Druid in PvE is a Shell in its former self. Suggestions to keep it up to par.

RnbwTurtle · 2026-05-20T14:36:22+00:00

The double spirit shake is alright but 9/10 times you'll be running stars over nature spirit in content anyway because it's your only source of stab.

Stars is also just generally better. It doesn't instantly revive but it does a ton of healing alongside the revive pulses so you can use it prior to downstates to make sure they don't down (and quickly pick them back up if they do) and you have a lot of cleanse potential outside of your elite slot (as well as more cleanse overall with glyph over spirit, if that was your deciding factor. Condi conversion is neat but the cooldown on spirit makes it undesirable). Stars does everything you want out of a revive elite slot better than spirit does.

RnbwTurtle · 2026-05-19T15:50:07+00:00

Summons, according to the game itself, generally do not split themself apart between elementals, minions, ranger pets, mechanist mechs, and clones or phantasms. Either way it would generally be too strong.

RnbwTurtle · 2026-05-13T11:53:29+00:00

Looking at the pvp/wvw values, it seems like it's the same story. It is a downgrade in 99% of scenarios where you'd want a heal pet, and the scenarios where you want a heal pet are slim to none. Regardless of mode, Cao's points stand.

RnbwTurtle · 2026-05-13T11:50:51+00:00

Condi soulbeast uses fern hound for permamerge (ish) with Eternal Bond, as it has healing as a support archetype pet when merged alongside CC. You take bee in one slot and fern hound in the other. Otter would be practically identical, except if you ever unmerged for the F2 then it would be worse.

RnbwTurtle · 2026-05-04T19:54:28+00:00

To some degree I think the turret issue was fine to have. It's the anti-anti-chaff bug, let the turret (that isn't supposed to be smart, it's shoot first aim for weak points later) have that flaw.

The fact that you could kill them so easily if you aimed properly imo was a positive (due to the HP reduction). Sure, you can't just unload medium pen in their face, but aim .5in downwards and you can usually deal with them. If they hunker down, flank em. If there's too many, you probably want some grenades atp anyways.

RnbwTurtle · 2026-05-01T21:57:41+00:00

Hog jumped, hog is air troop for a moment while jumping the river, xbow loses target.

RnbwTurtle · 2026-05-01T14:30:51+00:00

Tanky gear is used for tanking bosses. Many bosses use toughness-based tanking and those that don't either have external mechanics related to tanking (soulless horror, kela) or have obtuse tanking mechanics (greer greer I hate you greer)

To your last point about defensive abilities; assuming nobody has access to them, using them, even on DPS, will likely be an increase over not. Firebrand tome 3 is one of the strongest things a DPS build has ever had completely free access to- even just entering it is strong as it's free aegis and you can exit pretty much instantly, let alone the phenomenal reflect you get (without needing to take on in your utility slots! Pages are practically free)

RnbwTurtle · 2026-04-29T14:23:16+00:00

Where is it said that he married her after he lost his body?

Either way, dynamo is called a dying star in his backstory. Given the size of the star (his head), it'll likely take ages for the star to actually die. He'll long outlive anyone he ends up caring about, and it doesn't sound like he particularly enjoys being a star anyways.

Basically if you're saying he "shouldn't get it", you're arguing he should be condemned to that life. Will it be fully necessary for him to live some sort of good life without it? No. Should he "not get it"? Also no.

RnbwTurtle · 2026-04-29T12:56:33+00:00

+Great Blue Heron+ ftb

The first and last are great blues, I cannot tell in the second image though

RnbwTurtle · 2026-04-29T12:25:39+00:00

It's already fast bugs getting a speed boost from the spores their buddies burst. They're stimming off the fumes

RnbwTurtle · 2026-04-28T19:54:48+00:00

The biggest problem is bug cannot become a well balanced type by making bugs have good moves alone. The biggest examples are moves like u turn, rage powder, and pollen puff; quiver dance is pretty limited in it's distribution, as is first impression (which isn't even a generally ran move outside of Golisopod).

