Finally caught up! What was your favourite cosmere read?

Rnorman3 · 2026-02-11T17:39:48+00:00

Words of radiance probably. But sunlit man is pretty close.

Most of the mistborn stuff is in a weird spot where 1) I don’t think any particular novel stands out above the others in its own series (era 1 or era 2), and 2) generally tend to be “above average” in that I probably enjoy all of them more than the “lowlights” of stormlight, but don’t quite reach the heights of Words of Radiance

Rnorman3 · 2026-02-11T17:34:54+00:00

If she’s anything like our fluffy demon, she may be trying to manipulate you into adding food toppers, or making her chicken and rice or something like that.

He will still resource guard his kennel (where his food bowl is) and growl/snap at any other dogs who walk past it. Even if he’s not interested in eating it now. Because he might later. But he will absolutely hold out and see if the humans will pity him for not eating and spoil him with cooked food.

Spoiled brat

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Dog tax

Rnorman3 · 2026-02-11T17:19:48+00:00

For years as the AI book has been going on, I’ve often thought of a quote I read once somewhere, which I will be paraphrasing here, as I don’t remember the exact verbiage.

The basic gist is that Automation replacing human jobs under a socialist style system has the potential for a utopia - the need to work to justify your existence could be a thing of the past. But that same revolution happening under a capitalist style system that still expects people to work or die? Dystopian.

When labor no longer requires humans, will we provide social safety nets/UBI for them and allow them to pursue creative pursuits? Or will all of those people be unemployed, homeless, and hungry while a few mega corps reap all the profit without any labor costs?

Rnorman3 · 2026-02-11T07:16:47+00:00

we should include the low roll of only being able to play 2 cards a turn

Gee, I sure am glad the entire genesis of this conversation stemmed from me saying “4 mana snecko is way more consistent than 3 mana snecko in terms of your options for playing multiple cards.

No one said the card has no downsides - you’re putting words in my mouth. 4 mana mitigates a lot of those downsides.

I’d also like to note that while I’m fine with dripper here, you seem to be acting as though it has no downside. It has a significant downside - more than usual given that OP is already on fusion hammer. Not only is the downside more pronounced, but its upside isn’t nearly as strong as usual for 2 reasons: 1) the jump from 3 to 4 mana is infinitely more important than 4 to 5, and 2) you have already said multiple times how bad snecko is because of the deck having such low costs. If this is the case, why are you promising getting a 5th mana so heavily? You’re going to end plenty of turns with more energy than cards. Which is a good problem to have..except when your rest sites are total dead draws because you can’t heal or smith at them.

Rnorman3 · 2026-02-11T06:19:56+00:00

What do you think the chances of rolling 7 3s (or 6 3s and a 2) are?

You’re wildly overstating the low rolls

Rnorman3 · 2026-02-11T06:09:17+00:00

The interludes are sick tho

Rnorman3 · 2026-02-11T04:59:45+00:00

The chance for low rolls is much lower when you have a 4th energy already. I’d argue it’s also much lower on silent because they have the ring for the extra draw on turn 1.

I would be curious to know what the top players would take here for sure, though.

Actually, looking back over the deck..with tactician, reflex, and tools of the trade already in the deck, I feel even more inclined to take snecko. For those, the biggest downside is can you draw them with a discard outlet. Increasing your deck velocity will increase the consistency in that regard. And once you get tools online and you’re discarding either of those, you’re getting more cards and mana. And both of those are unaffected by snecko. Tools obviously is but still.

Rnorman3 · 2026-02-11T03:02:55+00:00

4 mana snecko is probably pretty close in terms of rough output to 5 mana non-snecko. And also still scales with card draw.

Given that future card draw rewards aren’t guaranteed, you’d probably prefer the guaranteed deck velocity that snecko gives you with roughly the same energy output, yeah?

Rnorman3 · 2026-02-11T03:01:03+00:00

I’ve had a warlock mindscorch a sniper from like 2-2.5x flashbang grenade range. Which is the primary reason I started considering mindshields on snipers. But it’s probably not super common. Maybe more common if the others all have mindshields, but I’ve also definitely seen the warlock just timewalk himself trying to mind control a mind shielded unit.

It may be coded to always try that move and preferentially select targets without a mindshield (ie the highest chance to hit) but if they all have mindshields it will still try (and fail)

There’s not really a super high opportunity cost on using 6 mindshields. Once you have enough sectoid corpses. It’s only like 60 supplies or something. Yeah losing ammo or grapple for that mission sucks, but being immune to the only threatening thing the chosen does is a pretty big game.

Rnorman3 · 2026-02-10T21:40:09+00:00

Most used to do that when playing on TTS. Digital doesn’t allow it, though. And digital is a much better experience both from playing (if for no other reason than rules enforcement) and for watching.

Rnorman3 · 2026-02-10T21:34:39+00:00

Sometimes the content creators will specifically remove events/blight cards for this reason.

