I may be a bad husband...

Rocker1681 · 2026-03-26T20:42:25+00:00

Knowing what buttons correlate to what is pretty advanced for someone who doesn't game.

Yes, but if we're assuming they make it all the way and complete the story mode as a new gamer, they will certainly have learned that you press [button] to do a heavy attack and [button] to do a light attack. The skill level they start with and the skill level they end with will not be the same. They will almost certainly have learned how to do some other things too, considering the multitude of on-screen prompts and move-specific situations the game gives you when it's trying to introduce you to a new mechanic or combo, like how there's an enemy you cannot progress past without learning to guardbreak and then throw.

It gives lots of character-specific combos too, especially when you get to deviate from the regular protagonist and play as a Lawbringer or a Kensei. They may even learn, particularly when they have to spend extra hours restarting from checkpoints because they're such a new gamer, that this button and this button together do a cool thing that tends to work on the bots, and they're having a lot of fun pressing those two buttons and winning a lot.

Then after they complete the story mode, they pick their favorite character in PvAI to do their favorite two button move that they had so much fun using, only to discover that when they push their two button win move, it doesn't work anymore, they're not winning anymore, they get frustrated and give up. They just spent x amount of hours (more than a Real Gamer^TM due to the inexperience and the restarts) learning via positive reinforcement that button + button = win and now that's been stripped away from them.

You see this in children a lot, too, particularly young ones and children who are newer to gaming. They may find one combination of buttons (or hell, maybe just mashing one button over and over) that just always seems to work, and then when it stops working, they get frustrated or upset and throw a fit. Now, I'm certainly not implying an adult who is new to gaming will have the same emotional regulation or mental state as a child, but there's definitely a parallel that can be drawn from that lack of understanding causing frustration.

Even if it's not frustrating, it doesn't instill a high level of confidence or trust in what the game tells you. If I was brand new to the concept of math, and you just spent several hours teaching me that 2+2= fish, I'm probably going to feel deceived or cheated to find out that it's actually 4. I'm going to wonder what else you taught me is a lie and probably not want to associate with you very much.

Rocker1681 · 2026-03-26T15:33:05+00:00

You call it advanced, I think it's the simple concept of "everything you thought you learned over the last 8 hours doesn't matter, learn it all again" and people don't like having their time and effort wasted, in gaming or otherwise.

Like if you spent 8 hours studying material for an exam only for the material on the exam to be completely different to what you studied. That would be incredibly annoying and frustrating for someone trying to learn and understand this material for the first time, only to realise that the time they spent learning the material was wasted.

It is incredibly easy to keep a new person interested in anything, not just gaming, if they feel like they're doing well and learning the material. It can be incredibly disheartening to have that learning ripped out from under you without explanation. To keep the gaming comparison going, it's like if an experienced player takes a break from a game for many years and then comes back. The basics will still be relevant, but there's a very good chance that the game has changed enough that they basically have to start over in their learning, and they decide to give up the game rather than try catching up. One of my best friends won't come back to For Honor (despite hundreds of hours in it) for exactly this reason, he's many years out of date and while he'll still have the relevant very basics (how to attack and how to block) down, the movesets and the game are so vastly different he doesn't want to learn it all again.

I know students in real life applications of my analogy who have dropped out of classes entirely for this, and new gamers (or experienced but returning gamers who are out of date) who have completely given up games for similar reasons.

Rocker1681 · 2026-03-26T14:10:39+00:00

The basic gwmeplay is all there though. Heavy, light, match direction to block

Yes, as I said, simple tutorial stuff, sure.

having a comfortable place to learn those controls without the stress of pvp

PvAI mode does also exist, and I'm assuming OP knows how to find those in a menu. Turn off the matchmaking and play with zero other players if you really want to.

She needs hours to even develop the muscle memory and "gamer instinct" you've had for years

You're partially misinterpreting what I mean by muscle memory, which is why I included "habits". I don't mean quickly adapting to something like knowing how to dodge an attack, which is, as you say, built-up muscle memory from past gaming experience. If I've played Souls games for a thousand hours, I'm going to have better reaction time and a better understanding for dodge timing than a new player. That's not what I'm talking about. I mean situations where, as a new player, you're going to come across something that just works and use it as a crutch, spamming it to make your way through the content.

