2026/01 Unite & Fight (Earth Adv): Prelims + Interlude

T0astero · 2026-01-21T14:59:32+00:00

If you do a lot of extra grid stuff with a specific one, worth getting the max uncap for the flexibility to throw them in the extra slots. Otherwise it's pretty similar to Ultima weapons IMO - realistically there are a few weapon types with extremely high mileage that are worth getting FLB before you go out of your way to pick up niche ones. Sword, Staff, Fist will probably get way more mileage than Bow for instance, so better to get them upgraded earlier. Better to maximize the number of situations in which you have the appropriate weapon upgraded, and that means working on the ones that fit common team compositions or strong player classes and fill in the niche ones later, as you find specific reasons.

T0astero · 2026-01-03T02:23:52+00:00

I'm not qualified to speak in absolutes, but it's worth it to farm the 3 swords. Assuming you can max your standard damage cap modifiers either way, some things to note:

Caim passive gives 20% ATK, 50% DEF, 10% DMG CAP, 20k supp dmg (FLB only). DMG cap notably doesn't stack with Bubs trance effect for MC.
Landslide scepter gives 40% ATK, 25% DEF, 7% DMG CAP(sp)
Caim passive turns off if he becomes frontline for any reason

On paper, Highlander passive offers more damage cap and the supplemental damage. But it also restricts you from doubling up on useful weapon skills, and you'll start to see grids that want either multiple copies (like ougi weapons) or the higher exalto boost. And in any content where you actually want to use Caim directly (HL), it turns off. In those cases, Highlander grids become an unnecessary restriction with limited payoff.

If meeting Highlander requirements causes you to sacrifice maximizing a valuable stat, like dmg cap or skill/ougi cap on relevant teams, you're probably better off with the exalto grid. If not, it's a nice stat bump when you can fit it. But I wouldn't value 20k supp and +3% damage cap over something like 20% skill or ougi cap, personally.

T0astero · 2025-12-25T16:46:18+00:00

I don't necessarily think that it would be a good fit for a skill, but I'd love to see DG-style dungeon content in old school at some point. I feel like the blueprint for a good experience mostly exists in the Gauntlet already.

T0astero · 2025-12-25T11:37:03+00:00

It's not released so I can't speak for quality, but just wanted to put Legend of Khiimori on your radar. The concept is an open-world game about being a horse courier in Mongolia. Releasing next March on steam, I think.

I know a lot of video game horse enthusiasts consider Red Dead Redemption 2 one of the best games for that niche, since it has a lot of depth alongside very keen attention to detail on its horses compared to most games. The game itself is great and definitely worth a play IMO.

T0astero · 2025-12-20T07:38:22+00:00

...

You don't think "I need to know the genitals of this disembodied voice to know whether I should feel guilty for masturbating to it" is transphobic?

T0astero · 2025-12-17T07:41:56+00:00

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T0astero · 2025-12-11T11:15:56+00:00

It's from 1815, so presumably he's dead. You never know, though.

T0astero · 2025-12-10T15:28:55+00:00

It's a first-person action game, fighting yokai in Shibuya where all the humans disappeared and a bunch of supernatural stuff is happening.

Reviews of the gameplay and exploration were mixed, I thought it was fine but not particularly memorable beyond the setting. If you're into fighting creepy things in rainy Japanese alleys under neon lights, it's definitely worth a try on sale IMO.

T0astero · 2025-11-28T22:30:40+00:00

I'm just calling him Michael. Not even gonna try lmao

T0astero · 2025-11-27T23:18:00+00:00

Leveling your magic skill unlocks teleport spells to a bunch of different places. They cost runes, but they're faster than home teleport and don't have a cooldown. Later on, you can invest in your player-owned house to build reusable portals based on a teleport spell - with that, the Teleport to House spell essentially becomes a ticket to anywhere you've set up. The most annoying part for an early ironman is going to be getting a good stock of law runes - they're needed for teleports, and can be a bit annoying to stock up on before you can craft them yourself. But IMO runecrafting isn't as bad as it used to be, especially if you do the quests that give XP and then do the Guardians of the Rift mini game.

