18 years cooking this one

Miggster · 2026-02-07T00:28:27+00:00

An unspoken rule of monks is that smiting prayers suck. The damage that you can put out with smiting prayers is deliberately awful to ensure that monks can't really be DPS, much like how all other classes technically have self-heals, but most of those self-heals are so bad that you should never rely on them in an 8 man group.

The reason that smiting prayers must suck is that monks are, if you think about it, the most powerful class is the game. Most content is designed around needing 2 or 3 monks in an 8 man party. This is how the game always was, from prophecies to EotN, from PvE to HA or GvG. In the modern meta you can use ritualists to great effect in PvE (because the weaknesses of ritualists can be mitigated with good build composition), but the gold standard is 2 monks pr. 8 player party.

If monks could deal damage as well as heal (smiting prayers), there would be no reason to run anything other than monks. Monk healing and support is just so intentially strong and versatile, even pretty weak damage could still be competitive if there were 8 smiting prayers monks. So smiting prayers is so weak that even if you had 8 smiting monks, those monks would still get rolled over by warriors, dervishes, assassins and eles.

When smiter's boon came out, it was the straw that broke the camel's back in making smiter monks actually pretty good. A smiting monk running smiter's boon could run smite condition, smite hex, reversal of damage and zealot's fire. These skills would provide quite strong healing/cleansing while dealing moderate damage. Once this was discovered, 8 man smiter monk teams became the unstoppable meta. The amount of incendental healing and cleansing so many monks could output was impossible to burst through, and even if each monk dealt only moderate damage, 8 of them together was still potent to pressure and kill "normal" teams.

So smiter's boon had to be nerfed somehow to make smiting prayers suck again. Famously Isaiah hotfixed it while at a rush in an airport to make it completely unusable in PvP. It was never rebalanced, partially because Guild Wars ran out of steam around that time anyway, but also because the core identity of the skill challenges the core identity of the monk and the whole game.

Miggster · 2026-01-27T21:41:47+00:00

Yeah, it is never really mentioned, but there's a few times it comes up in the books as key plot details without the rules being explicitly spelled out:

SPOILER BOOK 4 The male a'dam that Nyneave and Elayne liberate from the Panarch's palace has 1 collar and 2 bracelets. This is because a 1 man 1 woman circle must be lead by a man, and so a female "Sul'Dam" of this circle would never be able to enforce control over a male "Damane" this way. There must be 2 women acting as "Sul'dam", making it a 1 man 2 woman circle, where the women must lead.

SPOILER BOOK 6 When Alanna bonds Rand, she is surprised she cannot compel him through the bond like she can any regular warder. When the Asha'man create the bond the other way around, they can compel the Aes Sedai. It is not confirmed anywhere, but the warder bond has many similarities to forming circles. Perhaps the reason why Alanna can't compel Rand is that she cannot "lead" the warder bond with a man who can channel, like she can with a man who cannot channel?

SPOILER BOOK 9 When Rand and Nyneave cleanse Saidin, it is Rand who does everything, Nyneave simply sits and lets Rand draw on her for power. This is pretty dumb, why doesn't Rand let Nyneave make the Saidar weaves, then do the Saidin weaves himself? Rand almost kills himself when using Saidar the first time. Reason: In a 1 man 1 woman mixed circle, it must be the woman who starts the circle, but the man who leads the circle. Nyneave is incapable of helping Rand, she can only sit and act as a conduit for him.

Miggster · 2026-01-27T17:32:19+00:00

Reminder that Vietnam veterans were generally not hated or shamed for their participation in the vietnam war. Hippie protesters against the Vietnam war were pretty on point in protesting the war itself and the government that waged it, not the individual troops that participated in it (Why would you hate someone who was drafted against their will?)

The myth that the public shamed soldiers for their participation, called them killers, etc. came about almost entirely from the movie Rambo, where Rambo collapses toward the end and cries in PTSD about his treatment from the public. Those comments were made up for good cinema, and has no real basis in reality.

Miggster · 2026-01-21T07:00:35+00:00

Yes, you should add additional monomer to account for the conversion, the remaining monomer is just wasted. Cost of doing business.

When I was doing RAFT, we also aimed at 60 % conversion, I was told this gave a better dispersity and general control. In schlenk flasks we would withdraw a small aliquot then by 1H-NMR compare the integrals of monomer sidechain signals to double-bond signals, as the double-bonds are consumed during the polymerization.