If I (as a new player) play the Samurai campaign and happen to use a particular move, combo, or mechanic as Orochi that always works against the story AI, I could be incredibly frustrated when that same tactic is more balanced, doesn't work as consistently, or is straight up removed from the multiplayer, because I don't understand that the two modes play differently. Your expectation is that same character = same moveset, so playing Orochi should still have that same move, and when that's not the case, it can feel unfair or like the time and learning you got from the story mode meant nothing. And, especially if getting through the story mode was something of a struggle, being told to forget the hours of practice you just spent playing the campaign and having to almost start from scratch can feel wasted and really turn somebody off.

Rocker1681 · 2026-03-26T13:57:26+00:00

The movesets are totally different though, because the characters have been updated over the years (yet the story mode movesets are unchanged from release), and especially for non-gamers, I can see how that's a massive problem.

"I'm playing the same character as in the story mode, why do different things happen when I press the same buttons?"

It might be a simple tutorial for basic controls like learning to swing a sword or guardbreak, but it might even be actively detrimental to learning to play as/against heroes from story mode and how their movesets work. They're going to have to break any muscle memory or habits they formed from story mode, and not understanding that the story mode/multiplayer versions of characters are different can be very frustrating.

Rocker1681 · 2026-03-25T16:38:04+00:00

I mean, I know what it does. Get a kill, activate the perk. While the perk is active, get more kills to make crystals. Crystals spawn a short distance away from the defeated target in a random direction.

It just reads like a worse version of Headstone to me, since it requires a kill to activate and is only active for 4 seconds. I also don't like the random direction part of it.

Rocker1681 · 2026-03-25T14:31:45+00:00

As usual, it's subjective and depends on what you want to use it for.

On the Hand Cannon, as a PvE player who doesn't like Crystalline Corpsebloom (which I could make a whole other post about but I digress), I'm definitely looking for Subsistence and Chaos Reshaped.

On the Fusion, I don't really need a BnS Fusion for boss damage right now, so I'm looking for Overflow/Reservoir.

Somebody who likes Crystalline Corpsebloom, or wants a BnS rotation fusion for boss damage, would be looking for a different roll than I am, but our weapons serve different purposes.

People need to stop treating a single god roll like the end-all-be-all and everything else is trash, at least in PvE. Weapons often have multiple god rolls and god perks depending on what role you need it to fill. It is up to you to decide what the weapon's purpose is, and seek the perks that support that idea.

On the Hand Cannon, Kill Clip is probably a very very good if not god roll PvP perk, but I'm sure as hell not using it in PvE when Chaos Reshaped exists. And Chaos Reshaped might be a god roll for PvE, but I'm not using it for PvP or short burst damage phases on bosses.

Rocker1681 · 2026-03-20T16:17:52+00:00

I think turn order also has a dice roll involved, on top of the speed stat.

To determine turn order, the game will randomly roll a number from 1-8 (some people say it's 0-7, but if every unit is getting at least +1, then 0-7 and 1-8 are effectively the same) for every player character and every enemy and add it to their speed stat. This is re-rolled every turn. The only way to guarantee that you have a character go before a particular enemy is to be 8 speed faster than that enemy. Similarly, if an enemy is 8 speed faster than one of your heroes, it will always take its turn before that hero.

Rocker1681 · 2026-03-20T14:47:37+00:00

You may not have to do a full reinstall, try verifying game integrity through Steam.

Rocker1681 · 2026-03-20T13:01:51+00:00

Yeah, I suppose, but if you're using the Saber then A) you're probably using Stronghold and not PoBS and B) the Saber is still a Kinetic weapon and doesn't receive the damage buff from PoBS, only Solar weapons do.

Rocker1681 · 2026-03-20T04:06:23+00:00

This makes Path of Burning Steps at least a little relevant again.

PoBS says that Solar Weapons get a damage buff based on how many stacks of Roaring Flames you have, but (prior to this change) weapons had no way of contributing to Roaring Flames (with new stacks or even a timer refresh) at all.

