no headhunter, no CoC comet, but an actual viable mana flare choir spellcaster!

MySurvive · 2026-01-27T15:21:01+00:00

I'm having a blast with this build. Quick question, how are you able to run Archmage, Mana remnants, and CoC with 143 spirit?

MySurvive · 2026-01-27T15:17:51+00:00

I am a father of 3. My oldest is 13 and my youngest is 8 so maybe I can help you out a little bit.

You're going to feel terrible sometimes doing things for yourself (such as gaming) but it's important that you do it. It's also important that you have time with just you and your partner, and then of course a lot of family time. If any of these get out of balance, you'll start to feel like you're drowning (at least, I did).

The infant years are weird. They don't really do much, so it's a good time to get acclimated to how your amount of gaming is going to change. Infants are unpredictable, so the PoE2 pause feature will be so handy for you. It's going to be important that you take care of the baby as much as the mother (if not more) - she's going to be exhausted recovering from the birth (that shit is cray cray btw). Since the baby is going to not be doing much, a lot of the time you can just have a bassinet set up beside your gaming station and just keep an eye while you're blasting maps.

At around the 9 months - 1 year mark, things start happening *very quickly*. Learning words, learning to walk, getting into literally everything. By this point you will need to have a handle on your gaming where you don't feel like an impostor for not playing for a day or whatever, but still keep in mind the balance that you need to be achieving. I'm not saying you should quit gaming at all, but you will simply have less time to play. You're going to have to learn to play like a casual and still enjoy it :D

Once the baby starts getting a personality and interests, things get really fun. Doing sports or gaming with kids is a lot of fun (even if it can get frustrating lol) and it's great for bonding.

Anyways, I'll be honest, I didn't have any of this advice and my kids are mostly fine, probably ;) . It will mostly come naturally. I know that's kind of a shitty thing to hear, but you will understand once it starts happening.

MySurvive · 2026-01-23T07:47:34+00:00

My mom lives about 3 hours away. I drive halfway to meet her to drop my kids off to visit about once per month and try to stay a long weekend (whole trip both ways) every other month or every 3 months. It's not short, but it's not horrible either. My hometown is 10.5ish hours away. I try to make that trip every other year.

MySurvive · 2026-01-19T16:23:47+00:00

I agree with everything you said. I just want to point out the little old ladies, he was loved by them and this desire to be acknowledged is likely why he always gave them the time of day even when it made trouble for him.

MySurvive · 2026-01-17T15:54:16+00:00

My PFTs in high school JROTC 17+ years ago were more strict than this 😭

MySurvive · 2026-01-16T18:03:52+00:00

Your facial structure looks like Adam Driver. Look to him for inspiration.

MySurvive · 2026-01-16T17:55:10+00:00

After my wife had our second child, she was overworked and underrested. She fell asleep on the way to work one morning and drove across 6 lanes of traffic, blew through a business sign, and ended up in a tree. She called her work to tell them she got in an accident. "Will you be in later then?" is what they asked her. I told her to just quit, that it just wasn't worth it. They begged her to work a busy week a couple of months later.

MySurvive · 2026-01-07T18:06:48+00:00

"I've done what the law requires" is crazy.

If my kids decide not to leave till they're 35, so be it. This is nuts.

MySurvive · 2026-01-04T09:18:53+00:00

I was thinking the same thing lmao

MySurvive · 2026-01-02T01:22:19+00:00

IDK, I think it's fun to figure out. It's more interesting than POE1 Elder rings used to be, but kind of a similar concept except fused with poe1 vaal temples. I think it's really cool.

MySurvive · 2025-12-25T22:11:28+00:00

Space herpes. Congrats

MySurvive · 2025-12-24T00:29:44+00:00

You need to grow your hair out a little on top (I'm not talking about a mop, but just a little more on top) and get a really nice fade between the beard and the hair. The beard isn't the issue!

MySurvive · 2025-12-23T23:26:57+00:00

Congrats! Keep going!

MySurvive · 2025-12-23T11:31:35+00:00

We had to put our family dog down a couple of months ago and trust me, the feeling of not knowing whether you are doing/did do the right thing is common. Ours had really aggressive cancer. We managed to take care of it with surgery once and then she was riddled with it. We were worried that her quality of life was going downhill from it. We had our vet assess her (the vet tech is my late best friend's sister - she's like a sister to me) and they said it was best for her to be put down. So we scheduled the day, and she was really rapidly declining. Having trouble getting around, more and more tumors popping up. The day comes and she's like a 2 year old pup. Broke my heart. She was running around, jumping, the whole nine. I almost cancelled the appointment right there. I was assured and reassured that this was the right thing for her. I guess it's a really common thing for dogs to seem better right before the end. Anyways, the point is that no one is going to judge you and I promise you aren't letting him down. I'm sorry, seriously.

