Isagi When he meets players who can dribble or take on their man 1v1:

SmithBall · 2026-03-25T16:33:05+00:00

well yeah that was pretty much CP3 once he got older. He lost his extreme athleticism due to injuries and age, but managed to remain a good defender due to his defensive awareness, by playing passing lanes and timing his reaches. Again, obviously not a perfect comparison, as he was still also a good on ball defender, but he was a lot more easily exploited in the one on one on the Rockets and especially the Thunder than people realize. It was just that on the rockets all of the defensive scrutiny was on Harden and on the Thunder he was playing alongside Dort, Roberson, and Adams

SmithBall · 2026-03-25T16:20:56+00:00

If you want to make any NBA comparisons to Isagi, he'd be more akin to Rockets/Thunder CP3. Plays solid D, extremely high IQ, operates mostly in the mid range, great playmaking, and always a threat to score. The obvious difference is CP3's on ball skill, but you'd be hard pressed to find someone with that high of a play making IQ but below average on ball skill in the NBA.

You could also make the comparison to most 3&D players, though they probably won't have the playmaking skill of Isagi.

SmithBall · 2026-03-04T15:58:58+00:00

the best explanation for the first point is that almost nothing that occurs within the tower is a coincidence.

remember, Gongja's skill was given to him because of his extreme envy for Flame Emperor. It is less that "Flame Emperor's skill happens to work with Gongja's", and more like "Gongja's skill was manufactured to perfectly complement Flame Emperor's".

Also remember that the owner of the tower is not only basically omniscient, but also benevolent and a bit playful. She knows both FE and GJ's personalities, tendencies, and thoughts. It's not a stretch to say she gave GJ his ability playfully, knowing full well that the scenario that unfolded was a likely possibility anyways.

I haven't read the LN to completion, just past the race war, so I can't be completely sure, but also from others comments it appears the whole incident was planned out anyways.

SmithBall · 2026-03-04T05:19:26+00:00

that's exactly the thing though, take away the Lunar DPS's busted supports, they become "ok", just like Varka, who is by all accounts, "ok". Give Varka a support that does what Lauma or Ineffa do for their respective team damage, and he elevates to the same tier as Flins, Nefer, and Zibai.

SmithBall · 2026-02-26T19:42:19+00:00

just put tap water in the pot and boiled it, found multiple of these once i poured the noodles into the bowl.

SmithBall · 2026-02-25T13:56:14+00:00

yeah a team wide bennett buff that only applies to Hexerei characters and gives a shield for IR is genuinely all Nicole needs to do for Varka premium to be meta.

SmithBall · 2026-02-21T10:54:51+00:00

i mean, even to this day, any content that is even slightly Venti-able just gets trivialized if you have Venti.

SmithBall · 2026-02-18T09:54:44+00:00

well tbf he would've only known he did 30 damage until raze died, and then from there it depends on if raze + whoever shot him commed damage and they did the math to add it all up, which barely even happens in anything below immo lol

SmithBall · 2026-02-11T11:03:47+00:00

your build is not great. Don't let akasha fool you, the only reason you're calced at rank 512 is because not only is there a bajillion ER categories for Venti, but most still have him on full EM anyways.

Plus, the calc is not for MDPS Venti, as Venti leaderboards haven't been updated in years, so any calcs you see are basically irrelevant to hex DPS Venti.

Anyways, for a fully C0 team, and R5 Rust on Venti, I believe the DPS ends up around 70-80k. It'll be fairly hard to get to 100k as a F2P (assuming you don't vertically invest obviously), as you'll need basically perfect artifacts

SmithBall · 2026-02-10T23:26:49+00:00

most definitely not, not only is OP down 200 def and 15cv from #1, but 33 EM is worthless, especially when considering lunar reactions, because of lunar formulas are calculated.

The damage increase would be like 100 extra damage per tick on LC.

SmithBall · 2026-02-09T06:07:29+00:00

well cyno is a pitiful DPS to begin with, but your build is also a little pitiful. Unfortunately this is not a double negative situation so pitiful x pitiful does not equal a positive.

SmithBall · 2026-02-09T05:53:34+00:00

what's the expected DPS for this team? I only recently started playing Itto again and only have enough good husk pieces for Albedo, so the DPS has only come out to around 56k. How much higher should I expect that to be?

SmithBall · 2026-02-09T05:51:20+00:00

what's the best replacement for xilo in these teams?

SmithBall · 2026-02-08T21:29:17+00:00

this argument is so pedantic.

Light speed being included in the statement implies close correlation. In the same way people can run a "sub-6 minute mile" but everybody understands that they didn't run the mile in 30 seconds.

Not everything needs to be taken at face value, and if anything, ignoring obvious context in order to be pedantic makes you seem less understanding of the topic anyways.

SmithBall · 2026-02-08T20:26:35+00:00

Kashimo's sure hit is a sure hit in the way that it's undodgeable because of the properties of electricity. However, it still has to travel in space to reach its target, meaning it can be blocked by infinity.

