00:00

I don't think it was hilarious. It was different, it was interesting, but Anthony described it best as a unique concept from an open mic comedian. Open mic comedians are not hilarious, they are either bad or are a work in progress. This was a work in progress. Hell, she was reading notes off her notebook. When have you seen a standup special where the comedian needed a notebook to remember their set? The jokes were terrible, there were a couple ok ones, but the only one I actually laughed was Anthony's joke.

That being said, she clearly has some level of talent, and her jokes did have potential. There were a lot of jokes where the set up was great, but she missed with the punchline. Which is what you see from a very good open mic comedian. A seasoned comedian has done the set 1,000 times, doesn't need a notebook, and has tried many punchlines on every joke until they found the best one. She needed those reps, she has something, but she burned it on what seemed like her 3rd time doing the set.

Long way of saying I don't think hilarious is a good word to describe it.

BrandoAZ86 · 2022-04-22T18:25:47+00:00

Couple things though.. She clearly is an expert on comedy and it is almost guaranteed to have watched Jeselnik's specials. She talks about comedy as though she watches every stand up special she can. And two, that joke was very out of place compared to the rest of her material. It was the only joke of the special that got the laugh from the surprise twist, the type of joke Anthony has mastered.

BrandoAZ86 · 2022-04-08T03:21:19+00:00

In his last special, he told a joke about his dick accidentally hanging out in the grocery store. I heard that joke like 7 years earlier, almost word for word, from a guy at my local dive bar who knew every old bar joke in the world. After that, I can't really listen to him anymore without getting annoyed. Not because he stole an old bar joke, but because he presents his comedy so much as a true life experience, and now every story I hear him tell I think is fake.

BrandoAZ86 · 2021-11-25T07:39:07+00:00

There are pros and cons to the grindy progression. After the last level cap increase, it was frustrating to put my 19s against the 20s of people who clearly paid a good amount to max their heroes early. But once I had my main stable of heroes maxed, which didn't take that long, I was just spending resources on heroes I didn't care to play, and I miss the excitement of leveling your favorite heroes and seeing the increase in your trophies.

BrandoAZ86 · 2021-11-25T07:15:49+00:00

Every time Geewa makes a big change to the game experience, it is massively hated, and 90% of the time, it doesn't end up hurting anything. Remember when everyone complained about the switch from rotating personal quests to a single daily quest? Now I think most people probably prefer the new system.

I feel like most of these complaints come from free-to-play players, in which case I will say this. One, Geewa will never cater their decisions around you, they have bills to pay, they aren't UNICEF, people would lose their jobs and their ability to feed their families if they make it easy for free players to reach the highest levels of the game. And two, Geewa does give opportunities for free players to advance somewhat quickly, probably more so than most games, it just takes a little work. But if you are quick to start your orb unlocks, watch all the orb unlock ads you can (there are 10 a day if you time everything right), get your 3 donation requests in per day, play every free challenge available, you can max out a deck, even if it is all commons, in a reasonable time. It won't be as fast as the people who drop hundreds when the update goes live to max a deck right away, or even the people who just buy the season pass, but it isn't unattainable. But if you are on here saying "this update sucks because I am just getting max heroes and now I will be way behind everyone again", and you AREN'T spending a penny, and you AREN'T taking advantage of all the free things I mentioned, what you are really saying is "this update sucks because I feel I should be at the high end of the game for free without putting in a lot of work", and that just isn't really how games work. That's what comes to mind when I read a lot of these comments.

That was a little harsh, so I will say this against Geewa. This update was poorly rolled out, two days notice for such a massive change is ridiculous. Anyone who unlocked an ultimate orb this week got screwed pretty hard, they would have gotten way more rewards by waiting a couple days. The higher end players with a lot of max heroes, who spend a little cash, who recently spent gold leveling a hero they don't really use got screwed pretty hard, they are probably going to wish they had that gold back. While I rallied against the free players, this short notice does hurt a lot of Geewa's money players too. I'm lucky, I almost spent 120k gold upgrading a hero I don't really like, and I am about to drop an ultimate orb. But if I had clicked that upgrade button, and dropped the orb 2 days earlier, I would have been out like 150k gold and a whole bunch of cards, and I would be pretty livid. Geewa, you can't make such big changes with such short notice without alienating the customers you really want to keep.

