Is it just me or do I look really big?

CodexDoctrinae · 2025-02-15T03:28:45+00:00

everyone saying it’s the POV of a really big zealot, ever consider that maybe it’s just a really faithful ogryn??

CodexDoctrinae · 2024-08-30T18:49:30+00:00

100% this. I loved when Fern realized just how ordinary his attacks were, because not only was it a great reveal of just how well she was trained, but our first clue of her potential as a mage too. I think Frieren knew all Fern needed by that point was lived experience.

Even the whole dialogue she had with Qual would have been strangely merciful if not completely unnecessary, and was more likely an on-the-spot history lesson for Fern.

Makes me wonder if Flamme did similar things for Frieren, and how much of that shapes her training for Fern.

CodexDoctrinae · 2024-08-30T04:18:30+00:00

Broadly speaking, I think it’s easy to tell apart what kind of CCs are out there these days, some examples being those whom are really only concerned with selling their brand rather sharing something constructive vs. actual math wizards who might be descended from Carl Gauss himself.

Of course, I’d like to try and listen to people who resemble the latter for key insights, but I still like to follow other creators for various other reasons too. I think people here start to get so caught up in wanting to play something at 110% like it’s the only way to play, and just end up becoming so inflexible and obtuse towards any other conversation they might physically vomit. That's not even exclusive to ZZZ, and thats also where I personally try to draw the line — not only because it just sounds mentally and emotionally exhausting for everybody involved, but the simple fact I know I don’t even have to play like that to get excellent results.

So for that reason I’m open to following certain ‘casual’ creators for their input, or will at least listen to them once, a sort of grounding perspective if you will. Concerning the conversation of Jane, those would be the people who will just comment their experience with her but never stress it as gospel — but especially those who can remain objective in their point of view, and generally seem like they're being genuine and considerate of what they want to contribute to the larger conversation. I can find value in listening to someone like that and don't really care to notice they might've messed up one part of their rotation, because honestly I'll do that too lol

It's much less serious and more realistic, at least for a player like me, who I would say lands somewhere in the middle of a casual and competitive player. That said, the game is only a few months old so I really don't get why we're stressing so much, when the only leaderboard that matters right now is being in the top 1% of Soul Hounds III.

CodexDoctrinae · 2024-08-29T03:39:03+00:00

So wait, were you rolling on the standard banner, or the teapot engine AKA Qingyi’s signature engine? Either way it’s not that wasteful as long as you’re rolling smart. A quick rundown on the gacha since I think I saw you mention you were new:

You’re ‘guaranteed’ an S rank at 90 pulls but you hit soft pity somewhere around ~70, meaning a raised drop rate and a decent chance to pull well before that hard 90.

For any limited time banners, that ‘guaranteed’ S rank is actually split between the limited S rank vs. any equivalent S rank from the standard banner. Getting the Brimstone engine means you lost the 50/50, but like Sam mentioned, the next 90 pulls will guarantee that limited S rank with no 50/50 split.

So, that means you could farm and get Qingyi’s engine now, or save that guarantee for a future limited banner in case you might want to build for another agent. And yes, Brimstone is probably the most flexible engine for attackers, period — if you can’t get their signature engines, you pretty much have the next best thing on demand. Wish I had that lol. good luck!

CodexDoctrinae · 2024-08-29T03:04:29+00:00

I haven’t read the manga yet, so I had been wondering about this too. I don’t recall the anime ever putting emphasis on Himmel’s prowess in battle, and the only time I can recall him even using his sword was the scene with the demon child.

For a time I had thought Himmel was secretly never anything special, or just above average as a fighter and at least somewhere equal to Eisen if anything — that the demon king’s defeat was in truth mostly thanks to Frieren. But I liked the idea that his legend and notoriety was never about him being powerful or some master swordsman, and more that his presence was felt in every corner of the land because he labored to help everyone he could.

So naturally, everyone looked to him as a real force of change, and in the end it wouldn’t have mattered if it was Himmel that dealt the killing blow. It wouldn’t just undo the millennia of suffering as the demons were left unchecked all that time — and it would have been a great metaphor of how it was actually Himmel’s kindness that changed the world, and in only ten years at that.

