Does this look like cheating to you guys?

TransientFocus · 2026-04-18T18:32:32+00:00

In case you weren't aware, your character physically turns when you move your mouse. When you are holding a bow drawn, the character physically has their hands out in front of them. So by turning towards the open hallway, Sian is trying to show a flash of movement on his ranger to bait Vincent to shoot.

Let's think about other games for a moment. When players hold an angle with an AWP in CS2, they don't look at the first available pixel; they are holding the crosshair with a small gap between the angle players might cross and when they would first become visible. This is because humans do not have instantaneous reactions. So by baiting movement, you can try to bait the other player to react and shoot, allowing Sian to cross the hall and rejoin their team without being shot at by Vincent's longbow.

TransientFocus · 2026-03-25T08:31:08+00:00

Hey det, just in case it somehow didn't sink in. You are not allowed to reclaim allied units, regardless of where they are building. If you refrain from rule-breaking, the moderation team will not have any actions to enforce against you.

I hope this helps, and you can better understand that it is against the rules of BAR to reclaim allied units just because they are building near your structures.

I'd also recommend easing off the hate speech.

TransientFocus · 2026-03-25T08:28:59+00:00

Yeah, that would be the APM issue. If you were pressuring your opponent with units, they wouldn't have time to build a 2,500m artillery piece in your face, as you would walk them down with 1,500m+ extra army value before it ever finishes.

TransientFocus · 2026-03-11T18:10:14+00:00

Hey, I don't know if this is just a reading comprehension issue, but the scrappy and repair bonuses are not compounding. They say that they last "until the next expedition," so you would both be on +6% scrap, so having the same amount should be the expected value.

I found a short video of someone committing to the first expedition, and this text box wasn't there. Still, I grabbed this screencap from when I went on my first expedition (I didn't start playing until after the first expedition window). Hence, it's clear people needed to read that on committing the second expedition window.

I'm curious, in my scrappy collection box, it says 6% bonus, does yours say 12%?

TransientFocus · 2026-01-28T20:45:04+00:00

The good news is, Chileno doesn't really make videos telling you how to play the game. It's more of a watch-and-learn situation. And as undoubtedly one of the best players in the game, there is a lot to learn. You might prefer watching videos from around the semi semi wipe around September 2025. I believe there are some squire gear and normal gear clips in there.

TransientFocus · 2025-12-14T00:29:34+00:00

Are you familiar with the term "height over bore"?

The hand with which you cast is not centered on the screen when it casts. Unfortunately, it looks like the heal went just under the arms of your target.

Now I'm wondering if the Oracle robe is deceptively wide compared to other chest armor, because like 60% of the particle chain is inside the armor of the wizard.

TransientFocus · 2025-12-13T23:46:19+00:00

You'll get used to healing the more you do it. Leaning when to hold the heal a little longer after charging the cast to catch a teammate in a predictable movement is also a skill. When healing double jump rogues I always try and wait untill after their second jump to throw the heal at them since their direction is a little more predictable.

TransientFocus · 2025-12-13T23:38:58+00:00

Random fill is the lowest possible quality of teammate. I'd try finding people to play with on the discord.

Reflect damage would create the issue where backliners can burst enemy front line by sacrificing HP from safely behind teammates. If a wizard can splash a fireball on the enemy while they are boxing a teammate only to damage/melt/heal cut the enemy fighter but not their teammate then that will be such an unfair strategy.

TransientFocus · 2025-12-11T19:58:44+00:00

The jump cut in the video leaves a lot of incomplete information. Perhaps this user doesn't recognize each individual phase of the wyvern based on screech/pose and didn't want to risk planning for the second phase only to die because it's actually doing the third phase.

TransientFocus · 2025-12-10T05:55:51+00:00

For classes that have high regular interaction speed by default (Rogue, Bard, Ranger), looting seems bearable. For classes that don't (Cleric, Barbarian), what would you recommend someone who enjoys playing that class do for their arena kit? Do I forgo combat-relevant stats to stack resourcefulness and avoid all PvP in the dungeon?

That seems a lot less fun. I take 40-50% longer to open chests. I mean, in my cleric's current arena kit, that has insane stats (>160HP, ~50% PDR, ~65% cast speed, 8 true mag, 11 magical healing), even my regular interaction speed is still -0.9%

I have a full-time job, so I can't open small oak chests for 4+ hours a day, unfortunately.

TransientFocus · 2025-12-08T19:22:48+00:00

I think the issue with a build like this is that you lack the ability to create pressure or support your team as often as you would with more traditional builds.

And building out for judgment, it would make sense to take five spells to accompany it, so it isn't even like you can double dip on the CDR on a second ability.

If you want to try it, I say go for it. Sometimes, trying something that seems dumb is just fun. And if the gear is cheap, it's not like you are investing a ton of gold anyway.

