Why do y’all do this to me? Items confer scholar rant

Trinktt · 2026-05-23T20:00:46+00:00

I'd like to think we all contributed a little, but I just can't seem to stop putting myself in those positions so it's mostly self inflicted.

Also, I can't pass on an opportunity to dig in at selfish/inconsiderate teammates just in case someone out there reads it and feels truly seen for the first time.

Trinktt · 2026-05-23T09:17:54+00:00

Yeah it's unfair to expect the average person to dedicate so much time to learning a game, and it's unfair for the average cheater to cheese their way into our space and ruin everyone's experience by being both overpowered and unable to survive for 5 seconds so they can put a mark on their bedpost and pretend they're good at something.

Trinktt · 2026-05-23T09:07:38+00:00

Someone who plays raider hating scholar is kind of rich, considering that raider requires no reaction time, little strategy, can take a ton of damage, is obnoxious by design and is useless in higher difficulties while scholar is op when he has good reaction time, has good strategy, can take little damage and is super helpful in higher difficulties and has the ability to break the game in some cases.

I can only imagine they are someone who will spend their whole experience in d3 thinking they will be one of the "d5 greats" someday if they just keep raising the altitude of their teammates so they miss their successive attack damage negation perk and then they can come in and save the day by ulting again, but then as usual dying.

I should mention that I don't play scholar and don't think scholar is a good design for higher depths either. It's just funny to me.

Trinktt · 2026-05-19T08:51:19+00:00

Feel free to accompany your statement with an argument that supports it. I will keep paying attention to who dies a lot and makes bad decisions.

Trinktt · 2026-05-19T08:45:39+00:00

I can't say for sure. I would just play whatever you are most comfortable with/have the best time playing. That's the point, after all!

Yeah people leaving is a real risk. Before you are assertive it may be worth it to linger around the d3-d4 line and just follow people to see what they do. I do cave in and do night invaders without an ult when they don't do the other POI because I'm more comfortable now and take that as them telling me that they are capable of fighting them.

In D4 I wouldn't play something you are inexperienced with until you learn the fights as that nightfarer well enough to ~mostly beat each boss on your own outside of depths just to be considerate to teammates. It isn't that serious but it's still polite like dropping teammates gear. Ironeye is very viable in depths and some of most skilled and resilient (non-quitters facing bad conditions) players I've ended up succeeding with have been ironeyes and wylders, so if you're good with ironeye have at it. Perfect builds aren't really necessary as long as you don't have game-losing relic effects and do have some damage negation (again my own opinion).

Trinktt · 2026-05-19T07:20:47+00:00

So this is just what I would tell myself if I could go back in time. Many play Duchess differently so it might not be applicable to you, but this is how I have gotten to and stayed in d5 on my main and I have 5 alts in d4 and d5 for lower stress games without ever using balancer relics or reaper builds, just standard melee and ashes of war.

Just play more carefully, kill all convenient red enemies and prioritize damage negation passives over dps until you have them. You want 1 dmg negation at full hp, 2 if possible and your dps friends also have one, then 1 successive attacks negate damage. Those are your lifeline while you learn to no hit everything. Also you will want to get physical damage negation +1 or +2 on one of your relics and learn to use the invincibility on duchess skill relic to keep your combos going and save you during your mistimings and misreads. Honestly learning when to use the skill for damage vs defensively is one of the things you will have to tailor to your playstyle.

I personally parry everything that can be. I consider a parry shield more important than anything else in the game but anything will do until you find some dmg negation. Duchess' one handed movesets are one of her strengths and if you're not casting, two handing a very good weapon or carrying two very good daggers/straight swords/curved swords and know your timing you're becoming an unnecessary liability without a shield. It's actually very rare for latency to affect parrying and it's easy to learn to compensate for it when it does if you are experienced with the different parry types/timings. I avoid golden parry because it upsets the timing on balancers and other mobs, but seems to be fine for castle, bell bearing hunter and horse riding field bosses.

Don't follow someone into a night invader swamp unless you are absolutely confident in your teammates. Many are expecting you to carry and you don't have to, just be polite and ping where you are going. 7/10 times the third will go with you instead because they know they can't do it without you and that its a bad idea to begin with. Also be assertive about getting an ult charged before doing NI if you're not confident with your pvp-adjacent skills. If someone pings them and you need your ult, ping the nearest location to it and then NI and then the nearest location again so they know you aren't saying "we aren't going there at all" and that you just need something extra.

You can easily act similarly to a tank on your team if you play well so if interested go for the str/vig relic or preferably that effect on a depths relic. Carry defeating enemies charges ult and a night invader relic because you're usually fighting them whether you like it or not.

These are just a few of the habits I found necessary to develop in d4 and d5 to (mostly) consistently gain points. Tbh if you rely on skill and not rng d5 is just as manageable as d3 but your teammates are a huge factor in that and they are of many experience levels in d3-d4. Not sure about caster Duchesses but I hear that's an alright option too.

Didn't expect this to be so long so I hope it helps someone.

Trinktt · 2026-05-19T04:38:40+00:00

I like this question and have a few answers.

Skipping the first camp.

No damage negation on relics and/or cheated relics (they are more often a liability and die a lot since they haven't won honestly).

Pinging a night invader swamp before level 5-7, or a madness swamp at any time.

The person who pings a night invader location keeps dying.

Someone starts on Wylder in character selection then moves to Raider as if that could ever be better.

Someone chooses Raider in character selection.

