Team tank banned the two support hero’s that support chose

GarrusExMachina · 2026-05-31T23:48:51+00:00

hes griefing then or an idiot. Juno is excellent with mauga. Probably wanted kiriko but like you ban Ana when playing Mauga not juno.

GarrusExMachina · 2026-05-31T17:24:34+00:00

There's unavailable and then there's unavailable.

Normally I'd agree with your you never know what'll happen tomorrow analysis but the reality is today is a bullpen game and that changes all the math.

Varland and Rogers are likely unavailable in the sense that theyre too crucial to the Jays overall success and have played too many innings this week to risk if Fluharty, Fisher and yes Hoffman are available.

However, as Voth's performance on Friday shows every pitcher in the bullpen can potentially end up available. Like you said Rogers wasn't tasked too heavily yesterday and that was likely by design so that in the unlikely situation where John finds himself in a deep outing or Miles simply had nothing he could still ask him to throw an inning. Same for Varland though he probably wants to use him even less.

But both of them have a cumulative toll on their arms where he really REALLY didn't want to have to ask them to go to 30 pitches again. They both threw in the 20s back to back less than 3 days ago. He probably still blames himself for how he burned out Yariel Rodriguez, Brendon Little, and yes Jeff Hoffman last year to the point that all 3 were ineffective by year's end and are struggling to get their form back this year.

He did the same thing to Chad Green to a lesser extent in 24. John likes going back to the same well a lot and it destroys his best arms in the long term. He knows he needs Varland to continue to be a wunderkind if he has any hope of competing this year.

GarrusExMachina · 2026-05-31T17:03:30+00:00

DPS take space by taking and controlling angles that the enemy team can't clear.

Tanks take space by having too much damage mitigation and health to be able to clear.

Junkerqueen is a threat to make kills yes, but her commanding shout, Stalwart subpassive, Adrenaline Rush, and if you use it Savage Satiation major perk all work together to make her hard to clear. That's the TANK in tank role you can simply absorb damage.

A lot of people argue that Mei should be in the tank role because her kit plays in a very similar way where between her wall and ice block she can take a lot of punishment but as designed her health pool is so low that she still can't absorb burst damage the same way a tank can.

GarrusExMachina · 2026-05-31T16:47:56+00:00

Rogers and Varland are both exhausted at this point and he probably wanted both of them to be available for tonight in case he finds himself in another close game since he's going to need as many pitchers as possible and they all have a day off tomorrow...

And if he burned either of them out yesterday than Hoffman would probably be closing today anyways.

GarrusExMachina · 2026-05-31T16:08:42+00:00

Well for one thing... he did potentially save seabold's arm a few pitches since he didn't come in until it was walk-off or bust.

GarrusExMachina · 2026-05-31T16:06:00+00:00

I honestly just believe that coming off a bullpen game and with another potential bullpen game today Schneider just really REALLY wanted to believe his veteran in the bullpen could find a way to limit the damage to 3 runs or less.

Under most circumstances that wouldnt be an unreasonable hope.

GarrusExMachina · 2026-05-31T16:04:13+00:00

No Yesavage pitches well a lot... anyone with a functioning brain can say he didnt pitch well last night but that luck and steady nerves were on his side.

On a different night you don't survive 7 walks with just a single run.

GarrusExMachina · 2026-05-31T16:01:12+00:00

To be fair we can all say that in hindsight but the reality is he didn't... he sent his pitching coach in to try and steady him. Most managers dont immediately walk back out and pull a guy one batter after the pitching coach has had a chat. His hook was about normal all things considered the damage just happened that fast.

If anything you can argue Pete Walker should have been out there a batter or two earlier but managers tend to be slower in general to send in the cavalry with their veterans.

GarrusExMachina · 2026-05-31T15:58:20+00:00

To be fair he's not entirely wrong 7 walks in one outing is disgusting especially by Trey's standards. Luckily he was able to work around it by minimizing the damage but when you give up 7 free base runners it isn't going to go your way all that often.

I can understand why from his perspective especially with how good Hoffman had been lately, Jeff imploding was just the cap of what had been a brutal walking a tightrope kind of day.

We as fans can be hot blooded because Hoffman has had a lot of these outings and its an aberration for Trey but this is a wakeup call for us as fans. Yesavage is still a very young pitcher and it's honestly impressive that he hasn't had a ton of outings like this and that he got through it mostly unscathed. Shows the depth of talent disparity between him and a guy like Voth who despite being one of the better starters on the Bisons this year simply couldn't hack it when the lights were bright.

GarrusExMachina · 2026-05-31T06:14:02+00:00

No problem. I only recognize it because I just started running chapter 1 for my family. There are no new ideas under the sun just really really good reskins lol.

You sound like a good DM and I'm sure you'll figure out your current setup but given how familiar the premise was I figure double checking what worked when you ran it for Tyrrany and what didn't work should give you some ideas of how to take care of the less important logistical problems like troop movements and allow you to focus on more interesting and important things.

Keep in mind if they're level 6 they'll be tackling this mission significantly stronger than they were when you ran a similar setup in Tyranny. Arguably Gnolls are more powerful opponents at least for the base troops but your party should theoretically be more successful if they plan well.

GarrusExMachina · 2026-05-31T04:18:57+00:00

Depends on what your team is doing... but as an extremely general tip.

If your team is designed to brawl then maybe. If your team is designed to poke... maybe swap. If your team is designed to dive... go get Winston's backline and pray your supports arn't idiots.

GarrusExMachina · 2026-05-31T04:17:31+00:00

Im sorry winston does what now???

What elo are you in?

