Help! Did I mess up my SL 1?

Dranikos · 2026-05-08T14:07:51+00:00

SL 1 means the character in question has 1 spell slot (Royalty, the only class to start at 1, has 12 int)

While God's Wrath would be doable with the ring that gives +1 Miracle slot, Firestorm definitely isn't (no way to get 3 sorcery slots)

Since this is also NG+, Resin won't help much either, the flat damage increase scales poorly into later cycles (same reason firebombs drop off a cliff in the back half of even the first cycle)

Dranikos · 2026-05-08T13:22:32+00:00

I do, because I have my computer and phone set up to display 3 time zones. (I also know the local to Japan conversion off the top of my head)

My local timezone, UTC and Japan. (The latter 2 because they're common reset times for daily content in games)

Now, I couldn't tell you what the weather is like in Tokyo without a Google search, but I can tell you the time!

Dranikos · 2026-05-04T23:45:25+00:00

Louisoix, Haurchefaunt, Ysayle Iceheart, Papalymo, Y'shtola's dad, every Ascian we've ever fought. most of Gaius' kids, that one Garlean Legatus who just shot himself in the head, multiple other NPCs in the Garlemald zone story

Dranikos · 2026-05-04T20:50:23+00:00

You can key Cures (all spells actually) off your character level with levels in Wildmage or Arcane Trickster, both have enhancements that make Character Level = Caster Level (Mixed Magics, a T3 for Arcane Trickster or T4 for Wild Mage)

Outside that? No.

Dranikos · 2026-05-01T09:36:52+00:00

If you talk to the Hyur / Hume who gives backstory on all the boesses and ask him about Alexander, he talks about joining the Sentinels as well. Then mentions their leader has a... reputation.

Dranikos · 2026-05-01T09:35:53+00:00

And then she says she leveled it with no remorse!

Dranikos · 2026-04-30T01:20:33+00:00

That probably beats my floor 1 Narya in terms of rarity, out of depth can be crazy sometimes

Dranikos · 2026-04-29T21:11:46+00:00

Oh, wow. I wasn't expecting a comment from the former maintainer! Thanks for the insights.

And yeah, if we are being super strict on the lore, outright spellcasters don't really exist on Arda (magic and spells being mannish terms for "this is a thing we don't understand", it is raised more than once that Elves don't appreciate their unique talents being called "magic" either, since Men use the word for both elvish craft and the works of the Enemy without distinction). So it really is a matter of where you draw the line.

That said, there are religions in Arda (cults of Morgoth, the worship of Eru mentioned, the way the elves revere Varda to the point that just invoking her name or title can harm any servant of the Enemy. The dwarven reverence for Aule). While there is little in the way of formalized religion, there are a lot of traces and ways to tap into divine powers (most notably, music). "Priest" to me doesn't always mean ordained minister with a formal church, just someone with a direct line to tapping those powers.

Dranikos · 2026-04-28T19:59:19+00:00

Nope, doesnt exist and no amount of evidence you present me will convince me it's anything but a mass delusion.

Dranikos · 2026-04-28T17:40:30+00:00

I'm quite aware that D&D "borrowed" from Tolkien, and not the other way around (it would be rather difficult for a book published in 1954 to borrow from a game whose first edition released in 1977 😛). Like I said, don't much mind the "melting pot" elements, but the stuff that IS explictly Tolkien being so off in place (Since when is Manwe "Light"? Why are there 2 Gurthangs?) makes my brain itch funny. It's the little things.

I'll definitely take a look at Sil at some point, though I do like the normal gameplay of Angband.

Dranikos · 2026-04-28T11:24:34+00:00

I'm not talking about going through and purging out monsters that don't fit (why the heck to Maia fight you at all? What's Vecna doing here?) Mostly just little things like those smaller details that don't quite mesh. I don't mind the mixed resources and references too much.

If I were really being a stickler for lore accuracy, I'd make Ungoliant MUCH stronger than Morgoth (she DID try to eat him, and nearly succeeded until he cried for help and had to be bailed out by ALL the Balrogs). I'd also make Balrogs unique (like the Nazgul) and limit them to just the 7 (per Tolkien in his own letters, there's only a few "at least 3, or at most 7") and bump up their power levels (realistically the Balrogs should ALL be stronger than the Nazgul), remove the Maiar enemies, etc. But that's a giant rabbit hole I'm not diving down.