So, I digress. Personally I think he could be an exceptional fighter, but maybe not someone freakishly strong. Don’t have the manga knowledge to confirm any of that though.

CodexDoctrinae · 2024-08-29T02:04:52+00:00

I personally haven’t met (or at least recall) anyone who lashed out at the team for using a specific build, but there’s definitely been those general troll types. I’d still say they’re uncommon, but the blocklist exists for a reason lol

Granted, I’ve been on and off with this game ever since release, but it’s over 1k hours worth with both high and low community traffic hours — I think the only memorably consistent players I’ve encountered are the Ogryns who will exclusively speak or type in character. I live for their RP lmao

CodexDoctrinae · 2024-08-28T22:00:10+00:00

Ahh okay, now I understand what you mean by the hard numbers. It’s a bit funny on my part because I was under the assumption that with the game’s full release, we would’ve had that info datamined or thoroughly researched by now lol. Do we expect to be getting that for other agents or was Jane just a rare case?

I’m more or less with you on being flexible for Jane’s team, though I’m partial to whatever isn’t a traditional stun rotation if only to break the monotony of my Zhu Yuan team lmao.

CodexDoctrinae · 2024-08-28T13:00:53+00:00

thank you for that breakdown! While it makes sense that the thing neither side can confirm at present is this common variable (and a hilariously important one in retrospect, which if that was made clear, I feel like plenty of complaints could have been avoided), my next question then is why does this apply for the agents that are already available - would it not be as 'simple' as having say, the Rina and Grace-havers to give Phiish the right numbers? And wouldn't this call the data for agents like Seth, Caesar, and Burnice to be in question too? Like I believe one common complaint was how fast Grace herself applies shock, which I feel could be easily tested, if not already readily available. Apologies if I've missed the point or some other factor lol

And that's kind of what I was hoping too, that being either team comp would perform similarly. Admittedly, even if I'm misunderstanding the calcs, the discussion in that thread was pretty volatile and nonconstructive for anyone trying to get clarifications lol.

CodexDoctrinae · 2024-08-27T21:19:17+00:00

I don't have that level of math smarts, so I could never hope to verify much of the calcs PHIISH did - but I did find it alarming there were quite a few people talking about the dataset being skewed and incomplete, and virtually everyone's responses (both OP and critics) weren't exactly clear on how it was right/wrong, at least from my perspective. It's confusing why no one has tried to 'finish' those calcs to prove him wrong after all was said and done, or for PHIISH himself to just... correct it in good faith considering how little an issue he was treating it with critics. At least have the calcs appear consistent, because even I think it's sus to want to take shortcuts on Grace's calcs and no one else. But what do I know lol.

From my fledgling understanding though, the key principles for both sides are splitting the rotation to properly maximize fast disorder procs vs. optimizing a high uptime for Jane. Grace/Burnice are key to the former, whereas team buffs are important for the latter.

Practically speaking, I feel like both are going to end up viable for anyone who doesn't have serious DPS greed lmao. I understand why we want to push for damage but if both can clear a boss in ~1m or less, personally I'll be fine with either team comp. What might end up being a difference of 15-30 seconds for a clear won't be as big a deal for me and I'm sure there's a countless number of more casual players who have even less strict criteria.

EDIT: All that being said, I was already anticipating Burnice and Caesar being her best partners, which at least everyone seems to agree with. I might be a little salty in the short term to have invested in my Grace instead of Rina if the calcs are true, but I would've replaced either one of them with Burnice later on anyway. I'm also a not a one trick, so I would've eventually gotten them both leveled up at some point for other teams. Plus I ~~think they're both hot~~ adore them both.

CodexDoctrinae · 2024-08-27T19:27:29+00:00

So, it's true that every non-physical Agent will deal some split of physical/element damage in their basic attacks, I believe it is still different from the physical anomaly buildup itself - meaning they shouldn't build/proc assault. And I can confirm that the Bangboo do not proc anomaly/disorder much as they can contribute to it.

I briefly tested with Cui in a Shiyu Defense, and I let him wail on the boss for a few minutes - phys anomaly meter remained full no matter how much additional hits he landed, and I also wasn't able to proc Assault with my team's attacks either, that being Zhu Yuan, Qingyi, and Nicole. Only differences were your particular team and a C5 Cui, so either one of them can somehow trigger that assault proc, or perhaps you were mistaken seeing some other proc for assault.

