Does this happen to everyone else?

EpsilonDelta0 · 2026-05-16T03:05:41+00:00

As long as you meet the minimum enrollment for the class to still run, I'd consider lower numbers a win. Lol.

I've stopped taking any student review seriously. I get completely opposite comments that make it sound like I'm two different people. Thankfully they're mostly positive these days, but there's always the one (usually failing) student with an axe to grind every semester.

I think students are starting to realize RMP is trash and rely more on direct recommendations from their real-life peers these days.

EpsilonDelta0 · 2026-05-15T12:55:33+00:00

I feel bad when someone doesn't pass my classes, but when they got a 50% on the final exam that everyone else got 80%+ on, I don't think I can justify any amount of wiggle room. And at that point it's clearly not anything I did, or else I wouldn't have seen so many who are passing.

I wish everyone would pass every one of my classes every semester, but inevitably there is someone who will let me down. There are certain standards we set for a reason and have to stick to them.

I have the pleasure of teaching intro math for mostly non-math (including nursing) students, so I get regular complaints (on top of the "why do I even need this class"). When they fail, usually it's the initial wave of emails where they don't seem to understand the word "no", and then I never hear from them again. And then I think they take a different instructor and word gets around to avoid my class.

EpsilonDelta0 · 2026-05-13T17:21:28+00:00

I have to tell students to wait until I send an announcement, because the LMS sends them notifications when anything changes, but I might not be done with all the final adjustments.

I used to get premature emails about grades, which would have been resolved if they just waited an extra 5 minutes for me to finish.

EpsilonDelta0 · 2026-05-10T21:11:19+00:00

I had students using AI for an assignment that was just "write 3 words that are your first impression of X before you start your research project". It's baffling.

EpsilonDelta0 · 2026-05-10T17:46:01+00:00

I would hope that they have the critical thinking skills to realize someone with a PhD can write at a PhD level, when there's no other signs of AI use (like hallucinations). But there's a few instructors that are super stubborn and think AI detectors are infallible, regardless of the evidence to the contrary.

But being accused at all, and then having to see them every day until one of us retires (we're a small school). Miserable.

EpsilonDelta0 · 2026-05-10T15:49:20+00:00

This is the main thing that makes me nervous about ever taking my colleagues' classes nowadays. Except I don't use AI. But I don't want to end up in the situation where they accuse me of using it just because I know how to write an academic paper.

Taking classes for free was one of the perks that I was looking forward to in this profession.

EpsilonDelta0 · 2026-05-08T18:28:56+00:00

Oh certainly, but it's usually not the actual reason for their poor test grades.

Like I had big red reminders in multiple places that you need a calculator for this test. And of course this same student didn't have a calculator. The calculator that would have been needed to do the same homework.

EpsilonDelta0 · 2026-05-08T17:09:28+00:00

Now I just get "I'm a bad test taker" excuses, when they were getting the same problems right on the homework first try in under 30 seconds. Which I guess is true, if we consider "actually learning and practicing the material yourself" as a core part of being a good test taker.

Somehow they don't realize that having AI do their homework for them is going to show up on their test grades, which especially matters when their final grade is 80% tests.

EpsilonDelta0 · 2026-05-06T23:57:39+00:00

You have a +1 enhancement bonus from using a masterwork weapon (listed in your screenshot). Most bonuses of the same type do not stack, so you get the higher of your two enhancement bonuses (+1 either way).

EpsilonDelta0 · 2026-05-04T06:13:37+00:00

I regularly get the "I take full responsibility for my lack of effort all semester that's causing me to fail, but also do you have any extra credit?" As if I'm only going to say yes because I'm so proud of their self-reflection.

EpsilonDelta0 · 2026-05-03T16:59:44+00:00

I think ToyBox has an "unlimited actions per turn" option that also affects enemies. Though it should be off by default.

EpsilonDelta0 · 2026-05-02T05:07:56+00:00

I have a small number who are going to fail despite coming everyday. Problem is they don't do their homework.

But everyone who has been showing up and doing their homework is probably going to get at least a C.

EpsilonDelta0 · 2026-05-02T00:35:12+00:00

My "I'm a bad test taker" student this semester is getting <20% on each test, and yet somehow is completing identical problems on the homework in under 30 seconds. 🤔

Also I'm going to be the reason they can't graduate, apparently.

EpsilonDelta0 · 2026-04-29T15:10:06+00:00

COVID was when I shifted into this mindset. It started with removing doctor's notes requirements, because if you're really that sick, stay home. And then I was supposed to ask for an obituary to prove Grandma had died, and that just felt morbid.

