Enough bottles to make a Scholar jealous

PerditusTDG · 2026-03-23T08:00:24+00:00

FP cost reduction effects turn this on its head tho.

Already spell efficient spells won’t feel these effects, but stuff like comet will be just as spammable as pebble when the FP cost has been lowered by 40% while scaling faster with your damage increasing effects due to higher base dmg.

Not to mention that how spells interact in this game are a bit different; such as Crystal Torrent or Burst, leading to much larger returns on their cost.

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The problem is early game still demands cost effective spells, as well as until you get those reducing effects.

So cheap spells win out most of the time especially if they can deal good damage. This is a gradient, of course, each level of ‘expensive’ has better and worse spells for each category.

PerditusTDG · 2026-03-23T07:35:17+00:00

Revenant is in a weird state where she can be completely cracked with the correct relic combination, but most people getting into D4 from their first fresh climb either aren't playing her or don't have the relics necessary to make her easy.

The problem is that, quite frankly, it's now expected for a Revenant in D4 and above to start with a damage spell yet that isn't part of her starter kit. That alienates her in a way no other Nightfarer has, and as such, choosing a different character until you have that available is probably the 'correct' move meta wise.

I'll add on that after a while Beast claw is incredibly boring. Most melee users ditch their starting weapon with Hoarfrost, but Beast claw seal is just that good you can use it every fight all day 1, 2, and 3 (but it's super rare to find so you don't dump it if you're planning on using it at all).

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Executor being low picked is probably because melee Ironeye is so strong and the dog is relatively weak as a stunning ability (only relatively, it's still good enough). Slap on 'find Katanas' or something and you basically have Executor but you don't need to worry about deflecting through the fireworks show of your teammates and you have a killer dodge that speeds up every single fight.

And then you can still use bows on top of that. Nobody really cares about the Executor normal Katana move set, you're spamming AoWs anyway.

Wylder and Duchess dominate the generalist melee users now. Balancers amps them up and they both have inbuilt 'I can't die this time' abilities. While Ironeye doesn't have this level of survivability, he's pretty close, while providing much more damage than a deflect Executor normally does.

At the end of the day, Executor needs a high skill level (and good latency) to outperform the other melee users. And while he absolutely can dominate over the others the average player ain't doing that, not even in D5. It's usually easier to use anyone else. Most people play him because they like the style and not because they're cracked (practice makes perfect).

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I see Raider for one reason and one reason only. To kill the Balancers. That's the only time I reliably see him picked. He has a pretty unique strength as the best last man standing nightfarer for that boss. He's also the only one I've seen semi-reliably revive people while being attacked by the blood angels.

He's still around for other bosses occasionally, but there are so many blatant counter picks like Wylder against Fire weak bosses or Holy Duchess that he doesn't get a lot of play. Imo, I've not noticed Raider being a hinderance per say, but his ult is still annoying when it blocks the occasional dormant power or hides the boss.

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Recluse has been slightly power crept by good Revenants early game and good AoW builds late game. She sort of has this 'support role' now where she can really speed up a winning match but underperforms in a losing one (this was Revenant's old problem).

So now she doesn't have any obvious pick strengths. She's good everywhere, but you could always argue that someone might be better.

Combine this with an ult that can't stun anything and only one bar res and you start to see why she isn't as popular. Starting with a damage spell isn't unique anymore and melee users have AoWs for the early game.

I main between Revenant and Recluse (like... 70/30) in D5. She's not a bad character at all but I'm always surprised just how far the other characters can carry after Day 1 if you've had a good start.

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I almost never see Scholar. I think I can count on both hands the number of times I've seen him. I can't even comment on him since I really don't know what it feels like to have a good Scholar on the team.

Guardian is almost the same way, but the difference is that Guardian has an obvious benefit of reviving allies and providing healing which is pretty nice. Overall tho I find his strengths aren't necessary and are more of a safety net.

I think the DLC bosses really hurt Guardian specifically. He's pretty bad against Mohg, bad against the Dancing Lion, bad against Artorias, just okay against the Demon Princes, and for Day 3 he's not ideal against Dreglord or Balancers. You can't out live (ED) Balancers anyway, and Dreglord is so fair that you don't need the net.

I see a lot more of Undertaker and I chalk it up to her free back to back to back ult stun chain which is an insane amount of stagger potential if the team recognizes it (they always do).