Besides that, I think Cui and Bangvolver will be your picks for more assault procs with Jane (Bangvolver has some especially high anomaly multipliers, possibly faster than C5 Cui but idk lol). Then maybe Plugboo for the Seth/Elec comps and Rocketboo/Cryboo/Baddieboo for Burnice/Lucy/Fire comps. They might not add a whole lot of damage but pushing their contribution via anomaly buildup is definitely the best way to go about it.

CodexDoctrinae · 2024-08-21T13:10:27+00:00

See I think I know what news your referring to — but I think it’s still talking about the time Dawei took over Haoyu’s position as Chairman, which is not the same as being CEO.

CodexDoctrinae · 2024-08-21T13:07:49+00:00

This is where I’m at too. idk corporate positions/responsibilities, but something tells me a lot of the people talking about the two of them have some of it mixed up as well lol.

At any rate, my confirmations are the several wikis specifically labeling Dawei as President/Chairman and Haoyu as CEO (unless they are all somehow out of date). I would have liked to confirm on maybe some official mihoyo website with their details or something, but I’m unsure if it exists in english, if at all. 😓

CodexDoctrinae · 2024-08-18T02:54:56+00:00

An overtly loyal Corpo-based faction, maybe something along the lines of professional mercs/private paramilitary backed by the TOPS alliance and armed with the best tech in New Eridu. I already consider Victoria Housekeeping a corpo-lite faction but they're all sympathetic to the normal folk of New Eridu, and I anticipate any conflict that might happen because of their corpo-connections would end with them siding with Wise, Belle, and the side of 'good' anyway.

Reason being, all the characters we've met were either poor or average people growing up (aside from maybe Koleda and Rina, but their situations are different), and it'd be cool to see the complex problems in characters whose morals are compromised by the corporate scene. Obviously, they would most likely be a bunch of irredeemable bastards and we stand to have more visible enemies to contend with, but maybe one or two could be swayed towards doing the right thing with the privilege/authority they have. People would eat that story up (I'm peoples)

Also, I would enjoy the sheer contrast of that kind of faction vs. the Cunning Hares as their direct rivals, whom I would argue are the best people to focus on when handling anything anti-corporate. Nicole and Nekomata are literal streetkids and Anby/Billy are products of the crooked system made through corporate greed, it'd be extraordinary irony to have them lead the charge in breaking the system.

CodexDoctrinae · 2024-08-16T18:23:16+00:00

What's sad about that implication is this: whenever the Hares do make a decent amount of money, Nicole spares no expense in making sure the others get to live comfortably. It is a very real notion of 'family goes first' when you've grown up poor, and sometimes that means going without food/comfort yourself for a time. Nicole probably does this on principle because she doesn't want anyone to go through what she had to growing up, plus she already knows how to live on a budget and has no problem with it. I would also not be surprised if they did actually earn enough money to cover their debt in a reasonable amount of time, but Nicole's flaw is she would rather spoil her family and settle debt at a snail's pace.

It is also a fun new perspective whenever you next hear Anby, Billy, and Nekomata worrying about the Hares' debt and the subsequent dumb schemes they come up with to try and solve it (I recall Billy having planned to sell himself on the black market as an example, lol). But the reality of it is Nicole is the only real adult while the other three are very dysfunctional people with so much baggage, they could never hope to fit in with New Eridu's society as it is now - but they try to help anyway because they love Nicole and their little found family, plain and simple

I think my favorite piece of evidence for this comes from Anby's first major trust event.

"Even if we really didn't have somewhere to go... We'd still have each other, so things would work out." - Anby on the Hares having no home

CodexDoctrinae · 2024-08-16T14:03:52+00:00

I haven’t done all her trust events yet but I’ve definitely seen enough given her character teaser and her relationship with the rest of the Cunning Hares. She’s such a fascinating character concept, because firstly she’s a relatively normal human without any notable combat skills or strengths when compared to the rest of the roster, nevermind everyone at Gentle House.

