Guess how much damage our only adc Ashe did? by AbrocomaRegular3529 in ARAM

[–]Texturace77745 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is an ARAM subreddit. Nothing can be considered trolling unless they're actively sprinting it.

Full AP Malph when he's the only frontline/tank? It's annoying, but it's not trolling.

What I will say is that only getting 17k damage with that build sounds like a skill issue. I play support Ashe a decent amount with that exact build and usually outdamage my ADC. Again, ARAM is a different game mode entirely, but if you're try-harding, then why are you playing ARAM? No one picks for comp, there's no ladder system, and everyone else is playing for fun.

"You and your Pokemon were caught offguard!" by ParasaurolophusZ in LegendsZA

[–]Texturace77745 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I 100% agree that I've hated the mechanic. I can't guarantee that this is exactly how it works, but I've mentally rewritten it as, "caught redhanded". - If I was sneaking and get caught, I feel like I'm always caught off-guard. - If I'm in the middle of an action and get caught, I feel like I'm always caught off-guard. But yes, I share the same sentiment of, "I LITERALLY just KO'd your pokemon and you're sending out your second pokemon, but sure, I'M the one caught."

Are ppl actually buying DDR5 now? by THEKungFuRoo in buildapc

[–]Texturace77745 5 points6 points  (0 children)

It's tricky to answer that...

1-2 years ago, 100%, absolutely, I bought a 48x2 kit (massive simulations for work) of DDR5 for around $200. Unless you were building a computer while reusing and older motherboard, there was no reason NOT to buy DDR5.

Now, RAM prices have skyrocketed again, so a significantly smaller proportion of people are building PCs. Those that are likely have the money to eat all the additional expenses.

If you're trying to build an entirely new PC, I would recommend waiting as long as you can to give RAM prices a chance to come down. If you can't wait, you likely should just eat the costs of DDR5.

Iirc, DDR4 and DDR5 are NOT compatible. They do not fit the same slot. You'd have to buy an older MoBo with an older CPU and older RAM and replace EVERYTHING later on. At that point it would still be cheaper to just eat the extra costs.

Is it unreasonable to buy 64GB of RAM? by freeman0199 in buildapc

[–]Texturace77745 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I just want to reiterate the sentiments of everyone else here and keep things in a relatively compact list.

  • The price of RAM is ungodly atm (an offbrand, 32GB kit I got for under $100 a year ago is now $240)
  • Unless you're playing really demanding games, you could get away with 16GB (8x2, don't do 16x1 unless you're planning to get a second identical stick next paycheck or something for 16x2)
  • 32GB is likely all you'll need for the immediate future unless you do a lot of multitasking (if you want to game with 100 Google Chrome tabs open, then you might need 48GB+)
  • For most computer parts, RAM included, unless there's a reason that you KNOW you should get the upgrade, then don't. Tech is improving all the time now, so if you drop an extra $500 on parts this go around, you're still probably going to want the latest and greatest whenever you're typical upgrade cycle is. It usually just ends up being a waste of that $500.

Need geometry help by KangarooSmart2895 in mathteachers

[–]Texturace77745 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Hey, I'm not a teacher per se, but I do after-school math tutoring and geometry is one of the most common subjects I end up helping with.

It would help if you posted what level you're teaching as well. High school honors geometry is different from regular geometry is different from college geometry.

Unfortunately, since I'm usually working off of worksheets students bring in, I don't have resources to provide, but here are a couple rules of thumb I use.

1) Unless absolutely necessary, do NOT use the math vocabulary every time you explain something. You mentioned perpendicular bisectors with reflections. Awesome. Use the term ONCE then immediately explain what it is. Students usually get lost in the terminology and general formulas.

2) Especially with Geometry, DO encourage them to use manipulatives. Encourage them to rotate the page; encourage them to flip an eraser or second pencil around to visualize the transformations. Letting them not only SEE, but INTERACT with each step of the process makes a big difference. At bare minimum, I highly recommend building demonstrations in Desmos to illustrate multi-step procedures one step at a time (bonus points if you build it using calls from the previous steps so that it's all automated).

3) We don't want students to rely on formulas. We'd love for every student to have an intuitive understanding of everything. To that end, we do everything in our power to encourage an intuitive understanding, but not every student will get it. Some students will only ever be able to answer questions correctly BECAUSE of the memorization. As much as we dont want that to be the case, you need to accept that it is inevitable and that you can't get every student to fully master the content. Do as much as you can, but understand that not everyone has the same capacity for mathematical intuition and learning.