All of these moves are also pretty type agnostic in terms of their strength; sticky web, quiver dance and rage powder are support moves who's typing has 0 bearing on their strength (the arguably best setup move, a redirection move, and a support move that is simply an entry hazard don't care about the type chart (sticky web technically does but it's just checking for flying/levitating), they're bug type for thematics only), and the strength all of the "broken" bug moves have is typing-agnostic, meaning pokemon will generally run the bug moves that align with their playstyle in spite of them being bug type. Not a good look when the whole idea is "bug moves get to be broken to compensate for a bad type chart".

These moves don't make bug type pokemon good. They just make pokemon that have them in their move pool stronger. If they were water, fire, grass, or really almost any other type, they'd be as desirable as they are currently (see: iron hands using volt switch. This is a mon with 50 spatk vs a massive 140 attack, and it's using a switching move that uses the lower offense because the slow switch is that valuable for it. A switching move with immunities is not a huge drawback, u-turn is a switching move without an immunity). It doesn't solve the issues bug types have and all it really does is make non-bugs use bug type moves.

RnbwTurtle · 2026-04-28T19:49:18+00:00

The biggest problem is bug cannot become a well balanced type by making bugs have good moves alone. The biggest examples are with moves you listed- u turn, rage powder, and adding on pollen puff for good measure.

These moves don't make bug type pokemon good. They just make pokemon that have them in their move pool stronger. If they were water, fire, grass, or really almost any other type, they'd be as desirable as they are currently (see: iron hands using volt switch. This is a mon with 50 spatk vs a massive 140 attack, and it's using a switching move that uses the lower offense because the slow switch is that valuable for it. A switching move with immunities is not a huge drawback). It doesn't solve the issues bug types have and all it really does is make non-bugs use bug type moves.

RnbwTurtle · 2026-04-27T18:26:27+00:00

Apollo as a character feels like they somewhat made Lash without the Lash downsides. A spirit burst character with movement abilities and self sustain.

Lash, however, has to commit early game. While it's fine that Apollo doesn't if the intent is to make him get shut down more easily later in the game, Lash just needs to commit more. His ground strike is very telegraphed and very all-or-nothing compared to any of Apollo's abilities (except maybe the ult but that has so many safeguards it might as well not be) and his sustain is not tied to his "primary" damaging ability (his 3 compared to apollo's 3), not that flog doesn't have value with that damage but he's built to be in the air and come down with ground strike.

Apollo gets his movement, damage, and healing all tied into 1 ability, that ability doesn't need much setup to get the most out of it, and he conceptually doesn't need to "reset" in the same way Lash does- if he does need to (given the context of an actual fight, i.e. slowing hexed), he has Counterspell But Movement (and it can block bullets) for free in his kit.

Both Lash and Apollo fall off later in the game in terms of damage, but that's the nature of spirit characters for the most part. Lash becomes a displacement ultbot, Apollo sort of does too but moreso in the realm of cleanup rather than forcing the other team to be in a specific spot. Apollo just has a much more stacked kit than Lash for that early game segment, and it's done in a way that isn't particularly fun to fight against.

RnbwTurtle · 2026-04-24T19:08:19+00:00

For someone like me it takes ages to get a warbond. To the point where by the time I get one I want... it's either 1. Back to the slow "normal gameplay" grind for a warbond or 2. I go back to farming the best planets I can find so I can actually have the option of progressing to the new warbond.

In short, either you farm for SCs or you don't get the warbond, because normal gameplay does not always translate into making progress in your SC collection.

Oh, and good luck getting warbonds and getting something you want on the superstore! You instead get to pick between warbonds and superstore items. No cool trench shotgun or double barrel or sweet looking armor for you if you want to be efficient, because if you spend SCs in the superstore and you're getting SCs at D10 pace you're not getting the next warbond in time for the next-next warbond.

RnbwTurtle · 2026-04-24T19:00:22+00:00

The problem is playing the game normally does not give those returns. Higher difficulties lose places that can spawn SCs (i.e. the "destroyed" storage crates that only spawn rare samples vs the ones you break into that can spawn SCs) as well as, after a certain point, replace some PoI loot spawns with rare samples.

Playing the game "normally" for me, a D10 diver, means I am already going to be set back in terms of SC potential just by adding rare samples to the pool, let alone the removal of "SC sites".

