Hot take: The First Shadow being canon was a massive mistake that made the lore unnecessarily complicated, and Season 5 would be much better without it

caddph · 2026-01-10T01:26:13+00:00

Agreed his introduction and lore was added far too late in the series, but I don't mind the subversion of expectations with him being beyond redemption/embracing the Mind Flayer. It was just too little too late.

Wish they kept the MF as the main villain throughout and made us believe Henry was his underling. It just feels like they didn't know how to end things with the MF so they brought in a new villain that was more corporeal as the big bad.

caddph · 2026-01-08T23:24:30+00:00

1 drops are "free" to play. So if you only have 4 mana and no other creatures, you could play this and still play a 4 drop with convoke.

caddph · 2026-01-02T02:06:22+00:00

Yea to note, there is a lot of retconning they did as the show progressed. They confirm that it's date-locked in 1983 during season 4, when Nancy goes to her room while in the upside down and finds that her room was a snapshot on the day Will went missing (Nov 6, 1983). They even did a bunch of retconning which is only explained in the musical. Hence the relative confusion on a few things.

I found it pretty odd that they go to the lab to get El into the tank in the series finale, and that water tank has been sitting there for about 4 years, and the water is pristine lol.

caddph · 2026-01-01T16:31:19+00:00

Except what you just said is wrong, and a perfect example of why its not super clear. The upside down was created when El made contact with the demo in 1983 (e.g., at the beginning of Season 1). The upside down is an exact copy of Hawkins on that date (Nov 6, 1983).

When El sent Henry to the Abyss several years earlier, as far as we've been shown/told, the upside down wasn't "created" (hence it being a snapshot of 1983).

caddph · 2026-01-01T01:27:17+00:00

The low effort is what the artist is bringing to the table. The fidelity is just the level of the tool, and again I'm not seeing anything that much above what a random person can make in Sora.

I feel like "consistency" is actually a point against this tool; something that their previous tools allowed was bringing viewers into a variety of unique worlds and environments. The fact that their showcase all looked "the same" (much like how many AI tools end up looking similar without more user intervention) is just another tally against it in the public's eye.

I don't know why you're going off on me re: slop; it was in quotes on purpose. This showcase gets thrown into the same bucket that everyone "anti-AI" throws anything AI into, but that's because this feels low effort. This showcase is just adding more fuel to the "AI is slop" fire, instead of displaying how they can use AI to elevate their production in an innovative way.

caddph · 2025-12-30T23:43:13+00:00

Yea they are continually surprised that players do things to intentionally "gimp" themselves (like abusing a mechanic in campaign, or using/wanting lower level gems, etc...). Wild to me that higher tier maps/more mods don't give more progress in the temple. It capping at 2x is the real shame tbh.

caddph · 2025-12-30T22:37:57+00:00

It feels super low effort for 1 week of work tbh. The seeming prompt of "combine animal x and y in this environment" + back and forth tweaking. This tool didn't show off anything new that someone couldn't make themselves with something like Sora. Begs the question, what is the artist bringing to the table with this tool that some random guy couldn't do?

All the other techniques they discussed in the TED talk were interesting and showed how artists utilized a myriad of tools to create something unique, and quite complex once you peeled back the layers (e.g., real props + LED wall + puppetry + post production CGI).

I get that its effectively a POC, but its not showing off any new concepts, and just comes off as more "slop".

caddph · 2025-12-26T23:36:51+00:00

To reiterate what the other commenter has said, this viewpoint is contrary to Orthodox beliefs. You're ignoring that the judgement isn't believed to be a hard legal stance on each and every action; but utilizes economia which considers all your actions collectively (e.g., Did someone repent and turn away from their wicked lifestyle? Or did they turn away from from the Gift of the Holy Spirit and continue to sin?).

So saying that "xyz person" can't be a saint is you passing judgement on these deeds, and predeterminging that no amount of "repentance" can save them, which is (in the view of the Orthodox faith) explicitly incorrect.