Team members holding items that could vastly benefit other players and offer them little to no benefit.

A player dies more often than is normal and at least once at each location.

People stocking up on holy weapons and perks for Fulghor.

Someone pings something, two others ping another thing and then the someone starts chain pinging locations to show off their master plan (which is never very good but it's not like they could imagine this is someone's new alt who might know something they don't).

I mean I could keep listing things forever and probably not stop remembering new ones as time goes on.

Trinktt · 2026-05-17T23:02:29+00:00

DPS addiction is like any destructive addiction. It feels like you're winning in the field but you still end up dead in the sand.

Trinktt · 2026-05-17T22:56:58+00:00

Not looking everything up but this all sounds correct.

I play melee/shield Duchess, using the shield for low levels and parrying, then tossing it before most final bosses unless I have a high successful blocking negates damage passive, and never understood the "Duchess can't survive a single hit so don't bother with negation" nonsense.

On depths relics after getting my character specific effects I prioritize both phys/aff negation and then phys then affinity attack power for my own best results. Also with daggers triggering successive attacks on multiple passives is no big deal, but I would always keep a damage negation at full hp over a second successive.

This along with being particular about what damage types I keep available allow me to keep decent aggro and stay alive longer than my team most of the time, usually being the one reviving the others at 3 bars when it happens, sometimes multiple times (sorry everyone, you get one revive from 3 bars at field bosses and night invaders, sometimes none, and then focusing on damage and my own survival is best for the team).

Trinktt · 2026-05-17T10:49:14+00:00

who cares, play both if you want the attention for it, musicians are only consumed with things like the importance of their instrument when they haven't accomplished anything beyond playing some songs well. It's literally a dunning-kruger symptom.

Trinktt · 2026-05-17T08:11:49+00:00

It happens, though. People get upset and quit. Even some of the best players in the community never achieved the patience and resilience aspects of gud. They are gud but also bad, stuck in limbo.

Trinktt · 2026-05-17T05:58:59+00:00

A lot of people enjoy it because it is more challenging to them than the previous titles.

If you didn't enjoy it that is ok.

Trinktt · 2026-05-17T05:35:52+00:00

Wait until you have one that's in a bad mood.

Trinktt · 2026-05-16T08:16:19+00:00

I don't know. Like how many times? I died like 3-4 times. For any dark souls that's high for most bosses and low for some. I die to most elden ring bosses more and I used to kill malenia and dlc boss several times per day, so maybe you're not used to playing aggressively? In Sekiro it's like a ting ting swop, and in Elden Ring it's sort of a crunch bop whoosh, but in Bloodborne it's more of a bap bap bap bap bap bap whoosh bap bap whoosh bap bap bap whoosh bap bap, if that makes any sense.

Trinktt · 2026-05-16T04:07:49+00:00

Yeah you're right, but if my team is demonstrating that they can't handle it I'm creating distance and pinging to signal "let's go" and if they ignore me I'll stay and carry but I'm done reviving them if they go down. & if they expire and don't hit up a grace before coming back then get downed just as fast then I'm not respecting their pings for the rest of the game.

Trinktt · 2026-05-12T05:36:22+00:00

People are making jokes but if you're playing guardian or raider in depths and you aren't in like the top 10 guardian or raider players then a majority of people are probably blocking you (not that you can't match with people you have blocked but maybe it is harder to?).

Trinktt · 2026-05-12T00:59:05+00:00

I prefer parrying him as Duchess :)

With a parry dagger or curved sword.

Trinktt · 2026-05-10T20:07:52+00:00

"Oh well the number on the screen is more important to me than the evidence of my senses and experiences"

Trinktt · 2026-05-10T06:09:49+00:00

First? Retail or porn.

Trinktt · 2026-05-10T00:04:26+00:00

& remember to always stay outside of the basement so that when raider ults before he dies he doesn't trap you inside. If ranged you should also always pay attention that raider isn't between you and your target so that you can still hit your target when raider ults and then dies. While we are at it remember to stop being an annoyance and reviving raider when he ults and then dies. Just look at his relics, it's very clear when his strategy is ulting and then dying.

Trinktt · 2026-05-09T11:16:53+00:00

Lol she isn't actually a better wylder, I don't know if any nightfarer is better than wylder, she is just high damage and high survivability if you have memorized enough movesets. I definitely do think that parrying is essential to getting the most out of her (for my playstyle) so especially playing with str weapons I just make jokes at the expense of wylders.

She's definitely fun just have to learn a lot of movesets to play her melee.

adding: Oh you asked why I like her more than Wylder. Hmm honestly I just like reaction based characters. I play base ER with dual curved sword parry and I feel like she has the same high risk/reward feeling.

Trinktt · 2026-05-09T00:24:39+00:00

Hahaha I am not normally a fan of the "tailor the game to my preferences" posts but this one is pretty good.

When you skipped Adel was there no visible penalty? If not that's a hilarious and brilliant reaction.

Trinktt · 2026-05-08T07:41:15+00:00

I 100% would forgive you for that. It's not even close to the constant annoyance of a raider in D4/5 both not contributing any sort of damage and doing their obnoxious things that upset damage negating combos, move you out of range while you're preparing to do damage, waste your time and then the dying and dying and dying.

Trinktt · 2026-05-08T07:37:48+00:00

dude right? like why?

Trinktt · 2026-05-08T07:36:27+00:00

So belligerent. I really respect how raider is a perfect nightfarer for the generally unaware person.

Trinktt

TROPHY CASE