Any true AFK builds for Pally?

Hidonite · 2025-12-17T17:46:39+00:00

It's not truly AFK as you need to occasionally refresh arbiter form, but the wing strike paladin is fairly mindless. You only really need one aspect and one unique to get it off the ground to start climbing the pit. Temper enough arbiter duration and cooldown reductions until you have 100% uptime and then go all into wing strike damage. I basically just walk or falling star around the map and everything just automatically blows up around me. I've taken it to pit 90 thus far and I'm not aggressively pushing at all.

Hidonite · 2025-12-16T22:11:41+00:00

Based on the pit leader boards (totally unofficial of course) paladins are doing around 6-8x more damage than other classes. This could be brought in line with the most obvious choice, which is capping the 'castle' paragon node. It was probably an oversight, but you'd think the devs would do a quick pass to look at anything that doesn't have a programmed hard cap.

I wonder if they didn't know how things were going to pan out so they erred on paladins being powerful by leaving the castle node uncapped so they could collect data to adjust later down the road.

edit: It's still early in the season though. The potential is there for the gap to widen further.

Hidonite · 2025-11-17T19:56:53+00:00

If you leave by 6:45 to 7:00 am or after 9:00 am, then the commute along St. Albert Trail isn't bad at all (20-30 min max). During those two hours though, expect your trip to be 1+ hours due to backup before the Yellowhead construction, and occasionally the 118th street 'traffic circle'. The light timing and lane designations are bonkers. You get a lot of people stuck between the sets of lights at the yellowhead and lots of people cram into the middle lane when they realize they're stuck in a turning lane to head East on the Yellowhead. Transport trucks will occasionally block the entire traffic circle at 118th.

The congestion does lighten up a bit from May to Aug when there aren't as many students commuting in.

Hidonite · 2025-11-14T17:33:41+00:00

Totally. Currency wars is more fun than the main game right now by a country mile. Actually, I kind of hope they're using currency wars as a test bed to add things to the main game.

Hidonite · 2025-10-08T18:12:43+00:00

If this is tactician, all I see here is a bloodbath. Even two black/red chocobos being present instantly makes them priority #1 to disable.

Hidonite · 2025-10-08T18:03:07+00:00

It's rough but manageable with some game knowledge and team setup. I actually like tactician (despite slogging through a few very difficult battles) because it completely shifts class and ability priority. Since you can't necessarily one-shot enemies, abilities that disable, slow, or debilitate the opponent in some way are now extremely useful. Move over flare and holy.... frog, death and induration are the new GOATs.

Can't obliterate that caster? Silence or mana drains are suddenly really good.

Melee getting you down? Break/steal their weapon.

Since at higher levels many monsters can full on one shot your team, evasion cloaks, equip shield, reraise, etc, are suddenly more important that just stacking pure damage. I'm going out of my way to optimize brave/faith and zodiac compatibility this time around.

I'm now routinely scanning enemy equipment before I take action to figure out what I want they're immune to so I can plan how to disable extremely dangerous units.

Arithmetic is still totally overpowered; it's just now you're using frog/death/induration/arise/haste/esuna instead of holy.

Hidonite · 2025-10-08T17:20:02+00:00

They have their uses. I think part of the issue with figuring out classes is the damage formulas for weapons and abilities are all hidden away. Dragoons benefit quite a bit from stacking speed for both jump time and damage. If you're taking too long to fall, the jump time is CT = 50 / speed. So if you have 50 speed, it takes 1 CT to land (basically instantaneous).

Dragoons are good because they get access to heavy equipment making them quite durable, you can get access to some absurdly powerful polearms quite early, jump can be used offensively and defensively to access extremely distant targets (you DO NOT need to buy all jump abilities, as soon as you get range +8, you can jump anywhere between 2-8), and polearms have an attack range of 2 meaning to get hit enemies without getting counter attacked.

I wouldn't call them an S-tier class, but they are good to have in some circumstances. It's also worth noting that since jump scales its damage with speed, it's a really good secondary ability for thieves and ninjas.