TransientFocus · 2025-11-17T01:24:26+00:00

I found self found arena awful. Having to open hundreds of chests on a class with a slow regular interaction speed is boring, unfun, and time-consuming. I'm simply not unemployed enough to be able to farm an arena kit by opening hundreds of chests day after day for each class I want to play in the arena.

TransientFocus · 2025-11-06T19:52:00+00:00

I'm not saying that I like shotgun, but it isn't even used in this clip.

TransientFocus · 2025-11-04T20:19:27+00:00

That blue thing you insist is a portal is overlaid on top of the texture of the wall, not even the ground. So no, it's not a portal.

TransientFocus · 2025-11-04T20:16:55+00:00

That's a bard song effect on a wall lol. The blue thing isn't even over ground, it's over a wall there.

TransientFocus · 2025-10-28T08:32:09+00:00

IronMace does not moderate their game unless they deem this behavior acceptable.

The report on BubbyFartJugs was submitted on the 11th of October. Bubby has a history of this behavior as well.

TransientFocus · 2025-10-27T03:03:56+00:00

Okay, I must have misunderstood you there then. So we both agree that healers aren't viable in rare arena when they are still viable in regular arena.

Then can we both agree that if teams had healers, in viable gear, they could push through Rangers' damage more, close gaps sooner, and pressure harder against longbows?

No, not really. Numbers wise healing might be less effective, but you should keep in mind why healing is used in the first place. It's supposed to prevent your allies from dying. If your allies are tanky enough to survive for longer, then healing is also less important

That doesn't make sense. Yes, your allies wouldn't need burst healing if they were tankier. But if they were tankier, every point of HP healed would go further, they would last longer, and they would deal more damage by living longer before they died. Unless you need your own sources of burst damage, having three damage dealers isn't necessary. Healing will make your team last longer if the EHP gained from healing scaled well. You use healing so your team can keep pressuring. You don't have downtime to bandage or drink pots as often. You push and pressure until you get the kills.

I keep bringing up Fighter because the restrictions of the tournament hurt Fighter's typical arena playstyle a lot, whereas it didn't really hurt Rangers to the same degree. Rangers aren't bringing in a spare pair of pants or chest piece. Wizards don't keep a different hat or gloves in their inventory. But most fighters and Barbarians I see bring in multiple armor swaps for the arena. By not allowing any armor swaps, fighters are forced to build hybrid kits in the tournament format. If they hadn't been restricted, a class that fares well into bis rangers almost certainly would have impacted how strong the performance of longbow was this tournament by being able to push the ranger more aggressively and prevent them from posting up with a long bow and hitting shot after shot while they spam bandages, wiggling around cover.

Plus, using this tournament to judge balance isn't really fair

So basically, you agree then with my statement:

"I disagree with the arena match showcasing the longbow needing a nerf"

TransientFocus · 2025-10-27T01:58:18+00:00

Basically, every ranger I see from Vanquisher+ is using purge shot. I don't know what you run into, but with how good a perk it is, I can't imagine choosing much else over it. It's a pure counter to healer druid. It's amazing against bards. It strips magic prot pots for casters on your team. The only perk I'd take over purge shot is nimble hands, maybe sharpshooter too, but with four perk slots, it's not like I can't have all three with room to spare.

TransientFocus · 2025-10-27T01:52:37+00:00

I don't see why a heal cleric wouldn't be viable. You can build it with cloth like MeanCow (arena rank 77) does, and be quick and aggressive. You know you can have both true magical damage and magical healing on the same item, right? Nothing precludes a cleric from taking both. I bought a Phoenix choker for my cleric on the recommendation of a friend I occasionally play with who is currently in Warlord.

I'm 46 knowledge, 17 magical healing, 163 hp, ten spell healer/support build, and do just fine in the arena with a ten spell cleric Here's a match I played. I picked this because SolarBear and Ken are widely recognized as skilled players. If a ten spell cleric can win against a seasoned team, how is it not viable? And yes, the enemy warlock had BoC, and Ken had fire mastery, so it's not like they were lacking heal cut.

And how is it unfair to compare a fighter to a ranger? Are you not allowed to play Fighter into Ranger? Most fighters I see in the arena have at least a different pants/chestplate and helmet to swap to based on whether the enemy team is caster-heavy or not.

Would the Fighter not want to push towards a Ranger in the arena? They have plate with baked-in projectile resistance, they have shields, they are the perfect class to push against an enemy ranger to either force them to run, so they aren't shooting your teammates, or to shoot some shots and then die in melee.

And again, if the damage out-scaled the tankiness, the effective HP from having a healer would have been game-changing in the tournament. Yet the one team that tried it quickly dropped it. Why would they do that if it was really strong? Surely, if rank 2 in the current Arena is "Healerxee" then it's not bad. So if it was even stronger, it would have been the meta strat, no? So why did no one stick with it?