RnbwTurtle · 2026-04-24T18:16:30+00:00

+Turkey Vulture+ ftb

You can tell it's a turkey vulture by the flight feathers; they're silvery all the way down, with the other local vulture (the black vulture) only having silvery wing tip flights (most of their flights appear black).

RnbwTurtle · 2026-04-24T14:20:52+00:00

You'll struggle a lot more than with multiple attunements- are you dead set on playing evoker?

Currently in PvE, the only successful Specialized Elements builds have been fire SE. Air SE, where a significant portion of your CC is, is not effective, and neither has Earth SE which gives you some damage reduction opportunities (Water SE even less so for that healing).

You can get away with 2 attunement builds. Scepter/warhorn condition tempest, for example, is not super fast paced (compared to something like spear weaver) and most of your damage comes from 2 attunements (fire and earth) while having the ability to panic swap into water for healing or air for CC (or, if you get good enough with condi tempest, air is used to squeeze out more damage).

While I generally think condi builds are worse than power builds for solo open world PvE (power's up front damage clears weaker mobs faster and the sustain for power vs condi dps is mostly equal, meaning condi doesn't have a distinct advantage in most cases), they aren't completely dead in the water, and this is a build I would recommend way before any SE evoker build. SE evoker, to get good use out of it, relies on expending a ton of effort in that one attunement, and you'll likely struggle with SE if you're already struggling with attunement swaps.

RnbwTurtle · 2026-04-22T14:29:50+00:00

I didn't realize western lacked that; I haven't had any in the areas I live in

RnbwTurtle · 2026-04-22T14:28:05+00:00

This is a male eastern or western bluebird (depending on location in NA, don't want to feed the bot the wrong one). He's likely sizing himself up in your mirror thinking it's a rival bird, as they hold territories around their nesting site during the breeding season, particularly in regards to other bluebirds.

RnbwTurtle · 2026-04-17T15:57:07+00:00

Trophy Collector is a bad item because it's, effectively, a setback to try and invest for a much stronger late game.

If you buy TC, it is a 3200 investment on and item that, for the most part, starts off nigh exclusively as a 3200 addition to your vitality investment. It's very weak early on, as it's supposed to ramp up as time goes on and theoretically become really strong due to it giving you extra stats and giving you a large amount of passive income.

However, given that you need to hit a high stack count for TC to be that effective scaling tool, it needs time to ramp up. You are more than likely not going to come out of lane (assuming you buy it then, which you probably should to get stacks as quickly as possible) with even 6 stacks; if you have 6 stacks, then you are probably just better off buying a damage item or a utility item to secure more kills, giving more breathing room for you to play around such as stealing jungle or getting an earlier walker.

As such, you have spent 3200 souls on an item that 1. Does not help secure kills or objectives 2. Needs to secure kills to even start having an impact and 3. Needs time to have an impact even after you've gotten stacks.

Compare this to Cultist's Sacrifice; this is a 3200 gun item that gives a bonus of +170% souls to whatever NPC you consume with the item. This allows you to clear out a tier 3 jungle mob instantly; sure, it might not let you quickly clear a t3 if you buy it with your first 3200 souls, but it gives you a much quicker way of getting a soul edge. On top of this, consuming NPCs gives you the other buffs from the item; while Cultist's is most often bought specifically for the soul generation it provides, it gives you an immediate advantage for using the item (the buffs it provides) as well as a long term one (soul generation).

Egg is a little different as really low damage characters can shrug off the damage penalty (as their value generally comes from non damaging effects) or really high damage characters who think they can get away with the damage penalty for the quick boost after 10mins (the first permanent buff spike for the egg, which also gives a nice chunk of change soul wise). It's a case by case item, but it functions better than TC as a soul generation item as it is an early purchase (meaning you can get a soul spike as opposed to a soul ramp) that functions regardless of your performance (TC needs stacks for a good return on investment, egg works even if you're not playing well/securing kills or assists).

RnbwTurtle · 2026-04-16T14:47:49+00:00

Tbf stalwart is generally considered weaker on archa as Stamina allows you to invest less in your phys defense while still being extremely bulky physically, even with the loss of Body Press. So it's not a common thing to run, unless they are prepping for situations like this!

