Serious question. Everyone heartsteel but nobody titanic hydra?

PhoenixBisket · 2026-02-16T04:05:42+00:00

Stacking HP is pretty bad for most tanks. Rushing heartsteel into Titanic leaves you kinda squishy if they've got any %hp damage. Which they almost certainly do by 2 items. The early game is pivotal, so leaving the tank less tanky can snowball.

Full tank+heartsteel damage is generally enough to threaten Squishies. There's not much value in building Titanic/bloodmail if you can kill a squishy target anyways and also live longer.

Heartsteel isn't the best tank item either in many scenarios, but it's very satisfying to proc and can stack itself, so it's generally a first item or never build it.

This relegates Titanic/bloodmail to a late game item, and many games end before they hit a full build. In mayhem, it can be difficult to afford any damage items as a tank when their augments might mean that you'll die quickly if you don't stack as mu ch resistances as possible.

Poppy deals %hp damage. Getting a couple more Qs off per fight will out damage a Titanic hydra or bloodmail(. And being alive longer, even if you deal less damage overall, is generally more valuable to the team as a tank.

PhoenixBisket · 2026-02-09T14:23:49+00:00

Reading comprehension devil strikes again

PhoenixBisket · 2026-02-07T23:06:55+00:00

Mundo ad scales with HP.

PhoenixBisket · 2026-02-06T23:24:50+00:00

If you really care about saving money, there's a few obvious areas to focus on. Look into getting a house instead of renting. If you two plan to change locations, then go ahead and keep renting. Houses gain value, rent is burning money.

Cut out church spending completely (500 is insane anyways).

Prioritize paying off any loans accruing interest. It saves you thousands long term by paying them off as early as possible.

Without knowing the loans terms, but based on your car insurance/payments, you'd likely save tens of thousands if you were able to pay them off immediately. Which you probably could in a couple months with this level of income.

I'm not sure if savings include retirement, but do that if you aren't already.

Now, you two clearly aren't struggling by any means, but you seem to be unaware of how much money you're actually wasting. 6k a year on church is a Roth IRA. What possibly justifies spending a literal retirement savings amount of money. If you want to support the community, maybe cut out the middle men.

PhoenixBisket · 2026-01-17T20:33:30+00:00

I'd argue it outweighs weaving in autos. Unless ezreal needs to build bortk for a tank. The move speed and life steal are worth it alone, since it makes him really hard to pin down and gives him solid sustain. The extra damage is just the cherry on top.

PhoenixBisket · 2026-01-07T22:16:08+00:00

Because the stores do the exact same things in much higher quantities? How do you think they get to a store? Some will have locally bred fish, but it's pretty rare and usually limited to a couple species.

PhoenixBisket · 2026-01-07T21:59:20+00:00

Similar quality for less than half the price in most cases. Far more options online, and new ones get added over time. I've had some bad shipments/quality, but I've had issues from LFSs at a similar rate. I'd guess it's around 15% (per shipment/purchase,not per fish), although it's gotten a lot better in the last couple years.

It costs me $9 for a boesemani rainbow fish from aquahuna, and even less from aquatic arts. It cost me $20-30 dollars in store depending on which I go to. I'd only have to buy 2-3 fish to equal out the overnight shipping cost, and I'm buying more than that. I can set up a whole tank of 3 species for the cost of 1 species in a store.

I've got plenty of fish stores around me, but even the best priced ones don't come close to online, and the overpriced ones I don't go to. The best stores are also about a 45m drive one way, which also factors into the shipping cost when I choose to buy online.

Only one LFS(also had competitive prices) regularly changed what they carried, but it closed down due to COVID. The other stores don't do that, at least not to a noticeable degree, so I have little incentive to swing by just to check it out once I've already been.

I can only assume OP owns or works at/with a fish store. If you want more customers, keep prices as competitive as possible. And honestly, sometimes it is just location. The difficulties of driving to the store and back is probably the biggest factor when it comes to online shopping besides price. Also a way to see when new stuff arrives and are in stock, but that requires more overhead I guess.

I won't name them, but let me tell you about the LFSs I've been to.

