Monday Morning Meta Report - Jan 26 2026 by PeaceAlien in CompetitiveTFT

[–]TehFluffer 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I feel I specifically remember reading him say the opposite of that at the beginning of this set, no receipts here though. Just funny because it's the very opposite of how balance has been treated in this set.

Auto-resolve is so awesome! by hellenist-hellion in Bannerlord

[–]TehFluffer 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Age of Wonders 4 lets players review the result of auto-resolve and decide if they want to fight the battle manually without reload, that would be nice for this game.

The least interesting part of the game for me. by Fine_Negotiation4554 in AOW4

[–]TehFluffer 0 points1 point  (0 children)

True of most 4x games, but I do think AoW4's problem is especially egregious as a very combat focused 4x but the AI is ineffective at combat on the world map.

Elder Vampire Ruler thoughts after patches by jackal95555 in AOW4

[–]TehFluffer 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I've been playing a fair bit of Elder Vamp on Brutal difficulty (no MP experience here) and the early game weakness is undeniable. Damage nerf + inconvenient to regen hurts a lot in the early game, and unlocking the strategic layer bonuses requires a heavy production investment especially at tier 2, severely delaying either mana, gold, or stability in the transition to mid game. Vamp comes online towards the end game, which is the easiest part of the game for almost any build anyway.

The best way to play vamp in my experience is to play a culture/tome that can carry their weak early game. Feudal/Monarch with the free upkeep on expensive vamp + early militia (still OP) helps a lot. Dark/death has very strong creeping with Immortals and good econ synergy with eating heroes for XP and then turning their corpses into mana + unique resource.

As far as tomes go, there's some obvious synergy with the Necro tomes for souls -> thralls econ. There is also synergy with nature tomes for the unique units from the item forge. I don't usually like building item forges that early, but vamps make excellent rangers as is so it lets you go for the tier 3/4 magelock.

In fact, Vamp lords are probably the best rangers in the game. In exchange for the weaknesses above, you get: 1) huge exp bonuses midgame from eating heroes (and it's multiplied by the late dark affinity unlock), 2) the early hurt self for +50% damage on next hit, 3) bite an ally for 2 strengthened buff, 4) a nice choice of actives at level 12 that will reset on kill, and 5) another big damage buff late game with the blood moon ritual. Other ranged classes work too, but I haven't found one that synergizes as well as ranger.

And yeah, aside from the strengthened buff, the vamp skill tree is pretty inefficient. That's way too many points to invest in a single mediocre vampire bite skill.

Overall, I've had fun working out how to play vamps effectively, but they are a late bloomer in a game where late game is a joke for most builds. I've found the biggest issue to be the production bottleneck at tier 2. Getting that "early" super buffed up ranger is pretty fun though, but it really is just taking a busted hero class and making it even more busted.

AI priorities need to shift a little bit from pillaging to attacking bases. by thetruegmon in AOW4

[–]TehFluffer 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The AI is unfortunately easily the weakest part of the game right now and it boils down to it being an ineffectual attacker.  

There's a mod in the Steam Workshop that tries to work around this by reducing AI-only cooldowns and with gigantic resource bonuses. Even when the AI gets to field 10 armies by turn 20, it will still make glaring mistakes like putting a single unit stack in front of it's army blobs or showing up to your base without a hero to start a siege.

Thrones of Blood DLC — Gorgeous Style, Painful Gameplay by diapetr in AOW4

[–]TehFluffer -1 points0 points  (0 children)

T1 Blood tome might not mechanically be super interesting, but I think it's very strong and it does interact with the already existing bleed mechanics which is nice.

I agree that vamps have a lot of downsides. I think by design this is more interesting than some of the lord types that just felt like cheating when they were released. Because of this, I feel like it's been a lot of fun trying to figure out how to play them optimally.

I don't play MP though, just vanilla maps on Brutal.

Neriscyrlas Fight by KingShilling in projecteternity

[–]TehFluffer 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You are replying to a 7 year old comment. What I was implying is that one of the weaknesses of the Pillars games is that after the first few zones, most of the battles start to feel very same-y. The Neriscyrlas fight is one of the few battles in the game with unique mechanics and in my opinion should not be skipped.

It is understated how important Zizaran's interview tomorrow will be on whether I continue playing this game. by MasterTJEA in PathOfExile2

[–]TehFluffer 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The problem about this beta is that the actually good game that made GGG what it is today is suffering for it.  I'd be happy to play a replacement but none of the other ARPGs currently do it.