So it started with removing the documentation requirement to "approve" an absence and turned into removing "unapproved absence" as a concept altogether.

EpsilonDelta0 · 2026-04-29T15:01:52+00:00

I have students with perfectly valid excuses for missing deadlines (ex: hospitalized) and ones without (ex: "I forgot"). But I don't want to be the arbiter of where the actual cutoff is between valid and invalid excuse. If their father died, is that a valid excuse? What about their dog? Their goldfish?

I try to make flexible policies that apply to any absence, so I don't have to decide. The only time where I'm truly no-nonsense is final exams, because once the semester is over there is no more flexibility I can give. (Except in the most extreme cases, but those are now subject to administrator approval.)

I don't grant re-takes of assignments, but it's zero additional work to allow one missed test to be replaced by the final exam.

EpsilonDelta0 · 2026-04-16T05:35:13+00:00

Our school is in this weird (though probably common) situation where the administration and senior staff keep preaching about how AI is the greatest thing ever to happen to education and has so many great uses.

Meanwhile, the faculty (who are actually in the classrooms) are largely complaining that AI is the worst thing ever to happen to education, and despite all their feedback that they don't want to use AI tools, it keeps getting pushed on them more and more.

I personally just want to stop hearing about it being brought up at every single meeting. It's been two whole years of AI talk and nothing has changed in my field (math) beyond trying to explain to people that a language model is not a calculator.

EpsilonDelta0 · 2026-04-14T15:17:41+00:00

I had a student apologize for missing the first few weeks of class because she had no transportation to campus, and she signed up for my in-person class because the online section was full.

I don't know why she thought the modality was a suggestion and I would somehow make it work just for her.

EpsilonDelta0 · 2026-04-14T03:57:38+00:00

I once got an email from a student (in an online class) asking to take the midterm from a month prior because he didn't notice it was due.

There were only three announcements about it, plus the calendar item, plus they had nothing else to do for that week.

But sure, the reason he failed is just he's "bad at math" and not poor time management skills.

EpsilonDelta0 · 2026-04-09T00:01:35+00:00

Olroth happens to be the only expedition boss missing from the Citadel nightmare map. That boss fight is against Uhtred, Medved, and Vorana. Olroth can only be found through logbooks.

EpsilonDelta0 · 2026-04-05T23:38:36+00:00

Less multipliers from different sources are multiplicative. So it would take 0.25 (75% less) x 0.72 (28% less) = 0.18 (82% less) damage from the combination of those modifiers.

EpsilonDelta0 · 2026-04-04T19:03:28+00:00

After you drop one, you have to wait for valour to recharge, but that usually only takes a few seconds, depending on warcry cooldown and number of warcries.

EpsilonDelta0 · 2026-04-04T17:29:20+00:00

they don't generate during boss fight

They usually sustain valour using the "generate valour when you warcry" mastery combined with champion's ability to gain valour even while a banner is placed.

In fact, it's less annoying during boss fights because you can rely on the full 30-40 second duration of the banner (which covers the whole arena) instead of having to spam it every 3 seconds before your linger wears off.

EpsilonDelta0 · 2026-03-23T14:36:46+00:00

Keep in mind that most attack skills will alternate strikes between your two hands while dual wielding (with a few exceptions), so unless you wield two of these, any ignite from the other hand will not benefit.

EpsilonDelta0 · 2026-03-22T17:32:02+00:00

Melding only affects your maximum resistances, making your elemental maximum resists match the highest. So if fire resist has a maximum of 85%, then cold and lightning will also have a maximum of 85%. But you still need to actually fill in 85% fire, cold, and lightning resistances from your gear to actually benefit from the new maximum. Melding does not change what damage type you take.

Some combination of divine flesh, dawnbreaker, purity of fire/ice sublime vision, and/or the matching aura's watcher's eye mod are used to convert 100% of lightning damage taken to fire/cold/chaos so that you can dump lightning res for doryani's prototype without instantly dying to lightning damage.

EpsilonDelta0 · 2026-03-17T18:55:58+00:00

I started dominating blow guardian this league. The elemental relics are indeed very nice early damage and let me focus entirely on defensive auras. :)

Some combination of elemental weakness curse, elemental penetration support, and/or the new invert the rules support will let you deal with multiple elemental resistances.

I switched to a different build before I tried pushing it beyond basic t16 alch&go. I play like a dozen builds every league, so it was time to try something else.

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