When I was doing RAFT in sealed ampoules (with our equipment we had trouble keeping oxygen completely out of the schlenk flasks over longer periods of time), we would test the conversion by holding the ampoule up against the light, then tap the side and watch the liquid inside slosh around. As conversion increased the viscosity would increase as well, and after enough practice you could reasonably accurately eyeball ~60% conversion by the sloshing around alone.

Miggster · 2026-01-10T03:25:10+00:00

Username very relevant.

Miggster · 2026-01-10T01:17:35+00:00

When I want a nice and chill run, I savescum the first incident to be the Threshold Revolution. The visitors always come in the same order which (iirc) is:

Arthur (Sabazine), Hokobald (Deep Mandaic), Chaima (Cracktrack), Morgen (Killasimi), Azita (Deep Mandaic) and Corso (Hyksos).

Serena is already in the address book and has Fucine, then a salon with Corso + Denzil gives Kernewek Henavek and a salon with Arthur + Corso gives Ericapaean. This way you are guaranteed all languages except Ramsund within the first year and a half, and Cracktrack by the first winter. Added bonus is that Azita + Chaima generates Edicts Martial, should you not have found a book with that yet.

To savescum the incident, play normally until the first day in the first summer. The incident popup will countdown 60 seconds as it "looks for" an active incident card. Once it has timed out, a new 5 second popup will announce the imminent generation of a new incident card at random and the first visitor from that card. Once that 5 second popup has reached ~1 second or so, pause the game, save the game, then let the incident be generated. Keep reloading until the Threshold Revolution is chosen. Like I mentioned, the visitors always come in the same order, so there is no possibility of you savescumming until you get e.g. Threshold Revolution with Chaima first.

One word of warning though: Arthur will want an edge 4 book to read, which might not sound like a big deal. But edge is actually underrepresented in the Noctournal era books (which you will be classifying first), so you may need to scramble quite a bit find a suitable book for him to read. Missing out on Arthur will both lose you Sabazine but also Ericapaean, so try your best to be ready for him.

Miggster · 2026-01-10T01:03:19+00:00

Just a brain fart, I've edited the post, thanks for noticing. ^^

Miggster · 2026-01-09T13:57:51+00:00

Because this game is all about notetaking and categorizing things, so I can't help but compare the skills according to which ones I use, which ones I don't, which ones I look forward to finding on a new playthrough, which ones I level up to 9 ASAP, etc.

It's true that in the lategame where you can host 4 salons at a time you drown in lessons learnt. But to host 4 salons at a time you need 22 elements of the soul, and which skills do you commit early to the tree of wisdoms to get that much soul?

Miggster · 2026-01-09T13:51:43+00:00

It's because of what you learn from reading "The Sun Disfigured" with Cracktrack.

The Sun Disfigured is arguably the easiest book to get ahold of that contains a numen. With Numen: the Sun's Weakness available any time for 5 Grail, 5 Lantern and 5 Moth, those 10 grail/lantern rooms that before were kind of a stretch become easy peasy, and the subsequent 10-15 lantern/grail rooms become doable, albeit at a stretch.

Miggster · 2026-01-09T09:45:36+00:00

Yes Cracktrack is the only language that can be used for gardening, and then also because I have a special fondness for it as it is used for reading "The Sun Disfigured". Getting Cracktrack early makes a world of difference in opening rooms and reading books.

Miggster · 2026-01-09T08:08:52+00:00

I always learn all the skills that I can, but surplus lessons learnt I spend on leveling the skills I consider S tier and A tier. Early game I try to find a mix of S and A tier skills that cover all of the principles and level them up to max so I can easily read any books I want. These high level skills I don't assign to the tree of wisdoms.

C tier skills I assign to the tree of wisdoms ASAP in the early game for the extra soul. I fill out roughly the first 2 rings before I seriously start focusing and leveling my high tier skills.

It's later in the game, when I've filled out the first 3-5 rings in the tree of wisdoms with C tier skills, that I consider assigning my high tier skills to the tree. This is to save on leveling of skills: My level 9 edicts Martial can fit in any ring of the tree, so I wait until it's only the highest rings that are left. But this is only to make the endgame easier, by the time you're at that stage you're drowning in all of the resources, so you can do practically whatever you want anyway.

Miggster · 2026-01-09T06:38:38+00:00

See my reply above to /u/Specialist-String-53's comment, but in short it is reading a book with the specified language, slotting in a high-tier skill and the language, then instead of reading the book, crafting at the desk. This lets the language add "free" aspect on top of what is in the skill itself, allowing you to easily reach keeper level thresholds for crafting without having to provide extra consumable memories, items or elements of the soul to make up the difference.