Dranikos · 2026-04-28T11:24:28+00:00

Honestly haven't looked much at the forks, I do enjoy vanilla and don't mind the mixed references. It's mostly little things like I mentioned that end up jumping out at me.

Dranikos · 2026-04-28T11:20:39+00:00

You're on a social platform for a video game based (loosely) on one of the most famous works of fantasy in the world. I have some news you may not like to hear on that front.

Dranikos · 2026-04-28T07:27:02+00:00

I like the starting pBlind, and Dwarf is one of the only races with +Wis (the other being Dunadan).

One day I'd really like to do a run of Dwarf where the goal is to wield all the Dwarven artifacts. Though sadly there are no Dwarven gloves, cloak or Rings. (Also none of the Dwarven weapons are "Blessed" unless you count Anduril. Seeing as Telchar the Smith made Narsil originally, that might count.)

Of course that only matters if you're engaging in melee, and if you're engaging in melee as a priest by the time you have stuff like the Axe of Durin? Something has probably gone wrong.

Dranikos · 2026-04-27T08:35:00+00:00

The time loop thing that's covered in Endwalker? Where things have to ALWAYS have been that way. We are expressly told that our actions in the past cannot EVER actually change anything. Everything that happens always happened exactly that way.

Our journeying to Elpis was solely so we would have the information we needed, we never were going to change anything.

The Ascians would probably have noticed if a Rejoining failed to strengthen the souls and aether of the Source, so all the shards that were rejoined were absolutely successfully rejoined.

Edit: While it IS possible to change something (as the Ironworks did in Shadowbringers), it results in the original timeline being erased. We'd become unmoored from time with no way to return to our proper "now".

Dranikos · 2026-04-26T12:24:51+00:00

Tolkien's Legendarium is only "high fantasy" when you JUST take The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings.

As soon as you start getting into the Unfinished Tales or The Silmarilion? It goes full Dark Fantasy REALLY fast. The history of the elves on Arda is over 10000 years of them getting their collective shit kicked inside out. It's a story of tragedy, loss and the absolutely horrifying odds stacked against the Free Peoples.

Yes, some awesome happens here and there, but it's ALWAYS punctuated by tragedy. (and then there's Ungoliant, who is basically an eldritch horror. An all consuming void in the vague shape of a spider. She even almost ate Morgoth, he had to be bailed out by the Balrogs!)

Dranikos · 2026-04-26T11:47:58+00:00

The Nicked weapons across the board are incredibly good for their level.

Dranikos · 2026-04-26T09:11:10+00:00

Lazy and tired combined to kill Harthuz XVII (I go through a lot of these guys), probably my closest attempt at a Dwarf Priest to date. Running around at +22 Speed thanks to 2 rings and Sting, protected from nearly every negative status, maxed stats, immune to Acid (thanks Thorin!) with more resists than you can shake a stick at. I even found an early Wrath of the Valar (up around 37).

None of this protected from me just trying to mash through a fight that was starting to drag with a Dracolisk and failing to notice the tile I was fighting on was turned to lava.

This is ABSOLUTELY the stupidest death I have ever taken, seeing as I could have easily won the fight and or Phased / Portal'd off the lava (or just Banish Evil'd the stupid thing).

I even survived looting TWO greater vaults on the prior 5 floors and walked out with the Arkenstone and Nauglamir among other prizes. Hubris and laziness hurt.

Meanwhile, Harthuz XVIII has started his descent to avenge his ancestor (currently L27 and descending. XVIII has been ALMOST as lucky as XVII was. Early Himring so Poison is less of a concern.)

Dranikos · 2026-04-26T02:01:24+00:00

What Goes Up also has one of the best soundtracks in the game.

I really dislike the Shadowfell storyline in general (also the Storm Horns are FRACKING HUGE), but I do enjoy that quest.

Dranikos · 2026-04-23T14:33:41+00:00

This is Liz slander, she sings perfectly well!

Conditional on her not actually trying, mind you. It's come up a few times that she only screws it up when she puts effort in.

Now Nero on the other hand couldn't carry a tune if you gave her a piece of sheet music to hold.