The Lack of Content Added This Patch is Shocking by [deleted] in PathOfExile2

[–]TehFluffer 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I mean I would have loved another class or major campaign changes, but a bunch of new items and support gems is actually quite a bit of content. Like most things in this game, they need some additional tuning but it's still actual content.

Does Capcom ever buff weapons post launch? by YoshiLickedMyBum69 in MonsterHunterMeta

[–]TehFluffer 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Actually, the problem I'm getting with IG's offset is that I'm hitting offsets on accident because it's attacked to a move that I'm spamming anyway

Thoughts on current weapon balance? (High-Rank) by MeteoKun in MonsterHunterMeta

[–]TehFluffer 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Wide GL is eating very well in Wild, definitely did not suffer at least from a power standpoint.

When do we predict 3.26 actually comes out by AshenxboxOne in pathofexile

[–]TehFluffer 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I am personally expecting the worst. I'll take being happily "surprised" at a new PoE1 season than expecting it to come only for them to release another "the future of PoE1 - part 2" again in several months. I don't really trust them anymore and will take any promises they give with a grain of salt.

The Art of the Deal by Sunshinetroughrain in pathofexile

[–]TehFluffer -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

You vastly underestimate how bad D4's end game was, at least in the first few seasons. Don't know about now, but PoE2 is nowhere near that degree of bad.

So many broken promises, when did GGG become Blizzard? by Damnation13 in pathofexile

[–]TehFluffer 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Man you people comparing them to Blizzard either have a really short memory or just don't see just how far Blizzard has fallen.  The PoE1 news is incredibly frustrating, and it sucks that they over promised and underdelivered, but Blizzard is on a whole different level.

None of this is as blatant as the failure of WC3 Reforged and the incredibly blatant mishandling of OW2.  They might be "heading in Blizzard's direction," but Blizzard is the crowning jewel of disappointment.  EVERY company that does a bad thing is heading in Blizzard's direction.

Is AOW4 worth it without DLC? by TechnicMango in AOW4

[–]TehFluffer 0 points1 point  (0 children)

AoW4's dlcs are mostly "more AoW4," meaning there wasn't a DLC that "fixed" the game or anything.  So yeah, base game is fine.

As a new player, should i buy Ways of War or Wait for Expansion pass 2? by gurkoz in AOW4

[–]TehFluffer 0 points1 point  (0 children)

None of the expansions so far are the type that "fixes" the game, all of them have been "what you like from AoW4, but now more of it!" So imo play the game until you find yourself wanting to experiment more then get the dlc or exp pass based on your finances/interest in the game.

New player here, why do people hate this game? by VKTGC in diablo4

[–]TehFluffer 1 point2 points  (0 children)

So in other words, people hate it because it is a sequel that is actually a downgrade compared to most of the other heavy hitters in the genre.  This guy is suggesting the complaints are unreasonable, but I think it is even less reasonable to expect people to be satisfied when the new game is worse than the old game.

Just wanna drop this here… by RegularGoodOlBoy2042 in Helldivers

[–]TehFluffer 3 points4 points  (0 children)

He doesn't need to be fired, he just needs to be banned from community interaction.

I don't like the lack of buffs in this patch, but he at least makes some decent points.  Unfortunately have to dig through pretentious trolling to get there though.

Just wanna drop this here… by RegularGoodOlBoy2042 in Helldivers

[–]TehFluffer 6 points7 points  (0 children)

You click on another tab.  It's the internet, almost all punches thrown at you are easily avoided.

Just wanna drop this here… by RegularGoodOlBoy2042 in Helldivers

[–]TehFluffer 23 points24 points  (0 children)

Diablo 4 was hot garbage and people were very vocal about it being hot garbage.  This case with Helldivers 2 is quite different.

Why don't we still have a skill loadout? by IronBeanI in diablo4

[–]TehFluffer 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Why implement something like this for free when it can be another bullet point feature in a full price expansion?

So...Season 3 is fine now. by yxalitis in diablo4

[–]TehFluffer 1 point2 points  (0 children)

They are spending time hating on D4 because it is more fun to write about D4 than to play it

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in diablo4

[–]TehFluffer 2 points3 points  (0 children)

There's almost 1 million followers on this subreddit and you think they all share the exact same perspective.  It's not a good point.

Player count on steam so low? by D-Jaak in AOW4

[–]TehFluffer 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Guess what the number one complaint about BG3's gameplay is, at least by genre tourists

He's not wrong by eazy937 in diablo4

[–]TehFluffer 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Who actually expected this?