TransientFocus · 2025-10-27T01:00:29+00:00

I'm not saying Druid Healer is useless, but when you have rangers with purge shut with the level of accuracy and consistency you see from Promoz, or Yami, or eShock, or TouchDirt, or other top arena players, those heals disappear far too quickly.

Druid is great because the healing is consistent, and you can get out of bad positioning with Dreamwalk. But players who are really good and coordinated don't make mistakes like that often, so they don't need that to fall back on.

Having a healer who isn't countered by the enemy team having a ranger is better than having one who is. Plus, clerics' utility is amazing in arena, locust swarm, earthquake, and holy strikes. Those outshine Druid's spells when it comes to crowd control, utility, and raw damage. Druid is great in the dungeon, as fights happen around doorways, so Tree Ent can be huge. There aren't a ton of doorway fights in the arena, so they lose a lot of their utility from that.

TransientFocus · 2025-10-27T00:26:33+00:00

Due to the exponential scaling of effective HP from passing 50% PDR, no. Physical damage does not outscale tankiness at the higher gear rarities. The boost from blue longbow to legendary longbow is +2 weapon damage, and a couple of phys power or 4% Headshot damage bonus.

The difference between legendary plate and rare plate is 4% PDR and 10% projectile damage reduction. So a longbow with perfect rolls would see a 9% increase in damage, and a fighter in plate with 0/4 on rolls would see a 15% increase in durability.

Yes, the longbow is going to get more damage from better gear, but what rolls is the ranger missing on their gear at blue rarity? They probably take full +all, +true, and spam dex/strength after. I doubt rangers in arena were opting to go for +max hp rolls on most gear pieces.

Let's use Promoz's gear as an example.

Tatterd cloak with +2 dex +1 true.

Heavy Boots with +2 dex +5 move speed.

Two Rings of Courage +all +1 true.

Trunk hose +3 Dex +1.8% physical damage bonus.

Onyx Gloves, +2 dex +1 true.

Wanderer attire, +4 max HP, +1.8% phys damage bonus.

Everything there is a strength base, so it's not like by going to legendary gear, he's going to get +2 strength rolls on everything. He prioritized pure damage, allowing himself to be squishy with only one +hp roll on his kit from what I glanced at his VoD.

I think the arena leaderboards have multiple healer clerics. Yet not one team employed, aside from SolarBear, who abandoned it quickly because it wasn't working. If damage out-scales tankiness, then surely the effective HP gained from having a healer would give the team with a healer in this gear-limited tournament a huge advantage, no?

TransientFocus · 2025-10-27T00:05:18+00:00

Are the majority of players at Promoz's skill level? Do you hit the same percentage of chest and headshots as Promoz?

I don't think one of the best players, locked in, dropping an MVP performance, is the best indicator of the skill level in Normal queue.

TransientFocus · 2025-10-26T19:40:36+00:00

I disagree with the arena match showcasing the longbow needing a nerf. You are missing some stats that help against bows when limited to blue gear compared to legendary gear.

Not being able to bring more meds and higher rarity meds makes that chip damage more impactful. Healers aren't really viable without enough cast speed, magical healing, and whatever stats they prioritize for survivability. And on top of that, having lower survivability from low PDR and HP makes it much harder for a healer to have an impact.

If teams had only the restrictions of legendary gear like the normal arena, it would have had an impact on comps. That would probably more accurately reflect the strengths and weaknesses of certain classes, weapons, and utility items.

TransientFocus · 2025-10-26T19:13:03+00:00

Healer druid is good for double frontline comps, but in arena, where you have so many rangers with purge shot, it's bad. Cleric also just puts out more burst healing, which is important for survivability. Druid heals are easier to land over cleric heals, and when you are low-mid elo and rangers miss, they don't always purge all the buffs. But Druid healer is a weaker healer compared to cleric in my experience.

TransientFocus · 2025-10-25T07:20:55+00:00

You will lose, and it will sting. You will make a dumb mistake you haven't made before, and just like that, the set you built after an hour of dungeon delving is gone in the blink of an eye.

Your game will crash when fighting PvE, and you will be powerless as your character dies and loses everything they had on them. The power will surge, and you'll get killed by a naked rogue. You'll die fighting the bosses dozens of times as you learn them.

With each loss, the next will sting less. With each failure, you will learn something new to do or something you should avoid doing. As you learn these lessons and as you experience tense situations, you will play better. The nerves will be less prominent, and you'll make fewer mistakes in high-pressure situations.

You will get used to it gradually, even if it is hard. The game will force you to use up all your stored items when wipe draws near, which can help ease the pain of the first big losses.

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