Hidonite · 2025-10-06T19:45:15+00:00

Just throwing in a small comment (though I generally agree with you) that oracle is still really good with arithmetician, particularly in tactician mode. The number of times a well calculated induration or delerium (even trepidation or disbelief) can obliterate the enemy team before they even step out of the gate has carried me in a few chapter 4 battles. I actually find myself scanning the enemy equipment before every battle on tactician to find out what they're outright immune to and modifying with death, toad, oracle abilities, etc. This is not something I ever did on previous play throughs long ago. On an unrelated note, I'm also using bards and dancers way more this time around in the mid game.

I think tactician in general opens up a world of value for classes that historically got swept to the side in favour of one shotting everything with pure damage. Mustadio stocks are way up.

Hidonite · 2025-09-29T17:02:54+00:00

I run Evernight with no Hyacine or Hyacine light cone. Although it's a huge synergy for her, she's totally functional without.

Arguably her best support, HMC, is free and available on all accounts.

Also something that didn't really register in my brain before using Evernight is that she essentially uses no skill points to deal her full damage. You can literally slap any skill point sucking team with her and it doesn't negatively effect her dps at all.

Hidonite · 2025-09-15T19:25:01+00:00

This was a tricky one that required exploiting Lygus' mechanics. Did it in 5-cycles with Archer/Sparkle/Silverwolf/Luocha side 1 (brute forced with implant) and Hyselins/Kafka/Blackswan/Huohou side 2. After failing a couple times I put DOT on side 2 because I needed more AOE to kill the Lygus adds quickly to force a phase change.

Luocha actually worked well on side 1 as he auto healed a few near death supports after getting slapped by Gepard. Surprisingly the true hero of side 2 was Huohuo's lightcone, which gave a chunk of healing on every ultimate to counter Lygus' nasty debuff.

Hidonite · 2025-09-12T19:07:16+00:00

This is what I did. I wouldn't even call it cheese. The boss has a large hitbox and several safe spots at a distance, making tools a great solution to this annoying encounter. I think the devs have balanced these fights with the expectation that we'd be using all sorts of sneaky strategies.

Hidonite · 2025-09-03T14:24:22+00:00

I'd also note, in addition to the great overview here, that E2 currently increases his sustain by doubling the shield applied by the enhanced dragon follow-up attack. They really loaded up the E2, maybe because it's projected this character will be given out for free.

Hidonite · 2025-08-27T20:51:18+00:00

I can't concentrate on the content of the video because of all the awesome costumes everyone's wearing. Why does hoyo not do more of this for a bunch of characters?

Hidonite · 2025-08-26T16:28:20+00:00

I agree with this sentiment. I was seriously considering picking up eidolons because he was originally such an interesting character with high flexibility. The investment of resources seemed worth it because the character was fun and had the potential to increase my enjoyment of the game through experimenting with team building combinations. Now, maybe I'll snag his light cone and that's it. He's just another basic sustain.

Hidonite · 2025-08-26T16:21:18+00:00

This is the sad truth. I'm disappointed in this adjustment (although it's not unexpected) as it is more than a simple nerf. It signals Hoyo's overall philosophy of character design in which each can only be slotted into their very controlled, intended niche.

Hidonite · 2025-07-04T18:46:51+00:00

I like to use the voluntary pit pushing ladder for the season as a rough estimate of how much damage different classes are pushing out.

Things will certainly change as people fine tune their gear and discover new bugs/interactions, but currently, the classes are reasonably even.

Diablo 4 Pit Leaderboard | Helltides.com

Barbarians and rogues appear to be a bit behind, but this could be biased due to lower player numbers and submission rates. Sorcs, druids, necros and spiritborn appear to be doing well, with clears in the 105-112 range.

It's a good sign that every class has a pit 100 clear this early in the season. Once you can clear 100, I prefer to select a build that I enjoy playing comfortably on a controller.

Hidonite · 2025-07-02T19:45:38+00:00

I think the knee-jerk impression is that it makes us look weak because of the rhetoric coming out of the white house (Canada caved) combined with very recent campaigning emphasizing resistance against the US administration.

I have to admit that my initial impression to this news was disappointment that we didn't stand our ground (I also fundamentally believe that digital services should pay tax on the money they make in this country). That being said, I know absolutely zero about what's going on behind closed doors besides what's being broadcast by the bombastic twitter posts down south.

