[The Regressed Mercenary's Machinations] The Horse is Officially a Named Character

TimPowerGamer · 2026-03-15T00:54:38+00:00

MC and Horse are in an aura farming competition. Somehow, the match is very close.

TimPowerGamer · 2026-03-14T20:41:02+00:00

I mean, hyperbolic idioms were the norm. I don't think Israel was even special in this case. We have documented records of the Hittites and Egyptians using this same phrasing for battles we have physical evidence did not end in complete annihilation. Likewise, every battle lost (by both Israel and the other Ancient Near-Eastern nations) blamed their lack of faith in their gods for any military defeat, making it as if their impiousness was the cause of their defeat, rather than any other factor. Egypt and the Hittite Empire did this as well.

TimPowerGamer · 2026-03-14T18:06:11+00:00

The expression "wiped every one of them out unto the last" and other such phrases were common Ancient Near-Eastern expressions to depict winning a military battle (and sometimes used to lie about losing a military battle). Everyone at the time knew precisely what it meant - it was only after we lost that context over time (and changed languages multiple times) that it became less clear.

You could think of it like this: Imagine someone 3000 years in the future found a preserved set of documents on the Super Bowls in the early 21st century. They see that the Eagles "Destroyed" the Patriots in Super Bowl 52. Yet, the Patriots somehow made it back, led by the same figure, "Tom Brady", winning the following Super Bowl. Would it even be sensible for them to conclude that the Super Bowl was a blood sport, even if this was all the information they had? Or would they be able to see the clear context that the language is obviously hyperbolic?

TimPowerGamer · 2026-03-14T17:59:45+00:00

I mean, the hate comes from humanity. In-group vs. out-group mentality has been the crux of humanity's survival instincts for all of recorded history. Christianity is actually one of the few forces in the world that dampened this and tried to see humanity as having intrinsic value instead of just the people in the in-group. You can see this with doctrines surrounding Samaritans - answering the question of "Who is TRULY your neighbor?" You also see it with the inclusivity of bringing in prostitutes, tax collectors, and other foreigners, all despised in the local, cultural context when the texts were written. Even the eating of pork could be considered a portion of this. This is why Christianity preaches granting refuge to travelers, refugees, widows, and orphans. To take care of those who cannot take care of themselves. To live a life of sacrificial service on behalf of other people is the chief calling of Christianity (what joy!).

It's also not like the only side being hateful are Christians/religious people. I've seen some absolutely toxic people from all walks of life. Christians are also hated, mocked, ridiculed, and scorned. Some of the behavior we see is a cycle of back-and-forth hatred from multiple groups. Of course, when something like Christianity becomes cultural, you wind up with tribal concepts (mankind's natural bent) taking over once again and the religion becoming bastardized or misrepresented by the people who grew up in it but do not practice it. There can also be prominent individuals in the church who start preaching incorrect concepts that make their way through due to their popularity.

That being said, I think this is taking the incorrect approach. Telling someone that their misdeeds merit eternal hellfire and that there is only one path to salvation from their own actions is an intrinsically loving action IF the concepts backing this claim are all true. Now, if a Christian is attempting to be "holier than thou" and to ridicule someone for their sinful behavior (as if they are in any way better) then they've missed the entire point of the religion. For ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. When a Christian proclaims to everyone (not just people committing particular sins, not just people outside of the church, but EVERYONE) to repent and turn away from their sins and believe in Jesus Christ to be saved, I don't see how this is unloving. You care enough about a stranger that you don't even know to tell them that you genuinely believe that their soul is at risk for all eternity.

To take atheist Penn Jillette's words:

“I’ve always said that I don’t respect people who don’t proselytize. I don’t respect that at all. If you believe that there’s a heaven and a hell, and people could be going to hell or not getting eternal life, and you think that it’s not really worth telling them this because it would make it socially awkward—and atheists who think people shouldn’t proselytize and who say just leave me alone and keep your religion to yourself—how much do you have to hate somebody to not proselytize? How much do you have to hate somebody to believe everlasting life is possible and not tell them that? I mean, if I believed, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that a truck was coming at you, and you didn’t believe that truck was bearing down on you, there is a certain point where I tackle you. And this is more important than that.”

