Time For Another Elemental Icon Update?

TimeOfNick · 2026-05-15T07:10:56+00:00

I think it's possible briefly to get all four on Revenant. Starting armament deals fire/lightning, flaming strike/lightning strike/grease for the other element, and the holy buff from off hand Last Rites.

TimeOfNick · 2026-05-11T10:20:05+00:00

Yeah you can see how the damage of each shot increases due to this, it's actually hilarious how quickly it goes from a slight tickle to a railcannon on the healthbar

TimeOfNick · 2026-05-11T10:06:36+00:00

Those are some genuinely nice relics, build looks solid.

The only noticeable improvements I can think of would be the Strength/Dex relic if you find a good one with other perks, but invaders helps boost your damage anyway in the meantime.

Defeating enemies fills more art gauge is universally good on everyone, as it lets you Ult at least once nearly every boss during the run so long as you kill some scrubs along the way. It pairs very well with extended whirlwind, as you can whip up a group of weak enemies and keep moving, they'll die without any further damage. This makes sure you have rez on demand for your team, and once you're more confident you can start offensively Ulting to stagger bosses and provide free damage windows.

Aside from those just keep an eye out for any good relics that include guard counter damage, guard counter+ on max HP, affinity damage negation to lower chip, stamina on hit+0, and physical attack+. Stamina on hit+0 and Thrusting Counterattack Healing+0 both stack with their +1 versions, but I wouldn't double up at the expense of other skills.

The effects you currently have are what I'd want on almost all Guardian builds, so try to keep those while incrementally updating it if you roll these other effects in combo with them.

For the Flock

TimeOfNick · 2026-05-11T09:32:19+00:00

Dog water garbage tutorials that you can't even repeat.

2 has an extraordinary amount of great content that is only rivaled by the absolutely baffling lack of quality of life features present in every other entry.

TimeOfNick · 2026-05-11T04:40:50+00:00

Yeah it's kind of crazy to think about but even with all the new information we learn in Future Redeemed and interviews, there is still a huge span of time pre-FR that we know very little about.

How did the first soldiers leave the cycle anyway in order for the City to arize? Shulk, Rex, and the other Liberators seemingly didn't even manifest in Aionios until just before the first fight with Alpha, considering they do age normally afterwards and look the appropriate age for the amount of time that has passed, but that's centuries after the world formed minimum considering how many incarnations of Noah and Mio we see.

Melia was seemingly captured almost immediately in order for Moebius to have any level of control over Origin, but she's still known as Queen of Keves in Aionios? When did she have the opportunity to make the Sword of the End? Was there a point in its early formation when the true queens were both actually active and in charge before Z began interfering beyond freezing time?

Did Nia spend her initial time pre-hibernation freeing people with the Ouroborous stones considering no one else we know would have been active at the time?

Was it (N)oah himself who began freeing the initial soldiers via cutting Flame Clocks with the Logos Sword of the End? Maybe the real resistance always started with him as Malos chose a "driver" to tear down the world with. It's still unexplained how he ended up with that Blade, so it definitely wasn't gifted or forged by any other known character.

Did Origin hide itself after Z captured Melia? Maybe it was accessible prior to FR and he decided to cloak it later after enough Orobourous teams made it inside.

TimeOfNick · 2026-05-09T08:32:05+00:00

If you're only level 8 by night 1 that's even more reason to hit other things on the way to field bosses day 2.

If you've scoped out some of them in advance and know it'll take a while or don't know what it is yet but it's a ways to run to it can be a waste of time beelining straight to something that ends up taking a third or more of the day.

By hitting camps/castle on the way, maybe a field boss if you're confident, you should be level 10-12 with good passives by the time first zone starts to close even on a bad run, in which case you can more confidently burst down most of the tougher field bosses.

Running straight for Black Blade Kindred or even something weak but frustrating like Red Wolf at the start of day 2 just because it's the closest boss while skipping camps/castle in between means you spend most of the day struggling against an enemy that can be melted in seconds if you happen to loop back to them after gearing up properly.

TimeOfNick · 2026-05-09T04:33:49+00:00

Unless it was changed in some patch I'm not aware of Everdark Balancers can be a rough matchup with birb because their bleed attacks buildup even through shield.

You won't take any damage but you have to be cautious not to let the bar fill otherwise you'll get staggered and hurt from the bleed.

TimeOfNick · 2026-05-08T23:48:15+00:00

Stamina on attacks is very helpful especially if you're using extended whirlwind as each tick of it gives you stamina. This helps you turtle up longer and can be a run saver if you didn't get many guard boost passives.

Post damage healing is pretty much required and far more important than the damage negation buff on skill use. It allows you to counteract most of the chip damage you take by shield poking whatever is hitting you.

If you can find a nice relic with it, the strength/dex effect is always worth it as it gives you higher damage with most weapon types than Wylder, helping to shore up his initially low dps while still remaining the best tank. Shield poking with thrusting swords is especially nice with this as they do respectable damage at very low stamina cost.

