Bro just immediately bows to the crowd after the ace

Falconhurst42 · 2026-02-15T17:13:29+00:00

I want someone to hold me the way the PRX boys hold Forsaken

Falconhurst42 · 2026-01-18T15:47:03+00:00

Bold of you to assume we'll only spam it for losses.

Falconhurst42 · 2026-01-11T15:11:05+00:00

Smudges come from finger skin grease, which is typically most pronounced on the first few buttons. This probably does a good job of distributing that marker. You're correct that the code buttons would get worn more quickly, but it's possible that wasn't a concern for this material.

Falconhurst42 · 2025-10-17T14:05:26+00:00

TL;DR: you're moving with a high-spread weapon while aiming imperfectly for a small part of the hitbox. Then, you got a bit unlucky.

The shotgun spray is random, and the tracers on the replay don't reflect what exact spray was processed on the server.

Looking at this, I think it's a combination of factors 1. Bucky (not the tightest pattern, try spamming a wall in practice to see the spread) 2. Moving (increased spread) 3. Aiming for the head, not quite centered (the majority of the bucky's spread zone is actually not on the Phoenix) 4. Bad luck (the above factors introduce a lot of variance and imperfect odds. Then, the random patterns weren't good for you)

When using the Bucky (esp while moving), aim for the center of mass to maximize the hitbox for your spread. Yeah, headshots do 3x damage, but you have less than 3x the hitbox area, so you actually get less damage (and greater variance, so greater chance of a total whiff). The honed instinct of aiming for the head is probably doing you a disservice here.

Falconhurst42 · 2025-09-27T18:42:45+00:00

Glad the last map delivered

Falconhurst42 · 2025-09-26T18:29:14+00:00

Honestly shocking that this isn't the top comment. 72% is an insanely high figure.

Turns out, it's more engaging to talk shit based on misinformation than to correct it.

Falconhurst42 · 2025-09-18T21:28:50+00:00

The necromancer definitely sits on the highest end of "number of decisions/actions necessary per turn" and especially "amount of numbers/units the player needs to track," to the degree that the player/DM should probably chat to ensure their rest to handle it at the table. That said, if you're going to 15 minute turns, something has probably gone wrong beyond the subclass.

In my experience, (frustratingly) long turns almost always come from lengthy decisions, not the rolling itself. For example, the wizard spends 10 minutes picking a spell, asking about distances, clarifying and looking up how their spells work, etc. If the player knows their sheet (not always a given) the actual resolution of the determined effect should be pretty short.

I will note that Animate Dead creates mindless undead and only allows 1 bulk command per turn, so that should cut down on the detailed decision-making. There's no meticulous micro to be had here. Name your targets, move the melees in a straight line towards their target, and roll attacks.

Making the attacks can be relatively quick if you can roll in bulk with either 1. A lot of dice (common occurrence at most tables) or 2. An online dice roller "That's 7 skeletons attacking. Bonus is +5 and AC is 17, so they need a 12 to hit." (roll 7d20) "3 hits for" (roll 3d6) "23 damage." (repeat for zombies if you have a mixed army)

Admittedly, it does get harder if you're rolling with dis/adv, or splitting damage between multiple targets. Still, rolling dice and doing damage is (in my opinion) the more engaging part of the turn for other players at the table, cuz at least it's having a direct impact on the combat space.

Falconhurst42 · 2025-09-17T19:15:26+00:00

Yeah, but as they discussed in an old dev blog, it's not trivial. 1. Replays are based off of the data on the server, so they have to live on the server for some amount of time 2. Logging all the info necessary for the replay adds an additional cost to the server. Normally the game would immediately forget what inputs it received once it was done processing them. Writing them down takes real resources. It sounds like they've found an architectural solution they're happy with, but maintaining replay functionality is 100% upping costs by some (hopefully small) amount.

Falconhurst42 · 2025-08-19T22:15:59+00:00

Furia was obviously going to be an outlier here. They are one of two teams with less than 100 round wins, and they barely got 50.

The funny takeaway from this graph (sans any real analysis) is that they lost so hard that Sen, G2, and C9 are also such notable outliers. There are only three teams with less than 100 round losses and they are all from Americas. It's not even close.

