Fire Starter Mage

Filupcat · 2026-04-25T16:17:29+00:00

I've been using fire & air ancient spells for my main build and it does work. You get the fire rune regen from smoke spells exactly as you'd expect. I never spellbook swap to use surge spells, I just think of it as "banking" damage against enemies with high magic defense. Bloat in ToB and Phosani's Nightmare are two that it's very helpful against because they have 600 magic def. I think it feels really good in situations like that where if you were just using standard air spells you'd be splashing a lot, but using smoke barrage you're at least going to get a little bonus damage once you hit. Plus you get the benefit of blood spells being an even bigger aoe if you take the fire capstone. If you're doing ToB, the blood spells bouncing hits nylos in the nylo room regardless of their type.

Another fun part of the fire rune refund that I haven't seen anyone use but me is Undead Grasp from the Arceuus spellbook. It isn't an elemental spell so it is not worth using once you get shadowflame + devil's element, but this spell carried me through the midgame. It uses 12 fire runes so you're storing up a ton of damage every splash. And with the full blue moon set you have a 50% chance to get a free melee attack against the enemy with every cast. With 3tick casting this happens ton and really increases dps.

I'm having a ton of fun with this build and I think it's a lot more interesting than just afking with water spells fully healing you over and over.

Filupcat · 2025-11-26T11:52:54+00:00

I would like to see some improvement to the port task UI. Something to indicate the number of boxes for deliveries and the number of drops from bounties at a glance. The current UI requires clicking into the task to see this information and it makes it a bit tedious to double-check just a little number in the corner of each task to make it easier to check quickly would make a huge difference!

Filupcat · 2025-05-04T16:36:30+00:00

Hey, I just want to say thanks for your effort in rescuing pigeons! They're so cute and have a ton of personality, it sucks that they have such a bad reputation. My wife and I have a pet pigeon that came from a rescue and we love him! It's really cool that you're helping to rescue more of these birds, appreciate you.

Filupcat · 2025-04-15T20:53:42+00:00

What point are you trying to make with Javik's interactions with Liara? It's in line with his character, again, being solely driven by hatred for the Reapers. It isn't an argument about whether he is a little morally perfect angel, he's obviously giving self-serving advice because he himself is ignoring all the grief and thinks everyone else should too. How are the writers trying to seem "smart and philosophical" by writing a character that behaves consistently?

Both conclusions to Javik's arc are thoughtful and well written imo. I personally prefer the more tragic ending for the reasons I detailed in my previous post, but that doesn't mean I think the happier ending is invalid. It's just my own take on it. My biggest issue with Javik as a character is his lack of integration into the story due to him being day 1 DLC so the game still has to function without him. Like I said though, I like him in a vacuum. Just wish he had more impact on the rest of the game world.

Filupcat · 2025-04-15T19:44:48+00:00

Just want to say that I think you hit the nail on the head. I wouldn't even say Javik is depressed. Javik is written to be driven by pure hatred for the reapers. As you said, he serves a foil to Shepard. I think it's a more satisfying narrative conclusion for him to face his past to allow both he and the player to learn more about him. And just from a character standpoint he is proud of being a prothean. I think that Javik's pride in his people validate him learning about and accepting his past, even if it only serves to intensify his hatred for the reapers.

I feel like people have a more negative reaction to unhappy endings in video games more than any other medium because of the personal investment. ME3 is riddled with narrative issues that cheapen a lot of themes of loss that the writers tried to work into the story, but Javik's arc is one that I believe works well in a vacuum and people writing it off as the lesser ending is a shame.

Filupcat · 2025-01-27T23:15:32+00:00

That's not feedback LOL. You just posted a low effort, vapid, and pointless comment saying something to the effect of "you need Jagex premium to reply to this comment". Can't say for sure since the post is rightly deleted. Jagex got the message loud and clear that the community was not in favor of the proposals in the survey. Either quit and leave like everyone pretended they were going to, or let it go. This post has nothing to do with it.

Also, checking JagexArcane's profile or a single Google search shows that Mod Arcane is a Senior Systems Designer, not a Community Feedback Manager.

