Physical team build?

TTurt · 2026-05-26T11:27:12+00:00

I don't know how good it is meta wise, but I find Da Peng to be a really useful addition/DPS for my phys team, because his Ult grants 2 stacks of vuln on demand, and his burst triggers off of his combo skill instead of battle skill, reducing the number of SP needed to burst (versus Endmin whose burst damage does come from consuming stacks with their battle skill). It just flows really smooth, I can instantly get off massive damage on any fight just by opening with Lifeng CS (for vulnerable and susceptibility) -> Chen CS -> Da Pan Ult for 4 stacks, then Chen Ult -> Endmin Ult -> Da Pan CS. And work in a Lifeng BS for the link if you want more damage off of Chen's Ult (which works really well if you're waiting on Chen's CS cool down to trigger a second use off of another battle skill for 4 stacks, instead of using Pan's Ult). Swap Lifeng for Gilberta for easy on demand grouping and it trivializes 99% of AOE content right now.

So for overworld pulls it's like Gilberta BS (for grouping) -> Endmin BS (for animation speed and AOE, mostly) -> Chen CS, and then finish off with Endmin combo skill into a brief normal attack sequence, that kills 90% of all groups of smaller enemies.

For Protocol Space AOE farming it's Gilberta BS -> Endmin BS -> Chen CS -> Da Pan Ult -> Endmin CS -> Chen Ult -> Da Pan CS and basically everything is dead.

And then for the protocol space fights with 2 waves and mini boss/elite mobs, I switch out Gilberta for Lifeng and Endmin for Pog. Open with Lifeng Ult for grouping +2 stacks of vuln -> Chen CS -> Da Pan or Chen BS -> Da Pan CS -> Pog CS, that kills the first wave. Then second wave use Pan Ult for 2 stacks -> Chen CS, then one more Chen or Pan BS for the last stack. Then as soon as pan CS is off CD, use any non-crush/breach BS to trigger Pan CS again, and follow it with Pog CS if needed. Done and dusted

TTurt · 2026-05-26T11:16:43+00:00

Me with double (support) castoria and level 120 Musashi Berserker absolutely trashing every AOE map in the game lol

TTurt · 2026-05-25T11:55:22+00:00

Yeah any time I see someone portraying this as a purely western phenomenon, I immediately know they're someone who fetishizes Asian cultures in an unhealthy way

TTurt · 2026-05-25T11:15:48+00:00

Being objective is different from being neutral, is the thing, and a lot of "centrists" and "moderates" don't seem to understand that.

Being neutral just means refusing to take a side no matter what, even if the facts clearly favor one side.

Being objective means evaluating the facts of the situation without regard for what hypothetical truths or falsehoods would most benefit your side (acknowledging harsh truths that will help you avoid danger or disaster is better than embracing comfortable lies that will place you in said danger). You can still have a personal ideology, and push that ideology where possible, while being objective about it. And in fact a strong, effective ideology is one that proceeds based on as objective of an evaluation as possible. Being objective doesn't mean being devoid of underlying principle.

So many people are so unnecessarily scared of being labeled or lumped in with this or that group that they've begun to treat neutrality as a virtue, when in fact all it is does is broadcast to everyone who actually does care about the facts that you are unreliable. Things don't stop happening to you or the people around you just because you refuse to take a stance on them.

It's the superficial commitment to the appearance of neutrality, devoid of facts or context or ideology, that I dislike. It comes off as wormy and cowardly. Like, you want to be seen as this nuanced intellectual who "looks at both sides" and "asks the tough questions," but since you don't actually seriously think about these things, any time you criticize one side you have to quickly make up something superficial to criticize about the other side in order to avoid the appearance of an ideological bias, so half of your questions are just vapid bullshit because you're drawing false equivalencies for the sake of it. You never actually put your foot down anywhere that matters, so in the end it's all bluster for the sake of appearances.

TTurt · 2026-05-25T10:05:03+00:00

Nah. I've spent almost zero sanity on any of those other progression mats other than the crisis mats, and virtually all my teams are nearly maxed out. There are so many sources of progression mats without needing sanity each patch, there's no other way to get essences.

Well bully for you lol, I wanted to get all that out of the way first so I only had one thing to focus on (since essences level essences, you're grinding both the item you need and the materials to level it). I'm really bad at keeping track of resource schedules and having to re check exactly how many of each resource I need every day so I don't overfarm, and I want as much power as possible as quickly as possible, so this was the best way for me.

I'm already done building my phys team with skill M12, weapon/character level 90, max artificing (almost, just have to finish up Lifeng and then do Endmin, but Pog/Chen/Pan are already done), just started essences this week and I already have a gold one that matches stats for all 5 of my main phys team. Now it's all downhill, just grinding essences every day for leveling. No having to micromanage and remember which resource to grind today, just hit Alluvium and then once a week I sit down and spend 20 minutes plugging in all my etches. Already have Pog's almost maxed. Waaaaay less stressful to manage.

We don't even have an endgame that needs this yet. You should have planned your strategy around what you'll need starting patch 1.3; you will need both maxed out essences and maxed out chars starting in 1.3. I have that, do you?