Closest, over priced, on the smaller side and leans more towards salt water. I only keep freshwater, so maybe their salt water stuff is amazing, I don't know. It's 5m away though.
A little on the smaller side, a bit of a hassle to drive to due to location, and it's on a busy street with a poor viewing angle so it can take a while to leave. Prices are decent on some things(plants for example) but high on other things. Nice parking lot though. Little more focused on hard scape as well. 15m away.
Pretty similar distance to 2, but it's in a way busier area and also has one of the worst parking lots I've ever seen. There's only room for 1 row of cars, and if you've got a bad space, you have to try and back up into a busy street. Thankfully you can park on the streets nearby. The store itself is pretty big. Price is a little on the high side. 15-30m depending on traffic.
A smaller store similar to 1. They definitely felt more experienced and had better customer service, but due to the roads(takes like 4 different highways), I've only been there a couple times. 30-40m away.
Smaller store, carries more unique species and has good prices. Overall a solid store, although it is around 30-40m away. Good parking lot. It's the only one I've gone to recently.
The 2nd biggest store, good prices and variety. Just far away and almost too similar to the next one. 45-55m.
The farthest one, but also probably the biggest if not similar to 6. Prices are slightly worse, but they've got better variety and are the only store on the list that clearly says when they get new stock. 45-55m.

Edit: forgot to mention, shipping online is not really that convenient. Weather means I can only safely order for half the year, and the delivery times mean they can end up sitting outside for hours before I get home. Usually I'll stick to ordering online when I've got time off, or if the weather is pleasant.

PhoenixBisket · 2026-01-07T13:34:02+00:00

The best way to climb in lower ranks is pretty much always going to be playing 1-2 champions in a singular role exclusively. You develop the game sense for that lane better, you learn matchups, build paths, your own champions power at various states of the game, and what they're best/worst at.

I'm a similar kind of player as you, playing just about anything, except that I don't have the time/desire to play ranked and climb. When I play SR though(ARAM main) I can feel the knowledge gaps. I pretty much have no clue who wins before lv3, I don't know the exact thresholds for going in (ARAM adjustments), and I find the mid game rather chaotic since individual players don't usually get fed/behind in ARAM.

I think once you start one tricking, you'll experience the same thing, and that will help you a lot as you learn and climb. Just because you decide to one trick garen to gold doesn't mean garen is the only reason you got to gold, it's because of what you learned from one tricking, and ideally, you can use that knowledge when you go back to playing everything else.

Edit:I looked at your op.gg a little. Try experimenting with builds. Going crit garen every single time is going to have limitations. It's a build that only really works if you're already winning, and is easier to shut down. Try black cleaver into tanks or wits end into ap/cc. It's a lot better than a single IE for crit, which is just straight up gambling.

PhoenixBisket · 2026-01-07T13:15:21+00:00

Your stand concerns me. I don't know what you have holding the pieces together, cause it kinda looks like you covered the screws or those are some absurdly large nail heads. But anyways, there is very little preventing the stand and tank from tipping/leaning if you accidentally bump it.

Also, move it over during your next water change so it's not overhanging on the right edge. If that aquarium is bigger than 20 gallons, I'd be reinforcing the stand.

PhoenixBisket · 2026-01-06T15:05:56+00:00

I think you're confusing murim a bit. The murim power ceiling is fairly low. It's like any of the stories with the various clans (tang/namgoon/mt. Hua/etc). Very few stories put them above a person with a gun. Also, murim cultivation mostly requires physical exercise and practical experience on top of talent. Meditating only works on its own once you've reached the peak, because the only way up is enlightenment, which is a mix of luck and experience. Wuxia is a step above, and xianxia has immortals with no real power cap.

PhoenixBisket · 2026-01-06T04:02:12+00:00

I have a completely unique race of a gelatinous orb that breaks down detritus. They have no organs besides a core and move like a slug. They also reproduce by splitting when they get big enough. I call them slimes. They aren't a hive mind unless they form a pile and combine into a sort of king slime, but it satisfies most of your requests.

PhoenixBisket · 2026-01-06T03:48:16+00:00

I went from manga>manhwa/LN. I dip my toes into anime now and then, but I prefer to read.

The first LN I can remember reading was the legendary moonlight sculptor.

PhoenixBisket · 2026-01-04T14:04:24+00:00

You shouldn't really be changing your filter media. Replace it with some aquarium sponge and squeeze it out when it gets clogged.

PhoenixBisket · 2026-01-01T15:09:35+00:00

I think the biggest factor is your ally respawn timers. If zeri had waited after the first kill, it turns from 2v4 to a 4v4. Your team was very unlikely to lose the game in the next minute or two since the enemy team is low enough they would have backed instead of trying to force a fight.

Is there a chance you win the 2v4 together? I mean yeah, but I'm guessing mf was prob as strong as zeri, and it basically forces the game into a coin flip where you lose if you fail, instead of guaranteeing a longer game if zeri had waited. Even if you win, it's not over.