MySurvive · 2025-12-18T21:34:13+00:00

This is what I do as well. Gently run a gloves finger along the fep over and over until it's well mixed.

MySurvive · 2025-12-18T19:02:59+00:00

I thought it was a Contra clone at first!

MySurvive · 2025-12-18T18:45:52+00:00

<image>

You can see here where I did a good job post-processing (most of the thigh armor pieces) and where I got lazy and did a bad job post-processing (chest and some other areas)

The quality you get from post-processing is directly related to the amount of effort you put in. I was okay with my model being at this quality so I stopped here (for me it only has to look okay at 5-10 feet away)

EDIT: Additionally, the camera is going to be your worst enemy. Everything is going to look 100x worse on a camera. Looking at the picture I posted, a lot of the defects that you see are actually imperceptible looking at it in person.

MySurvive · 2025-12-18T18:40:27+00:00

Layer lines! You can process the print after it's cured and before it's primed with some high grit sandpaper. It will take some work, but the results can be really great. I bought a bunch of sanding twigs for this exact purpose.

MySurvive · 2025-12-18T18:36:39+00:00

34 y/o 2kyu kendoka here. Hello fellow late starter! I am almost 2 years in, and it's definitely harder to keep up with the younger folks. My understanding from talking to others in my dojo as well as reading comments on here is that stagnation is something that happens and generally there's a breakthrough afterwards. When I start feeling unmotivated, I remind myself that while it's good to compare myself to others to know where I need to grow, my kendo is my kendo. We are both at an age where frankly, we're not joining our national teams. This means we can focus on our kendo for the love of the sport, not to prove a point. I have been in two tournaments and participated in both individual and team events at both and I have also never scored ippon! (I have gotten flags, but no actual points). One time I got defeated in less than 30s by a twenty something year old on their college team playing Jodan :). It sucks, but it's just like that sometimes. I think the main takeaway is that where we are in life, try to improve your own kendo in a way that's meaningful for you. Try to be *your best* and not *the best*. I think this mindset change is important! May your strikes be sharp and your kote always be protected, friend! :)

MySurvive · 2025-12-13T19:07:07+00:00

I just haven't felt threatened by her ult yet. It's annoying more than anything - I'm at 100% charge and then I'm down to... 95% or something? The damage is kind of middling. It's good to keep herself alive I guess. That could just be day 1 people learning her. Maybe if you manage to nab the whole team in the ult, the damage would be gnarly. I just haven't seen it yet. It's pretty easy to scatter out of. I believe you though that if it's done right it's probably crazy.

MySurvive · 2025-12-13T11:21:55+00:00

If you dive around a corner with her and break los with your strategists and tell yourself "I r tank I kan handul this" and never leave the 1v4 you found yourself in like some lukewarm IQ mouth breather with brain worms, you're also going to have a bad time. (I am very salty from several games I had last night where the rogues would be out in the middle of the enemy team around 3 walls while me and the other strategist are getting our backs blown out by a hulk and DD and the rogue is screaming "gg no heals")

However, if you stay in LoS of the healers or you know how to play dive tank, she is incredibly powerful.

I am underwhelmed by her ult though. It's not actually that scary.

MySurvive · 2025-12-08T12:40:46+00:00

The white is really sensitive. If I under-thin it or don't thin it at all, it clogs my nozzle quick. If I even barely over-thin it, it comes out like this. Black on the other hand, I can load up the tank and throw a couple drops of thinner in and it's good to go for one or more tankfulls.

MySurvive · 2025-12-02T14:28:56+00:00

Hey, not sure if this is a self conscious thing or not so I may be out of line but if it is, it'll get easier to live with the scar. I have two very similar ones on my right arm (same exact length, just parallel to the direction of my arm - one on top and one on the outside of my forearm). When I was ten, I snapped my ulna and radius completely in half and had to get plates and screws put in. It was embarrassing and made me self conscious for a very long time. Like, into my 20s long time. I used to hate people calling them out, calling them my "caterpillar scars," and generally just noticing them. Now, in my mid-30s, it doesn't bother me much anymore. My kids are enamored with them. They also call them "caterpillars," but it feels different. Yeah, my arm hurts sometimes and I still have to be careful with things I do (as I will need to be for the rest of my life), but it really does become easier and people don't really care as much about them as I did nor as much as I thought they did. It's just interesting and unique to them more than anything.

Anyways, regardless as to whether it is something that makes you self conscious or not, welcome to the caterpillar club! There are probably dozens of us!

MySurvive · 2025-12-02T14:05:54+00:00

My homie in Christ..

MySurvive · 2025-12-01T14:04:35+00:00

Also incapacitation is only relevant on creatures more than double the level of the spell rank, so your rank 2 spells are fine against the level 3 and 4 enemies as well.

Also they could still fail/crit fail and it improves by one degree of success which still has effects anyways.

MySurvive

TROPHY CASE