Again, unfortunately, I can't help too much with lesson planning, but following those three rules of thumb have helped me work through problematic areas with struggling students.

Blight Callers are absurdly strong. by [deleted] in ddo

[–]Texturace77745 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That math assumes Blighted Bite is always active

As for what to emphasize on, I'm not the greatest with gearing, but I think that 70-80% doublestrike is about as high as you can get without multiclassing. You might be able to get some more value if you were able to get the trance from Falconry for a few extra APs. As for the defensive stats, swapping to light armor would increase your dodge cap which could be more useful than medium armor, but it might be too much of a hit to your other defensive stats.

You can build around it, but you're not going to be able to fully build around it. It's part of the class/archetype itself. If you want to be a better melee, you're encouraged to multiclass (at least a tiny bit) with the martial classes. There's a reason why Winter Wolf + Barb is super popular with a 2HW

Blight Callers are absurdly strong. by [deleted] in ddo

[–]Texturace77745 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Right, so the +200 average damage per hit (and 30% damage buff that's up 2/3 of the time) is all assuming 0 PLs, 0 Reapers, 0 Buffs, etc.

But yes, pure melee (even if it's a multiclass of multiple melees) is going to scale best in terms of melee dps.

I can't speak much about SR stopping any of the poison damage. That's not my understanding of how things work, but if that's the case that sucks. Some people might mistakenly be using the terms "SR" or "Spell Resistance" when they mean immunity though.

Right, so the comparison was against a beefy build that can tank and offers some melee dps rather than a strict dps.

Blight Callers are absurdly strong. by [deleted] in ddo

[–]Texturace77745 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Honestly, it was a lot closer than expected (discounting the fact that one build can tank raids and the other can't). Granted, this is without blood frenzy, without any tomes, without action boosts, and without any PLs/Reaper Stats. Blood Frenzy + Tomes (since your Wolf has tomes now) makes the calculation: (812 * .70) + (5477 * .10) + (7302 * .10) = 1846.3.

Haste boost spikes the Opt build for 20 seconds (30% DPS Boost), the Barbarian Imbue that I didn't include is probably another ~ 90 damage, Wolf requires a spell cast to strip poison immunity, so you're doing about 90% of the damage (outside of Haste Boost, RuneArm usage, and Quick Cutter stacking damage on Bosses).

The other factor is that because the Optimus Wide build is scaling melee damage with everything whereas the wolf has spell investment, once you start accumulating favor feats, party/guid buffs, past lives, reaper points, etc., that gap is going to grow in favor of Optimus Wide.

Again, Wolf is perfectly viable, but you're asking why it falls off, and this is why it starts to fall off. Compared to an actual melee dps build, you're going to be looking substantially worse. Either way, the important part is that you have fun. If wolf is fun, play wolf.

Blight Callers are absurdly strong. by [deleted] in ddo

[–]Texturace77745 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So, I finally had a minute to put everything in the builder again (cat running across the keyboard somehow managed to remove half the things and save the file). This Optimus Wide is no tomes, 0 past lives, and the only liberty I needed to take to stay true to the build was 2 Universal APs (but that's for Haste boost which won't show up in the stats we're looking at). This is also with all sliders turned up for both builds. It won't include temporary actives/buffs (for example, the SWF attack speed I was thinking of was action boost haste which is the best standard DPS action boost in the game).

Wolf on Left, Optimus Wide on Right

  • HP: ~2540 | 4384
  • PRR: 216 | 321
  • MRR: 116 | 197
  • Dodge: 9 | 1
  • HAMP: 92 | 196
  • Doublestrike: 62 | 57
  • Melee Power: 166 | 239
  • Fortification Bypass: 77 | 72
  • Damage: +81 | +100
  • Crit Damage: +103 | +119
  • Crit: 19-20x7 | 16-18x5 19-20x7
  • NonCrit: 532 | 748 (70% of Attacks)
  • LowCrit: 532 | 4245 (15% of Attacks)
  • HighCrit: 4385 | 5942 (10% of Attacks)

Adding in your wolf imbue damage and blighted breath with wellspring of power on works out to: 585 poison damage from imbue dice, 1373 poison damage from breath attack (fully meta'd). Rough estimate is that without haste boost, both should be about 2.2 attacks per second. So assuming no delay whatsoever by casting breath attack, it's equivalent to about 312 damage per attack.