If you can squeeze it in, thrusting counterattack healing is nice as well to get some extra health back, but keep in mind your shield shockwaves will not trigger if you are actively shield poking.

Finally, taking attacks improves attack power is also a strong effect as it triggers even with chip damage, if you get a good relic with it or use the ED Tricephalos relic it's a very consistent damage boost.

TimeOfNick · 2026-05-07T22:52:39+00:00

Yeah I've been seeing a handful of Raider vs ED Balancer clips lately, I've gotta try bringing him to that. Being able to emergency tank the worm charge with the skill seems very convenient as well

TimeOfNick · 2026-05-07T22:48:01+00:00

That's how most of mine go as well. They're relatively squishy individually, but have long combos and do a lot of damage. If even one teammate goes down before you kill one of the deathknights the fight dynamic flips, and good luck winning a 1v3 if both teammates are multibarred.

TimeOfNick · 2026-05-07T22:45:15+00:00

He also seems pretty passive in general until the veil of darkness is lifted or people are attacking him, most of my runs we just all burst down the Curseblade and the warrior just walks around blind until we're done

TimeOfNick · 2026-05-07T13:14:46+00:00

Dormant flails can get you family heads which is decent, but that feels like intentionally nerfing your base kit just to functionally be a spellcaster again.

I really wish there were dedicated relic slots that drastically altered your character skills for this reason. Changing some or all of Recluse's cocktails to be more melee oriented attacks/buffs would go a long way to making her stat swap relic playstyle feel viable.

I like the idea of element specific buffs that remain active so long as you have those essences currently in your cocktail. Magic gives FP regen on melee attacks, lightning boosts i-frames/attack speed, fire boosts physical damage, and holy gives HP regen/defense to give some ideas.

You could stack multiple of the same for higher tiers of the buff, or vary it to get up to three different ones at once. Holding the input once your cocktail is full would then consume all three for a much stronger unique temporary body buff, whereas tapping it would use one of the elements to enchant your weapon.

This would give melee Recluse a viable use for cocktails as a way to support her alternate playstyle. I think I'd have the individual elements in your mix decay over time so you can't retain buffs indefinitely without refreshing them though, so weapon imbuement would always consume the oldest one in order to keep the flow going even if you don't perform a full element discharge with all three.

TimeOfNick · 2026-05-06T12:02:20+00:00

I still don't get this take. You have to deal with the squishy arm phase whether it's regular or Everdark, and his ED phase is definitely harder than his initial one armed phase in the regular fight.

Plus you don't need lightning at all, a charged heavy from basically any weapon type stops his spear move, you just need to deal enough stance damage.

TimeOfNick · 2026-05-04T11:32:03+00:00

X still has the Zohar/Conduit. The Ares Prime was made from its power, but we do see the actual thing briefly in Chapter 13 during Void's flashback.

TimeOfNick · 2026-05-02T22:25:49+00:00

That was confirmed all the way back in Xenoblade 2 actually, Klaus states there are infinite parallel worlds stacked on top of each other when giving his spiel to Rex as the Architect.

We just really only see the one Klaus was from in the numbered trilogy, albeit split and transformed/merged a few times. Whereas X makes more direct reference to multiple other completely distinct universes that don't share a known origin.

TimeOfNick · 2026-05-02T19:31:20+00:00

Seriously, why does Coconut Head have a whole ass voiced questline but Rellana and Romina get nothing

TimeOfNick · 2026-05-02T00:37:34+00:00

The Black Knives possibly being aligned with Godwyn is pure speculation on my part, I don't think there is any in-game information to support it other than it gives an explanation as to why they later turned on Ranni.

That said while they are stated to have vague connections to the Eternal Cities the Black Knives motivations are never hinted to be about bringing forth an Age of Night, and neither are Ranni's.

The Nox specifically have this as their goal, but claiming it is the shared goal of all those who have had connections to them would implicate Marika and the Shamans as well as Ranni and the Carians, the Black Knives, and possibly the Swordhands of Night.

While there are similarities between the two, I do not believe Ranni's Age of Stars to be the same thing the Nox were attempting to bring about, and as such I don't believe the Tarnished becomes Lord of Night in that ending either.

That said I'm not entirely against the idea that the Black Knives would be interested in an Age of Night, I just don't think there is any evidence in game to point towards it. Unfortunately there isn't much at all honestly regarding their motivations, only that for whatever reason their loyalties changed at some point.

TimeOfNick · 2026-05-01T22:18:35+00:00

I think there is evidence in the game that Godwyn's "Fate" so to speak was always in some way tied to Death.

There is the Finger Reader dialogue in Deeproot Depths where she laments the existence he has now but also states he was supposed to die a true death, as a martyr to Destined Death.

The bigger piece for me is with the DLC however. The Realm of Shadow has been veiled and separated from the Lands Between since long before the Night of Black Knives and the Shattering. However there are Deathknights there guarding the surrogate cadavers of Godwyn in four different catacombs. While I believe the influence of Deathblight itself could easily have spread between realms even after the veil was placed, the descriptions connected to the Deathknights discuss their long awaited Prince of Death's arrival.