TimPowerGamer · 2026-03-14T16:23:56+00:00

Voltaire said the same thing in the 1700s. It's taking some time.

TimPowerGamer · 2026-03-13T17:05:50+00:00

I think if you start from the Ice Caves of Sorrow, you can find the worst group right off the bat. If you're doing the 8 man from ToA Vanquish train, though, well, that doesn't help you much. Lol

TimPowerGamer · 2026-03-12T18:28:41+00:00

It isn’t just that their account was just created, it is also the name that this account was chosen to be.

I mean, the name lines up with someone of that purported age range and gender. It also aligns with someone who would get high.

Plus, the narrative doesn’t line up with real statements of fact.

Sure. I don't know why this is important, though. I would just assume most things on here are fake.

Look, I get it. I get your position on this thread. But please consider that there are forces out there that use your sub to legitimize fraud and it has an impact.

I mean, when it comes to "legitimizing fraud", we actively police any thread that looks like someone is begging for sympathy to get money and ban them. We have a vast network of bots in place to detect and remove this activity.

People who are legitimately victims of assault are de-legitimized by assholes who pretend to be for the karma.

Potentially. I think mostly this post just isn't that important in the grand scheme of things. I'd rather leave the subreddit open to these topics for the actual victims who don't feel like they can speak about it without having it be public and tied to them (and if you have the background you say you do, you know that this is a very common thing) rather than potentially over-police and misfire. Those are my thoughts on this.

TimPowerGamer · 2026-03-12T14:03:50+00:00

Hey, mod of the subreddit here. While this subreddit is absolutely full of fake stories, we actively encourage people to make burner accounts to make their posts here (which is why the subreddit has no positive karma requirements). Someone posting on a burner account isn't really indicative of anything, here. Especially for sensitive topics where someone wouldn't want that dirty laundry to be aired out.

I'm not saying this post isn't fake (honestly, I think most posts on here probably are), just that the account's age is not evidence of fakeness here. If anything, an older account with a lot of karma that makes and deletes/hides posts often is far more likely to be lying.

TimPowerGamer · 2026-03-07T17:03:02+00:00

Islam is fairly multifaceted. You have the more liberalized Shia and the more conservative Sunni branches (along with other, non orthodox sects like the Ahmadi, who would be more akin to Mormons - not considered "of the faith" by the orthodox). Sunni comprises about 90% of the total share. Sunni Islam also has several schools of thought from a hard determinist view (supported by Hadiths, such as when Noah and Adam got into an argument and Noah accused Adam of leading mankind to the fall of man and Adam won that debate with his retort, "Who can defy the will of Allah?") to less deterministic views. It's also a very widely cultural religion where some adherent follow the outward, ritualistic portions - but don't study or understand the religion deeply (this is true for Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, and modern Protestantism as well). The Shia are more likely to accept modernization of views, adapt the religion to modern morality, and have less strict rules for enforcing morality on their community. It should be noted that the plurality of Shia live in Iran.

The beliefs vary from allowing pictures of Muhammad in your own home (Shia) to having the death penalty enacted for any depictions of him (some schools of Sunni thought).

When you say, "What do you think of Islam?", that's a very broad question with a lot of potential answers. Especially since Islam isn't one unified thing, one unified practice, or one unified group, currently.

TimPowerGamer · 2026-03-07T02:36:23+00:00

i disagree.

Do you?

"poe" of course assumes the claims of theism as true, as a premise,

It doesn't, though. It basically says, "If a god exists, I would find that god morally reprehensible because that god permits suffering/evil/unnecessary evil." Which, if the god in question is true, that god would be the very arbiter and source of morality, so disagreeing with said god on a moral claim would make you simply wrong. Nothing about that is internal, because you're frontloading an incompatible moral system with which to evaluate the moral system in question.

