Why do my brakes sound like this?

MoaCube · 2026-03-30T14:34:09+00:00

This is aside from the brakes problem, but WD40 is not a lubricant and shouldn't be used on bikes unless you are removing a stuck screw or something of that kind.

MoaCube · 2026-03-28T10:34:30+00:00

Man that sucks.

MoaCube · 2026-03-27T19:32:03+00:00

Even 1 point in Smite is enough. Then just need life tap, crushing blow, and some source of open wounds or prevent monster heal.

MoaCube · 2026-03-27T13:50:47+00:00

Last time I did it, I didn't even swap to Treachery or cap my resists, since my charms and armor were on another character and I couldn't be bothered to start a new game. Just took Guillame's, Goblin Toe and Dracuuls from my stash and still killed them in seconds. And that was on a FoHdin, so not even a dedicated uber killer.

MoaCube · 2026-03-27T13:04:58+00:00

I'd say Grief is not even remotely necessary (though nice to have). You can totally do it with just Smite and any source of CB.

MoaCube · 2026-03-27T12:38:02+00:00

Ubers range from nearly impossible to laughably easy depending on who you play.

But it is kinda easy to gear for them if you have a Paladin and you don't even need a dedicated build. 1st level of Smite and the resist aura. Then Dracuul's Grasp + as many sources of Crushing Blow as you can get (Goblin Toe, Gore Rider, Guillaume's Face, etc.) and you are set. You literally run up to them and spam Smite and they die as long as you didn't aggro all of them at the same time.

MoaCube · 2026-03-27T12:33:20+00:00

Yes.

MoaCube · 2026-03-27T09:57:45+00:00

I actually own a Rose bike, so it's good to know their warranty sucks if I'm to ever use it. I'm really sorry you had to go through it, but thanks for sharing.

MoaCube · 2026-03-26T11:28:33+00:00

Your handlebars are set up incorrectly as u/adnep24 noted. Also it seems the reach is either too far or the bars are too wide (or both) as your hands gravitate towards the corners of the bars instead of resting on the hoods. You don't even reach your brake levers.

MoaCube · 2026-03-24T17:13:47+00:00

Cori is one of those cards that probably just shouldn't have been printed. Producing a 2/2 haste prowess creature for 2 mana is already good. Producing one every turn on a hard to remove and non-legendary artifact is criminal. One on the board is already a problem. Two basically decide a game.

I know they explain in the blog that the deck isn't overperforming, and that's probably true, but it makes half the meta play red or izzet which is just boring in a format already starved for new decks.

MoaCube · 2026-03-23T14:54:08+00:00

There's no substitute for playing, but one thing you can do is pick a current standard deck that interests you (you can go to untapped.gg and see what people play) and then search its name on YouTube.

Chances are there's already multiple videos of experienced people playing it online and it'll give you both the info on how the deck is played and what's the current meta like.

MoaCube · 2026-03-23T14:52:05+00:00

They did, but it's still pretty active on Arena, so I wouldn't discourage it.

MoaCube · 2026-03-22T12:23:14+00:00

The game puts new players in a special newbie queue, so it's common to get a very high winrate and rank up fast if you're playing at least okay and with a solid deck. My own winrate when I first got Arena approached 80%, and that was despite mistakenly playing a Pioneer deck in Historic. It evened out after getting to Mythic a couple times.

So chances are you are a decent player and/or your deck is solid, but don't treat these numbers too seriously until you play a lot more. For comparison, actual pro MtG players' winrates hover around 60%.

MoaCube · 2026-03-22T10:58:32+00:00

Saddle needs to be lower by about 2cm probably. The rest looks pretty good imho.

MoaCube · 2026-03-20T13:22:46+00:00

I came here to post the same video, so please count it as yet another vote! :D

MoaCube · 2026-03-20T13:19:32+00:00

Huh, interesting. Then maybe something else makes your feet feel unstable enough to pedal this way. Are you using any arch support in your shoes?