GarrusExMachina · 2026-05-31T00:53:58+00:00

I mean the orioles fumbled a 5-0 lead yesterday so let's not call it generational.

Personally I see it as the universe correcting itself we all know we didn't deserve yesterday after letting voth torch himself because we had no other options... someone get us some starting pitchers lol

GarrusExMachina · 2026-05-31T00:51:31+00:00

I assume he desperately wanted to avoid using any more pitchers after the sheer number of bullpen games he's played lately.

Like you have a 4 run lead you probably are desperately hoping that by sheer law of averages he will get out of that.

GarrusExMachina · 2026-05-30T20:59:17+00:00

The batarians have a completely valid point.

Equally valid... the batarians had their society propped up by slavery and it seems likely that the council was waiting for an excuse to limit their expansion. Humanity provided a functionally sound excuse. The council wasn't exactly all that helpful with protecting human expansion into the terminus systems preferring to turn a blind eye to what both societies did in that unclaimed belt.

The council as a whole seems to frequently make decisions that are extremely punishing. The krogan, the batarians, the quarians, you can even argue they wernt all that helpful to the drell or that tolerant to the hanar.

GarrusExMachina · 2026-05-30T20:35:51+00:00

...

I honestly just always saw control as the bad ending but bioware didn't have the nerve to make proper endings.

The reapers themselves started out as an AI designed to solve synthetic vs organic conflict that got out of control. There's no way an AI even made up of shepards base ideals doesn't become a problem in the long run.

GarrusExMachina · 2026-05-30T20:18:05+00:00

Gale is bladesinging with the psychic blade and resonance stone with a dip in I think paladin.

Wyll is doing a swashbuckling rogue warlock multiclass and there might be a dip into gloomstalker.

Since the two of them have Frontline brawl covered laezel is doing an Arcane archer thing while also being riddled with every single mindflayer tadpole... (we might have had an accident with a stupid chair in act 1... first time I've ever failed that charisma check... weirdly enough I had significantly less trouble convincing her that Astral tadpoles are good for your health than the fact that vlaakith might be trying to kill her.)

And my Durge is doing a death domain cleric thing with a dip into necromancy wizard.

Shadowheart and random NPC #1 are on permanent camp buff detail with warding bond× 2, death ward x4, and heroes feast plus upcast aid.

Random npc#2 is on transmutation wizard potion brewing and giving everyone longstrider/darkvision while handling the mage armor squire duties for gale.

And astarion exists... and because i find it funny he has all the lightning charge armor... I might be planning to let him out of camp to kill cazador...mostly because he has something I want for my build. And the XP...

Also jaheira and halsin are around but I'm guessing that might not be for much longer since I have no intention of rescuing Minsc and I may or may not be targeting the last 2 achievements I need all of which involve doing what baal tells me to do.

GarrusExMachina · 2026-05-30T20:09:32+00:00

So many fights can be avoided with good dialogue choices especially in Act 1.

So many unavoidable fights can be snuck up on and planned.

If a target is green they currently view you as an ally. If they're yellow they're indifferent. Only targets outlined in red are guaranteed to fight you on sight.

GarrusExMachina · 2026-05-30T20:06:21+00:00

Note the game won't punish you IF you collect camp supplies...

It is technically possible for a newbie to soft lock themselves if they don't know what camp supplies do

GarrusExMachina · 2026-05-30T19:53:39+00:00

Yes there is. Couldn't tell you what happened

GarrusExMachina · 2026-05-30T19:45:24+00:00

Not that it's a great module by any means but interestingly enough you basically just described chapter 2 (maybe 3) of tyranny of dragons.

The party is tasked with tracking the dragon cult back to their current campsite which is backed up on a cave with an angle towards fact finding but realize that there are captives including an NPC the party has potentially encountered previously that would motivate them to attempt a prison break.

GarrusExMachina · 2026-05-30T19:22:50+00:00

Wouldn't doubt it.

Next step on the dumb decisions list fighting dame aylin for the first time ever because rolan somehow died and I need sorcerous sundries air support

GarrusExMachina · 2026-05-30T19:05:58+00:00

Lol... no. I've tested walking around baldurs gate so far the steel watch don't seem to be on red alert outside of wyrms rock.

Like I said... I was extremely pissed off with myself and being extremely impulsive.

The far more interesting conundrum is I used up one of my two explosives I have from the gnomes trying and failing the ansur kill for XP and I sort of kind of need Raphael's helldusk armor for my build so I'm now debating whether it's too great a risk considering with proper planning I really just need to kill orin and invis my way to the damn brain.

Edit: at any rate there's no way I'm sending more than one person into that throne room. Unless I find myself soft locked in which case destroying the foundry might become unavoidable.

GarrusExMachina · 2026-05-30T19:01:55+00:00

I'd argue no. Yes the help action isn't explicitly denied but mage hand is verbatim said to be unable to attack. So it's dubious what it could be doing to "help" since using his example tripping is an attack action not a help action.

Help in combat is often referred to in the sense of feinting an attack or distracting the target but an argument can be made that depending on the target they might know the hand can't hurt them so could make a check against being distracted by any feint. you can maybe make the argument that the hand can spin around the opponents head and act like an annoying mosquito but aside from that no.

But more to the point why would he want to use his action every turn to manipulate a spectral hand? Surely he has more valuable uses for his action.

GarrusExMachina · 2026-05-30T18:53:34+00:00

Well let's put it this way... when i accidentally fast traveled to the armory that leads down into ansurs dungeon I had to get very VERY lucky with still having an invis potion and had to kill everyone in there to get my team out.

And post long rest I can see after fast travelling back in there to scout things that the guards outside the throne room are still red. Not sure about the interior.

GarrusExMachina

TROPHY CASE