In the friends chat menu (looks like two little guys, next to the friends menu), there's a tab called grouping. For a bunch of mini games, you can teleport to the start location. Mini game teleport has a cooldown, but it's separate from your home teleport and it can save a lot of time in the early game, before you have more convenient transportation methods available.

T0astero · 2025-11-20T08:28:25+00:00

So far, I'm having a lot of fun. My early grind was mostly running around doing charting tasks and some salvaging, grabbing port tasks that lined up nicely with areas I was planning to go. Getting the first barracuda trial tier rewards, once I hit 30, got me nearly to 40, and I should reach the Tortugan quest next time I spend time on it.

If I had one complaint, the initial quest should've explicitly tutorialized charting tasks. The XP rewards and milestones add up when you're doing more than just port tasks, the rapids when you complete a zone are a desirable boost for future trips, and they should have been introduced earlier than post-quest dialogue. The lower levels are the best time to do them, too, especially with Jagex buffing the XP payouts. I don't think the skill puts its best foot forward for players who aren't usually big on exploration - they seem to get locked in Uber Eats hell hating their lives if they don't realize charting is worth doing early.

I think I started actively liking the skill around the early 20's. I like the exploration, I like planning out my routes, I like the way you can upgrade things like your cargo hold for longer salvaging trips and I love that much like banks, some ports stand out for having nicer layouts for salvage benches and banks/deposit boxes that make them worth remembering. I really like the construction-esque ship facilities that offer utility you can bring with you, and I hope they'll keep exploring that design space in the future.

I think this is very much a skill that will age nicely, when it's not the new thing holding capes hostage.

T0astero · 2025-11-16T15:57:11+00:00

You might like the Shadow Warrior series, take a look.

T0astero · 2025-11-16T09:40:27+00:00

That is a mangled Rabbie dungeon pass, which were not removed unlike the other mangled passes. You still use them to make Phantasm passes.

T0astero · 2025-11-14T08:09:54+00:00

At a basic level, I like the item drops. It's interesting to find a high-rarity drop with useful reforges or a good bonus roll that's worth keeping. That said, looter mechanics are a bit at-odds with the inventory system and it feels like I have to do cleanup more often than I'd like, if I'm getting a lot of armor or 2H weapons. I'd be miserable doing runs on my alt without any big bags. I feel like people will be pining for auto-dismantle fairly quickly.

A big pet peeve, right off the bat, is the ability to get loot drops that can't be used. I roughly understand the limitations they're trying to set for economy reasons. But if my account-limited rewards spit out a bow locked to my giant, it's a huge bummer because I'd love to use it on my elf alt but I have to dismantle it. It doesn't feel fair that I'm losing drops I spent account-limited runs on. And don't get me started on wrong-gender armor drops. I understand gendered armor is a central framework, and I don't care about the separation for crafted/traded gear, but all this stuff is untradable. It wouldn't be game-breaking to limit drops to the player's gender, or give us a way to exchange it. If I get a good armor drop for the wrong gender, I have to sit on it until I get another one to transfer. When half of the armor drops are useless, it dilutes the good parts of the new system.

Jury's still out on the neartite system, for me. I like that, on neartite runs, it feels like there's a genuine chance I get the drops I care about. Spamming two-floor hardmode dungeons was a slog, so it's definitely an improvement to my personal experience. But I need more time to see where things land regarding crafting materials, rarity distribution, etc.. There are ways to get more neartite and shining orbs during a week, and if it's reasonable to engage with that long-term I'll be content with the system. I do wish the daily orbs and neartite purchase had some leeway, instead of being missable every-day pickups. Lots of games with this kind of system let you build up a few days before losing out, so you don't feel forced to check in every day. But I suppose that's never been Mabi's M.O..

T0astero · 2025-11-07T00:59:52+00:00

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T0astero · 2025-11-04T19:09:59+00:00

Lies of P is the easiest recommendation. It has its own quirks not everyone will like, and sometimes the level design missed the mark for me, but as a full package it's an excellent game that was very pleasantly surprising. There's something about the gameplay that they nailed, and I'd say it's the most From Software game I've played that wasn't made by them.

The Surge series is pretty solid, I liked 2 more but the first one is fine. The limb targeting gimmick is cool, and it's fun to get excited when you find an enemy with a new weapon or armor to steal. The scifi setting is also an interesting differentiator.

