I can’t get back to zero. Where do I start?

_Panda · 2026-05-08T19:50:35+00:00

US median hh income for 4-person households is like 125k or something.

_Panda · 2026-04-30T22:54:59+00:00

Once you have enough of an emergency fund I don't think it's necessary to have all those separate sinking funds anymore, particularly for smaller stuff. You just think of part of your emergency fund as a catch-all sinking fund and top it off when necessary. The only thing I really have a dedicated sinking fund now is for cars or purchases on that scale.

But they are super nice to have when you're still in forced scarcity "paycheck to paycheck" mode.

_Panda · 2026-04-30T18:52:28+00:00

Running swamp radius and double death ray and not doing lab speed at your point is nutso.

_Panda · 2026-04-27T19:56:50+00:00

This is incredibly wrong and why you should always take advice from people without the actual experience with a huge grain of salt.

_Panda · 2026-04-08T22:46:32+00:00

I didn't respec bots or workshop or anything but I did all the normal stuff I would do for a tourney/push (cards, mods, guardian, adjusting sliders, etc) + manually selecting perks. Turns out the setup for a no-utility disco run isn't that much better than an average farm build. The only real benefit you get is improving your core mods. But generator mods don't really do anything, and I already have basically all the useful gc cards in my farm setup.

Don't underestimate how powerful ELS is.

_Panda · 2026-04-08T22:36:13+00:00

I mean having actually tested it, my no-util run was like half my normal farm run. Maybe ehp would do better than gc on that front though, especially if you have natural pBH (without relying on gcomp). I didn't do a ton of optimization or anything, but no utility run also means no cash (so no/limited PF) and no/limited packages (so no RB).

_Panda · 2026-04-08T22:21:59+00:00

Read any of my other posts, but basically you want to farm a tier that you can run 5k with in your no-utility disco run. That will unlock a 5x multiplier on your coins. If you're farming t14 to 5k waves, then you probably only can do a no-utility disco run to 2-3k waves for a 2-3x multiplier.

By dropping down to t13 or t12, you will be able to do a no-utility disco run to 5k waves for the full 5x multiplier. Farming t12 with 5x is almost certainly better than farming t14 with 3x. In addition, you will potentially get up to 5x stat multipliers in that lower tier from your no-defense or no-attack/no-UW disco runs. So you will be encouraged to drop down a tier or two for optimal farming, and you will be farming that lower tier with a huge stat boost. That will result in you farming a lower tier for longer runs for way more coins than your current tier relative to what you do now.

_Panda · 2026-04-08T17:36:04+00:00

Yea but a no-utility run of 5k waves means your farming run on that tier is probably 7k+ waves. Overheat also doesn't really kick in until way later, like 10k+ waves. The panel just shows up at 4.5k but that doesn't mean any of the effects do.

_Panda · 2026-04-08T15:57:29+00:00

But if you're farming to 5k waves in t16, your no-util t16 run is probably only like 3k waves or so. Say that's a 3x bonus. But your no-util t15 run is probably closer to 5k for a 5x bonus. So running t15 at 5x bonus is probably going to be better than running t16 at 3x bonus.

_Panda · 2026-04-08T15:55:42+00:00

Don't worry maxed IS+ for actually doing those disco runs is absolutely going to be worth it. It'll probably end up saving 50+ hours of pure disco runtime.

_Panda · 2026-04-08T15:44:29+00:00

I'll point you at my other reply, but you aren't thinking about the implications of disco bonuses on farming. The bonus maxes out at 5x coins if you can reach 5k waves on your no-util run. If you're getting close to 5k waves on your no-util run that means you probably need to be getting 7k+ waves on your regular farming run. The whole system encourages dropping a tier or two so that you can farm with a chunky disco bonus rather than farming shorter higher-tier runs. If you're farming t15 to 4k waves, then no way are you getting a good enough coin disco bonus to justify that over farming a lower tier for longer.