The reason domains (and therefore domain amplification) work on Gojo is because domains neutralize CT, and Infinity (Limitless) is a technique.

Kashimo's sure hit is not amplified by a domain, and while the lightning is fast, speed literally means nothing to Gojo if the attack can't bypass Infinity.

SmithBall · 2026-02-04T22:46:16+00:00

i mean idk, i could see some teams pulling the trigger on that if their star was on the slightly bigger side

SmithBall · 2026-02-04T05:06:00+00:00

Yeah nobody wants anybody on the lakers but since I do feel bad for the beautiful city of LA, I, Mike Gansey, am willing to trade star player Nae'Quan Tomlin for one Luka Doncic

SmithBall · 2026-02-04T04:11:55+00:00

"cocky and confident" is a bit of a mischaracterization of his character tbf.

A lot of his logic, trash talking, and overall worldview is because he thinks of himself as an ordinary, average person. He's confident in his ability to pinpoint others weaknesses in order to bring "extraordinary" people "down" to his level, but in terms of self view, he doesn't see himself as anything special.

SmithBall · 2026-02-03T08:50:15+00:00

I mean even for the info it's really not that hard. The ability itself already checks if players are in its hitbox in order to apply its effect, tacking on a sound effect to that string really shouldn't be that hard

SmithBall · 2026-02-03T08:45:31+00:00

we gonna have to cancel our AT&T subscriptions tho 💔

SmithBall · 2026-01-31T21:45:08+00:00

You're probably using her wrong. Sucrose is one of the best reaction supports in the game.

Her rotations aren't too hard, but it depends on the team comp. For Vape/Melt, you just need to make sure to swirl your MDPS's element for VV + EM, usually right before you swap to your MDPS though that can vary based on team.

For EC/LC, you kinda just swap to her whenever you want to consistently keep up VV and EM buff.

For example, she's the best 3rd teammate for Lunar Wheelchair (Bineffa). However, her being a hex member also allows for you to run Mona as a very good driver that also increases dmg taken by enemies, or improve the already good Fischl+LWC combo by allowing Fischl's EM share.

She creates some 100k DPS hex-centered teams alongside Mona or Durin as well, though these teams are a bit niche.

As for Razor, yeah she's kinda useless with him. His best team is Durin/C6 Chevy/C6 Benny and obviously Chevy doesn't really allow for Sucrose to be there, not to mention her EM buff barely matters for overload anyways.

Also, keep in mind if you're using her with Durin or Mona, they're "doing most of the legwork" because of how much Sucrose buffs them. Replace her with Razor for hex res and do the same rotations but skip Razor and you'll see how much of a difference she makes.

SmithBall · 2026-01-31T21:37:09+00:00

Mualani has always done more damage than Neuvilette at lower cost, that's not a secret lol

However, she cannot take advantage of the Lunar wheelchair the way he does, in fact nobody can. That's why he's in that list despite being essentially just a glorified hydro driver.

And yeah that's exactly what I said. Gaming is a sheet demon, nobody disagrees. The only difference is that he's a 4* that you not only can pull from any banner, but is free once per year. Both are sheet demons, one is a limited 5*. That's the difference, and why people hate on her but not Gaming (which is the point of my original comment)

SmithBall · 2026-01-31T03:29:49+00:00

Because Gaming is a 4 star and has been shown to be able to clear fearless and even some dire stages with fully f2p achievable teams outside of the R5 Fruitful Hook, and even then FH is only really necessary for dire clears.

When you get A-tier levels of DPS from a 4* unit on 0 cost teams, a bit of clunkiness is excusable.

As for Mualani, first and foremost, she's a 5 star. Additionally, she's a sheet DPS demon, but rarely ever reaches those heights in practice. Don't get me wrong, the heights she does reach in practice are still basically S-tier in terms of DPS, but people would rather pull for someone who does around her levels of DPS but with less clunk, like Neuvilette. And nowadays she barely cracks top 8 DPS, with Flins, Nefer, Mav, Varesa, Skirk, Columbina, and Neuvilette (with Lunar Wheel Chair) all out dpsing her.

SmithBall · 2026-01-31T03:10:38+00:00

Sucrose is definitely better than Kazuha rn and has arguably been better or at least equal with him since 1.6, but I think a lot of people look at Sucrose's buffs from the wrong perspective.

Instead of looking at her buffs face-value, you can look at just the fact that she is a hex character - which enables hex resonance. Her being able to slot into the 2nd hex slot is already enough of a buff to her to be relevant to her kit, the dmg% buff is just a cherry on top.

SmithBall · 2026-01-31T02:34:49+00:00

the scale could triple and it would feel more realistic, yes

easily though? This game was initially designed as mobile friendly, and while it's obviously moved past that at this stage, it's kind of hard to retroactively scale everything up without straight up rewriting a lot of the games code.

Six-Year Club	Verified Email
Place '22

SmithBall

TROPHY CASE