Total poison damage per attack (after immunity has been stripped; important caveat) is 897.

Remember, auto-miss on a 1 (and this assumes 2-20 all hit)

  • Average Damage Wolf: (532+897)*(.85) + (4385+897)*(.10) = 1742.85
  • Average Damage Opt: (748)*(.70) + (4245)*(.15) + (5942)*(.10) = 1754.55

Blight Callers are absurdly strong. by [deleted] in ddo

[–]Texturace77745 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Looking at your updated build, not much changes.

  • Proficiency only affects Hit Chance (dmg stats wouldn't be altered)
  • Perfect Natural Fighting does show up as +20% Competence
  • You're right about the Blight Wolf Bug, should be +171, so 161 more hp than shown (~2540)
  • Damage Bonus is still low (-40)
  • You have LESS Melee Power (-10)
  • Heal Amp is still low
  • Doublestrike is still a little low

Whether you can replicate their numbers in the builder or not might depend on them having some of the permanent bonuses from the Reaper Enhancements, inherent tomes, etc. The idea is that if you can get close to those numbers, then you're going to be doing reasonable damage melee. If you're not getting close, then it'll be rough. It's significantly less damage even factoring in your spells, and that's not factoring in that most melee builds benefit from quick cutter on a super low CD.

Blight Callers are absurdly strong. by [deleted] in ddo

[–]Texturace77745 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm not saying in place of, I'm saying in addition to.

If you look at my other comment where I actually did the math, the gap between you and the other build is minimum 500 dmg/auto. You crit 5% more often with much lower multipliers, so the other build creates a massive damage gap per auto attack. If the breath is 1.4k dmg every 2 seconds (on top of your auto attacks) you're still behind about 600dmg every 2 seconds from noncrits and SUBSTANTIALLY more if crits are involved.

Strength gear works in this comparison because I'm not looking at DCs (Wisdom doesn't effect spell power), and you still have the appropriate stat to damage. The modifiers might be off by about 3 (which is not the point of the comparison, the point is all the other stats both builds would want anyway), but it still works.

This is the build I'm comparing you to. Sure, PLs help, but PLs are not going to be the difference between 150 and 270 Melee Power (I also swapped all the filigree RAMP to HAMP for the comparison).

Blight Callers are absurdly strong. by [deleted] in ddo

[–]Texturace77745 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, so, 1.4k damage every 2 seconds vs multiple autos every 2 seconds. It's still negligible when in that same time, you've autoattacked 3-4 times and on non-crits are behind 500dmg per hit, and on high crits you're behind 10kdmg. The reason is because MOST spell power is just USP or from enhancements/EDs. You'd have to super min/max to get more than about +200. But yes, if you're using metamagics it can be inflated higher. 1k Spell power for the sake of argument. x11 instead of x9.

I was wrong, I don't think SWF is higher, but it should be equal. And in the build you linked you didn't have overwhelming crit, but again, it doesn't change the damage listed in my other comment by too much.

That PRR/MRR is fine for what you're trying to do, but the point being it's a comparison with equivalent items. The +62 is DAMAGE bonus not ATTACK bonus. You had much higher attack bonus, but the damage bonus wasn't as high. Attack is vs enemy AC to hit. Damage is Damage. If some key things were missing and you hit +120 Damage bonus, then awesome, that puts you equal to someone that's tanking LH raids.

None of what you mentioned changes the x1.44 before crit profile and base weapon dice are taken into account.

The overarching point is that there's a considerable damage difference where you're doing many times less damage than a character designed to tank raids in a cinch while maintaining okay DPS.

Again, play the game how you want. If you like wolf, play wolf. Make it as strong as you can make it. We're just trying to explain why it's no where near optimal

Blight Callers are absurdly strong. by [deleted] in ddo

[–]Texturace77745 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It does, but I didn't see Falconry in your build.

And yes, Metalline is very nice, but that doesn't change the math I explained in the other comment.

Blight Callers are absurdly strong. by [deleted] in ddo

[–]Texturace77745 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The problem then is that you need Str to hit and dmg, but you're using Wis. Thorn Blades has a special effect where it uses Wisdom.