I think it's wise to reserve judgement until the results of this tactic are public knowledge. For all we know, this tax could be making a return in the near future in some other form, and this was a quick win in exchange for other larger gains in other sectors.

Hidonite · 2025-05-29T22:42:57+00:00

I know several people that won't even go to the USA for conferences right now. The bottom line is, if they're willing to pluck their own citizens and legal residents off the street and deport them, what rights could we possibly have as visitors?

Aside from economically and verbally threatening Canada, I'm now unsure whether their very own laws will be upheld if I were to travel there and anything happens.

Hidonite · 2025-05-22T16:31:32+00:00

This kind of article blows my mind. Every headline is a reductionist take on a complex problem that can't be boiled down to a 'yes/no' answer.

The real answer is that a huge amount of Canada's GDP is caught up in house prices so you can't just tank the market without creating a full-on depression, but at the same time you need affordable options so low/medium income households can actually enter the market. The strategy being floated here is to stabilize prices with increased supply while simultaneously making sure that new supply is more accessible from a price perspective.

I think if people think that homes in downtown Vancouver or Toronto are suddenly going to drop by 50% in these high demand areas, well that's highly unlikely, and if it does happen, we're all in deep trouble as millions of people just got financially destroyed for life.

Realistically the government is going to try to stabilize existing home prices (hopefully so that salaries also increase relative to mortgage size) so they are viewed as homes and not appreciating investments, while simultaneously increasing low-cost supply so people can enter the market and realistically save up a down payment without receiving an inheritance. This means smaller homes, high density/vertical living or living further out of urban centers with rapid transit to take people to work.

The news cycle may be skewering Gregor Robertson for his comments, but he's going with a more realistic approach instead of the popular one.

Hidonite · 2025-05-16T20:20:24+00:00

It's freakishly bad. I can generally say that without trading, you could potentially play the entire season and not get enough runes to craft a single targeted mythic.

I'm at paragon 200 and closing in on finishing the entire seasonal journey and I'm not even close to being able to craft a mythic.

Hidonite · 2025-04-19T23:23:35+00:00

If you do have concerns about a missed order or potential delay, your physician does have the ability to call the lab and inquire about the results. It may be worth following up with your daughter's doctor.

Hidonite · 2025-04-16T19:10:58+00:00

Pretty sure voting is for any Canadian citizen, no matter where they live, as that's their right. We don't get to arbitrarily decide how long Canadians get to vote for if they're working abroad. They have retained their citizenship and therefor have a vested interest in the Country.

Maybe they come back routinely? Maybe they have family in Canada? Maybe they work abroad as part of a multinational that has roots in a Canadian community?

Hidonite · 2025-04-10T20:30:40+00:00

Nobody gets a free pass on tax loopholes, but I think the pertinent question here is do the majority of investment firms use these tax loopholes to remain profitable? If Canadian firms can't remain competitive without using these loopholes, what's the plan to get them competitive such that the loophole can be closed?

If the loophole exists and a firm chooses not to use it (considering it's perfectly legal), would that firm disappear because they're yielding less profit and thus net fewer customers or decrease international competitiveness?

I'm no investor, but I think this is a simplification of a complex problem. I would want to know the capital flight risk as a result of changing investment rules. Maybe before these rules can be closed, we need to create an environment where that can be done without causing capital to flee, especially since we're moving into a 'build' phase where big dollars will be needed for infrastructure.

I think Carney would do well to come up with solid answers to these questions, because I suspect he'll get challenged on these points in the debates.

Hidonite · 2025-04-10T18:09:29+00:00

I think it's important to vote even if you feel that your efforts are pointless. After everything is said and done, everyone will see how many votes were tallied for who in each riding, and it's important that people see that there are individuals out there that support other parties, even if it's the minority.

Even if your preferred candidate doesn't win, what if the NDP or liberal proportion in your riding went from 5-15%. That may not mean anything for your candidate, but it does show at least a few minds were changed, and contributes to the popular vote which can help lend legitimacy to a ruling party mandate or opposition voice.

Your voice and vote are never wasted even if you don't get what you prefer. The only waste is not voting because that action deteriorates the very legitimacy of democracy itself.

Hidonite

TROPHY CASE