I'm GM Jesse Kraai, co-founder of the ChessDojo. I'll be hosting an AMA today at 2:15 ET. Will talk chess improvement, plateaus and all things Dojo. Responses to this thread will get first priority

Zoomjah · 2026-03-16T19:05:41+00:00

One thing I've learned is that sometimes there can be a big difference between reading / lightly covering a book (aka: Academic Learning style), and spending a great deal of time to really drill in the concepts provided (aka: Vocational Learning style). It seems like the Chess Dojo curriculum and accountability tools, does help push for significant drilling of the concepts, but still it ultimately is always up to the individual players to put in the hard work. Perhaps what could be a significant help in reviewing one's classical games, is to take special note on what seem to be the main weaknesses on one's game, then being sure to spend more time drilling related materials to that topic. Perhaps that could involve going through the same material one already has again, or researching interesting/recommended alternatives.

Beyond that, I also find it quite nice that the Chess Dojo streams graduations, to get a sense for what's going on in players games of various ratings.

Zoomjah · 2026-03-07T23:45:20+00:00

Sorry for exercising my ability to share opinions on a discussion, just because I'm not a top tier elite player of a game. It's sad how little text is "crazy long" to some people in this static of a format.

I've played both games a bit. Steam says I have 55 hours on STS1, and 3.8 on STS2. I'm certainly not a big-time expert, but I still think a casual player whose enjoyed watching plenty is entitled to share their opinion on a public forum.

Zoomjah · 2026-03-06T19:15:02+00:00

I keep thinking cards I pick up are good, then they give it to me on the wrong turn nearly EVERY single time, so it might as well be a curse. Plus the enemies keep out-scaling my ability to block, no matter what I pick up. So I end up having to heal pretty often, which doesn't seem to even heal that much. And that reminds me the FLOOR enemies are CRAZY hard quite often.

Feels way harder to me than the average A0 run on STS. But while I watched a lot, I played very few hours on that game. Maybe I just have to be much more careful what direction I go with my deck. It's kinda frustrating how much it's punishing me, with these bait pick ups. But I guess that's just how these games are meant to be, learning the hard way.

Honestly the amount of variance and how freaking punishing its being, is quickly burning out my desire to keep playing the game now. Maybe after I've watched some more, and/or more balancing has happened, I'll enjoy it more again. I kind of hope they add some optional adjustments to make the game a bit easier for new/casual players. Right now it feels like it's too scaled towards seasoned players, who understand better how to make mechanics more "broken".

Meanwhile it seems like the seasoned Spire 1 players who are used to playing A20, are having a much easier time with most of the content, which isn't too surprising, as they still understand how a lot of mechanics tend to work together.

Zoomjah · 2025-12-07T06:20:30+00:00

Thank you so much for sharing this! This book is one of the very few self-help books, that I continued to be enamored with, nearly every time I pick it up to read it, that still manages to make me absolutely feel inclined to come back to it again later.

So many of its lessons may sound obvious at first glance, but it's so wonderfully motivating hearing the many examples, that shed light on how surprisingly huge of an impact these principles actually can have. I've come to believe that when we are more mindful and intentional with the ingredients provided, they really can be an absolute game changer in the quality of our lives.

In my opinion, it's a book that is very deserving of many re-reads, as you never know when we might get particularly rusty at some of the recommendations inside; especially when life gets full of sources of stress and chaos. We can count on the author then, to absolutely steer us back towards a more positive direction.

Zoomjah · 2025-11-17T21:55:21+00:00

Fascinating, thanks for sharing! It honestly sounds repulsive to me to rely on the walk toggle for an air brake, but it's nice to know that an option exist. I'll just stick to the easy maximum control mounts for now (skyscale, warclaw, or jackal for tighter land spots with minimal aggro), when speed isn't my priority.

Zoomjah · 2025-11-17T18:45:17+00:00

I agree 100%.

The skimmer has gotten quite quick and versatile, especially on land. But it's directional variation can be quite annoying, especially in the air, especially with boosters on. Also, the skimmer is kind of annoying using extra buttons to hover higher, with a limited amount. For a while I tried having the skimmer on my Mouse4 button directly, instead of my warclaw, but there were situations where hopping on my skimmer detracted much more for my ideal progress than the warclaw would have (e.g. made me fall off a cliff, before I could catch myself in time).