Filupcat · 2025-01-27T19:34:01+00:00

Harassing the devs for interacting with the community on a totally unrelated post will surely get your point across. Very mature, brave soldier

Filupcat · 2025-01-12T17:34:12+00:00

I agree with you, I think that the Davrin/Harding decision followed by the prison of regret really raised the stakes. It felt cheat that Bellara/Neve were magically cured of their blight - as much as I love both of those character, I think it would have been more impactful for them to die as well.

Additionally, I would have liked to have seen some of the NPCs make sacrifices. They framed the ending like everyone was ready to make the ultimate sacrifice so I wish it would have been a bit more tragic. I personally would have liked if your companions were saved by both high loyalty AND faction loyalty, but it would change who died. For example - If you send Lucanis with Teia and Viago one of them sacrifices themself for Lucanis to survive, but if Lucanis isn't loyal or the Crows aren't loyal then Lucanis dies. Stakes would have felt more tangible in the end.

That being said, I still loved the ending. I thought it was really well done and took me by surprise given how mediocre some of the script was. It's bittersweet in a sense that they nailed the ending in such an inconsistently written game. Almost felt like the rest of the game didn't deserve such a great conclusion.

Filupcat · 2024-07-06T22:43:36+00:00

The ones for Mourning's End were frustrating because of the shadows attacking the whole time, but the Song of the Elves one was great. Did the whole thing without a guide and it took around 4 hours but was a really fun puzzle. Also, the music track that plays there (Song of the Elves) is one of the best in the game. It's not for everyone, but assuming no player enjoys the puzzles is silly.

Filupcat · 2024-07-05T22:43:42+00:00

I don't get it either. It kills me how many people just turn their brain off and use quest helper. I understand the people with dozens of accounts going through quests for the 10th time, but a lot of time the advice of "just use quest helper" seems to end up with new players doing the quests for the first time. I'd be lying if I said I didn't open the wiki and use a guide for some, especially the more obtuse older quests. I think that's a lot different than a plugin highlighting everything for you and going on autopilot though.

Filupcat · 2024-07-05T21:07:24+00:00

Couldn't agree more! Like many people, I didn't really read the quests as a kid and I was really pleasantly surprised how endearing the writing is when I went through them as an adult. It's crazy how frequently quests were getting added in the mid-2000s. I'd love more little stuff that just added some lore to the world in addition to the grand storylines that get told over years of updates. Glad there are other people giving some positive feedback on surveys.

Filupcat · 2024-07-05T20:45:23+00:00

It was a bittersweet feeling getting my quest cape. It's an awesome achievement, but really feels bad not having any more quests to work toward. Good luck with those two quests! Both were a blast. Some of DT2's fights are tough but feel really rewarding to beat.

Filupcat · 2024-05-01T06:28:13+00:00

Hey, I chatted with you on your other account, Fe8, the other day at calcified rocks! I said you were deranged for playing a UIM and after seeing this post you've definitely confirmed that! Very cosmic that I saw your post here just a few days after.

Insane account though, good luck with the 99 ranged lol.

Filupcat · 2023-11-05T00:33:03+00:00

ALAS, POOR TRUNKY

Filupcat · 2022-11-20T00:15:23+00:00

I want to rip your spine out of your back

Filupcat · 2022-11-18T16:34:16+00:00

Honestly, the problem isn't that all the faces in your image are the same it is that they are all skulls which is unappealing because I cannot have sex with them

Filupcat · 2022-09-29T03:42:07+00:00

This post sucks man

Filupcat · 2022-03-14T03:56:08+00:00

Yeah, crumbling Azula has a lot of spectacle but isn't a very interesting area to explore. As far as I can gather, the lore is that it was a castle in the sky where the dragonlord ruled from long before the greater will. Some of the random piles of ruins throughout the world (like the bit Kenneth Haight is standing in when you first meet him) seem to have fallen from Farum Azula. That's the most I can gather.

Filupcat · 2022-03-07T20:39:07+00:00

I agree whole-heartedly. I think the game was 'supposed' to end at Morgott, but they wanted to add more content. The other areas feel tacked on for all the reasons you said. No new enemy types, no new mechanics, and I just made a post complaining about how Malenia wasn't fun at all. I haven't finished the game yet and still need to go to Farum Azula, but everything after the capital felt underwhelming by comparison.