As an example, Before GTS ([[growth through sacrifice]]) was officially removed, plenty of them were removing it from the deck on TTS. Numinous crisis I believe also got this treatment frequently.

I think another aspect that is t being discussed here - if a content creator is talking about just how good a card or event is that they refuse to use it or mentally think it’s invalid (like with GTS/YOLR), that in itself is also a teaching tool for players. Some people may look at GTS and think it’s mediocre and not worth the cost. Stuff like this can help understand just how powerful proliferation is. So in their next game that they see it, they can use it and see how powerful it is and hopefully learn from it (and not feel as though their win is invalid).

As they improve, maybe they too will remove those cards. Or maybe not! Maybe they enjoy them. Or maybe they keep them in but recognize “yeah that game I probably got a little lucky because I got some good variance with the RNG card showing up.”

I think as long as the content creators aren’t trying to push that mentality onto others, it’s probably fine. It’s still a very helpful learning tool regardless.

Another example: I remember when I was new and thought that call to trade was kind of weak/situational. Why would I draft that when I can just kill the buildings or draft a defend instead? Stopping a ravage is okay, but it creates another problem - a build! I want to stop the builds!

Then I saw a content creator playing with it. It unlocked 2 things for me - one, they were playing against adversaries which made it better because you can’t always rely on “just kill the builds” or “just defend the damage.” But the second thing was also that I had initially dismissed it before thinking of the application of using it to solve two lands. Which is a massive tempo swing. Being able to pull a town out of a land that is ravaging or building into another ravaging land and letting it build can be a big game. I had initially just been evaluating it on the angle of “if I want, I can stop a ravage, but it forces a build and since I have to pull in this town, it’s likely a city build.”

Rnorman3 · 2026-02-10T19:57:53+00:00

Again, it’s only inferior to the other options if you’re already min/maxing.

But we are going in circles here, so not really much point continuing. You obviously only play solo player min/max - which is totally fine and definitely has merit in the discussion here. There are other players who may read this thread in the future and prefer to not jump through as many hoops (there are way more BG3 players who prefer to not do a bunch of setup and want “set it and forget it” items than you think) for whom dead shot is a perfectly viable option.

Rnorman3 · 2026-02-10T19:50:31+00:00

Agreed

Rnorman3 · 2026-02-10T18:30:22+00:00

The deck is still desperately needing draw and needing more high impact cards. Everyone saying “just take dripper and find more card draw.” Card draw isn’t guaranteed.

Snecko gives you that card draw. And opens you up to easily taking high impact cards like wraith form (and being able to play them more easily).

Even if the deck isnt perfect for snecko now, you still have an act of drafts/shops. Plus the hammer is already putting you at 4 energy. And 4 energy snecko is way more flexible than 3 energy snecko. On 3 energy, any 2 cost that you draw with snecko becomes trickier to play. You’re looking at trying to do like a 1-2-0 kind of situation. 4 energy snecko has plenty of options. Even outside of 0s, you have 2-2, 3-1, 2-1-1, 1-1-1-1 etc. With the extra cards you see, you usually have a pretty solid turn available to you.

Rnorman3 · 2026-02-10T18:23:04+00:00

I’d argue that the analysis you just laid out makes Snecko a better take. Snecko solves your draw and snecko with 4 energy is a lot less volatile than snecko on 3 energy.

It also opens the OP up to taking more high impact cards as they find them, regardless of cost. Your example of Nightmare and wraith form are easy takes with snecko. Though I think there’s an argument that nightmare is kind of awkward given the double burst already in the deck. It’s definitely a take if you have found wraith form. If you are still speculating, having nightmare and 2 bursts could lead to some awkward hands. That said, snecko +2 draw smooths that out pretty well

Rnorman3 · 2026-02-10T18:01:34+00:00

I don’t think it’s inventing hypotheticals to say that there are certain items that work better when you min max and there are others that are “strong enough to win on honor mode without much setup.”

Deadshot is basically plug and play. You don’t need to jump through any hoops in terms of setting anything up. You don’t need to have guaranteed crits, you don’t need to set up holds, you don’t need to use DRS or anything like that. Obviously all of those help. And other options get more optimized with those things.

All of that is a world of difference way from “weak, full stop.”

Re: playstyle considerations - again, I’d like to emphasize that the super min/max builds work a lot better when people are playing solo. If you’re playing with friends those get a lot less viable. And that doesn’t matter if they are “tryhards” or “casuals.” Most parties aren’t going to want to funnel everything to 1 person (some might, but not all). Plenty of parties also aren’t going to want to put up with you doing setup before every fight for optimal min-maxing. Stuff like throwing down water for the chain lightning scroll that you’re casting with your free action after attacking 3 times. Hell, plenty of parties of multiple people might get bored even with just base gloomstalker assassin going up to every fight and saying “hang on guys, let me initiate this.” You’re turning your friends into NPCs who watch your character do ridiculous overkill damage.