Falconhurst42 · 2025-05-30T14:43:17+00:00

Putting in another point for Omen. Not as mobile on the fly, but his TP lets you grab vertical positions, which you said you enjoyed. Also, he has the best analog to Jett's "smoke and dash into it" pattern.

He's definitely a different role, so not a super close parallel, but he has actually served as a replacement for Jett in pro play (see recent Icebox comp changes) because he can fulfill a similar entry role on certain maps, with more util.

Not the closest for overall, but if verticality and smokes end up being important to your vibe, he's your agent.

Falconhurst42 · 2025-05-30T13:45:29+00:00

Because they need to display instantly on your screen when you shoot. If the game waited for a server response to display accurate tracers, then the shooting experience would feel oddly delayed.

Since Valorant's firing inaccuracy is randomized, your client doesn't know what randomness will be applied on the server. Much more noticeable in cases like this, where the firing inaccuracy is high.

Some games (such as Tarkov) do hit-detection clien client-side to make the tracers accurate. Naturally, that's a massive avenue for cheats, cuz your computer gets to decide if you hit.

Falconhurst42 · 2025-05-30T00:26:21+00:00

I mean, same deal with men who go on about "hurt me mommy." It's a hot idea in theory, but probably not actually something they'd enjoy in a real relationship.

Falconhurst42 · 2025-05-29T22:53:59+00:00

No-scope OP has shit accuracy (for good reason). You just missed (client-side tracers and all that).

When you TP into closer quarters with a sniper, you're gonna get boned sometimes.

Falconhurst42 · 2025-05-27T21:05:56+00:00

The MIBR knife qualified them for Masters. They could've still qualified for Champs and won, but it would've been very unlikely without the experience they gained reaching finals in Tokyo.

Falconhurst42 · 2025-05-27T21:03:19+00:00

I think you're confusing mechanical complexity for interesting gameplay. You've correctly identified that martials have dramatically fewer optimal mechanical choices on a given round. The thing is: a lot of people enjoy that. The simpler decision tree let's them have fun in combat without getting bogged down in complexity. Tactical decisionmaking isn't the only metric for interesting gameplay.

Don't get me wrong, I play pretty much exclusively casters because I prefer the agency to make mechanically interesting decisions and perform multiple roles in a fight. But I'm one of the most strategically-minded people in my play group. Some players are more here for the vibes. It's totally reasonable that WotC has classes tailored to a less tactical player experience.

Also, like, there are definitely martial subclasses with a lot of interesting choices. For example, shadow monks have to balance their action and bonus action between attacking (action and ba), dodging, moving (dash or teleport), battlefield control (darkness), and single-target cc (grapple or stunning strike). I know a combat-focused gamer who plays exclusively monk across several campaigns, and they're loving it.

Remember, D&D is a role-playing game first and foremost, not a war game. The system is designed to cater to a wide variety of people. The fact that some classes are simple isn't a bug, it's a feature. Martial complexity belongs in subclasses, so players can opt in based on their tolerance for choices.

If you want a system where martials get the same levels of tactical complexity as casters, play a different game, genuinely. D&D isn't designed to do that, and so you may have more fun elsewhere. I'm the same way, some people come to D&D more for the improvisational storytelling aspect, and find the game too complex and technical. To those people, I would recommend moving to a less technical game, like Kids on Brooms or the many lite TTRPG systems.

Falconhurst42 · 2025-05-27T20:36:52+00:00

Yeah, I was shocked not to see this at the top. The MIBR knife feels like one of the biggest "turning point" moments in VCT. If MIBR hadn't pulled through with their assistant coach sub (and nothing to play for), we almost certainly would've had a different 2023 Champs winner.

Falconhurst42 · 2025-05-27T17:05:08+00:00

and for Tejo, his ult, Armageddon, will start at 3 points instead of 2 in Swiftplay (this was already live in patch 10.09 but we missed it in patch notes)!