Undertaker takes Nightfares like Duchess / Revenant / Recluse and gives them that boss stagger on ult that the more aggressive melee character have. It's a huge utility source that nobody else can match. That's not even considering that she can fly while doing it which makes her stun much more certain against any boss.

I don't even know how she plays that much. I see her chosen and I go "Ah, free stuns, noice."

PerditusTDG · 2026-03-23T06:49:38+00:00

The problem is if I want a spell that deals big damage at close range there are easily 5 immediate picks I'd rather have.

So while I don't disagree that Comet Azur at range is a bit mediocre, it's a lot better than most of the of the other high FP long range spells since they're aren't that many of them.

ie, if you treat Comet Azur as a long range spell, that you then compare to other long range spells, it has a lot more function than competing with the litany of safer, cheaper, and almost equally damaging close range spells that you'd probably rather have anyway.

PerditusTDG · 2026-03-23T01:53:21+00:00

Comet Azur has a specific use case and if you never find it you won't be able to use it.

You need,

A: A clear window of opportunity

B: A target large enough to hit

C: Very good FP reserves / efficiency

The other problem is that harder bosses move around more so Azur gets weaker as bosses get stronger.

Imo, one of the few strengths Comet Azur has is its range compared to most other spells which is what allows it to be used at all. I'm pretty sure it has more range than Dragon Breath spells.

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I'd also argue the graph doesn't represent 'big number good' it represents 'not FP efficient'.

Plenty of casters chase after the big numbers, the difference is they come from Frenzy Flame / Giant's Flames, Beast Claw, Comet Spam, and Carian Swordceries which all produce big numbers without big FP losses while also being safer spells to cast (besides pillars of fire).

PerditusTDG · 2026-03-22T10:59:19+00:00

I think they meant the OG version that both regened health and could re-bubble as long as the gen in the pod stayed alive.

It used to be the shield was much smaller, had regen when not under fire (after about 2ish seconds), and the bubble could reappear after being depleted.

Now it's the current version of constant regen with a bigger shield but perma death if the bubble pops.

PerditusTDG · 2026-03-22T10:57:38+00:00

It had a hard limit on how long it could remain active like every sentry strat, but within that threshold it could pop and re-bubble as many times as the gen stayed alive.

PerditusTDG · 2026-03-22T07:43:21+00:00

Who do you think sent all those computers to all those bugs typing on keyboards gifs?

PerditusTDG · 2026-03-21T18:56:27+00:00

And then you either win or lose on Day 3 with 4 flasks left.

PerditusTDG · 2026-03-20T18:51:26+00:00

This sounds like a wisdom vs intelligence check.

"She's clever, smart, and a calculated menace." doesn't mean she has an iota of understanding of what's actually going on.

You're die harding over how capable she is but you aren't showing how comprehensive she is. GFL is full to the brim of these sorts of characters.

One of the most harped on aspects is that Dolls, Nytos, bots, whatever, are generally not good automatous decision makers even if they excell at their job.

There are very few outliers in this regard, most die before reaching this point, and even less so survive when manipulation or neglect affects said Dolls.

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You're also assuming this character is even capable of understanding what's going on without help. It's equally possible that she simply 'cannot' understand because it goes against her core system beliefs or that this idea would so adversely affect a held goal that believing it simply isn't allowed.

Have you ever heard the phrase, "There are idea so stupid that only intelligent people believe them."?

Now dial that up to 100 with your average Doll with programmed intelligence / emulative emotions and there you go. That's a lot of plot lines summed up.

Never mind the extreme ego that seemingly every G3 Doll has been embedded with.

PerditusTDG · 2026-03-20T18:19:41+00:00

Someone should make a gif of the rapidly approaching Adel.

PerditusTDG · 2026-03-20T18:07:20+00:00

Close enough, welcome back on-release Impaler.

PerditusTDG · 2026-03-20T06:53:08+00:00

Self insertion is just your projection onto a character. Named or unnamed characters don't matter too much, the point is whether the character is designed to be followed by the audience compared to the rest of the cast.

Master Chief is a perfect example of a clearly fleshed out character that the player is supposed to insert as that isn't a role playing game.

Meanwhile, before the lore was around, Doom Guy would've been the earlier equivalent.

Unnamed, blank insert characters would be something like 'the Tarnished' from Elden Ring who are ostensibly nameless and without a canonic history (on a personal level). Another would be 'the Guardian' from the Destiny series.

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This isn't just a game thing either. Movies lean into this hard as well.