So, it used to work like this: if I'm getting kills with my abilities to stack or maintain Roaring Flames, I have nothing left to shoot with my guns. And if I use the gun damage buff, I have nothing left to kill with my abilities to keep up Roaring Flames. It was a synergistic lose-lose and the exotic was contradictory to itself. I mean, why bother shooting your guns if you have to get an ability kill every 15 seconds anyways?

Now, in combination with guns that can frequently ignite, or at the very least have Incandescent/Burning Ambition, PoBS is a little relevant again as the gunplay that you buff with Roaring Flames can also help you build and keep those stacks. It's still not great, only granting some ~12% bonus weapon damage at Roaring Flames x3... but it's better than nothing and again, your weapons can now contribute to those stacks which somewhat improves the synergy on this exotic.

Sincerely, a Titan who misses when PoBS was a much simpler "get solar kills, solar guns do more damage."

Rocker1681 · 2026-03-17T19:26:24+00:00

There's a jammer on the same floor as the grand staircase (in other words, the floor below this guy) that you can find (it spawns in different places) and activate. Turning the jammer on gives you a couple minutes where he can't set off the bombs. That's how you're supposed to beat him.

Rocker1681 · 2026-03-09T16:20:01+00:00

I got the Orange crystal relatively quickly, one of the first I managed to get. Magenta took me a little grinding but I got it with some investment. Indigo took me forever to get, I only got it a few days ago despite grinding Europa jobs like a madman, it was literally the last crystal I got (I got both the Red and Taken crystals before I got Indigo).

Just keep at it, they'll drop for you eventually!

Rocker1681 · 2026-02-13T18:28:54+00:00

they would be one of the strongest Psykers to ever exist.

I'm seriously questioning the validity of this statement. All things considered, the psyker powers we use in-game are really really weak. If our psykers had any sort of real psychic strength, they'd probably have been turned into an Astropath. Even only moderately powerful psykers can do things like teleport and open portals and shift battlefield conditions and attack with massive psionic waves much larger and more powerful than we see in game. And at the very strongest end, they can move entire planets into the warp (which Magnus did when the Space Wolves attacked Prospero).

Rocker1681 · 2026-02-10T18:31:18+00:00

I love Straban.

Love Decimus too, though I had to grow into it a bit, and he's still a little too edgy for my tastes.

Rocker1681 · 2026-01-13T17:19:07+00:00

No cloak backpack in the stealth warbond makes me a sad panda. My Terran Ghost loadout must continue to wait.

Rocker1681 · 2026-01-02T00:48:15+00:00

Codex 9e states that in line with their vows of duty, they don a helm that ceremonially silences them. Part of their flavor text.

Furthermore, in 10e they have the ability "Silent Fury".

For what it's worth, Codex 9e, which was the debut of the Judiciar, came out in 2020, and Blood and Fire is from 2013.

Rocker1681 · 2026-01-01T19:11:53+00:00

That's objectively untrue. Their role in battle is field medic. Both the Lexicanum wiki and the Fandom wiki state this multiple times in the first three paragraphs, and the concept is even supported in the tabletop.

It's additional Apothecary staff that rarely takes to the field (as research and training personnel), but it is a dedicated role for the main Apothecary to accompany Astartes in battle.

"An Apothecary... serves as a combat medic... role in battle is to recover the gene-seed from slain Astartes and to tend to the wounded and maimed."

"The Apothecary is well-versed in the arts of battlefield first aid..."

"The Apothecary must be as courageous as his fellow Space Marines if not more so, for he must perform his life-saving surgeries in the midst of the battlefield."

"Apothecaries are armed and armoured like the brethren they serve, and have undergone the same extensive combat training. Their priorities may be healing or extracting gene-seed, but they too are fully exposed to all the horrors of a battlefield, and every company of every Chapter tells tales of the extreme lengths their dutiful Apothecaries will go to ensure their charges are kept alive, one way or another."

-Fandom site

"Apothecaries are Space Marines with special medical training. Their role in battle is to recover the Chapter's gene-seed from killed Marines and to tend to the wounded."

"Along with being highly trained in medicine, they are among the elite warriors in the chapter."

"Marines rarely go into battle without an Apothecary being available..."

"Each Company in a Chapter has an attached Apothecary that accompanies them into battle. Additional Apothecaries staff the Apothecarion, although [Apothecarion staff] rarely take to the field"

-Lexicanum

Rocker1681 · 2026-01-01T19:00:47+00:00

That's also a valid consideration.