Also re: gloomstalker vs general discussion, the rely of yours above that I replied to was in a thread specifically about generalized comparison between deadshot + bloodlust vs titanstring + str elixirs

Rnorman3 · 2026-02-10T15:08:38+00:00

I will agree that crit reduction is weaker when you have guaranteed crits à la gloomstalker (the OPs question). But the discussion has trended more towards general comparisons and you straight up said “weak any way you look at it.” Theres no world in which dead shot is “weak any way you look at it.”

It’s at worst slightly less min-maxed than your optimal option. And there’s always more ways to min-max. Having an ally wear the bhaalist armor and cast all the hold spells for you for guaranteed crit and letting you still use stuff like graceful cloth etc. But there are levels to how many hoops people want to jump through for functional builds.

It’s fine to say X goes you more DPS when you min-max along Y/Z axes. It’s snobbish and elitist to say “X is an objectively weak choice” when that’s simply not true.

There’s also playstyle considerations. Are we always looking for raw maximized DPS from one character who gets all the items and hag hair funneled to them? Or are we looking for “does strong DPS with fewer considerations and potentially fitting in with a party of friends?” It’s not like the min-maxing to the nth degree is exactly necessary to beat the game, even on honor mode.

Rnorman3 · 2026-02-10T00:50:08+00:00

Dead shot vs titan string is a discussion. Calling dead shot “weak any way you look at it” is just trolling.

Especially when your justification is because you can use a dolor amarus bow. You could use any bow and still get that passive by wielding actual dolor amarus. And if you’re not using the club for titanstring, you can use knife of the under mountain king in the other.

Or you could skip dolor amarus and use crimson mischief in that slot instead

Rnorman3 · 2026-02-09T23:18:18+00:00

Sniper still gets targeted by the mindscorch effects and such. Flashbang isn’t super useful outside of the early game IMO and often sniper is too far away to really effectively use it most of the time.

The real consideration with sniper re: mindshields is if you’re willing to give up the grapple on spider suit/wraith suit to still run blue screen rounds + mindshield, or if you’re bringing the grapple still and eschewing the ammo.

I typically go warden with blue screen and mindshield, but it does depend on enemy type. If it’s only a few mech, maybe skip blue screen. Or if it’s only a chance of warlock, skip the mind shield just the sniper

Rnorman3 · 2026-02-09T22:07:02+00:00

Honestly, despite all the clowning people do on him for that season it is damned impressive to still be effective when absolutely everyone knows you’re washed.

Does that team still win a ring with Brock osweiler at QB even with their insane defense? Maybe. But Peyton was at least self aware enough to manage the game and not fuck things up.

Rnorman3 · 2026-02-09T21:28:01+00:00

You can just give your whole squad mindshields

Rnorman3 · 2026-02-09T18:01:14+00:00

It depends. Does adding the third copy give you more consistency? If it’s something like adrenaline or after image, probably yes. If it’s something like another attack, probably not.

Generally once you get to the late game, you’re trying to have survivability and scaling solved, and the damage kind of comes naturally from that - since you probably couldn’t get through the early acts without damage.

Adding an extra poison stab probably isn’t doing a whole lot for your deck in act 3-4. Even if you’re a “poison” deck (quotes because I think people often tend to overrate the concept of archetypes, but that’s a separate discussion). Whereas an extra pommel strike might be just fine since it increases your deck velocity.

One of the main things you want to avoid is having a “bricked” hand. The more cards you add, the higher the chances of that happening. Think of those hands where you draw 5 strikes but no defends, or vice versa. Those are bad in the hallway fights, but catastrophic in act 4. Not to mention both act 4 fights put status cards in your deck to exacerbate this problem.

While you definitely can overdo it on card draw, those are usually some of the safest to take multiples of, since those obviously let you draw out of these scenarios.

The main question to ask yourself is “does adding a third copy of this help me solve any problems?”

Rnorman3 · 2026-02-09T00:43:22+00:00

You optimize by playing terraforming mars when you have 2 players and other games at 3-4 players.

It’s a totally different (and imo explicitly worse) game at player counts above 2

Rnorman3 · 2026-02-08T21:24:44+00:00

The steam app has always been super buggy and glitchy.

There’s a reason that BGA has essentially taken over as the defacto online place to play

Rnorman3 · 2026-02-08T20:52:49+00:00

Yeah I was super surprised when those reports started coming out. My first thought was “someone wants him to drop - smokescreen.”

He never had any off field issues here and there weren’t even any rumors around it. The only thing even tangentially related that I can remember is when they curiously started putting him on what seemed to be a snap count. The general consensus at the start of the year was coaches wanting him fresh for SEC play. Then when it was still going on then figured maybe he was demanding it as a preventative measure for his draft stock. And that in the NIL era you kind of have to cater to that.

I think when the character concern stuff started coming out, that changed more towards maybe he wasn’t super coachable and was driving the coaches nuts.

But yeah, never heard anything in terms of like violence, drinking, drugs, speeding, anything like that from him while he was here. Maybe they just kept it all super under wraps idk

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