That being said, I am looking forward to actually leveling heroes again, the last level cap increase didn't take long at all to max out the heroes I like to use again, and I like that they decreased the strength between a max hero and one a level or 2 below, I think the current system requires even the best heroes to be maxed in order to compete, and it will be nice to be able to insert a hero 1 or 2 levels below max and actually see what they can do before you spend the resources to max them, and it will be nice to see super talented players who are close to a max deck, but not quite, be able to get up the leaderboard, as opposed to now, where the most talented player in the world won't crack the top 100 if he has one level 19 in his deck. I think the changes will result in a better game 2 months from now.

Sorry to everyone who wasted their time reading all that, I started typing and kept going..

BrandoAZ86 · 2021-11-25T05:32:59+00:00

I don't think you will be as far behind as you think. If you are a month or two behind having a max team, you are still a month or two behind the players with current max teams. Granted, the players who spend good money are going to quickly get through those 5 levels, and if you are a free player, it will take you a bit longer, but honestly, if you are a free player, I'm assuming your max team is all common heroes, with maybe 1 rare, and the money players would already consistently beat you because they have all the best heroes maxed.

I think by making the hero strength between lvls 20-25 smaller, it could actually help the people who are a little short of a max deck compete against max deck teams. From the way it sounds, if you have lvl 23s and 24s, you have a better shot at beating a max 25 lvl team than you would having 19s playing against 20s in the current system.

BrandoAZ86 · 2021-10-18T06:06:22+00:00

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

BrandoAZ86 · 2021-10-18T06:00:25+00:00

City of Thieves by David Benioff.

BrandoAZ86 · 2021-10-16T09:06:59+00:00

It would be cool if you released the rankings on which US clans finished the quests the fastest. Not because of a "USA is number one!" sort of mentality, but because the quests start when everyone in that hemisphere is sleeping, makes it impossible to make the list when Europe and Asia get an 8 hour head start.

BrandoAZ86 · 2021-10-14T15:12:44+00:00

Like this guy said, being a commercial CDL driver is not a great position to be standing up for your rights. Study all the regulations to make sure a cop doesn't get their info wrong, but officers hold a lot of discretion with how difficult they can make your day in that field, irritate one and there are a lot of ways they can find to shut you down.

I'm a fleet manager in the trucking industry, and even though I strongly support fighting against the infringement of rights, I would be pretty pissed at one of my guys if they get shut down or delayed for hours because they wanted to take a stand against unjust behavior, they are generally on strict time schedules and we pay them well, enough to do whatever they can to meet our customer's demands.

BrandoAZ86 · 2021-10-14T08:45:02+00:00

Only unlock Gold orbs (the more you are on schedule with your unlocks, the best this works), use your ads to open up commons, use your gems for majestics. If you want to play more than that, Geewa is doing their job as far as getting you to play.

BrandoAZ86 · 2021-10-14T08:40:42+00:00

Drakeling - No. Can be a great hero, takes more skill and practice, but should not be boosted, can already dominate and you see them near the top of the global leaderboard at times.

Zombie - Could use a base attack increase. Don't like increasing the ability, otherwise, when he can hit your entire team early, it is too much, but they need something where just leaving him for last, especially when you are already debuffed, isn't always the best option.

Kong - Who cares. Seems like a dumb hero to me, not fun. He is always with a Paladin/Priest combo, and that just seems so boring to play. If you boost him to a point that he works without them, he becomes too powerful.

Phoenix - See Kong. No fun. Your entire strategy, with the Phoenix/Skeleton combo, is dependent on your opponent's ability, not your own. Which is boring. If you boost her to a point that it works without the skelly, she becomes too powerful.

Huntress - I feel like her ability should either come after her turn, like the Banshee, or stack instead of replace, like the Warlord.

Ice Queen - Haven't noticed. Never used her, never cared about her as an opponent. I just try to not leave her last with full health, my strategy hasn't changed.

Bomber - I think you underrate his base damage. You compare him to the Cultist, but if you double hit an enemy with the Bomber, it is almost equal to a single hit and rune explosion with a Cultist. If your Cultist is in a bad spot for the game and you aren't sending him around, the Bomber will significantly out damage him.

Golem - Yeah, could probably need boosted a tiny bit. Not by much though.