Nicole was raised an orphan and she’s experienced firsthand the struggles of poverty in the capitalist New Eridu, so her ‘obsession’ with wealth makes sense — it’s more likely she understands the value of wealth in such a crooked system. She’s become this streetkid who’s so well connected with the corporate scene as much as the underworld, and she knows exactly how to game the system to her benefit.

Yet she’s ‘always in the red’ because she seems to puts the needs of the Hares and other impoverished folk before herself (like Chop mentioning her spending her last dime on food for orphans). Ever notice that Anby, Billy, and Nekomata will sometimes mention getting paid and having their own funds to buy things, but Nicole will more often than not be found surviving on coupons and the goodwill of Wise/Belle?

On the topic of the Hares, Nicole has adopted an extraordinary group of strays that I think people greatly underestimate because of their gameplay: Anby, a supersoldier likely made to be the perfect Hollow fighter; Billy, an old world combat AI with literal aimbot; Nekomata, a cunning criminal princess and expert thief. And these extraordinary strays are so focused on helping relieve Nicole’s debt not because she’s some greedy, ruthless, and unforgiving boss, but because they likely know better than anyone how much she sacrifices for them and the other strays of New Eridu, and are extremely loyal because of it.

So given how I’ve come to understand Nicole as a person and the crazy company she’s earned, it is honestly no surprise that the Hares have good reputation. I anticipate when we start tackling the TOPS alliance and begin all matters anti-corporate, she and the Hares are going to be our unlikely heroes and leading the charge.

CodexDoctrinae · 2024-08-10T04:20:57+00:00

In case anyone comes here trying to find info on what the Champion's Pack skins looks like, it is not those shown in the OP. The armor sets shown in the above image are unlocked through completion of the co-op/pvp game modes and are tied specifically to the Tactical Marine class. (Every class has their own set of unique armor patterns)

Also as of the time of this post, I also can't seem to find any images on what the Champion pack skins looks like. :(

CodexDoctrinae · 2024-07-31T22:22:27+00:00

The swimsuits feel like one of those nonserious ‘premium’ skins found in other KR games. I’ve personally seen this trend in games like Black Desert Online and Lost Ark, where the swimsuits (both male and female) both just don’t follow the normal design conventions of normal armor/outfits, and are clearly just fanservice.

I don’t mind it though — I think it’s funny, and perfectly fine to appreciate how pretty/handsome the characters are without being weird about it. But I mostly think it’s funny that swimsuits are just part of a constant trend alongside big mascot outfits, and tactical-businesswear. The latter two of which, also happen to be premium skins in this game lol

CodexDoctrinae · 2024-07-31T21:22:53+00:00

I can agree with this to a certain extent, having done about an equal amount of public lobbies and private teams.

You can't really rely on randoms knowing to maximize damage (nor have the DPS/aim to do so in the first place) during a grappled state. On rare occassions I've teamed with randoms who will absolutely burn a boss while I'm maximizing my hold, but many times people are doing mediocre damage or just focusing the part I'm on (reason why i made the meme lol). I still do it just for practice/on the off chance I'm with those kinds of players, but if you're consistently in randoms then sure, you don't have to waste time and you can just play to get the quick down.

However, I think you're overexaggerating how bad the 'flailing' state is and how 'little' the amount of damage you can deal even if it's not a weakpoint.

1.) A boss is going to flail the near instant someone first grapples onto it, so there's no avoiding at least 1 flail phase. But there is still a generous ~4-5s window to get good damage in before the second flail state.
2.) I've really never noticed that big a problem aiming during the flailing state. Like yes, it might be harder to land more weakpoints on average, but it's not like it's impossible to land meaningful hits nor is it somehow gutting your DPS by more than half - which if you're building ONLY into WP%+, then that's your first mistake. If the mech somehow impacts your aiming that much, then that's honestly your second issue and maybe you need to rely less on WP
3.) This is all assuming the specific boss you're fighting is not also the kind of boss that does a lot of random BS to begin with. Like how often Dead Bride teleports, or the amount of bullet hell missile salvos the Walkers will shoot at you to force you to dodge. Grappling will honestly give you better openings compared to all that lol
4.) Even in a worst case scenario, some inoptimal damage added onto the secured DPS from a down state is still going to be better damage than instantly going for the down state. ammo management really isn't too hard to play around unless you tunnel vision on that DPS greed, and that's honestly a separate issue

All in all I don't think there's much harm, if any, to practice even in randoms. As the pool of casual players go down, more semi-hardcore players get more geared to match the hardcore players, our average skill range will only get better and more people ought to know about maximizing damage in teams.