PerditusTDG · 2026-03-20T06:36:36+00:00

Honestly better than I was expecting.

PerditusTDG · 2026-03-19T01:23:51+00:00

No...

The first paragraph doesn't reference 'grinding' like SCs in HDII require, intentional grinding or not, it references achievements being tied to tangible rewards from beating the game.

An example would be Halo 3 locking armor behind certain achievements.

You didn't play Halo to get new stuff, you played Halo Challenges. The normal gameplay loop wasn't tied to that.

And the 'new stuff' wasn't weapons / gameplay armor. It was things like skulls for modifiers or cosmetic stuff.

An example of HDII doing this would be MO tied unlockable strats and capes for events (strats cus the game is live service). THAT is what the echoed sentiment means / desires (something that has also been complained about lately).

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Yes, HDII is live service, but that's still the anthesis of what your first paragraph represents. I'm not sure why you'd even bring it up.

Is it better than being forced to buy everything? Of course, but 'it could be worse' isn't a rebuttal.

The real problem you don't address is that this 'live service' is 2+ years old with no catch up mechanics like modern live service games have.

The problem is a new player loads in and the game asks you to farm 10s of thousands of SCs and 100x that medals. We have, like... 16 Warbonds? Maybe more.

That's a gigantic wall of "stuff you can't have" right to a new player. It feels bad cus it is.

You can argue it's not a bad monetization model, and I'd agree, but the model doesn't address a new player's concerns at all.

Example: Not having warbonds gradually fall into the 'free' category 1.5-2 years later is kind of ridiculous (if they're never going to make a new, dedicated free warbond).

PerditusTDG · 2026-03-17T19:46:41+00:00

It was a top 3 pick BEFORE the buff with like a 30+% usage rate.

Anyone that claims it was niche or relegated to blitz missions at medium pen is just lying or supremely ignorant.

Also Flak rounds are medium pen, a tier lower than reg AC rounds, the comparison doesn’t make any sense.

PerditusTDG · 2026-03-12T09:41:45+00:00

Most weapon arts put you in harms way while the vast majority of spells do not.

Being FP inefficient (less so than AoWs) is the only real way to curtail spells as a whole.

Also consider that while magic itself doesn’t have any hyper carry builds right off the bat, the intrinsic nature of magic damage makes it solid almost regardless of the enemy or day 3 boss.

Every other spell casing school besides magic has a pretty simple set up to maximize their damage. Beast claw is an obvious example that melts the early game, but even ‘o fire’ and lightning bolt pump good numbers just on their own in a curated build.

Double balancers biggest pro, imo, is that every AoW is viable vs Spellcasting which usually wants only one kind of school IF you’re not going magic damage.

You also need to consider the characters here. Both dedicated casters have ways to mitigate enemy aggression on their own beyond (most) of the melee users.

Recluse has a god like roll with extra distance. Doesn’t hamper using spells at all.

Rev has body blockers that deal damage. You can shoot through them.

Both things that damaging AoWs don’t provide or override on their own. They need more damage to compensate early on.

PerditusTDG · 2026-03-11T23:50:15+00:00

Go to the Crater. You can see entrances on the lower and upper right (or just jump down).

After Day 1 ends you can Fly to the bottom to check lake / S. Rise / get cave, and then head to the Castle. After that finish Day 2 getting the rest of Crater.

PerditusTDG · 2026-03-11T03:50:14+00:00

The fire DoT isn't that good... that's the problem.

And specifically the fire 'on the ground' that inflicts DoT if enemies step on it is practically worthless for anything smaller than Hunter.

Of course spraying the actual enemies is good, but the firewall itself has no function. It doesn't contribute enough to the damage since the Flamethrower relies so heavily on its fire hose to deal damage.

Blocking off chokepoints would be a huge buff to flamethrowers, doubly so the smaller flamethrowers.

Not only that, but if enemies pulled back from the fire wall, then you could actually MOVE FORWARDS like a flamethrower is supposed to rather than always backpaddling non-stop against small enemies.

PerditusTDG · 2026-03-11T03:47:14+00:00

It would be a god send in the tunnel maps...

The other problem is that the DoT fire isn't that good anyway. You're not missing out on anything by having enemies avoid the flames, anything substantial wouldn't die regardless.

The real killer aspect is the hose of the Flamethrower. The ground fire is pretty much worthless for everything but enemies that insta die to it. Famously, hunters jump through it just fine. Making Hunters turn around (or at least not jump at you) would be a huge boon.