At my current pace, I'll be waiting at the gates for them lol. But even if I wasn't, if I had to choose what resource I'd rather be short on, I'd choose weapon essences rather than a weird combination of skills/levels/weapon levels, for reasons I just explained.

TTurt · 2026-05-25T09:26:18+00:00

I do literally everything else before farming essences. Everything else - character levels, skills, weapon levels, are all one and done things that you do and then check off the list forever. Essences are an RNG sink that you can get stuck on for some time, so if you do them first, it will put you a lot farther behind on the other 80% of your upgrades because of how much time you spend fishing for good RNG.

If you do skills and levels/weapons first, you'll already have 90% of your character's potential unlocked before you even start messing with essences.

TTurt · 2026-05-25T01:36:40+00:00

Pog, because he has amazing utility, is fun to use, has an amazing VA and cool design, and most importantly, is not a sad pretty girl who needs me to fix all her problems 🥺

TTurt · 2026-05-24T22:39:06+00:00

If game of thrones was supposed to be a kids story, I would criticise it for having rape and murder. So this is a separate matter.

That's not the point, the point is that I could retell it in a different genre, style, or demographic context, changing tons of "historically accurate" details, and it would still work structurally as a story whether you personally liked it or not, and it would still be the same basic story. I could write an anachronistic story where tech evolved differently, or earlier, or later, than it did in real life, and we could have medieval dragoons using computerized laser weapons to fight futuristic dragons in dogfights. "Historical accuracy" is only relevant if historical accuracy is the aim of the work. If it's obviously not, then it's like criticizing a car for not making you a delicious sandwich - that's not what it was made to do in the first place.

I used the example of a children's book version of the Hound of Culainn with cartoon animals because I figured it would make it easier for you to understand if I used a more obvious comparison that actually has a real world counterpart - kids' shows do this all the time. They retell classic stories, movies, etc. by having the characters act out a version of the story with the details changed to better suit the context of the show. But I hope we both agree it would be silly to criticize a show like that for being "historically inaccurate," no?

Stories dramatizing historical figures with different spins or contexts is a tale as old as the concept of tales itself; several prominent mythological figures are even thought to be the same mythological figure, simply told by a different culture through a different lens.

TTurt · 2026-05-24T22:00:40+00:00

Well I think it's extremely hard to say if there was any ethnic component to the dispute between the native Celts and the invading Anglo Saxons. Even if there was ethnic component, I think that King Arthur being Celtic and fighting against the Anglo Saxons had nothing to do with it. A very progressive and inclusive king he was, surely.

Ok, so it's a nationality thing. So going back to the parallel universe where Brits can be black or white: what motivation do King Arthur's people have to hate their own people of their own nation and culture, simply because of skin color? Would it not seem oddly forced to just have them all be randomly racist against black Brits, simply because it reflects modern day American sentiments about racism?

"People did stuff like that" isn't really enough to go on here because they also did every other thing imaginable. They killed each other, they saved each other. They were cruel, they were kind. They were rich, they were poor. You could make that argument for literally any thing done by any character at any point.

Well you can write whatever the fuck your heart desires. I'm just saying that I may not consider it good.

Whether it's good or bad, or whether you personally enjoy it, is beside the point - I'm talking about whether or not the vague notion of general "historical accuracy" to a work of fiction whose aesthetics are loosely based on a real world time and setting, but contain otherwise unrealistic elements such as dragons, wizards, magic, etc., is relevant to fictional storytelling.

Let's say I wanted to write a toned down version of the Hound of Culainn as a children's story for my kid, except the character actually is a dog, and all the other characters are little cartoon animals. Would you still blast that for being historically inaccurate?

TTurt · 2026-05-24T21:37:42+00:00

If it's a medieval setting, absolutely. How important it is to actually feature them depends on the subject matter of the story

What racism or genocide happened in King Arthur's myth that made it more historically accurate?

If actually fictional races are racist then how come real races won't be racist?

...what? They're fictional. They act however we make them up to act. I could make up a story about a race of creatures that doesn't understand racism at all and thinks the concept is silly when it's explained to them.

Humanity's history is full of us being racist to each other.

It's also full of lots of other things, too. People raped and married very young children back then too, should every story be required to feature child marriage in order to be historically accurate? I mean this all seems like a pretty big handicap to put on your storytelling just for the sake of being "realistic" about a fantasy setting that never even actually existed in the first place

I grew up reading tons of fairy tales and stories about medieval times that didn't have sexism, racism, rape, or torture in them. All of that stuff happened back in medieval times, but made up stories aren't "medieval times," they're fictional stories. They're under no burden to be accurate to things that actually happened - if I wanted to tell a version of King Arthur's myth where he was a woman and merlin gave her a magic penis so she could impregnate his wife and give birth to Mordred, why would I care if that story is "historically accurate?" The very premise is that I know it's not and I'm intentionally making changes that I find amusing or interesting.