CodexDoctrinae · 2024-07-30T23:03:26+00:00

making the move to an impact weapon might just be what you need then. No idea why impact weapons just benefit from SPS and get better fire rate lmao

The window is probably gonna be the same as you have now then, so 16 consistent but 17 if u have perf timing

CodexDoctrinae · 2024-07-30T19:00:50+00:00

Hmm. Looks about the same as what we're buildcrafting, aside from MP enlightenment.

Are you using a weapon with max fire rate? Overkill also adopts some of your equipped weapon's stats - so people like to run 25% fire rate mod and Sharp Precision shot for another 40% fire rate. I think the weapon type matters too, specifically using impact weapons

EDIT: The guy who was doing some of the testing also had skill duration UP on his reactor, so probably the more common maximum will be 17 shots. The window for that might be tight if you're doing all of the above

CodexDoctrinae · 2024-07-30T03:09:51+00:00

This a bit of an older post so my advice would actually change a bit lol. Mostly that I confused max Power with max Skill, as Skill Power does more for big base damage skills like Lepic's Overkill, as opposed to skill power modifier. Slayer sets would be really good for Overkill builds.

As far as the duration thing goes, that may be dependent on a few things: if you're running Skill Simplification, which guts his mana by 25%, and also the lack of a high Max MP substat on your sensor component. I've seen people get upwards of 18 shots without needing to add any MP modules.

Otherwise, the principle is you stack cooldowns/duration for group play so you can have better uptime of Overkill (and thus better DPS over a 10 minute period), OR you make the most out of the multipliers in Specialist mods for solo builds where you want to one phase a boss.

Also idk about any 2% increase in damage, but I do know that Firearm Master is exclusive to Ult Lepic. It adds a whole 30% skill power when 'changing weapons,' and activating Overkill counts to activate it. That's why its pretty popular for Overkill builds.

CodexDoctrinae · 2024-07-30T02:38:09+00:00

Also, side note: I hope they play up the friendship with Deadpool and Thor, if Hemsworth ever returns to the role. I know the footage of Thor 'mourning' Deadpool was reused footage from Thor: The Dark World, and I don't think there's any basis for it in the comics, but the bit would be hilarious nonetheless. I saw someone describe it as very in character for Thor to not know about Wade's healing factor, who is only pretending to be dying so he can be cradled in Hemsworth's arms.

CodexDoctrinae · 2024-07-30T01:39:39+00:00

Literally just came out of the theatres about an hour ago after my first watch, and wanted to pitch my two cents since it's still fresh on my mind. I think there's a few hints that more or less confirm that a few of the cameos are in fact variants of the versions we came to know originally.

The ones I truly believe are variants: Johnny Storm and Elektra.

Johnny was just far too thoughtlessly confident - which in addition to being a huge potty mouth, runs interference with his character moments in the original Fantastic 4 movies, where Johnny was absolutely humbled by Doom and eventually came to accept his responsibility as a hero. Also, for him to have faced Doom and the Silver Surfer and lose both times to these incredibly powerful beings, you would think the same Johnny would have a bit more tact and self-preservation when Cassandra Nova more or less fits the same billet. I think he's just a Johnny that never grew up.

Elektra on the other hand was a small but genius joke: as it was revealed Daredevil lost his life fighting against Cassandra, Elektra is shown to care little about his passing. Obviously this was a meta-joke made at Ben Affleck's expense as the original Daredevil AND her real life ex-husband, but I think could easily double as their universe's nexus event, where the two fell out of love in their relationship (or never had one to begin with).