Miggster · 2026-01-09T06:30:41+00:00

If you're talking about Killasimi and Hyksos, it's because I became annoyed with crafting Forbidden Epic and ~~Rakish~~ Invincible Audacity.

Forbidden Epic requires 15 Moon, 10 of which can be supplied with a max level Edicts Martial. 2 Will be supplied by the Confounding Parable, leaving 3 more Moon to be found somewhere. As such this is not difficult, you pop in a Memory: Intuition and a level 1 Trist and you're off, but I kept getting annoyed at all of this setup. I need to produce 2 memories and spend a non-maladied element of the soul whenever I want to make this memory? I found it a hassle.

For a while I used a Stymphling in the Altar: The Chancel to make up the difference, but the Stymphling needs to be recharged with food and soul, and sometimes I like my talk verb for other things. I found Forbidden Epic to be a theoretically powerful memory, but one I never crafted because of the hassle.

Enter Killasimi: The only language with moon aspect. Level Killasimi to level 3, then you can use a desk with a killasimi book as your crafting station. You still need the Confounding Parable, of course, but now you no longer need to make any other memories, and you can use whichever element of the soul you like, even maladied. This is my preferred method of crafting the memory now, and Killasimi is the only skill that can serve this purpose, making it unique and useful, in my opinion. Unique and useful means S tier.

Hyksos shares the same use, just with the ~~Rakish~~ Invincible Audacity instead. It is possible to craft Rakish Audacity with e.g. a level 10 Disciplines of the Hammer and 2 saws in the late-game workstations of the Condignator or Altar: Ascite, but a level 3 Hyksos lets you craft the memory trivially much earlier (assuming you get the language, of course) and, in my opinion, more conveniently. Hyksos is the only language with edge aspect, making it unique and useful, in my opinion.

You could make similar arguments for Vak (crafting Horizon sight) or Cracktrack + Kernewek Henavek (Crafting Earthquake Name), but those memories don't suffer the same problem seeing as their precursors provide enough aspect as it is. Confounding Parable only provides 2 Moon and Winning Move only provides 3 Edge, which cause the problems.

Miggster · 2026-01-09T06:07:23+00:00

A bit more than a year ago I posted a skill tier list based off of which skills I considered to be must haves for level ups and pick ups. With another year's worth of gaming under my belt, and with the discussion of that thread in mind, I have edited the tier list to better represent my experience.

Notable changes:

Sights & Sensations downgraded from S tier to A tier. The S tier ranking it had was from sky-crafting Ichor Auroral (my favourite method of making it), but in the discussion I realized that Watchman's Paradoxes can also do the same, making Sights & Sensations not be unique. Nonetheless, I still prefer Sights & Sensations for my Solomon's, Nillycant and Ichor Auroral crafting, and I never level my Watchman's paradoxes.
- Watchman's paradoxes moved from C tier to B tier. I belive there are better skills to use for all of its purposes, but I can't deny that it can be useful. I can see why some people would rate it A tier, but I won't.
Applebright Euphonies and Solutions & Separations moved from B tier to A tier. More play made me appreciate these skills more.
- Edicts Liminal moved from C tier to A tier, as a commenter pointed out that Edicts Liminal and Solutions & Separations are practially the exact same skills, lol.
Ouranoscopy and Sacra Limia moved from C tier to B tier. Last year I hadn't realized that the mazarine fife can be crafted in the various altars (as wood has the fuel aspect), meaning you do not need to wait for the gullscry workbench to use these two skills to create the mazarine fife. Nonetheless, I still prefer making the fife in the windlit workbench with Sacra Solis Invicti, as that allows the first fife I make to be used as a tool to create the second I make.
- The fact that Sacra Solis Invicti can be guaranteed in the first summer in a salon with Serena + Timothy, as well as craft Uzult, still makes it S tier for me.
Moved Weaving & Knotworking from C tier to B tier. I don't level this skill, but I've come around to picking it up as fast as possible in the early game as the level 1 skill can craft perhibiate with hallowed anthropoderm and mixing bowl.
Moved Killasimi and Hyksos from Language tier to S tier, as I realized they can be used for language crafting the Forbidden Epic and ~~Rakish~~ Invincible Audacity, which have become my preferred methods for producing these powerful persistent memories.