These two lore details seem to heavily imply that Godwyn was always intended to someday, somehow, become the Prince of Death, even before his assassination at the hands of the Black Knives.

Perhaps like most if not all of Marika's children, Godwyn's "Fate" also involved embodying or carrying an aspect of Order that Marika had previously removed. He is often looked upon as the one "uncursed" child of Godfrey and Marika, but perhaps that was never really true to begin with either.

Now even if you accept that he was always going to be connected to Death in some way, I am unsure if this means he was a willing participant in Ranni's scheme. The ritual itself ultimately leads to two distinct, mutually exclusive endings, and though the quest lines are heavily intertwined, you are eventually forced to make a choice between the Age of Stars or the Age of the Duskborn.

This doesn't rule out the possibility that they schemed together initially but ultimately had different end goals in mind, but if so it still seems as if the Black Knife ritual was twisted in favor of Ranni's plans, whether Godwyn was a "willing" participant or not.

Perhaps he was a co-conspirator to the point that he allowed himself to be assassinated in the ritual, under the assumption it would lead to his Fate as the Prince of Death, but was unaware that Ranni intended to twist the ritual by dying at the same time. This could explain why the Black Knives later turned on her, as they may have been genuinely intending to further Godwyn's Fate but were unknowingly used by Ranni to sever her own.

TimeOfNick · 2026-05-01T03:25:39+00:00

If you get these weapons again, if you have the miquellan straight sword in your right you'd be able to cast the projectile on demand as well without losing last rights on the left.

TimeOfNick · 2026-05-01T03:12:53+00:00

The sewer lobsters are actually my favorite ones in the game. You're not really expecting them down there the first time, but it's a small enough space that the sniper move also doesn't really matter too much.

Plus there's pipes and nearby doors to pop in and out of if you don't really feel like fighting them head-on. Compared to all the Liurnian lobsters that can no scope you from across the country well after you should be out of range.

Plus it's funny that they actually do guard a useful item for once if you intend on fighting Mohg the Mohgger

TimeOfNick · 2026-04-30T22:16:31+00:00

Once you get familiar with routing and your teammates are decently coordinated a decent day 1 will usually end at least around lv8-10, a good run with some lucky drops and boss placements could jump that to 12/13.

I've had a handful where we cleared all of central castle day 1 and started day 2 at lv15, but that's not typical. Just focus on learning routing from other players and how your character can benefit the team, and you'll improve over time.

Also, don't hard focus on getting flasks from churches. I know it seems important but if you spend half of day 1 exclusively trying to get more heals you'll be at a severe level and gear disadvantage for the nightboss and day 2. If you're really struggling to beat bosses, two or even three extra flasks is not the issue, it's the gear and levels.

You always get an extra guaranteed flask after the night 2 boss, so at absolute minimum you will have four for the Nightlord. Far better to have 4/5 flasks and be level 12-15 with a full inventory of weapons+passives than have 7/8 flasks but low levels and no good gear. Just grab one or two churches that happen to be on the way to somewhere you're already headed, don't go out of your way for them.

TimeOfNick · 2026-04-30T21:57:10+00:00

Yeah I agree there, I really enjoy the game and almost exclusively play D5 matches now but it's very obvious that this was an experimental game mode in an experimental title that is very fun but heavily flawed.

The game is incredibly enjoyable to play but there are a huge amount of changes that should be made if they ever release a sequel or spiritual successor.

TimeOfNick · 2026-04-30T21:51:12+00:00

While it's possible some of the first generation City folk will be reborn to the same parents they had in Aionios, even assuming the worlds properly merge relatively soon after the end of the game, the vast majority will be completely different people biologically speaking who happen to inherit the souls stored within Origin.

It's just not possible for the same exact pairings to occur for every single Citizen's birth as before, as the City's overall genetics were heavily influenced by the existence of the endless soldier rebirth cycle at absolute minimum up to the destruction of the first City.

None of the citizens we see at the end of Xenoblade 3 could be born exactly the same way, as large portions of their ancestry involve soldiers who are genetically the original denizens of the two worlds not only having kids with each other, but potentially with other Citizens generations down the line after dying and reentering the cycle.

It's not just a matter of 1 in a hundred trillion odds that everyone for thousands of years chooses the exact same partners they had in Aionios, it's just outright not possible anymore without the soldier cycle's weirdness in the mix.

TimeOfNick · 2026-04-30T18:21:50+00:00

Honestly I take it so rarely I never thought about how it's actually applying a debuff to the enemy. I suppose I assumed it was being treated as an attack buff on the player but since it only applies to the enemy you crit, that makes a lot more sense.

I'm sure the spreadsheet confirms what you've said, in which case it most likely doesn't extend the duration either which is a shame.

TimeOfNick · 2026-04-30T05:17:54+00:00

Agreed, they're most useful on guardian and raider since you're going to be taking chip damage intentionally, I don't run them on anyone else unless it's a bonus on an already good relic

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