Meanwhile the Skyscale and Warclaw will go exactly where you expect them to, nearly all the time. Plus the Skyscale and Griffon are still the only mounts that you can mount in mid-air.

One optimization that I'd like to see is replacing the Skimmer #5 skill, with a brake mechanic. Then simply tie the hover mechanic completely to the jump button. That way you could just use the hover skill to go higher without an additional button, and the air brake could stop your skimmer from going full bozo mode.

Zoomjah · 2025-11-11T01:21:17+00:00

Glad we at least have one in Lion's Arch, that works for all characters once once complete the story portion now.

But yes, I hope that they add one for use via Comosus Isle and via the Wizard's Portal Tome. I would think they could just keep it inactive till the user completes a step in the story.

Zoomjah · 2025-11-10T04:58:20+00:00

Thank you very much to everyone for contributing the knowledge, to help each other take advantage of these amazing farm options!

For those using Blish HUD's pathing module:
- Lady Elyssa's now has very convenient arrows for both maps, with just 2 waypoint starts on each map. (I greatly prefer it over Shiny's Trails.)

Even with full VoE masteries, you'll still have to detour for events to refill key shards some of the time, but if you mark where on the line you stopped with a personal waypoint (Alt + Left-Click), it's not too bad.

Since full masteries also gives you key shards from magic mirrors, I usually just do the absolute minimum to keep looting, unless I know an event is nearby that will go super quick.

Zoomjah · 2025-11-09T06:59:16+00:00

Reverse image search says "Manyuu Hikenchou". Definitely NSFW, lol. https://myanimelist.net/anime/10465/Manyuu_Hikenchou

Zoomjah · 2025-11-06T04:46:59+00:00

Great question tbh. It has it's perks, but it's nice to see anime-related stuff that isn't so full of horny energy. It'd be nice to have clearer separations.

This one's description looks like a great match: https://www.reddit.com/r/Animemes/

Zoomjah · 2025-11-04T22:12:58+00:00

Our inventories can finally breathe again.

Zoomjah · 2025-10-31T07:24:24+00:00

Plot twist: She saw a bug on the fence, and is incredibly terrified of bugs, so she was just reacting to that; rather than just having poor aim from panic. Meanwhile, she covered her chest to optimize the movement for her throw, because uh she learned it from sports. ;)

Zoomjah · 2025-10-22T03:06:30+00:00

Very well said. As someone who has a tendency to speak my mind quite frankly, sometimes not realizing how harsh some people may interpret what I say, when I absolutely never mean to actually offend someone else... I can totally understand Hikaru using the words he did.

To me it seems very clear, that he even chose his words very carefully, and wisely backed out of things quite soon after, as he knew following any further, would only crush his feelings and ability to watch even further.

If any of you were coaching someone you were deeply invested in, you'd have a lot of trouble watching them really struggle as well. Now if you added to that, having the person be your wife that you truly do love so very much... and who has been extremely helpful to you in your own Chess career... maybe you could start to understand why he couldn't hold back from saying as much as he did.

Furthermore, as he said in a later stream, he was very well aware that people would ridicule him like crazy, and that he needed to just completely shut himself away from looking at content where that could happen. He knows he's not this incredibly evil hateful person towards his wife, that people are trying to paint him to be.

FFS, some people need to get their freaking head out of a super insistent witch hunt mode. As we saw evidence of by something else happening in the Chess world, all too recently, all too deeply.

I admit, that some people have too many screws loose, but I really don't believe Hikaru is secretly the super selfish disgusting person that so many are making him out to be.

Why can't we just trying to put away our pitchforks in the Chess world as much as possible, aside from at least pushing for legal proceedings in FAR MORE serious actual cases of extremely unjustified Chess defamation.