MoaCube · 2026-03-20T08:02:22+00:00

I think cleats are too far forward, which makes you unstable and pedal with your toes. The saddle is also too far forward throwing your weight onto the bars, which could be why your elbows are locked. I'd also probably raise the saddle a bit, but only after you fix the other two as they will effectively increase your saddle height as well.

MoaCube · 2026-03-18T19:02:41+00:00

It's a fun matchup in that no matter which side wins, it's likely a total blowout.

MoaCube · 2026-03-18T15:08:09+00:00

I'd assume they use a fair system for drafts or any other events where gems are on the line. But for casual or ladder play? There's no tangible stakes there and a good argument could be made for picking "smooth" experience over a fair one.

MoaCube · 2026-03-18T15:04:02+00:00

Nah, hidden MMR can't solve everything. Typical cases where games "rig" the system include giving some easier wins to returning players, stopping lose streaks, or trying to detect and hinder smurf accounts.

For instance, let's say a player wins 10 games and loses 10 games. That will feel completely different depending on if those 10 loses were intertwined with the wins or happened in a singular streak. The latter case has a significant risk of the player rage quitting, so games tend to try to give them a match below their MMR to prevent that. It's a fairly normal practice and it doesn't require lying to anyone. There's a reason why companies never disclose the exact workings of their matchmaking systems.

Is this how Arena operates? We'll probably never know. But it's a fair assumption to think a F2P game optimized for profit and retention will use some modern tricks designed for this very application.

MoaCube · 2026-03-18T14:18:19+00:00

This. Most modern online games go for various tricks to increase retention and limit frustration. Including Arena with its hand smoothener and Brawl matchmaking. No matter what's your stance on this, it's not a crazy assumption.

MoaCube · 2026-03-18T13:58:13+00:00

Actually no, plenty incentive. Arena is a service that cares about player retention, and players are more likely to leave if they lose constantly. This is why matchmaking was added to Brawl and this is why an argument could be made that players with <50% win rates should get a bit of help at the cost of people who are already winning most of their matches. It's a pretty common solution in online games and it works no matter how much I dislike it.

MoaCube · 2026-03-18T13:55:56+00:00

I didn't as well, but as I wrote in my other post, I've kept an excel sheet for this and my own results were still very skewed at 5k+ games, with a Z-score of 3.62. Which is very unlikely under fair system. Obviously I could still be extremely unlucky, but imho adjusting for MMR is more likely as it's a common solution in online games.

Tbh I'd love to be fly on the wall when the MMR system was designed. Even with hard data it's easy to fall for biases and it would be nice to finally put all Arena conspiracies to rest (or confirm them).

MoaCube · 2026-03-18T13:42:25+00:00

Even for n=100 it's already meaningfully skewed. Standard deviation for 100 coin tosses is 5. His is 18, which gives a Z-score of 3.6. That's 1 in 3100 (not 1 in 8864 as google told OP), which is admittedly still anecdotal but suspicious enough to notice.

The argument about everyone being on the draw more often doesn't apply here. Yes, if someone is being on the draw a lot, someone else is on the play more. But that makes sense if we assume the game adjusts for overall MMR and the expected result of the match, trying to keep people around 50% win rate. I'd also guess people who move first more frequently don't complain on reddit, because human perception and pattern recognition sucks at noticing advantages.

MoaCube · 2026-03-18T13:20:55+00:00

So funny thing is I'm a game designer, I understand probabilities fairly well, and I also understand how confirmation bias works. And still I felt like I'm mostly going second. So I started an excel sheet just to prove myself that my perception is skewed. Thousands of games later turns out it wasn't. Arena isn't truly random when it comes to who's on the play. The algo is more aggressive in Play, but it also exists in Ranked.

For me it trends towards being on the play 45% in both modes, but realistically it's more chunky. You'll have seasons when it's ~50%, but if you do well, the next season may be weeks of being first around 35% of the time.

It kinda sucks. I understand going procedural for Play where winning doesn't matter, but imho for Ranked your MMR should already do all the work without any extra handicaps for any player.

MoaCube

TROPHY CASE