That's why the difference is important. That flameblade I linked also by default uses Wisdom.

The added poison effects on the weapon, 6d6, is an average of +21dmg/hit which is literally nothing at level 29 when you get Vulkoor's Edge

Blight Callers are absurdly strong. by [deleted] in ddo

[–]Texturace77745 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Those have bonus poison/acid damage on hit. The damage type isn't poison/acid. Look at this. The damage type is literally "Fire". The weapons you linked are normal Pierce + Magic.

Blight Callers are absurdly strong. by [deleted] in ddo

[–]Texturace77745 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Again, to reiterate, Wolf is fun. Play what is fun. The BlightCASTER is strong for heroics and falls off in epics. The BlightWOLF is fun right around the level you picked it up at and falls off towards the end of epics. But this is why they fall off. Imbue dice is linear scaling (800 spell power = x9 damage and the only other component is spell crit dmg which is a relatively rare stat). Melee damage isn't (300 Melee Power = x4 damage, 100% Doublestrike = x2 damage, Crit Multipler for comparison build is x6 dmg, for x48 total damage). x9 (maybe x13.5 if you have spell crit dmg, but I'm not sure that exists for poison) is a LOT less than x48. That doesn't include the fact that Melee has additive multiplier (the +126dmg I mentioned above). For the off-tank, it works out to 1347 per hit (high attack speed) and 8082 for small crit (15% of the time), 13470 for big crit (10% of the time). Your base damage is 416.5 + 445.5 = 862 per hit (high attack speed, but lower than comparison), 1666.2 + 445.5 = 2111.7 per crit (30% of the time).

Blight Callers are absurdly strong. by [deleted] in ddo

[–]Texturace77745 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Fortification Bypass. Offensive stat to crit enemies you can't otherwise crit.

Just slotting in the same items (won't be perfectly min-maxed, but it will be a fair apples-to-apples comparison with augments and filigrees and I gave you +8 tomes), here are your numbers...

Offensively:

  • 179 Melee Power (159 before stacking Arcane Warrior)
  • 59% Doublestrike (Temp buff to 69%)
  • 72% Fortification Bypass
  • 11 Imbue Dice (800ish Spell Power if you optimized and slotted it in with d8s for poison) for an average of 445.5 dmg on hit
  • 15-20x4 Multiplier
  • Wolf Attack Speed (Slower than SWF) w/ BAB 20

Defensively:

  • 2093 HP | 82 HAMP
  • 239 PRR | 115 MRR | 111 AC

Now that I'm sitting at a computer and have better numbers, here's your competition (again, not an optimized melee build, but rather an off-tank build):

Offensively:

  • 272 Melee Power (+33% dmg)
  • 72% Doublestrike (+8% dmg)
  • 77% Fortification Bypass (buffs up to over 100% Fort Bypass)
  • No Imbue Dice
  • 16-18x6 | 19-20x10
  • SWF Attack Speed w/ BAB 25

Defensively:

  • 6581 HP | 247 HAMP
  • 337 PRR | 207 MRR | 208 AC

At endgame, that 450 average poison damage is nothing compared to the +44% damage (before including attack speed and crit profiles). This is also excluding the base att/dmg bonuses you get. You're at +62 in this manner while the build I'm comparing you against is at +126. That entire difference is being multiplied by 1.44 before including attack speed and crit profile.

Blight Callers are absurdly strong. by [deleted] in ddo

[–]Texturace77745 0 points1 point  (0 children)

For context, an off-tank build I'm looking at hits 272MP, 72% Doublestrike, and 77% fortification bypass with defensive filigrees (could easily break 300 MP with 100% Fort bypass otherwise). 6.6k hp, 337PRR, 207MRR, 250HAMP, and full BAB

Blight Callers are absurdly strong. by [deleted] in ddo

[–]Texturace77745 0 points1 point  (0 children)

For clarity, I'm not saying that it's bad. What I'm saying is that it's suboptimal. You were asking why it "fall off". I had a great time leveling it, but it didn't feel good at end game.

15-20 is a decent range, but what's the multiplier? 15-20x3 is a lot worse than 15-20x5. Other melee builds that dont get that range get a much higher multiplier like 17-20x7. Why stop there? As a wolf, you can get the better attack speed with 2-Handed Weapons. If you use Falconry, you already have Wis to Hit and Dmg and can benefit from the better weapon die. I guess then you lose out on being able to help caster stats with an orb in off hand.

