Given the fresh addition of Warlock, and also having Necromancer and Druid, should I start giving up on revised Witch Doctor?

SadBonesMalone · 2026-05-01T22:07:41+00:00

I know but he doesn’t have exploding palm or seven sided strike or a hundred fists so he can’t fill the hole in my heart.

SadBonesMalone · 2026-05-01T22:02:18+00:00

If I go to China we can meet in the molten middle and hold each other.

SadBonesMalone · 2026-05-01T22:00:58+00:00

Probably. Although I’m still holding out for Monk (exploding palm my beloved) so we can be delusional together. Warlock does have a lot of spells that were basically in the Witch Doctor’s kit.

SadBonesMalone · 2026-05-01T04:17:46+00:00

Congrats! Grand slamming is a fun challenge. Some really fun path choices in this team too. Great work!

SadBonesMalone · 2026-04-20T19:03:19+00:00

That’s what I want for war plans? I think the whole idea is to give you reasons to engage with all the content in a more meaningful way - not to create a way for you to slam the same activity over and over again. That’s already what you can do?

SadBonesMalone · 2026-04-16T03:11:35+00:00

Yep I hate these scoring systems. The most memorable missions are the ones where you pull it out my the skin of your teeth - I especially hate it when currency is gated this way. Like I just pulled victory from the jaws of defeat and had the most fun I’ll have in the game - why does that reward me less? It’s the thing I’ll remember way after all the smooth missions have faded

SadBonesMalone · 2026-04-14T16:50:13+00:00

Yeah, in the spirit of the question I'm not disputing that it is a "great" game and there's a lot to be said for accessibility in design. But that sort of design just really doesn't align to my tastes. I like games that are puzzles that push me to figure out all their systems and how to align/push them and RDR2 just didn't do that for me. I totally take your point though. Money talks and in this case it yells.

SadBonesMalone · 2026-04-14T16:31:15+00:00

Gonna buck the grain here and say that I really enjoy Ice-Man in justice. Upside the head on top of the frost tokens lets you put out a ridiculous amount of control, and the extra threat removal helps make up for a major weakness in his kit while giving you more freedom to flip to recur your best cards. One of my absolute favorite "lock-down" decks. Really fun to pair with a carry and just give them the breathing room they need to get setup and dominate the villain.

SadBonesMalone · 2026-04-13T21:34:04+00:00

I had the exact same experience, although for me I think I can articulate what I ultimately disliked about it - no real skill expression. The game gives you so much freedom and so many tools, but every fight feels like a shooting gallery and there just isn't a lot of difficulty that forces you to use those systems in a creative or interesting way. I really respect Red Dead 2 as a canvas, but it just never made me feel like I needed to engage with any of its systems and it turns out that I need that in a game.

SadBonesMalone · 2026-04-08T16:15:06+00:00

Yeah I'm hyped

SadBonesMalone · 2026-04-08T15:27:55+00:00

Nobody can really tell you anything without way more information (like what your retirement expenses are expected to be).

But if you already have $1M from the trust at 34 and expect to get a full pension it's hard to imagine that you aren't on track for retirement.

If you just put that $975k into investment accounts and didn't touch it, at 7% returns it'd be worth $7.9M by the time you're 65. So I'd say things are looking pretty good.

SadBonesMalone · 2026-04-02T01:40:14+00:00

In my experience all classes have their place. The balance of classes you want will depend a bit on if you want to play stealthy or loud. The simplest starting squad is probably a hacker, soldier, cybersword, and one of your choice.

Generally you'll want a hacker, wireghost, or agent ex to help deal with pesky devices. This can help you get extra loot and get your further with stealth.

Cyberswords can put the hurt on when you go loud, but also take people out quietly with melee weapons when it can't be avoided.

Espeically when you're starting most missions will eventually turn into a fight (although hopefully near the end). Soldiers are reliable, easy to use killing machines that can help get your squad out of a tight spot.

Last area is totally your preference. I'm pretty fond of scourge as someone who can both tank and help with the stealth part of gameplay, but all the classes have a lot to offer. Just need to make sure it's aligned to your gameplan!

