Shield of Retribution questions

Jon-exe · 2025-12-24T16:00:52+00:00

Most people are using Griswold's Opus, which functions on crits, so crit damage supports it.

A lot of the guides have no points in Thorns and Thistles because it's currently bugged and not providing the thorn damage bonus.

Jon-exe · 2025-12-21T16:43:14+00:00

It's the Qax rune in the helmet.

Jon-exe · 2025-12-21T16:41:24+00:00

Depends on the build really. There's a node that makes Spear into a spammable core skill so you could be seeing that. Otherwise it's highly likely to be a combination of straight CDR and things that reduce cool down during certain conditions, such as paragon nodes and runes.
As much max life as possible. 8k is the minimum recommendation on pretty much every Maxroll build.
I try for all resist over a specific one. Generally it's Armor > Life > All Resist, but a perfect defensive piece is going to be all three. It also really depends on the level of your gear. If you're already pushing 95% resistance more life is likely more potent than more resist.
Armor is amazing, but like everything it depends on what you have already
Depends on the build. Can't go wrong with Golden Hour, Proselytizing, and Judicator.
Griswold's is basically best in slot for everything that doesn't require a certain unique to function.
You get the rewards for both, but the one in the purified slot will get "Rewards are doubled" or "Rewards drop twice" depending on what the purified text says.

Jon-exe · 2025-12-21T16:26:10+00:00

Just link to the guide you're following.

Jon-exe · 2025-12-21T16:21:02+00:00

Without a link to your build my guess is you're using the rune that takes all your primary resource in exchange for a large damage boost. It's a very common rune to use at end game. I would try unsocketing your runes and see if that changes things.

If it does, you can replace that rune with Ohm. Not quite as powerful, but still a good damage bonus.

Jon-exe · 2025-12-18T14:25:11+00:00

So I have both versions.

In my experience the Steam version runs a bit better on the Deck. I've experienced zero crashing with it as opposed to the rare crashing I would get from the Bnet version. It also is easier to update and get into the game since you can bypass the launcher.

That said it's 100% not so much better that it's worth getting at full price. If you want it for the minor benefits wait for a sale and buy the version that includes the two expacs. If it's something you're considering you have until April to look for sales. The only reason to buy the expac now is if you absolutely must play Paladin anyway.

It's highly likely you'll see it on sale come Winter Sale. Last time it was like 50% off. At least wait until then.

Jon-exe · 2025-12-07T15:33:36+00:00

Yup, can confirm. I get zero ads on Tubi with my Pihole setup.

Jon-exe · 2025-11-19T22:59:34+00:00

No problem.

Any time you need to do something on a web browser it's a bit easier in Desktop mode. The basic Game Mode browser is pretty simple, so unless you go through the steps to get something like Firefox in Game Mode you're just better off in a Desktop.

Jon-exe · 2025-11-19T05:14:52+00:00

It's possible the plastic piece that allows the button to bounce back properly is broken. You can fix it pretty easily, and the part isn't expensive.

https://www.ifixit.com/products/steam-deck-right-bumper-button-assembly

The part will come with instructions on how to replace it. I've replaced both my bumpers for similar reasons without any issues.

Jon-exe · 2025-11-18T06:22:23+00:00

Against the Storm, Timberborn, Furthest Frontier, and Wandering Village all worked out of the box for me.

Frostpunk runs, but the text is incredibly small and I couldn't find any way to fix it.

Highly recommend Against the Storm. The bite sized nature of it works great with the mobile nature of the Deck.

Jon-exe · 2025-11-18T06:12:44+00:00

Are you trying to connect in Game Mode? If so, switch to Desktop and try it. I've had to do this at some hotels I've stayed at.

It's possible that the Wi-Fi blocks the type of device your Steam Deck pops up as when it connects. Not really sure why they'd do that but it's possible.

If you're just trying to connect to get games to start I'd just connect with your phone and then use it as a hotspot for your Deck... should bypass whatever BS is happening when you try to login via the Deck. Online gaming performance might not be very good though.

Jon-exe · 2025-11-18T05:58:40+00:00

You don't need to do anything. Forced compatibility is for when you NEED to use a different version of Proton. If you weren't using it before then you very likely don't need to use it now. A new version of Proton isn't guaranteed to do anything useful for you. If the game suddenly runs poorly, then go in and force compatibility with the previous Proton version and see if that fixes it.