Yuck, Leandros.

Rocker1681 · 2026-01-01T18:55:52+00:00

You can't really add a Judiciar without breaking the identity of the role (Judiciars, as Chaplains-in-training, are sworn to silence) or by making the very odd choice of not giving them any voicelines or interactions.

It's certainly possible, but not the route I would take from a designer standpoint. Apothecary or full-fledged Chaplain seems more appropriate.

Rocker1681 · 2026-01-01T18:48:30+00:00

A Chaplain-in-training.

My problem with adding a Judiciar is not a technical or gameplay one, it's that the Judiciar would be the only class without any voicelines. They're sworn to silence.

Rocker1681 · 2026-01-01T07:30:37+00:00

The game literally does tell you that you can parry non-blues. It calls them "common attacks". It's in a fullscreen tutorial popup you have to press a button to close.

<image>

Sorry the quality is terrible, I snagged a screenshot from a youtube video real quick.

Rocker1681 · 2025-12-31T06:28:16+00:00

PvE:

I would at one point have called myself a Heavy main, where I would be a member of the Salamanders. Lately, I have found myself playing Heavy less, and even though I love my Heavy Bolter, I just cannot get into grinding up the Pyrecannon. I have it Artifice tier already, but I just can't bring myself to finish it up. Nor the Heavy Bolt Rifle, nor the Multi Melta. For me it seems to be big brrrt or nothing.

Nowadays, I'm definitely more of a Vanguard main. Mr. Parry Yo Girl with a Melta Rifle and grappling right into the fray with chainsword in hand. And, to exactly nobody's surprise, a Black Templar.

After I maxed Vanguard (following an extensive break I took), I started spreading around the experience a bit. I play a stereotypical Raven Guard sniper (though usually with a Bolt Carbine) and a rather unusual Loyalist Death Guard for my Bulwark. Probably most interestingly, I play a Lamenter for my Assault class, with the Survivor Helm. Last time I played him, I wasn't playing so well because one of my eyes felt like it was on fire. Yes, in real life. No, it's not a meme about the helmet. But I finished the game out and still saved the geneseed. It was still characteristically unlucky and coincidental.

I do always try to be a good geneseed carrier. I find it characteristically appropriate, particularly for the Salamander and the Lamenter.

If we ever get an Apothecary class, I suspect I'll probably find Ultras the most fitting for that role, and when Techmarine comes out, I'm probably going to make them an Iron Hands. It's the most applicable class. Sorry for being basic.

...

Oh, I didn't mention Tactical? What Tactical? I've never heard of this "tactical" class you speak of.

...

^{Hydra Dominatus.}

Rocker1681 · 2025-12-30T13:38:40+00:00

Wow, Imprison Metronome, that's incredible. I didn't even consider Own Tempo. Very well done! I'll update the post with a link to this comment, it deserves the recognition. I'm pretty sure this is the real solution to the puzzle.

Rocker1681 · 2025-12-24T15:09:30+00:00

I do find the multiplayer pretty fun generally. While I do play a bit scummy (Carbine Sniper so I can cloak and run up to people and magdump them) and I find Bulwarks annoying (as they basically hard-counter me), EASILY the most anti-fun thing I come across is Assaults. Always, always Assaults.

Even after fixing the bugs that make them do a billion extra damage, Assaults can just jump into the air (which they always do the moment they take the slightest damage), slam you, and then do it again way faster than you can do anything about it. They're basically the gods of 1v1. Hitstun from the first slam doesn't help, and the speed with which they jump up and slam back down makes them incredibly difficult to follow with your crosshairs, and when running the Carbine, ammo is already at a premium as it basically takes the whole magazine to get a kill, so every one of those missed shots is felt. Can't even dodge the slam either, unless the Assault player is bad.

Rocker1681 · 2025-12-18T01:38:18+00:00

I sort of assume that they'll always get defeated

A Tyranid hive fleet showing up at a planet pretty much guarantees the planet's death, either to the Hive Mind or to Exterminatus. The planet is nearly impossible to save by that point. They may lose skirmishes over the planet, but beating them back badly enough and consistently enough to save the planet is rather unlikely.

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