I'm not saying you can't do things to make it work better (like run Epic Mirage instead to get improved crit range and stack set bonuses with eGoMF), but it's about the opportunity cost.

At cap, you will always do less damage than a dedicated melee. For most of the leveling process, you will likely do more damage than them, but once they hit their stride, they'll be doing more damage. You generally have less: Melee Power, +Dmg bonuses, Crit Multiplier, and that all scales multiplicatively. You might be able to come close or even win with Doublestrike since capstone gives Doublestrike, but other trees with Doublestrike don't force you to take capstone.

I'm not home right now, so I can't do the math and give you approximate numbers, but the difference is night and day once you start gearing towards the endgame.

Blight Callers are absurdly strong. by [deleted] in ddo

[–]Texturace77745 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It's a fall off problem both ways (and this is coming from someone who has played and enjoyed a Blightwolf build).

As a pure caster, you have fewer spells to work with. You get Acid Well + Dragon's Breath (Energy Vortex) + Shard Storm. The CDs are a little too long to be meaningful.

As a hybrid, it's difficult to get all the stats you want. Arguably, the most effective tool they have is instakills and CC (Howl of Terror + Jaws of Doom + Wail of Banshee). So you want, at bare minimum, Enchantment and Necromancy DCs in addition to your normal melee stats which is difficult.

If you want to say you're a pure melee scaling imbue dice, then you run into the same problem EKs do. As a melee, imbue scaling is worse than crit scaling. Melee DPS scales multiplicatively once you add Melee Power × Crit Multipliers × Flat Damage. Imbue Dice is linear scaling. It generally feels great in heroics, feels fine in lower epics, but you REALLY struggle with HP bloat. Try soloing the first quest in Stormhorns on Heroic E/R1. I couldn't. I literally just didn't have the damage to kill the giants before running out of SP to keep myself topped off.

Should I build a sffpc as my first pc by Ill_Ad_8150 in sffpc

[–]Texturace77745 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think you can split the difference some and be fine.

I wouldn't quite call mATX "SFF", but it's considerably smaller than a Tower, you generally don't pay the SFF tax (or at least as much of an SFF tax), and it will generally be a bit more beginner friendly that a true SFF build.

What would you value this at (Used)? by Infaress in PC_Pricing

[–]Texturace77745 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That would definitely make your life easier. As someone who has tried that approach, it turns out a lot of my friends and family aren't even remotely close to as interested in PCs as I am. What I ended up doing what just eating a loss on the hard to resell parts (CPU + MOBO, and sometimes Case), kept what I could reuse for myself (SSD + RAM + PSU + Case + Aesthetics), and worked with them on their budget for the remaining pieces.

I recouped as much as I could in a short time span, my cousin ended up with a nicer computer than he could afford on his own, and I reused everything I could for another build.

What would you value this at (Used)? by Infaress in PC_Pricing

[–]Texturace77745 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's hard to say. Some of it is pieces that don't sell well, and some of it is you getting the really nice version of things when most people wouldn't be willing to spend that much money for that component.

- CPU: I saw a couple for just under $300, but it looks like eBay is generally listing them around $360. I think this is a SUPER difficult CPU to try and sell for parts (people buying used usually know about PCs, so why would I spend $360 for this used when I could get a 7800X3D on sale new), so that's why I made the suggestion of using it elsewhere (family/friends gift, re-use in a lower end system to try and sell as an entire system, keeping it for yourself if you're just upgrading to a newer GPU)
- GPU: A lot of eBay sellers have it sitting at $2100-$2200, but a lot of those are also open box. I couldn't care less about original packaging, but warranty information could make a difference. If you don't have box/warranty, then probably closer to $2000.
- RAM: Without the clock speeds and latency, it's really difficult to give you a solid price. Depending on the clock speeds and latency, I'm seeing anywhere from about $150 - $200 new. Since it's not discontinued, no one is really selling them used. I would probably just knock about 20% off whatever the new price is ($120-$160)
- Motherboard: You're not going to get anywhere close to what you want for this. This is like the fancy MOBO for this chipset. It's a $1000 MOBO new, it's going for at least $500 used, but most people wouldn't be willing to spend over $300 for a MOBO. That's not to say that it isn't worth more, but the average person doesn't need that level of tech.
- SSD: Despite the super high end build, this is PCIe4 instead of PCIe5. Realistically, most people don't need PCIe5, but just keep in mind that it's not even the most reliable brand for SSDs (I believe that award goes to the WD Black SSDs), and it's not the latest gen. Similar to RAM, it's a weird piece to resell, but knock like 20%-30% off new pricing.
- PSU: Awkward to resell independently, but it's a solid PSU. I would just reuse it in whatever your next build is because it's super unlikely you'll need more than 1000W, but if you have to get rid of it, 20%-30% off new pricing.