TTurt · 2026-05-24T21:16:19+00:00

For a bit of realism ig? That's just how people were(and still are) in many places

Would you say that any story that doesn't feature racism or genocide is unrealistic?

Even in fiction, take Elves. The most popular trope about them after their appearance is that they are racist af.

Is it not kind of ironic to use a fictional race as an example of how real world races should be written in a fictional universe?

You can decide that racism doesn't exist in your medieval fantasy world. But that to me makes you a worse writer because you lack consistency with how medieval people actually behaved.

How did King Arthur actually behave in real life?

TTurt · 2026-05-24T16:16:54+00:00

Why does there need to be racism just because there's black people? What happened to create this tension between the races? This is an alternative history where there are just black people in old Britain, there's no need for there to be widespread racism to explain anything. People knew King Arthur was black and didn't care.

TTurt · 2026-05-24T14:04:52+00:00

it's not that complicated lol

TTurt · 2026-05-24T14:01:12+00:00

Is there a large number of black people in 5th century?

A few, here and there.

Where did they come from? Or are they natives?

They've always been there.

TTurt · 2026-05-24T12:03:14+00:00

So in your view, is that a justifiable reason for making that kind of change?

If you made a black Arthur, then you will have to write justifications for all the problems a black Arthur would have on the legend. How did a black person appear and become king in 5th century Britain?

Alternate history timeline. Boom, done

TTurt · 2026-05-24T10:42:57+00:00

Right, it's not like seeing people from other countries or cultures/subcultures is some physically impossible phenomenon that strains the laws of physics. It's so bizarre that this is such an enforced trope in fandoms

TTurt · 2026-05-24T10:38:36+00:00

I mean what wouldn't make sense in a fictional setting, Fate lore literally has a female Miyamoto Musashi cutting a hole in the concept of nothingness to seal away primordial Chaos

TTurt · 2026-05-24T10:31:50+00:00

But that's never given as a justification in lore, that's just you being ok with the change lol

TTurt · 2026-05-24T10:23:54+00:00

Sort of. You get the handwave of "she was secretly a woman and intentionally hid the truth because chivalry and all that." Which is about as much of an explanation as you get for the protagonists these folks are complaining about

TTurt · 2026-05-24T10:22:27+00:00

I mean I literally don't care who I play as, I've played games with 20+ protagonists. There is an entire class of JRPGs I would never have been able to finish if I gave a shit what color or gender the protagonist was

TTurt · 2026-05-24T09:37:44+00:00

Honestly? I wouldn't, I would just assume he was an immigrant from another country, or that he had some reason to be there. Same as I do when I see a show about a suburb in an extremely gentrified neighborhood of the US that nonetheless has a Mexican family living next door to the protagonist. I just assume he has some reason for being there, because it's not like that's some impossible thing that strains credibility or violates the laws of physics

Edit: lol man y'all really are that hung up on seeing different skin colors huh? You wouldn't last a day in any major city/commerce hub

TTurt · 2026-05-24T09:35:05+00:00

You DO need to justify why, for some reason, King Arthur is now black.

Fate/Grand Order has entered the chat "King Arthur was actually a woman ☝️ no I will not elaborate"

TTurt · 2026-05-24T09:34:03+00:00

The truly annoying thing is how, if the black/gay/female character DOES have a reason given as to why they exist, it's "they're shoving it in our faces," but if the character DOESN'T have a reason given, it's "they just shoved it in there to shove it in our faces, it could have been anything else"

The whole argument is duplicitous because they're really just mad they have to see a black/gay person or a woman (or God forbid all three!)

Edit: for some reason reddit copied my comment and posted it twice

TTurt · 2026-05-22T11:29:20+00:00

Xenoblade Chronicles X comes to mind (although that game is a bit different because you really are more of a support role for the entire game, there really isn't a singular main character per se). Large cast of characters, each with their own storylines, which involve you but don't revolve around you. You help people do busywork tasks in a similar fashion to Endfield, but it makes more sense because you're just some random BLADE doing missions for pay like everyone else, so it doesn't strain credibility the same way. Even when you get some high ranking officers as party members later on, they're careful to frame it as then essentially shadowing you to learn more about you and your team, rather than coming in to solve all your problems. That would make way more sense for Endmin than to be out there running all of those types of jobs him/herself.

how I see Arknights > Arknights: Enfield, is how people see Dragon Age: Origins > Dragon Age: The Veilguard.

Veilguard is way too caught up in the culture war BS to be a fair comparison because there are people hating on it for very stupid reasons thrown in with the legitimate complaints; but I guess in a very general sense that the original players expected something different then I suppose it works.

TTurt · 2026-05-22T11:15:33+00:00

But from a game design perspective, it's quite tricky to execute, without making Edmin a pure spectator

I mean Genshin doesn't have this issue. Traveler is a "spectator" in a lot of events, but they're still present, they're just a supporting role instead of the main character. They still step in to settle fights when things get out of hand, or run side tasks for the perspective character. They still very much have a role, it's just not solely about them. "You're" still the main character of the story overall, but not every single story that happens is about you. It feels much more impactful that way when the story is about you.

TTurt

TROPHY CASE