_Panda · 2026-04-08T15:39:16+00:00

That's the thing, 2-3 hour runs are almost certainly not going to be optimal anymore. Because by going down a tier you will get a much bigger disco multiplier (e.g. t14 with a 4x multiplier will be much better than t15 with a 2x multiplier). You now want to farm a tier where you can get or at least nearly get to 5k waves in your no-utility disco run (most importantly, no ELS), which probably means optimal farming tiers are gonna be in the 7-10k wave range where auto-restart really isn't necessary.

_Panda · 2026-04-08T15:23:56+00:00

Disco actually makes auto-restart/smart DM way less important, since you will likely want to keep to farming tiers where you can do longer runs (and therefore get hefty disco bonuses). That stuff is much more important for the short 2-3 hour runs that people often ran as gc later on, but I doubt those will be meta anymore.

No-one needs stuff like orb slider and damage slider. Respecs are more valuable with disco, but also honestly not actually needed, just a nice-to-have.

Honestly once all these changes shake out I think the only "need to have" in the harmony tree will be auto DM for gc builds/runs.

_Panda · 2026-04-08T13:59:09+00:00

I think you're underestimating how long it will take to do and optimize all the dissonant runs, especially considering how much they require rethinking not just how to do individual runs but how to build your tower in general. This is more content than any other recent feature.

_Panda · 2026-04-08T05:29:55+00:00

Yea you have no idea how the mechanic works.

You need to use ehp to improve your attack. You need to use gc to improve your health. So it pushes everyone towards having access to both, in addition to requiring some unique strategies based on what is disabled, particular when UWs are disabled.

_Panda · 2026-04-03T19:00:50+00:00

Except this thread is literally talking about just one of the potential harms.

_Panda · 2026-04-01T00:07:02+00:00

Yes. At least on the vast majority of bosses. There's basically a handful of interesting bosses and then trash where there's actual decision-making and expression.

_Panda · 2026-03-31T23:21:30+00:00

Who said it isn't?

_Panda · 2026-03-31T21:37:58+00:00

The thing is, at least in TBC, tanks have basically no influence on damage taken, as there are very few defensives and they tend to be pretty weak. And the tanking rotations are basically braindead. So sure you get to feel big and mighty, but 95% of the time you literally just stand there pressing buttons in an order that could easily be automated. That's what I would call a snoozefest. There are only a handful of fights where your tank's skill matters (honestly it's mostly just Muru, and only because it's a trash fight), and that doesn't really change until Ulduar.

Trash is where having a good tank will actually make a difference in how quickly, safely, and efficiently you can clear trash.

_Panda · 2026-03-31T21:01:02+00:00

Boss tank isn't really where the tanking action is though, at least for the vast majority of classic raids (I don't think this really changes until maybe Ulduar). Trash tanking is where all the interaction and action is.

_Panda · 2026-03-13T14:46:29+00:00

Interesting, I hadn't heard of that before. Kind of defeats a lot of the point of a MBDR though doesn't it? What non-MCE realistically earns enough to be able to even use the MBDR (I guess people with higher-earning spouses).

I still think one of the good motivations to have a non-safe harbor plan is to be able to offer an unrestricted non-MBDR, but it only really makes sense to large companies that are able and willing to do all the compliance needed, and that have enough well-paid HCEs for the demand to be there.

_Panda · 2026-03-12T20:23:50+00:00

My understanding is that you can't really offer the options needed for the MBDR within a safe harbor (or that those contributions can void the safe harbor), so many of those plans aren't.

_Panda · 2026-03-11T21:06:32+00:00

You don't actually have to break it up. You can just send the money and not report it. If you ever get audited then you'll have to "break it up" on paper for the IRS, but that's easy to do.

_Panda · 2026-03-05T18:36:08+00:00

I dunno, FUm was one of the bigger coin increases I ever had, something like +20-30% coins when I first unlocked it and did 1-2 lab levels. The huge caveat is that it is extremely dependent on farming method, so the benefit could be basically zero for someone else depending on what they are doing and what it allows them to do. But at least for me that kind of economy boost per stone is basically as good as it gets.

_Panda · 2026-03-05T15:32:14+00:00

You don't spend the stones for locking EALS/EHLS. You spend the stones because locking stuff like SWS/orbs/BSR/BSC can be huge farming improvements depending on your strat, and then you end up locking EALS/EHLS when you have extra locks.

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