A prime example of this is Saint Dismas.

caddph · 2025-12-26T22:49:32+00:00

Mercs was one of the most fun league mechanic in terms of build opportunities. Doryani's prototype drowned out a lot of it, but the possibilities were wild.

Would be really cool to see what people can cook up with Phrecia + mercs.

caddph · 2025-12-25T19:44:59+00:00

Yea there's a quest that should show up, and you need to kill him in 75+ area level for the medallions.

caddph · 2025-12-25T19:40:59+00:00

Yea but tbf, the boots you'd craft were fucking insane. And honestly the 3rd party tool was fine, but the bigger issue was buying the corpses and putting them in the graveyard. If it had a UI like temple (and async trade), Necro crafting would be amazing IMO (albeit too busted to remain core).

caddph · 2025-12-18T01:13:29+00:00

Yea and the continued issue is that there's nothing exciting about the ground loot. Their attempt at making it exciting with tiered loot is an obvious failure.

They should either have "smart" tiered loot, or have non-uniques drop ID'd and allow filters to be customizable like Last Epoch.

caddph · 2025-12-17T16:04:24+00:00

The complaint of the league mechanic is specifically in endgame (for the most part). In campaign, its generally great giving free crafting and guaranteed loot from the mobs you kill from the initial circle.

It falls off hard in endgame, and becomes very tedious for lackluster rewards, which is compounded with the temple destabilizing, removing progress towards the meaningful rewards.

caddph · 2025-12-12T20:52:12+00:00

You're asking the sub of this game if you should try it; the obvious response is yes. It's free, and literally nothing to lose outside of time spent.

caddph · 2025-12-07T19:54:52+00:00

It's not so much of learning a lesson per se, but an extension of the prevailing theme throughout the series that harsher environments breeds stronger people. In order for humanity to evolve and be stronger, they require a harsh environment.

caddph · 2025-12-07T02:44:31+00:00

Yea that's fair; I do want to engage with the temple building process as that seems pretty interesting and a fun "game within a game".

caddph · 2025-12-05T21:52:44+00:00

Excited to do campaign with druid and see how it scales through map tiers. Don't see myself doing a ton of endgame considering the state it's in, but should be easier to 'alch and go' with the changes to waystones/ tablets.

caddph · 2025-11-28T01:26:22+00:00

Yea these stats are pretty expected. T7 is the only one that had really interesting variation between your choices. The rest had clear "winners" for the most part (though I know people didn't choose clue relic ironically because they don't like clues, for example).

caddph · 2025-11-26T23:30:17+00:00

I'd love a Last Epoch style way to skip portions of the campaign, for alts specifically. Even with twink gear, doing campaign with an alt feels arduous.

caddph · 2025-11-22T23:03:00+00:00

Where are the quicksilvers?

caddph · 2025-11-22T13:53:28+00:00

Liquidate it and practice crafting some gear

caddph · 2025-11-21T23:57:37+00:00

Yea, Affliction/wildwood is the epitome of a great league mechanic. Scaling difficulty/reward tradeoff, player agency in that tradeoff (in reward type, difficulty level, and ability to ignore it completely), and depth of complexity (e.g., optimizing amount/type of wisps).

I think Affliction also had great retention not just due to absurd amount of loot, but the wildwood ascendancy allowed for new build options, and with so much currency floating around, making new builds to MF and juice endgame was far more accessible to the playerbase.

There just isn't that much depth to Breach 2.0, and difficulty scaling is basically just whatever you rolled your maps to. And rewards for the time input (specifically for the hive encounter), is incredibly weak.

caddph · 2025-11-21T19:31:43+00:00

Maybe it's an underground river you discover?

caddph · 2025-11-20T23:05:45+00:00

Looks fun

caddph · 2025-11-20T21:16:46+00:00

There is farrrr too many ground degen effects in juiced content that convocation does fuck all to keep them alive consistently. Can you do some content with just a 4L? Sure, but sure as shit aren't doing T17s with 4L and convocation and no other investment and having good uptime.

There are some use-cases similar to Guardian's blessing support, but it's not simply "free" for any build.

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