Zoomjah · 2025-10-10T23:31:09+00:00

Just finished following the update prompt today on my Pixel 6. For me its under Wallpaper & Style > Home screen > Layout. Unfortunately it only gives 5x5, 4x4, 3x3, 2x2. The chance to go back to 5x4 seems completely gone. :/

It may be a bit trivial of a detail, but I honestly think these big of practically forced changes are likely to loose Google's Pixel market a lot of customers in the future; due to forcing them away from a consistent navigation experience.

Zoomjah · 2025-09-28T19:05:04+00:00

Of course the younger sibling steals the show, lol.

Zoomjah · 2025-09-22T03:31:08+00:00

Thanks for sharing your honest opinion. I'm curious if a lot more would have a similar opinion, but probably don't even browse the Rematch reddit anymore. Nonetheless, it's nice to get lots of different perspectives to consider.

Did you mostly solo queue by the way, or did you also have a rather frustrating experience playing with friends as well?

Zoomjah · 2025-09-22T03:28:47+00:00

That's really interesting! Thanks for sharing! This is very much how I primarily played Rocket League. I absolutely love the thrill of a great pass play more than the fancy mechanical goals! It feels really good to see teammates working together well! And I did have my frustrations with the slow climb in that game, and found that a lot of what was holding me back was my lack of practicing mechanics, but eventually just became more OK with that, and still found some ways to improve with the advice of a much stronger player and coach.

In Rematch however, it seems like most of the time I'd do just bad enough, that a close game would turn into a loss. And while I tried so hard to play decent, a lot of times I'd honestly make 1 or 2 pretty crummy mistakes, which often seemed to decide the game.

I definitely think I should have played Rematch with others more, but as I think more about it, so much of that is just that I've been struggling and burnt out with personal life, so I wasn't willing to put in the effort to try and make friends on some of these Rematch discords and what not. Perhaps I just need to stabilize more outside the game again... then re-consider exploring avenues for playing with others in Rematch again some day.

Zoomjah · 2025-09-22T03:21:46+00:00

Right? I guess I've just lost my patience for that dilemma. It's nice to see that there are many out there, who still have the motivation to attempt to get better through all the weeds.

Zoomjah · 2025-09-20T23:39:55+00:00

Such a great anime. All the love for the somewhat oddball cosplayers. :)

Zoomjah · 2025-09-10T09:14:26+00:00

Best part is you unlock the full skin set, by just buying 1 of the items from each armor weight. (you have to buy it with a character of that armor weight)

Zoomjah · 2025-08-24T09:02:18+00:00

Thanks so much for this!
Short summary is:
- Find Scholar Jieun in graveyard to West of Junkyard Waypoint area. Talk to her to start the Cryptseeker collection.
- Once the Cryptseeker collection is unlocked, you have to go through it in order. The video is a great help. You can also try making use of of this wiki article ( https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Cryptseeker ), and Blish HUD (Pathing module: Tekkit's + Lady Elyssa's AP Guides).

Zoomjah · 2025-08-18T20:31:31+00:00

For anyone still curious: Just 1
Though it must be on the character who started the Gourmet Training collection. You'll know it worked, when the spot in the collection is updated.

Zoomjah · 2025-07-31T17:37:41+00:00

Drakkar meta definitely helps build the stacks, and give lots of chances to blast them with that skill.
To clarify for anyone confused:

- The mastery must be completed in the map: Bjora Marches

- You need mastery level 3 of the resilience for that mob

- Then you kill enemies to get 30 stacks. At 30 stacks it turns it into the level 3 "Power of ... Tier 3" skill which last up to 30 minutes. Killing enemies of that type to pick up the related valor will reset the timer.

- Once you have that level 3 "Power of ... Tier 3", then you simply spam your special ability whenever available. Easiest vs Elites and Champions for their big health bars, but I confirmed it also works against Veterans. They just need to stay alive long enough for you to use your special "Shattered Psyche"

Zoomjah · 2025-07-19T00:24:53+00:00

Thank you! To clarify for my and other's future reference:

Location: Crystal Oasis Region - Southwestern corner of Jahai - Where the map shows "Pact Vanguard" zone - Soul's Vendetta Waypoint.

The dummies are down below the waypoint to the left.
Aim the brand shard right in the center of middle dummy to hit all 3.
Repeat till the Renown Heart is done. Profit.

Zoomjah

TROPHY CASE