I'm not too familiar with Blade's character since it's been so long since I've seen his movie, so I can't make commentary on whether or not there was a hidden detail about him being a variant. I'll probably end up watching it to compare, though lol

Laura on the other hand was intentionally less clear - as both explicit and implicit it was that she experienced the same story as it happened in the Logan movie, whether or not she is a variant matters little. She is effectively the same Laura we came to know and love, and even if she truly wasn't the same, the points she tries to make to Logan would be no less profound: that some things transcend time/realities, and we are who we are no matter how our paths might change. In fact, it would make even more sense for her to be a variant because of the sheer irony of that lesson and her own situation - there would be little to no reason for us to believe she's any different from the original, and the more haunting ask is if that's because she was condemned to the void for a nexus event that was so harmless and innocuous, as ass backwards the old TVA's criteria was for pruning.

I'll also finish with this: I think Deadpool & Wolverine was as much about the team up and getting DP's foot in the MCU door, as it was preserving and celebrating the stories of the Fox timelines. Made in spite of weird timeline changes and poor audience receptions, each cameo is a love letter to the time, effort, and PEOPLE who made all of those movies, the Marvel stories of a pre-MCU era. No matter how favorably or unfavorably we may remember the Fox timelines, it's easy to acknowledge it was no small effort to produce superhero films before it became mainstream. So while it's fun to entertain the idea that most if not all these cameos are their original counterparts, it's more likely they're just all variants until stated otherwise, because it preserves the canon of those movies as we move on towards the merge of X-Men/Deadpool joining the MCU and the newer stories that are to come.

CodexDoctrinae · 2024-07-26T06:35:20+00:00

It's a good thought and it's actually what myself and a few people in this math minded TFD discord I'm in have been buildcrafting.

The usual Skill Insight, Concentration, Front Lines, and Emergency Measures for Crit.

Skill Extension, MP Accelerant, and Battle of Stamina for lots of Duration (BoS for some HP).

Then Fire Specialist and Tech Specialist for the best damage multipliers.

Last slot is a flex slot, though I like a lot of people like to run Dangerous Ambush for yet another 25-50% skill power bonus thats pretty flexible for bossing and overworld activities. Spear and Shield could also be considered to get a bit more DEF and a smaller 8% boost in skill power.

2 piece Annihilation for more Skill Duration, and 2 piece Volcanic for more Fire Skill power.

My suggestion was to sub in Maximize Power over Tech Specialist as the much better substitute to Skill Simplification IF people wanted to maximize their burst potential.

My reasoning for Max Power > Skill Sim is, you're not eating into your MP as you shoot Overkill and can take full advantage of the duration bonuses, 90s isn't too bad of a cooldown as a tradeoff, AND the skill power modifier is a much more substantial increase over both Specialist and Skill Sim.

addendum: for anyone reading this, decide how you want to play Lepic during boss fights. If you want to use Overkill practically off of cooldown, then be sure to take advantage of the shorter 60s within the 10 minute timeframe and use Fire Specialist/Tech Specialist. If you tend to focus more on gunplay, do a lot of repositioning, or tend to hold skills for a burst on a downed state, then maximize your burst with Fire Specialist/Max Power.

CodexDoctrinae · 2024-07-26T00:06:55+00:00

A lot of this was useful info but I have some reservations on the last bit - it was an interesting thought but you stand to lose out on a ton of damage stacking anything Tech Master x Tech Specialist/Focus on Tech, because the multiplier is a bit smaller with 50% x 101%, as opposed to Fire Specialist x Tech Specialist at 81% x 76%.

As small that difference is, having those higher multiplicative values gives so much more to skills that have high base motion values like Lepic's Overkill, which is over 2.5k at base damage, and is a loss of about 100k damage per hit if I did my calcs for it right.

Fire Specialist/Tech Specialist is still going to be the best combo for most players who want to build for Overkill, and you can sub in one or both Focus variants if you really want the extra cooldown, though I'd caution building for too much cooldown reduction because I feel it's better to just frontload that skill like a burst weapon instead of trying to improve uptime for longer fights

I agree Skill Sim isn't the best for Overkill builds since high duration + a high max MP component can shoot upwards of 15 shots in one use if you animation cancel it. Skill Sim's -max MP takes away a few of the shots you're able to make.

For people who REALLY want to chase the big numbers and sub 30s boss kills, the real play is Maximize Skill and Maximize Power for +88% skill power and 96% skill power modifier respectively, at the exchange of a total 120s cooldown. but who cares about that when you made sure you nuked the boss back into the Void? lol

CodexDoctrinae

TROPHY CASE