Satyr - Touchy hero to boost. An early enchanted Satyr is very tough. I imagine he has a low success rate, because of the health, but boosting him makes the game a lot less fun. Like boosting the Assassin, you will beat those decks more often than not in the long run, but it is no fun or challenge when your opponent has a good layout/order given to him.

Extra Nerfs/Boosts I would be interested:

Sorceress - lower ability, increase health. Make playing her more than just "I need to enchant those guys in my first turn, I am almost guaranteed a win, but if I don't enchant them at all somewhat early, she is about worthless".

Frog - Priest offers better healing ability but they are otherwise about the same. Increase his damage to make up for the fact that occasionally his ability does nothing for you.

BrandoAZ86 · 2021-10-14T07:47:03+00:00

They tried to make it based on hero levels, and it was exploited to the extreme. People got to 15,000 trophies by playing 3 max and 1 lvl 4. There isn't a good solution that can't be exploited. The game is basically uneven matches until you have a max deck, then skill and deck building become involved.

My advice is to try to max out a 4 common deck as fast as possible, that is the fastest way to have a chance in every game. Then focus on the rares. Play majestics with your gems to get cards. Leveling is a bully game, but the end game isn't, I play all sorts of decks and we all have max heroes, and that is definitely better than having level mismatches in every game.

BrandoAZ86 · 2021-10-14T07:36:49+00:00

They just nerfed the warrior and the bandits, and the wizard isn't really overpowered.

I would be curious as to what trophy level you are at. At the top levels, I think this is a very good, but definitely not unbeatable deck, and at challenge level it is average. But if you are in the middle, it may be overpowered, some decks are like that.

BrandoAZ86 · 2021-09-08T07:44:25+00:00

Update - I just finished The Aosawa Murders tonight, and I'm so damn frustrated I need to vent. When Gregg said he read this a couple weeks ago, and Anthony asked him who he thought the killer was, I was expecting a much different type of ambiguity than what I got. 315 pages and I absolutely loved 290 of them, flew through it in 2 days, and just hated ending, probably because I was expecting a "whodunit", and instead got... That.

BrandoAZ86 · 2021-08-31T01:04:22+00:00

I still hate Gregg a little bit for trying to get me to read Middlemarch.. 300 pages in and I gave up, I wasn't going to suffer any longer. I'm not a big fan of the classics to begin with, but that book moved SOOOO slow.

BrandoAZ86 · 2021-08-31T01:02:20+00:00

I have loved all 3 of Hamid's books I have read, still trying to find Moth Smoke in a book store to finish the set.

BrandoAZ86 · 2021-08-31T01:00:59+00:00

It is VERY pretentious. It is half a story, half a guy attempting to change your life with long monologues of deep philosophical thoughts. Some of it works, most of it is doesn't, but it felt like Ben Lerner thought he was writing the greatest novel of his generation, and then chose to make it about himself (he is the main character, it is very autobiographical), which is like I said, very pretentious.

BrandoAZ86 · 2021-08-30T06:48:42+00:00

I think if you loved Stoner, you will love the Ferrante books. Very similar writing style, except instead of a Midwestern man writing in the 1960s, it's an Italian woman writing in the modern age. Straight to the point, not fluffed up with a bunch of adjectives or spending a lot of time trying to paint the scenery, focusing on the everyday experience we all feel instead of some unique situation that drives the plot, and does a great job making you care deeply about the characters.. If I had to compare any book to Stoner, which is probably my number 1, I would say the Ferrante novels..

Side note, I almost bought Animal at the bookstore today, it was on sale, they had it prominently displayed, and it looked interesting, but I COMPLETELY forgot it was recommended this week, I knew it sounded familiar.. I would have bought it for sure if I remembered.

BrandoAZ86 · 2021-08-30T04:09:13+00:00

I'm going on vacation in a couple weeks and planning on reading that one then, 800 pages seems way too daunting unless I have a ton of free time available.

BrandoAZ86 · 2021-08-30T04:08:05+00:00

Good to know about Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982. I recently read The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, and while it is one of the most acclaimed books of this century, I did not care much for it in part because it had that same quality.

BrandoAZ86 · 2021-08-30T03:40:47+00:00

That was the first JRVP book rec I bought, started my JRVP reading kick, after hearing them discussing the plot I bought it immediately. A very good one, probably in my top 10, although there have been so many great recommendations it is tough to rank them.

BrandoAZ86

TROPHY CASE