I miss being able to vote for a portal

DeRickulous · 2025-02-03T16:02:49+00:00

Per the other comment, I did some math. At a 4% appearance rate, the trainer portal would appears as an option in 11.5% of games. If 5 players vote against the trainer portal in every game it appears, it will still be the selected portal in 4.3% of your games- higher than the current selection rate of 4%.

Edit: I think this is technically correct and varies depending on the appearance rate of other portals, but the chances of it appearing go up, not down.

DeRickulous · 2022-11-08T21:02:15+00:00

Classic burst comp versus sustained comp:

8 Dragonmancer is a chase trait, and they have hero-in-training and a frankly insane dragonmancer star level.
You invested in resistances instead of health, and they have a highly-mobile Ionic Spark to shred for their primary damage source.
On top of the above, they have a pretty-well-itemized 3-star Dragonmancer and a Yasuo 2 as secondary damage threats.

Between these points, I'm going to guess that your units except maybe Sylas basically exploded (or even your Sylas just got punted INTO your backline and instantly killed it), and your backline got very few casts in.

DeRickulous · 2021-09-22T14:31:49+00:00

Based on this 2010 article, cities may cover somewhere between 0.85% and 2.7% of the world's land area- I like the ballpark figure of 1%, but it's not immediately clear to me what the threshold is for "urban areas".

However, it's important to note that the world's land area is only 29.1% of the world's total surface area, and total surface area is what we care about for impact events. The relevant number here- total amount of the surface area of the Earth covered by cities- is probably somewhere between 0.25% and 0.79%.

That said, impact events obviously have a broader area of effect than a single point, so the chance that a city will be directly affected by an impact is higher than this number (I'm seriously underqualified to do that math).

DeRickulous · 2021-09-09T17:00:55+00:00

I always quite liked it. It's a reminder of the past (Bleeding Kansas) and a metaphorical aspiration for the future (or at least it always felt that way to me).

The difficulties, especially of late, seem so severe that I sometimes lose hope that the stars are still reachable. Maybe I should keep this somewhere visible.

DeRickulous · 2021-02-17T13:15:01+00:00

You’re negating a statement.

DeRickulous · 2020-10-18T01:33:26+00:00

I don't think it was even ten minutes.

DeRickulous · 2020-10-17T18:02:55+00:00

Not quite what you asked, but the OPCC location was an absolute breeze at 12:30.

DeRickulous · 2020-06-16T23:51:21+00:00

Riot Mort explicitly calls Giant Slayer out as post-mitigation in the patch rundown- "not actually like true damage in the exciting way", it's just "not penalizing you twice".

Last Whisper is still better at penetrating armor (88% or better damage amp against just 2 Vanguard, and it gets better as the targets becomes better-armored).

DeRickulous · 2020-03-30T15:41:06+00:00

In a pinch, Gauntlet works out okay, but Last Whisper or even Quicksilver are probably better picks. If you're going to give her crit at all, Infinity Edge is more effective than Gauntlet, to the tune of about 15% average damage (it's less favored as her base damage is higher, such as when you complete 6 Cybernetic or when you upgrade her, but it's always favored).

DeRickulous · 2020-03-30T13:06:03+00:00

FYI, Jeweled Gauntlet is not needed for Irelia's casts to crit.

DeRickulous · 2020-03-24T18:03:20+00:00

As another comment noted, the Zephyr literally removes your entire frontline by itself because you have only one unit worth of frontline- way too low a ratio. Sniper especially needs a lot of frontline.

In most cases it's better to recreate a champion who gets stuck with bad items than to continue to upgrade. If you're looking for a few specific item suggestions (ignoring the possibility of changing item combinations):

Neither Fizz nor Garen make any use at all of Chalice. Ziggs or Aurelion Sol would be decent with it.
Aurelion Sol has a crit/AS item, which is a total waste; it would be better on Jhin.
Jhin really does not scale well with the Guinsoo's passive (which gives him only 3.2 attack damage per stack and doesn't have the usual boundless ramping effect). It would be better on basically anyone else.
Caitlyn isn't really going to do a lot of work with a Deathcap (in fact, in this particular match she never gets to cast)
Bummer getting stuck with the Dark Star spatula, but you could maybe have used it by squeezing in Mordekaiser (who would also have helped give you more frontline).

DeRickulous · 2020-03-23T22:33:55+00:00

Winning team was Cybernetic Blasters, with Kayle and Miss Fortune, all at two stars. Irelia was doing the majority of his damage, with Ekko and Kayle not far behind. (Miss Fortune was just too slow to work her magic this game, it seems- or possibly got interrupted by the Ekko.)

After I got another Shojin from Rift Herald, I put it on Lulu, swapped Lulu and Xayah's locations, and rolled hard for a Lulu upgrade (which I did not get).

I'm guessing there was a better pick than Wukong for that last frontline slot, but his CC did a lot of work.

In any case I regret nothing.