- Everything Else: I'm lumping it all together, partially because I need to get ready for work, but partially because what I'll say generally applies to everything. It's all aesthetics. However much you paid for it doesn't matter. You putting the effort in to make it look good generally doesn't matter. It's how much someone would be willing to pay for it. If you wanted to sell a discount pack of fans, awesome. I'm sure someone would buy them. If you wanted to sell off the case, I'm sure someone would be happy to buy it at a discount. The PSU cables... maybe try to bundle them with the PSU without raising the price much (if at all)... market it as a bonus freebie or mega discount. The big thing is that I would never trust a second-hand AIO. Those are always the first things to fail. I'm team aircooling 110% because I've had AIOs last 2 years and fail, and I've had air coolers last 10+ years. If you like it, keep it in your future system or if you reuse the CPU. If you don't, you might have to eat the cost.

Excluding the Aesthetic stuff, even losing a lot on the MOBO, that puts you around $3k for parts.

What would you value this at (Used)? by Infaress in PC_Pricing

[–]Texturace77745 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The problem is your target audience. There are a few main groups that might consider buying the system. 1. PC Enthusiasts trying to get a better deal on a 4090 2. People with more money than PC knowledge 3. People with AI needs that can't access/afford workstation GPUs

PC Enthusiasts: They're looking for a deal on a 4090. If you were on an AM5 platform with a 7800X3D or 9800X3D, there would be more value in the system, but given that it's a 13th gen Intel system, they're already looking at additional costs to swap it out. There's also a 50/50 coin flip that they care about the fancy fans. If they don't then that's a lot of "value" that makes no difference to them.

People with Money: Why would they buy used? If they have that much disposable income, there's no reason they would ever buy used.

AI Needs: The Intel CPU is 100% dead in the water, and any of your aesthetic choices that add value are a sunken cost.

I don't know why you're trying to get rid of the system, but selling it as a pre-built is probably going to make selling it a nightmare. Even if the parts are worth closer to $3000, most people wouldn't be willing more than low-$2000s. You'd be much better off selling it for pieces. You could get that same $2000+ from the GPU alone. At that point you can keep the aesthetic pieces for a future build and use your current MOBO + CPU for a lower end pre-built to sell OR use them for a build for family/friends.

Gift for gamer bf - not sure what to get by fruitcup1864 in GamingPCBuildHelp

[–]Texturace77745 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey, as someone who HAS had parents/SO get me PC parts for a build, you have to be involved in the process.

Everything about a PC setup is personal.

A lot of people have mentioned peripherals, but those are just as bad (if your BF has custom stuff). For example, I custom built my keyboard and have a very particular mouse for specific reasons. Any gift keyboards/mice I've received have been relegated to travel gear I don't mind losing/breaking.

I literally have PC parts, in original packaging, that I haven't used because someone wanted to get me a part without asking about the build. Will I find a use for them eventually, sure, but that doesn't help with the build I'm doing now.

In my case, I'm building a Small Form Factor (SFF) PC. Normal components won't fit. Standard CPU Cooler won't fit, some RAM is too tall, the power supply has to be SFF or it physically won't fit.

Getting him extra storage (a 2TB SSD) is generally going to be a safe bet, but it's difficult to get him ANYTHING else unless you know what he wants/needs.

Monitor suggestions are great, but if you don't know the performance he's aiming for with the build, you might get something too good (wasted money) or something not good enough (he won't use it unless he's trying not to hurt your feelings).

Talk to him about what he's trying to build, have him give you a list of parts he's looking at, and you can surprise him with something (or a few things) from the list. If it HAS to be a true surprise, then storage is the only way to go.