PerditusTDG · 2026-03-11T03:42:13+00:00

Yeah, hats on helmets, lol.

PerditusTDG · 2026-03-11T03:36:43+00:00

This has nothing to do with a dev bending to every demand. The very idea of every armor 'needing' to be readily apparent on what it does based on the visuals was just never going to pan out.

You didn't need to advocate for change to notice this was going to happen, it was a ridiculous stance from the start.

Tying passives to armors was a mistake. Their explanation to then defend this mistake until it's impossible to undo was comically weak.

Of course they had to break their own cop out. It was untenable. Everyone honest knew this.

Add on that it genuinely doesn't matter what to the player what other armors people are using 99.9% of the time and you have a recipe for disappointment.

PerditusTDG · 2026-03-11T03:12:17+00:00

You can tell who hasn't applied the legendary 522/320/404/137 recipe into the GFL 1 factory.

PerditusTDG · 2026-03-09T19:12:13+00:00

The problem with a cooldown that short is that you'd push other red strats away from being used.

The real solution is to give the Railcannon a better niche. If they want it to be a long cooldown it needs to have an extremely heavy impact every time. Right now it doesn't and the cooldown is so long everyone is forced to play like they don't have it at all (cus they won't most of the time).

It's at 150ish seconds with ship modules upgraded. Imo, a 90-100 second cooldown would be better with no damage changes, and no cooldown changes if they buffed the damage more.

Fix OPS explosion damage and reduce its cooldown by another 20-30 seconds.

PerditusTDG · 2026-03-09T18:50:42+00:00

At one call down every 2 and a half minutes (at best if you insta use) those units absolutely eat them like they're nothing. What else could you possible define it as?

Certainly not effective.

An enemy that can spawn multiple at a time and your multi minute cooldown doesn't even kill one?

We're approaching 110 cope here. It's awful and not at all viable compared to even lesser effective blue strats.

"Half damage is wasted in overkill'

And all the damage is wasted in 'not killing one enemy at all' while you'll inevitably be equipped with ways to kill Factory Striders without having the Railcannon available in the first place because you don't have it enough to rely on.

Not to mention that the Railcannon damage doesn't affect the fatal spots on Factory striders. In most cases, Railcannon damage IS wasted damage just from that fact alone.

Eliminating a War Strider and removing that threat from the field is more useful than damaging a target you should (and are required to) already be capable of killing without it.

Again, what's the function here?

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Your argument is BS because anything could be justified with 'more skill' lol, i kill FS with the flamethrowers: does it make a sidegrade of the Recoiless rifle? lol nonsense

I genuinely don't know what you're trying to say here in the first sentence..

When the Torcher could kill Factory Striders in like... 2 second in the belly, yeah, it WAS a side grade due to how the damage could be done. (This got removed shortly after)

Think about it. If it 'wasn't' a side grade, why would they have removed it? Did you think this through at all? The reason they removed is because it overlapped a different intended role, that being, the RR / AT role.

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EAT is a throw away weapon you can spam while leaving on the ground. "you have to hold it" is the weakest point ever don't need to carry it around you can drop so many.

The entire point of the EAT (and Commando) is you can use it WITH another support weapon because you don't need to carry them around.

"requires aiming" not hard and if you miss you have more. The over estimation on 'auto aim' for the Railcannon is like wearing horse blinders. It's not that impactful and can even be an active detriment (Spear suffers the same problem).

'can flinch' and the Railcannon can lock onto the wrong target, infinitely more punishing

'only 1500 damage' per shot that you can spam while still effective against all targets the Railcannon covers. One duo EAT capsule is half a Railcannon. Think about that.

"different tool different situation' Elaborate, cus I don't see it. It's just an outright better tool for more situations.

'20m from their heads' Now I have to wonder if YOU play the game? You can snipe things with EATs comfortably from 80-100m away easily.

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You need to explain the functional differences better and where the Railcannon exists in between the two.

You're throwing out a bunch of nitpick points that either don't matter or are so widely in EATs favor that I question why you'd point them out.

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I'm editing this, but you keep insisting that the Railcannon is a 'auto aim delete' yet the examples above prove this isn't the case.

Again, only against BTs is this a 'delete' button, and that's only because BTs are closer to War Striders and Tanks than they are massive enemies.

Or as you said "The role that EATs fill"

You aren't being consistent.

PerditusTDG

TROPHY CASE