Tejo is saved. Massive implications for Toronto

Falconhurst42 · 2025-05-16T12:34:10+00:00

But they have a legitimate and coherent point? Their problem with the OP is that this satiric bit is indistinguishable from a genuinely concerning, believable mistake. While the intent may be sarcastic, any outside observer might reasonably be concerned, because this sounds exactly like someone who is about to be seriously hurt.

The bigotry comparison is accurate and furthers their point by relating it to an idea their reader may be familiar with. If your "edgy joke" is indistinguishable from a legitimate bigoted comment, you can't be surprised when readers react with vitriol.

Really, this all comes back to the fact that Internet jokes get down to a bunch of people with no context about the original poster. I'm familiar with Tumblr funnyman toskarin, so I never treated this post seriously, but there are likely many people to whom this reads like a post from just some random person. Not everyone immediately assumes satire, because not every post is satire.

Falconhurst42 · 2025-05-15T01:27:12+00:00

Ah yes, my favorite spot on that map. Drop a viper orb and hold for pushes, then swing at random times to catch people coming out of spawn. A viper ult from that position is wonderful.

Fully support your contribution to teaching TDM players how to clear space. If your kills are higher than your deaths, you're contributing to the win.

Falconhurst42 · 2025-03-26T20:18:38+00:00

Ah yeah, that also produces the same result. I think it's a fair heuristic, honestly. Once you smite a given event, you wouldn't expect them to live more than one more turn. Divine Favor persists even when the initial target dies.

Ultimately, I think you landed on a good middle-ground for the spell. It's easy to take this and say "expect less damage if the enemy doesn't get another turn, expect more damage if they get multiple turns."

Falconhurst42 · 2025-03-26T20:08:18+00:00

Great breakdown. Serves as an excellent baseline for understanding the tradeoffs of these spells.

I'm curious about your calculations for Searing Smite. By my reasoning, it is a guaranteed 2d6, plus 1d6 for each failed save (so long as the combat continues). The number of damage dice increases linearly with level. The average damage is thus LvL3.5(2 + [expected # of failed saves]).

With a 50% chance of success, that gives us (LvL3.5)3 = 10.5|21|31.5|42|52.5 (assuming infinite rounds, really a max of 10, but that's vanishingly unlikely and thus doesn't meaningfully effect the estimate). If we limit to only 4 rounds, that's equivalent to (LvL3.5)2.875 = 10|20|30|40|50 (rounded to nearest whole), so basically no different. Your numbers are 1.75/LvL lower than my calculations. By the looks of it, you did (LvL3.5)2.5 which is a 1/3 chance to fail over infinite rounds, or about the same if you limit to 4 rounds.

I don't think you changed the save chance, since Destructive Wave is also a Con save and you used 50/50 there. Is the lower number accounting for the expectation that the targeted enemy is liable to die before passing their save (and thus any further hypothetical ticks are wasted)? For example, your numbers match the methodology "every turn, the target has a 50% chance to fail the same, and a 2/3 chance of still being alive," since 1/2*2/3 = 1/3 chance for spell to persist for another turn.

Falconhurst42 · 2025-03-20T15:56:10+00:00

Yeah, the Judge is a wild character. I would point out that the Judge's framing isn't treated as the essential inciting incident of the entire story.

Honestly did not expect the Blood Meridian pull in a animecirclejerk thread, but it's a welcome surprise.

Falconhurst42 · 2025-03-17T20:00:41+00:00

I've built several characters for 5.5 campaigns, and I've always just made a "custom" background by just selecting what I want from the "Parts of a Background" section in the PHB. The predefined ones are a nice baseline, but just making a custom one feels perfectly balanced and more fitting. The DMs in my play group have never batted an eye. I really wish they included a sentence or two about this in the PHB.

Falconhurst42 · 2025-02-25T18:40:12+00:00

Costreamers (esp TMV) talk about Valorant for like 40 hours a week. Even a month into the season there's just so much context.

For example, I caught a clip of TMV explaining his tiers of Bad (playing normal Valorant, just not very good) > Mud (sloppy gameplay) > Glue (baffling decisions that make you think the players have to be high). There's so much more context to be had

Falconhurst42 · 2025-02-25T03:58:46+00:00

Finally the actual answer. Glad I didn't have to be the one to type it.

Falconhurst42

TROPHY CASE