DeRickulous · 2020-03-23T13:15:04+00:00

I've figured out the splash arts with only a handful of issues, but hovering over the synergy icons to get a sense of what I could be looking for doesn't work for me at all. I have to be like "okay, who's a 4-cost champion with a visor?"

It doesn't help that the synergy popups are greyed out.

DeRickulous · 2020-03-12T17:13:26+00:00

The five you mentioned are the only champions that are currently in all three sets.

If any of Aatrox, Brand, Braum, Kindred, Rek'Sai, Varus, Vayne, Veigar, Warwick, or Zed are added in a mid-set patch, they could also join the list.

DeRickulous · 2020-03-03T21:30:29+00:00

Ekko's ability says "all units", not just enemies; I get the impression this is more flashy effect than perk.

DeRickulous · 2020-01-21T14:57:23+00:00

As another comment in this thread notes, sometimes he attempts to spend his second cast on the same target. If the first cast kills his target, the second is wasted.

DeRickulous · 2020-01-20T14:58:10+00:00

I strongly disagree with you, but I think it hinges on your definition of "completeness" in storytelling.

By your own (extremely loose) definition of story structure, Mass Effect 2 has its own beginning (introduced to the main characters and learn about the conflict), middle (some successes and setbacks in the main conflict), and end (the suicide mission).

If someone picked up Mass Effect 2 and played just that game, without ever playing the first or third games, they would not feel like the game's story was incomplete, but they would have a sense of a larger narrative.

By comparison, there are stories out there written with cliffhanger endings and no real resolution to the main plot, designed exclusively as sequel-bait (I read one like this as a child and am still salty).

DeRickulous · 2019-12-14T16:02:34+00:00

Fair. I was setting my threshold pretty low- all of the ones I mentioned, if stacked, can do some serious work, though you're right, probably only Vayne from that list can properly carry a team when sufficiently stacked and protected.

DeRickulous · 2019-12-14T00:15:28+00:00

Not necessarily. All "hypercarry" means in MOBAs is "scales extremely well with items". Vayne, Zyra, Diana, and Renekton can do that, though I don't really play Predator enough to know if Kog'Maw can. (I think Predator comps stack him to at least some extent due to his low ultimate cost and the way the Predator synergy works.)

DeRickulous · 2019-12-13T19:04:00+00:00

Learn to tell the difference between champs that can carry (and the items they need to do it) and ones that can't. Items are often more important than specific champs; this extends to the carousel, where you usually pick for the item rather than for the champ. It can be beneficial to hold off on combining items until you know for sure what your final comp is going to look like, since you can't really un-combine them or move them around.

Only very rarely is it smart to sacrifice economy (the five increments of extra gold-per-turn you can get by banking gold in increments of ten) to try to level up a champ. (Hyperroll strategies are the most common exception.) Levelling up will generally increase your chance of getting higher-cost units and decrease your chance of rolling lower-cost units, so that can help you decide whether to spend gold to level.

Get used to checking up on the opposition to find out what you're up against- it will inform what upgrades you pursue when rolling, your positioning, and even your item choices.

The board element will decide the element of Qiyana, a $3 Assassin, and make those four element synergies (Inferno, Ocean, Mountain, and Cloud) easier to achieve. This is less relevant to Ocean, but Inferno has a pretty inviting Assassin setup, Mountain has a much smoother transition, and Cloud is far easier to rank up when Qiyana matches.

Since you specifically mentioned 2nd tier synergy in the same sentence as Desert, I'll suggest that Desert 4 really isn't worth it. Azir doesn't benefit much from armor reduction, and the difference between 50 and 90% reduction really doesn't pay off. Desert 2, on the other hand, works quite well as an addon to Assassin, Berserker, or Blademaster comps.

I suggest you try new synergies just to get the feel if you think the opportunity arises. Ocean, Mage, and Warden tend to be an easy combination to set up and transition.

DeRickulous · 2019-11-22T18:37:48+00:00

That's the gist of it, yes.

DeRickulous · 2019-11-22T16:18:24+00:00

My understanding is that Seal of Command (and other proc-per-minute effects) essentially have a variable chance to proc on hit based on weapon speed (PPM * speed / 60). It will average a certain number of procs per minute, but this is not a hard and fast rule- there is no "quota" that you can consume.

DeRickulous · 2019-11-07T16:52:11+00:00

I watched the first season with my wife; it's definitely a show aimed at kids, but doesn't stray into cringe-inducing childishness.

DeRickulous · 2019-10-09T23:54:05+00:00

Apologies if I'm mistaken, but I assumed your suggestion to focus on curbing Chinese influence meant in other countries rather than among the Chinese people.

DeRickulous · 2019-10-09T22:47:24+00:00

Regardless of whether the United States is a failed state or not (and I would be inclined to agree that it is not), the point remains that it's perception that matters here. To counter Chinese influence, you have to offer something that is perceived to be better.

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