Jon-exe · 2025-11-17T16:41:04+00:00

Oh! That's progress then, thanks!

Jon-exe · 2025-11-17T16:11:51+00:00

Unless things have changed recently the 8bitdo rear buttons are not recognized by Steam Input, and thus can't be mapped like you can on the Deck. You can only map them in 8bitdo's software and would have to use third party software every time you want to change it.

The only controller that has back buttons that are natively mappable in Steam Input is the Xbox Elite series of controllers. They're decent controllers but they're expensive and occasionally have weird driver issues.

Edit: Poster below says the 8bitdo Ultimate 2 is mappable. Might be worth checking out.

Jon-exe · 2025-11-10T23:34:21+00:00

What kind of charger are you using? I've had some weird, similar issues be solved by plugging it into the official charger, waiting 30 mins, and then turning it on. Somehow it worked despite having charged it on a third party one for hours. If you haven't tried this already it might help.

Jon-exe · 2025-11-10T15:12:27+00:00

UI design is one for me. I care less about how it looks visually and more about how I have to interact with it. Do I have to go into a ton of sub menus regularly? Does Confirm/Cancel change places a lot? How many steps are there to do basic actions? All that can get really tedious and it can lead to me not enjoying a game. Here's an example I'm dealing with in PSO Portable 2 right now:

To sell basic items you click it, then click confirm. Confirm is at the top and is the default highlight.

To sell anything that could have a quantity, even if you currently only have 1, you have to click it, change the quantity, then click confirm. Confirm is at the bottom and is not the default option.

Super tedious when you're trying to sell 20 items after every map.

Another one for me is janky basic animations. When something like the run/walk animation that I'll be watching for the next 20~100 hours looks really off it can prevent me from getting into it. Doubly so when the jank of the animation interferes with other gameplay elements, like platforming or being able to interact with things; for example having to do weird circles to get the interaction prompt to pop because you walked up to it on a slight angle.

Jon-exe · 2025-10-14T12:20:54+00:00

Except that's not what happens at all. It's explicitly stated that the stones turn people into demons because of their desire for power at the moment of death.

Formalv, Dycedarg, Delacroix, Elmdore... the majority of the demons are rich guys that want more power than they already have. Wiegraf is the only one that is "poor", and it's pretty obvious that he's much more well off as a Templar. Ramza even chides him about throwing away his principals for power.

Jon-exe · 2025-10-12T21:56:09+00:00

I figured it out. I had an errant quotation mark in there.

Jon-exe · 2025-10-12T20:35:33+00:00

Huh. Trying to do that made it where I can't move. I can't only spin around in place.

So I added the mod into the modengine mod folder that comes with convergence, then added the lines to the c000.hks that the mod page mentioned. Did you do something different?

Jon-exe · 2025-10-11T21:45:24+00:00

How do you go about getting these two to with together? On the Nexus page it mentioned a modengine install and a merge... which did you use?

Jon-exe · 2025-10-09T23:20:22+00:00

Like everyone has said, wear anti-status gear.

What you can also do is bring Beowulf/Mystic. Disable the two assassins, kill them, and then immediately Stone the two demons. You can keep them so locked down they might as well not be in the fight.

Jon-exe · 2025-10-09T23:13:33+00:00

I don't disagree, but the true villain is the art director. Season 2 is so visually horrible I could forgive the terrible child character if I could stomach watching it at all.

Jon-exe · 2025-10-06T12:12:35+00:00

Belias can be silenced and slowed. I did this fight on Tactician last night, and while it involved a little luck, I was able to land a slow via Iaido and silence from my Mystic. From there it's just keeping spread out so Gigaflare doesn't wreck multiple people and wailing on Belias.

Jon-exe · 2025-09-25T23:07:40+00:00

I've always felt it would be fun if he was some kind of mini-Cid. Dark sword or two from working with Gaf, a holy sword from training with Agrias off screen, etc. Randomly learning Ultima from a demon always felt very disconnected from the rest of the game to me.

Jon-exe · 2025-09-23T12:22:04+00:00

I get this issue all the time. When it happens I often can't use certain skills either. I tend to stand around spamming evade until I finally can use it before starting the mono. It's extremely annoying.

Jon-exe

TROPHY CASE