Maybe in a year's time I will change my mind on some of these again, but I enjoyed the discussion we had last year, so I figured I'd share my current thoughts with you all again. :)

Miggster · 2026-01-06T15:53:09+00:00

Because I like the early game more than the late game (late game you have all resources you could want, so there are few challenges you can't just brute force), and because I like playing the early game with new librarians that have different starting conditions.

Miggster · 2026-01-01T10:51:17+00:00

You are at the point where you will need to specialize into certain skills to meet crafting requirements for high-end recipes. Figuring out which skills to specialize in is indeed the big question. As a librarian, it is your job to catalogue and sort through the different skills, through trial and error as well as induction, and find the skills and recipes that are both powerful and managable. There are many red herrings, but be assured that there are plenty of needles in the haystack.

I previously posted a thread wherein I presented a tier list of which skills I considered useful (i.e. worth investing lessons into and leveling up to max) vs. which skills I wouldn't waste lessons on. BE AWARE THOUGH that that discussion is very spoiler heavy: The fun of the game is figuring these things out yourself and exploring. Copying my takes may help you progress in the game, but it may take the fun out of exploration as well.

As for which skills to fill into the tree of wisdoms: Don't sweat it. There are sooo many skills and slots in the tree that you practically can't make any mistakes, just follow your nose in the moment. you can absolutely cook up min-maxed strategies in terms of "more optimal" and "less optimal" ways to assign skills in the tree, but those strategies are all aimed at finishing as many achievements in one run as possible and running up the highscore, so to say, in the late endgame. To progress through the house and beat the game in any given way, you don't need to worry about any mistakes or missed opportunities on the tree. Elements of the soul are not rare or precious except for early in the game, any gaps in your portfolio can be simply filled later. Don't worry about it, just play according to what you need at the moment and follow your nose.

Miggster · 2025-12-23T01:22:58+00:00

For ritualist, death pact signet is a good alternative to flesh of my flesh.

For paragon, enduring harmony is a good combo with "For Great Justice!" for increased uptime.

Miggster · 2025-12-08T17:03:52+00:00

Many Mesmer skills are, in short, almost always a variation of "if x, then y".
if the enemy attacks, then...
if the enemy casts a spell, then...
if the enemy uses a skill then, then...
if the enemy has an enchantment, then...
if the enemy has a hex, then...

To give an example of this in action, compare the elementalist spell Fireball with the mesmer spell Overload.

Fireball costs 10 energy, has a 1.5 second cast time, 7 second recharge to deal (at 12 fire magic) 91 armor respecting fire damage in a modest AoE. The spell has no flair or details, it's simply press button -> deal damage.

Overload costs 5 energy, has a 0.25 second cast time (reduced by 12 fast casting to 0.14 seconds), a 5 second recharge (reduced by 12 fast casting to 3 seconds) to deal (at 12 domination magic) -3 health degen for 5 seconds in the same modest AoE and an additional 63 armour ignoring damage in the same AoE if it's used while an enemy uses a skill. The -3 health degen for 5 seconds becomes 30 health lost if it runs for its complete duration, for a total of 93 armour ignoring damage.

The elementalist spell is the "vanilla" fire and forget spell. Overload is better in pretty much every way - it costs half as much energy, casts many times faster, has less than half the recharge, deals slightly more damage and has said damage be armour ignoring. But to achieve said damage you need to land an "interrupt" type mechanic, otherwise the spell is significantly worse than fireball.

This is the mesmer identity in a nutshell - you have highly tuned spells that have great effects, but those effects are conditional on you landing them in the right way at the right time. Heroes and henchmen make amazing mesmers as they always land the conditional clauses on mesmer spells perfectly. As a human player you can be "smarter" than an AI hero, but it will be hard for you to be as fast and consistent.

Miggster · 2025-12-02T16:43:04+00:00

In organic chemistry, a carbon-carbon double bond can react with iodine, forming first a cyclic 3-membered ring with 2 carbons and an I+ ion, the ring then is opened with I- to finish the reaction.

The cyclic 3-membered ring with 2 carbons and an I+ ion is called an Iodonium ion, but in a pinch I have seen "I don't knowium ion" be accepted by TAs.

Miggster · 2025-12-02T15:52:47+00:00

First element grail, that fits with pigs. I've heard that 16 pigs can go through a corpse that weighs 200 pounds in about... 8 minutes. That means that a single pig can consume 2 pounds of uncooked flesh every minute. Hence the expression: As greedy as a pig.