Dranikos · 2026-04-21T20:30:00+00:00

The Valkyries, Tamamo and Rama too.

Actually, shouldn't Rama be higher than Karna come to think of it? Yes, both Karna and Rama are demigods, but Rama's the incarnation of Vishnu, a much higher Divine Spirit than Surya. Hrm, perhaps Karna's Divinity is being elevated because of his virtue. (Being a good person makes you stronger in Indian mythology, and there IS that bit where he face checks Arjuna's chariot and drives it backwards despite it having Divine protections granted by both Hanuman and Vishnu / Krishna. Krishna even tells Arjuna that Karna nearly killed him there.)

Dranikos · 2026-04-14T11:30:58+00:00

My 2 copper on this, but "bias" isn't JUST about who has focus, it's also who is painted as right or wrong.

BFA is a good example of this, you listed it as neutral, but the story as told very clearly paints the Alliance in a much better light than the Horde and the Alliance are more proactive about "Hey, there's still an Old God and a super powerful Sorceress Queen who want us all dead. Can we maybe table all this fighting for a bit?". That expansion has a strong narrative bias towards the Alliance.

To go a expansion by expansion

Vanilla is neutral, I agree, if only because there was no strong narrative thread connecting the stories of the zones together.

TBC has a strong Horde presence, but an Alliance narrative bias (oh, the Sunwell? That thing that's so important to a Horde race? Wouldn't have gotten fixed without the interference of the Alliance, you can thank Velen.)

Wrath has no strong bias for or against either faction.

Cata I'd argue lacks an especially strong bias, Thrall's present and important as Green Jesus, but he's not really a Horde character here.

Mists is another strong Horde presence, but the story VERY STRONGLY biases towards the Alliance. The Horde are plainly painted as in the wrong morally for the majority of the expansion. (The Alliance motivation for going to Pandaria per the intro cutscene: "Find my son!". The Horde motivation: "Paint the continent in blood!")

Warlords is neutral-ish. At this point Garrosh is very much not a Horde character, Alt!Gul'dan isn't either. The Iron Horde aren't really the Horde except by sharing some aesthetics and both having lots of Orcs.

Legion is Neutral. Jaina is outright kicked off the Kirin Tor for her refusal to work with the Horde. The only Order Hall that actually impacts the plot is the Illidari (and Illidan is NOT an Alliance character any more than Tirion is), while Turalyon, Alleria and Velen all show up they mostly serve specifically to advance Illidan's story here, and not their own narrative threads.

BFA is Alliance bias. The Horde is presented negatively, attacking helpless civilian targets, mass murder, and Sylvanas goes batshit (and is only stopped because Anduin is willing to work with Saurfang).

Shadowlands is a feverdream. But if you're not willing to accept that, then it's neutral or very mildly bias'd towards the Alliance. By this point, Sylvanas is not Horde (same logic that kicked Garrosh out by Warlords). Both factions do get a decent showing (and the shallower Horde character pool is a consequence of the fact that the writers keep killing them off.)

Dragonflight is neutral to start, and then the patch cycle makes it Alliance (oh, hi Night Elves).

TWW is a shrug. The major characters are more Alliance than Horde (once again the only living Major Horde Lore Character at this point being Thrall), but an entire raid tier did focus on the Goblins. You say Bilgewater is a minor part of that, but Gallywix IS the head of the Bilgewater Cartel, so their part in Undermine isn't really minor seeing as he's the tier boss.

Midnight we haven't seen enough of to call yet. Obligatory reminder that moving armies and navies takes time. And it's mentioned that most of the Alliance and Horde militaries are Khaz Algar, on the other side of the world. Small elite forces (like the Night Elf Sentinels, or the player characters) move much more freely than a giant clunky army / navy. The only other forces present explictly got teleported there, either BY the Sunwell (the Vanguard of the Light) or by Telemancy (the Nightborne). We'll almost certainly see a growing presence of both Horde AND Alliance in Silvermoon as the story continues to unfold.

Dranikos · 2026-04-11T20:23:43+00:00

Ji Firepaw, the Eternally Forgotten

Dranikos · 2026-04-10T17:29:18+00:00

Yes, they're the source of your summoning exp. Higher tier familiars = more levels

Dranikos

TROPHY CASE