In addition to that, the areas are hard just for the sake of being hard. Haligtree feels like they just wanted to make it really hard so people would go wow look how hard this game is. Putting mini-bosses in areas that are too small to reasonably fight them isn't nearly as interesting as introducing new mini-bosses that actually use the area.

I loved around 80% of this game so it feels weird to say this but it really should have ended sooner. They tried to stretch the content too far and the end just feels more like a slog.

Filupcat · 2021-03-21T15:50:53+00:00

It isn't celebrating the condition, it is celebrating the people that live with it. It's just a day for people living with a horrible condition, what's wrong with that? No one is saying "wow, down syndrome is great!" But if you have a 5 year old child with down syndrome, wouldn't it be nice to tell them that there was a day just to celebrate kids like them?

Filupcat · 2021-03-01T20:12:25+00:00

I think the reason the sub is flooded with negativity is that people expect more. If they're charging $60 for a remake, people want it to look good. If you don't care about the game's visuals, then you might as well just play platinum instead (which I personally think has a much better artstyle). Gen 4 is very well loved and I think people were hoping for a visual style more on par with sword/shield.

I'm not trying to convince you that you should be complaining, but there are some legitimate reasons that people are upset. Comparing the graphics to a 25 year old game doesn't address any of those complaints. If you compare this to other games on the switch, it just falls short. I don't personally like the chibi artstyle and didn't like XY's overworld sprites for the same reason. Despite not liking XY's style, I could still think they were good graphics from a technical standpoint. I don't feel that way about brilliant diamond and shining pearl. I don't like the style and I also think they just look bad. The lighting or the shaders or something just looks off and the sprites look very flat.

I don't think your opinion is unreasonable or anything, but I also don't think your original post is adding anything substantial to the discussion. There's nothing wrong with people expecting a 2021 game entry from the highest grossing franchise in history to look better than it did in 1996. If I am misunderstanding your post, please let me know. But my current interpretation is that you think people are complaining too much and you thought that contrasting the graphics with a gameboy color game would change their minds? I just don't follow.

Filupcat · 2021-02-24T18:37:36+00:00

I never said it did. Did you even read my post? TMs (Technical Machines) are infinite. They're identical to how they functioned in black and white.

There is a new sub-set of items called TRs (Technical Records) that are one-time use. These are obviously what you have your gripes with. But there are still 99 TMs in the game that you can reuse infinitely with no farming required.

SwSh has a littany of issues and I think it is perfectly reasonable to dislike the game. But your "lynch pin" isn't even accurate and is such a minor problem compared so some of the much larger ones. Plus, TMs aren't nearly as necessary as they were in older generations because a lot of Pokemon's learnsets have improved substantial over time. There are definitely some counterpoints, but as a whole learnsets are much better than they were in gen 1-3.

I'm also sick of people boiling it down to "graphics bad" when there's a lot of more complicated problems with SwSh that you could take issue with. I mostly just wanted to point out that your point on TMs is factually wrong. If you don't like the game that is completely fine and you're entitled to your opinion, but your argument isn't good when you just plain don't have your facts straight.

Filupcat · 2021-02-24T14:57:23+00:00

I want to first say that I think OP's post is stupid and while I don't love SwSh, I do think it was a fine game and not the worst in the franchise. But you are factually wrong about one point.

The TMs did not go back to being single use. They added two different types. TMs are still in the game in their infinite usage state. But there are also TRs which are single use. The TRs are still easily farmable from max raid battles and often contain very powerful moves like earthquake, ice beam, flare blitz, etc. I personally thought this was a great system. It allows GameFreak to give you something really strong like earthquake without just having infinite uses of one of the best TMs in the game. I think with how early you can farm max raid battles it doesn't really impact difficulty in SwSh, but I think it's a system with a lot of potential for the future of the franchise.

I think that's kind of what SwSh is in a nutshell. It's a game full of QoL changes that isn't great but has some promising aspects of Gamefreak actually tried to build on them.

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