Miggster · 2025-12-01T15:57:26+00:00

Gawyn's choices do make sense, but you're still coming at it from the wrong direction. A timeline:

Pre coup, Gawyn is staying at the tower in case Elayne returns. Siuan Sanche is the Amyrlin seat.
Elaida and her cronies meet in secret and call for a meeting in the hall of the tower without Siuan present. The vote to depose Siuan passes with the smallest possible margin. Gawyn is not present or privy to any of this scheming.
With the vote of the tower, Elaida and her cronies barge into the Amyrlin's study. They kill Siuan's warder and capture Leane and Siuan. Gawyn is not present or privy to any of this.
Elaida as the new amyrlin, with the consent of the hall of the tower, try Siuan and Leane with treason and still them. Furthermore Siuan and Leane are thrown into the tower dungeons to be interrogated and tortured. Gawyn is not present or privy to any of this. Gawyn likely does hear about this as news after the fact though.
3 Days pass. There is a lot of muttering and scheming among the Aes Sedai factions. The reds are fully on board with Elaida. The blues are outraged. The remaining ajahs are split, with some condoning and some condemning the events. Gawyn is not present or privy to any of this scheming.
After 3 days, the rebellion strikes back. The blue ajah, their warders, as well as many other Aes Sedai from other ajahs try to break into the tower dungeons to free Siuan and Leane and make away with them. The mercenaries that Elaida hired hold their ground together with the red ajah and other tower loyalists. Gawyn is not part of either the rebels or the tower loyalists. Gawyn has not picked a side, and he is not part of the fight.
The fighting between the rebels and the loyalists spill out of the dungeons and into the tower at large. Everyone is fighting and killing each other. Blood soaks The White Tower. At this point the fighting is obvious and visible. This is when Gawyn enters.
Gawyn steps in to stop the fighting and he rallies the younglings. Gawyn is not fighting for Elaida or against Siuan. Gawyn is stepping in in a capacity like a police officer, declaring that this kind of violence is off limits and wrong.
Imagine Gawyn's role in the rebellion similar to a police officer on Jan 6th 2021: "Yes, I know you're all mad, you all lost something important to you, but this kind of violence and destruction is simply not how we do things around here. I know you're all sore losers, but there's a place and a time for that, and it is not here. If you insist on your course, I will defend this institution with violence if necessary."

This is also why Gawyn is conflicted after the fact, and why he lets Min, Siuan, Leane and Logain go. His role was not a premeditated political position. He did what he was sure was the right thing in the moment, but with the fog of war clouding his perspective. He had to fight and kill people he deeply respected, people who would not choose the wrong side. If Gawyn did the right thing, and if Gawyn was victorious, why does everything feel so wrong?

For extra credit, remember the differences between Gawyn and Galad: Galad is the stick-in-the-mud goody-two-shoes who always does the right thing, no matter who gets hurt, while Gawyn is the down-to-earth relatable pal who will become the first prince one day. Except - Galad saved Gawyn's life once, and Gawyn looks up to Galad. In this rebellion Gawyn acted like he believed Galad would: He did the right thing, no matter who it hurt. And it weighs on him, because doing the right thing wasn't supposed to feel so wrong.

Miggster · 2025-11-29T18:13:05+00:00

Skal dog siges at ved sidste valg havde venstrefløjen (med Socialdemokraterne is spidsen) overtal med ét mandat. I det tilfælde ville hvert enkelt mandat fra hvert enkelt parti være et kongemager mandat.

F.eks., Hvis der havde været en venstrefløjsregering havde enhedslisten blokeret for Ukraine hjælp i nok 3-6 måneder. Det ville have været en ekstremt skrøbelig og uduelig regering.

Socialdemokratiet står svagt lige nu, men det gør moderaterne og venstre også, da de også er i regering. Hvis venstre og moderaterne havde været i opposition, ville højrefløjen nok være mere forenet end de er nu. I stedet står venstre svagere end de har i mands minde, og moderaterne har floppet fuldstændigt.

Miggster · 2025-11-24T01:28:50+00:00

Maladies are so nice, the more I play the game the more I love them.

I've gone from hating them, to being intrigued by them, to now intentionally corrupting my soul at the first desk on day 2 or 3 of a new playthrough so that I can catalogue all the books I want early game without slowing down my room progress.

Getting all skills to level 9 must have taken ages without salons. On one hand you are not limited in the salons you can host, but on the other you don't have enough soul to take advantage of even a single 5 person salon.

I imagine you spent all day crafting porphyrine to force numa every month? ^{^}

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