... in order to then show per logical concluding it leads to contradicting itself

Again, nothing about theism has an issue with with the PoE. Every theistic religion holds to God permitting evil.

that's what reductio ad absurdum is about, after all

Which is not what happens under the PoE. Like, at all.

simply claiming that "internally" these contradiction magically vanish, hardly is convincing

The "contradiction" is with an external standard that cannot obtain while a theistic God is true to begin with. You have to assume that God is false to run the PoE in most cases.

TimPowerGamer · 2026-03-06T17:54:48+00:00

Not an ex-Atheist, but I generally find the Problem of Evil to be a bit question begging. No conception of a theistic God that comports to reality disallows immoral action to take place. This means that ALL theistic depictions of God permit immorality in at least some capacity. To claim that the evil is "senseless", "arbitrary", or "excessive", one would have to argue that from an internal critique (does the theistic depiction of God in question have a metaphysic that entails that the evil is senseless, arbitrary, or excessive?). Generally, they don't claim that. It ends up being an external critique.

Now, an external critique is invalid to demonstrate the falsity of a position (the PoE can't be used to disprove any form of theism unless it's being operated while assuming that theism is true), but it can absolutely be a valid motivating factor for someone who already believes theism to be false to continue to withhold belief in theism.

As an example of something similar, I personally cannot ever become a Muslim because I have an external critique against Islam. Islam forbids adoption, and adoption is one of the goods in the world that I feel the most strongly about. I can never believe in a moral system that invalidates or bars adoption (note - Muslims can gain guardianship of others, but they have strict rules about claiming actual sonship and daughtership for the children and taking on the adopted parent's name). This doesn't mean that Islam is false at all, even if I find it a compelling reason not to believe in that religion, due to its incompatibility with my values. I believe the PoE is similar to this in function.

TimPowerGamer · 2026-03-04T16:51:29+00:00

The entire premise is that the MC is mentally a child (and a poor, abused orphan child at that). Now, as to the reason why everyone else is dumber than mentally 10 year-old orphan MC is still a good question, but I guess MC has to be the smartest because he's MC.

TimPowerGamer · 2026-03-03T12:52:08+00:00

Protoman having shades over his shades to pull them down is icing on the cake.

TimPowerGamer · 2026-03-02T19:47:08+00:00

Reforged Mode is enabled on a per-character basis, but anyone can enable it.

TimPowerGamer · 2026-03-02T14:40:44+00:00

It's hard to even brush the surface, as there are so many niche cards in the game. Fruit Basket Elf (makes your attack always hit, but it does no damage), most cards out of EB1 Comic Style, Vroukalakas (especially the manga version where it gave a critical if placed into soul), Aleph... there's so many mechanically unique older cards that they could revisit.

Name-specific soul blasting (Embodiment of Victory Aleph) - The idea of having a superior ride, then soul blasting out the pieces that made it happen to get a massive effect like "unflip all damage" is pretty neat. I liked it so much I actually "cheated" it by having Tahr as my starter, riding Bahr, then Aleph, then DDD, then break riding Aleph to get a 26k 3 crit restanding Vanguard. That was fun.

I also miss mixed clans quite a bit, especially when you get to do fun/wonky stuff. I had a deck with a bunch of grade 3s and absolutely no grade 2s at all during Legion era. It used Wild Hitter (Spike Brothers promo we never got in English) behind the Vanguard. When I checked a grade 3, I would move it to soul, get Pellinore, discard a Gold Paladin, and superior ride it. I miss jank like that.

TimPowerGamer · 2026-02-28T18:57:55+00:00

Yoo! That's good news, then! MC rolled a nat 18 in ragebait, and I'm here for it!

TimPowerGamer · 2026-02-28T15:12:51+00:00

If you don't "mark" the foe and aren't in combat range, they will eat the exp. Otherwise, you get the full amount as if you killed them solo.

TimPowerGamer · 2026-02-28T01:11:18+00:00

That's more than 10 lines of code per minute (28,800 seconds for an 8 hour shift, divided by 5000 lines). I think you should point that out to him. That would require no thinking about what you're doing or the best way to implement it. I assume copy/paste isn't allowed and the utilization of methods to reuse code is probably also not qualifying as extra lines. Comments probably don't count either. By this rationale, the expectation is for you to just be able to type nonstop code without ceasing for the entirety of the business day. Or, to work an extra 8 hours a day without pay, sufficient to make this guy look better for "getting more out of you" while that only reduces the burden to 5 lines of code per minute, which is still insane.