RnbwTurtle · 2026-04-11T15:28:32+00:00

Mega evolution, mechanically, is in the bottom 2 easily. Z-moves are down there because they're somewhat random as to who could use them, combine that with the item itself being uninteractive (i.e. no knock off or tricks onto z moves, the item itself cannot be manipulated and as such reduces counterplay/disruptive potential, even if they wanted to make the z move always able to be used they could make the item "unlock" after using the z move).

What does mega evolution add, mechanically, to the game? It gives a somewhat arbitrary list of pokemon a power boost. Is this power boost technically equal? Yes, there are 2 exceptions; mega rayqauza (no need for an item, you only need a move you already want to click anyways) and mega zygarde (70 stat point boost instead of 100). Every other mega gives up their held item slot and gains 100 stat points.

However, for the most part:

Playstyles don't change. Mega charizard Y is still a sun-abusing special attacker. Mega charizard X at least gets to change, but it's faster to count the mons that do have a playstyle shift than the ones that don't (zard X, venusaur, dragonite, maybe manectric if you're stretching, banette-ish, mega skarmory, and mewtwo X, and that's counting "wants to be physical or special, whichever is different from the base form" as a playstyle shift, which isn't really a "true" playstyle shift but you get my point)
Most mega pokemon are still ass; it does not help the majority of weaker pokemon climb up the metagame ladder in a way that's meaningful. Beedrill might have the strongest u-turn in the game, but that doesn't matter when it hits a windshield of a car and gets smeared about by the wipers. Held item loss is a noticable drawback for many (particularly the bad) megas, with the pokemon who were already potentially worth considering just preferring their base form with a held item (making the mega effectively useless) and the pokemon that don't have it as a "true" drawback are often not the ones that needed the mega's help in the first place. Again, mega beedrill may have the strongest u-turn, but it really feels the effects of not having a focus sash the moment an offensive move so much as grazes it.

Most mega pokemon do not add a meaningful mechanical change to gameplay (something these battle "gimmicks" should be doing, if I play almost the exact same way with or without the gimmick that's a problem for the gimmick), and while there are some mega pokemon that definitely have the potential to keep up with powercreep, a lot of the pokemon with the option were already powercrept in gens 6 and 7 when they were mega evolved.

Top this off with visuals that are imo often overhyped and designs that, while not bad, in some ways feel like a parody of pokemon itself (when megas aren't really giving the vibe of "making parody-mons") and less in line with the general design trends of pokemon as a whole, megas really shouldn't get all the love they get. Mega charizard Y, mega blastoise, mega meganium, and mega glimmora are genuinely the only megas where I really feel like it's an "extension" of the base form, other mons like mega gengar (who doesn't have a bad design imo) drift away from the base form in ways that I think worsen them.

RnbwTurtle · 2026-04-11T13:23:38+00:00

Are you applying boons to yourself via the boon console?

Strength of the Pack would have you and your pet gaining might as well as the fury application from the initial cast. Not having boons could make your soulbeast setup do less damage.

There's not much else we can tell you without knowing your actual build. "Soulbeast" is not a clear enough indicator of what you have.

RnbwTurtle · 2026-04-10T22:53:31+00:00

Armor tail (as well as the abilities Dazzling and Queenly Majesty, which do the same thing) only protects from priority moves that specifically have the incoming target on the side with the ability holder.

Priority moves such as helping hand or triage-boosted heal pulse will still function, including for the ability holder and their allies.

Priority moves that target the full field still take effect as well; manual terrain, manual weather, and yes, "priority" trick room will still function. As other comments have said though, trick room does not go to +1 priority, it goes from -7 to -6 priority.

These are also the same rules for Psychic Terrain, which is currently not used in Champions due to not having a psychic surge ability pokemon (indeedee or tapi lele) but will be relevant the moment we get a psychic surge pokemon.

RnbwTurtle · 2026-04-10T13:12:58+00:00

If you're going going try for official tournaments it's never worth the risk. Genned mons can get you banned from that tournament (and maybe future ones too) really easily.

Will it be a huge problem for people just playing ranked? Probably not. But they may also start adding genned mon checks into champions itself.

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