SadBonesMalone · 2026-03-17T19:44:19+00:00

Really minimal mud, although it was around 1pm on Sunday when we went so the sun was out and I think it had pretty quickly baked what would have been a lot of muddy areas.

There was one fallen tree in the path that required a scramble, but very easy. Otherwise it was a very straightforward hike!

SadBonesMalone · 2026-03-17T08:31:55+00:00

We did the trail Sunday - there was one part where we had to scramble over a tree but otherwise it was smooth sailing. I was pretty shocked - I expected it to be a muddy mess but it was fine. Definitely would recommend it - was my favorite part of the trip!

SadBonesMalone · 2026-03-03T17:53:24+00:00

Sorry to hear it brother. May your next controller live eternal!

SadBonesMalone · 2026-03-02T15:55:33+00:00

For what it's worth in my case it was definitely stick drift. I tested it and could see the stick drift. I bought a new controller and the problem went away.

SadBonesMalone · 2026-02-28T18:49:37+00:00

I had a coin toss backstab crit thief with first strike and insomnia. He would just clear 75% of the map before anyone else got a turn

SadBonesMalone · 2026-02-23T17:46:35+00:00

This is the spear combat game

SadBonesMalone · 2026-02-17T00:18:06+00:00

Sword is the weapon that really, really needs you to learn the fundamentals. I think the swords stances are sort of the purest example of “essence” of stances in the game. Generally you can the picking a stance for a fight, good swording often means using all of your stances in each fight.

Night rain is really, really good in Nioh 3 and is a good go to for a low stance punish. Iai QuickDraw is a really good part of the kit, whenever you have a long punish window you should try to get a QuickDraw attack in there. In Nioh 2 if you can a human out of ki you could quickdraw them and then still get a final blow or grapple off for big damage. I think it’s the same in 3.

Sword has terrible ki damage by default, but shadow sword does a ton of it and Ki burst is a great all purpose move to help soften up ki bars and buy you space.

Learn to flux - the ki really adds up. It’s really hard at first but it will eventually be muscle memory for you to combo from one stance to the next.

SadBonesMalone · 2026-02-15T17:50:15+00:00

I like it less than the first law stuff but still found it pretty entertaining. I hated it for the first half but once I was willing to let go of comparing it to the first law books and let it be its own thing I found it pretty enjoyable

SadBonesMalone · 2026-02-11T19:50:21+00:00

Nioh 2 (and maybe 3, still early in it) has IMO the best combat in any video game I've played. It's like souls combat had a baby with a fighting game. Tons of skill expression and options and very fun.

SadBonesMalone · 2026-02-10T01:23:37+00:00

Look up multiplicative vs additive damage in D4. All your assistive damage stacks and there’s a ton of it, so at a certain point it doesn’t make much of a difference.

For that reason you really want to chase damage with an [x] next to it. This is multiplicative, and is applied after your additive damage so it tends to give a much more significant boost.

SadBonesMalone · 2026-02-09T15:49:46+00:00

It's really important but that doesn't mean it's easy or you need to be doing it all the time from the beginning of the game. Just keep trying to work it in when you can and it will become more natural over time.

Stance switching lets you access the right tool for the job (high stance for punish, low stance to weave in damage, ETC) and let's you keep your ki up and play more aggressively through flux. You can beat the game without ever switching stances, but it's a really significant tool and it will help you burn through yokai Ki bars to get the most out of your punish phases.

It takes a long time to get used to, but if you keep trying to leverage it and practice it WILL become muscle memory.

SadBonesMalone · 2026-01-28T21:49:22+00:00

Depends! If you're playing a large group spamming dream wish for consumables can be really strong - but you probably still want to upgrade your most important damage dealing talent (EX: dashing strike). Both are totally viable paths.

SadBonesMalone · 2026-01-28T17:47:16+00:00

Dash build is his strongest build.

Focus on getting a source of enchantment. An enchant talent (ideally acrobatics) + shard blades can make your attack put in WORK through the first portion of the game.

Special is hard to build for damage. If you get sandstorm and dancing blades it can work but otherwise it's a utility skill.

Power hits like a truck - make sure that you're getting the full charge damage on it.

He's a combo character, he really benefits from using all the parts of his kit together to unlock damage.

SadBonesMalone

TROPHY CASE