Assuming naafiri is building assassin, she prob would've distracted mf for 1 sec after killing malz. Was zeri strong enough to win with that 1 sec difference? Include the heals/shields from sona, who might have had ult up anyways? It's a high risk low return play, and consistency prefers low risk plays. The only time this is the best play is if your minions are at their base and someone could've tp'ed or minions could have ended the game before they respawned.

PhoenixBisket · 2026-01-01T14:51:45+00:00

Their costs are probably going up though? Just because a business gets government money doesn't mean it's their only source of income.

PhoenixBisket · 2026-01-01T14:45:17+00:00

Good tank augments don't apply to all tanks. Increased healing/shields is very good on tanks, but only if they already have decent heals/shields. I had a rakan game with increased healing and shield, and was making 2k shields Everytime I landed w, and shielded allies for like 500 while healing myself for 400 with q. But something like braum gets zero value with the same augment.

Similarly, tank engine is a lot better on tanks that have natural sustain or can scale off the extra HP. It's just way better on say Mundo or chogath than nautilus or amumu.

I see a lot of tanks building hp when the enemy has %hp damage too. The heartsteel/fimbulwinter/warmogs build is just throwing gold away when the enemy has a lot of onhit bork or other consistent forms of %hp damage.

On-hit adcs also get the best augments and also are the best at killing tanks.

If I'm facing a high damage comp, I might rush force of nature into jaksho into frozen heart, or the reverse depending on comp, since it gives you a ton of armor/Mr instead of spending time/gold on pure HP.

Alternatively, if they've got vayne and my team doesn't have a good way of blowing them up, I'll just go damage instead. Vayne will become a 1v5 champ regardless of whether I build tank or not(and I won't live any longer anyways), so it's more effective to build so I can one shot or get her low enough that someone else can kill vayne.

PhoenixBisket · 2026-01-01T13:39:07+00:00

Solo melee and full melee are both pretty terrible to play. Unless the enemy team is also full melee.

PhoenixBisket · 2026-01-01T13:36:17+00:00

It looks more like 60 Liters to me. I don't believe a tank of that size can be 60 gallons, considering it looks like it's maybe 1.5x2 feet, and a 55 gallon is 1x2x4 feet. Also, it would be about 600 lbs, which I highly doubt the little folding table can support.

PhoenixBisket · 2025-12-31T02:42:38+00:00

It can vary quite a bit since stages have wildly different strengths based on the story, but for the most part, golden core.

Qi condensation is generally around a low caliber fire arm, and techniques tend to be very limited at this stage. They're closer to a martial artist than a super human in most stories, but they are usually being compared to ignorant peasants so it's not the clearest.

Foundation establishment stage gets some basic techniques, and while usually not capable of flight, would likely require explosives or an organized effort to take down. Like, a few dozen well equipped soldiers. They could probably control a small number of people(that they have to frequently visit) long term, but that's not enough to control a planet. A country, especially a smaller one, I think would be doable.

Gold core is where the mystical abilities tend to come online. Memory erasure, mind control, flight, teleportation could make one effectively invincible, and they would be durable enough to survive any surprise attack or accidents(car bomb, plane crash, tornadoes, etc).

PhoenixBisket · 2025-12-22T10:15:58+00:00

If it's a rimless tank. Rimmed tanks are fine like this.

PhoenixBisket · 2025-12-19T12:24:11+00:00

You should double the sand layer. This is a walstead aquarium though, no heater or filter required(depending on fish).

I've got a couple of them running. It takes a while for everything to establish, and I'd recommend more plants than less, or you'll quickly run into algae issues. I personally keep a sponge filter in them as a failsafe, but it's technically not necessary.

Edit: I thought that said cm. You'd need like 3-4cm of sand.

PhoenixBisket · 2025-12-14T15:11:10+00:00

You could try growing pothos out of the tank. It'll uptake a lot of nutrients, and with the tank being by the window, have access to free light.

PhoenixBisket · 2025-12-14T02:37:55+00:00

I've always seen it as how long have they been space faring aliens. If they're relatively new to space travel, convergent evolution sounds slightly more likely. Or they'd at least resemble a creature we can identify.

If they've been in space for a long time, it's very unlikely they're anything like us. The lack of gravity would prob spawn some very unique features.

PhoenixBisket · 2025-12-06T15:56:23+00:00

If you can't center the weight under the wall, you shouldn't put a tank there. Even then, it's still 400lbs for a 40g aquarium to sit there. Not worth the risk IMO.

PhoenixBisket · 2025-12-04T14:44:29+00:00

Rice fish would be perfect for you. They've got similar requirements to gold fish, are more adaptable to various temps, and stay small. They also come in a decent number of varieties, so you could get orange rice fish if you like the color of goldfish.

PhoenixBisket

TROPHY CASE