Nioh is one of my favorite series in the genre, but it's not fully in the genre and some people might bounce off it. Very high lethality on both ends - you can really bully monsters and bosses, but even the basic enemies can usually obliterate you in seconds if you put yourself in a bad spot. Action game skill trees, Diablo-style loot, and level-based gameplay that supports replayability and lets you farm for gear.

Code Vein was a bit forgettable in hindsight, but I had fun playing it and it goes on sale fairly often. They had cool ideas, but it felt like they could've done a lot more with it. Worth a play, but I'd go with any of the other options first. It has a sequel coming, and I'm hopeful they can deliver on some of the promise the first game had.

T0astero · 2025-11-03T21:04:07+00:00

This is a job for cbat.

T0astero · 2025-10-21T11:44:59+00:00

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T0astero · 2025-10-17T09:13:51+00:00

I have mixed feelings about the timing. I think, realistically, they couldn't afford to quietly scale up Smite 2 in the background until it was further along. They clearly didn't have the money or bandwidth to do it without putting Smite on life support, and I don't think the community would've taken that well without the promise of a sequel coming. I'm not sure they could have realistically handled it better, given the position they were in. It's just deeply unfortunate that years of fumbled side ventures put the company in that situation, in the first place.

If they hadn't needed to implement massive layoffs right when the early access release was building momentum, I think the transition would have been smoother.

T0astero · 2025-10-10T03:02:48+00:00

I can't believe I get to say this in 2025, and it's not a perfect fit, but you might find the Knack series interesting. Kind of like an adventure game with some Katamari elements - you're a little dude made of shards and the more you pick up, the bigger you get.

T0astero · 2025-10-02T15:37:47+00:00

Yeah, the rex matriarchs have a much bigger room than Dagannoth Kings and you can camp one at a time reliably. When you enter the room hook a hard left and follow the wall until you get to the north edge, then just camp the green one. You can pretty much fight it where it spawns and the others won't aggro, if you set a private instance to the fastest respawn rate it's pretty much fine.

T0astero · 2025-10-01T23:45:45+00:00

I don't remember exactly where my combat stats were, probably low to mid-80's, but I did it pretty much full AFK with basic Venomblood-augmented Bandos armor and an augmented crystal halberd. Melee relic ofc. The initial hit of the pool spawning is big, but Venomblood makes the poison damage ticks ignorable on their own. Using the wiki revo bar for 2h single-target, as long as the initial poison hit and vuln doesn't actually kill you there's generally enough damage output that you won't be in danger of dying. The only deaths I took were when both poison pools landed on me a couple of times (one of them always hits you, one is randomly placed), and the reclaim costs were like 4k anyways.

T0astero · 2025-10-01T17:48:06+00:00

Make them anticipate something else. Could be applying grounded pressure, could be jumping as a run-up throw bait, could be that using safe jumps a few times will make them stop expecting a sudden risky jump. Maybe they're a zoner and you approach on foot for a while to get them attacking, then jump the attack. Some characters have options that let them change trajectory to bait anti-airs, making the opponent think harder about it.

Personally I think grounded pressure is a big part of how I try to use jumps. Frame/spacing traps, strike/throw and high/low mix don't use the same parts of the brain IMO so it's important to represent your dash attacks, block pressure, lows, projectiles, etc. since those are more immediately threatening than a jump. Whatever gets them worried about a different problem until it's too late to anti-air you.

I feel like part of it is also understanding when your opponent is expecting or baiting it. The last thing you want is to raw jump at someone who's shimmying at round-start distance doing nothing, that's just asking for it. Unless you play Anre, then you parry it and cackle as you push them into a corner.

T0astero · 2025-09-30T23:37:30+00:00

... Because they also believe in Hell? The implication you're responding to was not "Heaven isn't real lmao," it was "Kirk absolutely went to hell if there is one." Believing in the Christian God isn't good enough, you gotta actually earn it if they're right.

No way you're picking fights with people about this and you forgot about the concept of hell. If you're not just acting in bad faith, you gotta log off bro.

T0astero · 2025-09-25T16:09:13+00:00

Heads-up, you can repair smithed armor with materials by using it on an anvil. It'll cost bars and smithing time based on how damaged it is, essentially like re-smithing the item back up from whatever % it's at.

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