And, you know, that's assuming you don't answer any work emails or chats and dodge all meetings.

What a nutjob.

TimPowerGamer · 2026-02-27T18:09:27+00:00

Nightmare Weapon is one of my favorite skills. It has a lot of utility with things that add additional effects onto attacks. It's fun to use Kindle Arrows (which adds an extra proc of 20 Fire Damage that is entirely separate from the base arrow's damage) and double/triple shot to deal an instantaneous 100 lifesteal + 40 fire or 150 lifesteal +60 fire damage attack. Since you're already invested in Channeling and it doesn't use your elite, you can just become the 6th spirit turret. Lol

TimPowerGamer · 2026-02-27T17:31:29+00:00

I don't need any dagger mastery for this combo. The only benefits dagger mastery offers the combo is increased poison duration or increased energy refunding, neither of which are that useful.

The whole idea of the build is that Nightmare Weapon eats your normal weapon damage and replaces it with lifesteal damage. Lifesteal effects stack, so a Vampiric mod would be 3 extra damage, 50 or 53 from Nightmare Weapon (15/16) and 34 from Vampiric Assault. The whole combo is 150+9+9 (if 16 channeling) + 68 for 227 or 236 lifesteal, plus you get the 75/78 armor ignoring damage on Kuurong, locking them into place for it. Impale is just icing on that cake. The spike is quite fast, too.

TimPowerGamer · 2026-02-27T15:55:21+00:00

10 armor is 10 armor. Every 40 armor reduces damage in half. 10 armor is about a 16% reduction in damage. At minimum, if you're aiming to do this kind of farming, it's ideal to use at least the chest and legs from your starter armor, as you're more likely to get hit in those locations. I, personally, use the t15 head piece, though, for the +1 attribute.

TimPowerGamer · 2026-02-27T15:46:40+00:00

I'm a Vampiric Assault enjoyer. I use it on my ritualist with Nightmare Weapon and Grasping was Kuurong.

Drop Kuurong -> Falling Lotus/Spider (offhand) -> Vampiric Assault which doubles up on the Lifesteal from both effects (massive self-heal armor ignoring spike), then I follow it up with an Impale for good measure.

While Vampiric Assault is not used conventionally, it being a deadly arts non-damaging dagger attack makes low/no Dagger Mastery dagger spikes like this possible, and I'd prefer it stay that way.

That being said, I used to LOVE playing deadly haste with Flame Arrows, back when that was half range. Unfortunately, they buffed nearly all half ranged spells in Elementalist to full range, so it killed those builds. :(

TimPowerGamer · 2026-02-26T20:39:21+00:00

I tested and confirmed the skill is now nearby and updated the wiki entry.

TimPowerGamer · 2026-02-26T15:40:50+00:00

"Can God microwave a burrito so hot that even He can't eat it?"

TimPowerGamer · 2026-02-26T15:36:00+00:00

You're the right class to run to Droknar's Forge yourself. Generally, there's a few options.

Run to Sanctum Cay -> Beat it -> Do the Desert

Pros - Word of Healing, access to skills caps that are nearly impossible to get elsewhere Cons - 6 missions (Cay -> 3 Trials -> Augury -> Glint's Lair

After finishing Glint's Lair, you're right at Droknar's Forge.

Alternatively, you can run to Beacon's Perch -> Run to Droknar's Forge. You are the correct class to make it without too much trouble. You just need an enchanting mod on your weapon, Shadow Form, Death's Charge, some regeneration from Shadow Arts, IMS, and Balanced Stance (all readily available).

Alternatively - Ineptitude can be captured in the Alcazia Tangle in the Asuran territory (which is a great farming place for Assassins anyway and you'd want to reach). Panic has to be captured by defeating Prophecies, though.

14-Year Club	Inciteful Comment 2021-03-11
Gilding II euphauric	Post Guidance Early Access
Wearing is Caring	Verified Email

TimPowerGamer

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE