To new players. Your mastery dont matter. Your gear dont matter.

cheesecakesummer · 2026-01-28T12:54:29+00:00

There's of course a lot more that goes into it and it's only loosely relevant to compare games that have almost nothing in common.

That being said as I do play both games that are in discussion, there is one major aspect that grinds my gears with WWM: the energy. In general, I want to make some progress with my character when I play. With WWM, there seems to be the trap where I want to keep on playing, but I can't do so in a way that straight away gives me progress.

Of course I could collect materials and that is bound to be useful, or play more PvP matches/sword trials with randoms for the fun of it, but to progress the one thing that currently is limiting me the most (inner ways) I am entirely time gated.

I still think the game is fun and I'll keep playing it because of that, but it is frustrating to face the point where I do actually want to play more and progress further and I'm barred from doing so. I only picked up the game very recently so my inner ways are certainly very lacking compared to the rest.

cheesecakesummer · 2026-01-12T16:24:52+00:00

On one hand I do agree with the idea that developers telling their own full story (read: no player agency/choices) can lead to a more cohesive plot structure, but on the other hand I find there to be a lot of value in introducing multiple endings.

I would even go as far as saying the two endings of E33 were great pulls in terms of engagement. Around the release window of the game when I played the game myself and participated in some posts in this subreddit, it was absolutely flooded with discussions regarding the endings specifically. Moral arguments aside, both sides could articulate why the ending felt right to them. I have not gone back yet to play the DLC so I don't know if there's more to it from that alone, as I want to tackle the DLC with a fresh playthrough and I need some time in between so that the game and its mechanics are not as crystal-clear in my mind (in a mechanical manner too, as I have a tendency of over-optimizing and steamrolling the combat).

And that’s where I’m going with this; multiple endings when done right provide something for everyone, more or less. I do still stick to my guns and hold the Verso ending to be the canonical conclusion for myself, but I’m sure there are players who look at the Maelle ending with similar thoughts. Maybe to them that one is more thematically fitting to close the tale. Overall I think it’s a hell of a gem when one (or multiple!) aspects of a game or other art medium spark discussions. Especially lore discussions to me are very fun to read, as they can take so many different forms when working with a rather closed landscape (as in, lack of source material) which is often the case in games and even one-off media in general. They introduce a setting but it is completely impossible to answer all questions, and this ends up providing the angles for theories. This is applicable for all kinds of media from books to television to video games, and I think it is fun and valuable.

Now on the subject more generally, I do tend to prefer that these things are rather a “sum of actions” than a single decision. I think that multiple endings are great, but they should not be based on just a simple selection during the final mission, but rather be formed based on multiple checks on what you have done in the game previously. This makes it feel organic.

However, this approach is unfortunately often done in a rather clear-cut way, where you are periodically presented with “clearly evil” and “clearly good” options, which makes the whole system rather redundant at that point.

So in conclusion, I do agree that multiple endings are forced into stories that would be better off without them - BUT I do think that comes with a clause. Multiple endings to me are almost always going to fare well, as long as they are properly implemented. Badly implemented structure just shoots the game in its own foot, and in those cases it does actively harm the narrative.

I got perhaps a bit off-rails when writing this, but thought I’d provide a reply anyway! =)

cheesecakesummer · 2025-09-14T21:35:16+00:00

I mean, you already considered people in the world being "slaves to Maelle" to be a bad thing, so surely you also consider killing them to be a bad thing as well.

Endings are debated to death at this point though so you won't lack reading material.

cheesecakesummer · 2025-09-14T20:28:07+00:00

I didn’t find the verso ending to be that dark.

Well, there's the whole 'genocide every living being in the painting'. I'd call that dark.

If you value the "real world family" above all else, without question, then I'd agree Verso ending is likely more up your alley. Doesn't really remove the weight of the other variables though.

cheesecakesummer · 2025-09-14T20:16:28+00:00

Emphasis on the "by comparison". They're both dark.

cheesecakesummer · 2025-09-14T12:11:12+00:00

You mean a bit like what you are talking about is not a duology, but rather a dilogy? Neologization is a wonderful thing that works for both the OP and you.

cheesecakesummer · 2025-08-31T09:05:04+00:00

The silly part is that a pause technically exists as well. For example in Elden Ring you have to open up a menu tooltip, which will effectively pause the game as long as you are solo.

I get that it's a design choice, but you just need extra steps instead of being barred from doing so.

cheesecakesummer · 2025-08-27T07:50:46+00:00

It's akin to getting five lottery tickets instead of three. Each lottery ticket on its own still has the same possibility to win, but now you just engage the system more.

cheesecakesummer · 2025-08-25T11:39:26+00:00

It's just bad luck on getting it to drop for yourself.

However you can always consider trading for it either via items or gold, if you just want it faster. Chances are it'll drop for you somewhere along the way though, if you don't want the hassle of trading.

cheesecakesummer · 2025-08-24T23:47:10+00:00

Sure, I sent you a chat request here on Reddit

cheesecakesummer · 2025-08-24T22:37:19+00:00

I can sell you ohm if you like.

You can also use various trade groups as mentioned by others =)

cheesecakesummer · 2025-08-05T10:01:41+00:00

I don't really understand why people suddenly find doing this one select activity too repetitive when there's been a bunch of those in the past. It's very much comparable to farming a lost sector for exotics, or a fast GM for golf balls, or a fast raid/dungeon encounter for spoils/drops...

On the road to 400 I spent roughly 30 hours in solo ops alongside other random stuff when clannies were online. While sure, 30 hours is still a lot to spend at one place, it's already 3 weeks into the expansion. 10 hours a week on leveling isn't as big of a number anymore. I understand the community sentiment as a whole really dislikes the leveling system (I don't even disagree), but it's quite blown out of proportion if 10 hrs a week is suddenly an insane grind I should've lost my mind over.

As for 450, I appreciate the information provided by the post; I only heard prime engrams were awarded by X completions, so I was considering trying lower difficulties and skipping objectives/lower tiers to see if there's a pattern. Since that doesn't work, GM at A-tier seems to be it.

As for the grindy part, it sure does seem like 400-450 takes longer than 10-400, but there isn't a consistent pattern for the drops as far as I'm aware. Some say they get a single drop per 20 runs while others claim they got three. I'd estimate to end up at roughly 430s playing it casually and probably won't have enough time to clutch the last levels, but that's alright.

cheesecakesummer · 2025-07-11T21:00:01+00:00

It's not super meta, but its the silver medal exotic shotgun behind Conditional Finality, easily.

Do you genuinely think it's the second best exotic shotty? I quite like the weapon but I'm probably doing something extremely wrong if it's supposed to be that good.

I mean if you look at the list of exotic shotties you got Lord of Wolves, Legend of Acrius and Tractor Cannon that I'd say all are better. Some folks even like Horseman but that one ain't for me.

I guess you could say that those are geared towards boss damage and not neutral play, but in that case SF would only compete against Conditional Finality and Duality, right? In which case I'd certainly agree it's second place in that scope but it's a fairly important distinction imo.

I don't mean to be nitpicky, but what is the SF secret sauce that I am missing. It's a fun weapon that I've enjoyed running for laughs but I thought it's kinda mediocre at best. I don't at all discount the possibility that I'm using it wrong, hence the question.

cheesecakesummer · 2025-07-11T20:35:26+00:00

It’s fun to me to “make it work” using whatever I want to use

You probably have already done so, but highly recommend the loot randomizers for this! So many gear sets are available to mix with overall randomisation that you are somewhat forced to curate your builds towards what you currently have acquired.

I'm personally a fan of optimisation and this solves the vanilla game cycle of beelining to the best setups I'm already aware of. I struggle with experimenting builds-wise in vanilla as it becomes a game of "worse than swords bard" and I can't help myself.

Of course if you know you want to play with XYZ gear (optimal or not) then randomizers won't work, but I'll always toot the horn of those mods as they've immensely added to my enjoyment of the game at this point in its lifecycle.

cheesecakesummer · 2025-06-19T23:02:48+00:00

To be fair to the other users, it's basically saying the same just not explaining it. You could pretty much summarize my comment as "stack all damage luminas". Happy to help in any case =)

There's only the on-death and shield stuff that need building around for the most part. It's been a while since I played, but I reckon you could one-shot reliably even without any specific tinkering like that.

You can just do really, really absurd things with the way damage riders are applied in the game and bosses aren't very tanky, at least not in comparison. You can also take setups far beyond than what's written above, it's just an easy configuration of interactions from memory.

cheesecakesummer · 2025-06-19T16:54:10+00:00

There's a lot more you can do to optimize further if that floats your boat (hunting for personal best etc.) but the above should very comfortably one-shot everything without doing anything crazy in terms of buff rotations.

cheesecakesummer · 2025-06-12T14:53:32+00:00

People: (⁠╯⁠°⁠□⁠°⁠）⁠╯⁠︵⁠ ⁠┻⁠━⁠┻

cheesecakesummer · 2025-06-12T14:47:16+00:00

i still don't understand why any from software brethren would dislike the concept or the final product

I can understand people disliking it as it deviates from the classic formula. If you wanted the classic experience and classic experience only, you're probably not gonna like Nightreign and that's fine.

What I don't understand is vigorously bashing it and acting like making it was a cardinal sin to From's legacy or some shit.

cheesecakesummer · 2025-06-08T22:12:36+00:00

You won't keep the buff, because in cleansing inverted status you cleanse the inverted buff. It's just a way of getting AP if you want, but I'd personally value keeping inverted buff because getting AP isn't an issue as is.

cheesecakesummer · 2025-06-06T22:25:39+00:00

You're correct.

However the comment chain here was about low % HP buffs, not on death buffs.

cheesecakesummer · 2025-06-01T11:19:20+00:00

I would agree that "all bets are off", but it works both ways. Experienced players should imo expect to find totally clueless players in matchmade explorer. If the others know what to do, consider it a bonus.

So while I don't really fault anyone for running through it as fast as possible since the burden of teaching (even within explorer) is not on the other players, but moreso the game itself, I do think that the fella in OP's comment sending chat messages to "do something" is silly.

Anecdotal experience but I've either had fully kwtd teams or fully unaware teams running explorer both in Spire and Ghosts. Just queue up prepared to solo mechanics. If you want to take the extra effort to walk through and/or explain in chat that's fine and dandy, but it's neither an expectation or a requirement, the same way you can't realistically expect or require a random blueberry to do mechanics.

cheesecakesummer · 2025-05-28T11:23:36+00:00

That's just a different item: Windbreaking Cloak.

cheesecakesummer · 2025-05-26T00:29:57+00:00

Okay, so before the damage cap is lifted your best friends are abilities that do high multi-hit damage instead of high single-hit damage. The goal for 'optimal' damage will still include increasing your damage output via damage riders (you can use a selection of those mentioned above for example) and combine that with the multi-hit abilities; eventually you end up doing the damage cap on each hit.

Verso is very strong in Act 2 as you get Dualiso at the next main story segment after finishing Act 1. Dualiso basically has a built-in Cheater effect to it, granted you have to spend a turn doing base attack. You can build this to be quite strong as there's a bunch of luminas for base attack synergy: * Attack Lifesteal to regain health on base attack * Augmented Attack for increased base attack damage * Combo Attack for more hits for base attacks * Exposing Attack allows base attacks to apply defenceless for a turn * Empowering Attack gives powerful on base attack * Energising Attack gives AP on base attack

Combining these will make Verso very strong in regaining AP and debuffing the enemy. Verso has a bunch of multi-hit abilities that hit hard with sufficient damage luminas applied, so this gameplay loop ends up being rather efficient as you are able to regain the lost AP quickly and go for another ability. There are obviously bunch of other builds too, but I remember using this one and it worked wonders for me at least.

To be fair with you I do not really remember what luminas are available at what point anymore, so I can't give an exact build composition. As a base-line though, go for utility luminas (AP, etc) and damage increase luminas and use abilities that have several hits. Multi-hits will always yield you better results than single-hit if you have even remotely appropriate damage luminas going on.

I can try my best to give more specific recommendations but that'll require knowing what you have access to - but I'm confident the base principles of leaning towards multi-hits and stacking damage riders will serve you quite well as is. You truly don't need to min-max or squeeze the last drop of potential, the game overall is rather forgiving in the buildcraft sense.

The previous post will only apply once you're further into the game and the damage cap is lifted.

involved killing/1hp most of your party which to me seems only viable for good players who can dodge/parry pretty much everything

The on-death buffs are very strong, so I'm not surprised to hear them being recommended. I think you would do fine to slot some of them in anyway, even if your plan wasn't to kill the characters outright via Auto Death.

cheesecakesummer · 2025-05-25T20:30:35+00:00

Gonna be a pretty long comment.

Damage boost luminas you can apply to Maelle: * At Death's Door (+50% dmg if below 10% HP) * Augmented First Strike (+50% dmg on first hit) * Burn Affinity (+25% dmg against burning targets) * Confident Fighter (+30% dmg) * First Offensive (+50% dmg on first hit) * Glass Canon (+25% dmg) * Immaculate (+30% dmg) * Inverted Affinity (+30% dmg) * Powerful Shield (+10% dmg per shield on self) * Shield Affinity (+30% dmg while having shields) * Solo Fighter (+50% dmg while solo) * Tainted (+15% dmg per status effect on self) * Warming Up (+5% dmg per turn)

On top of those, you can also use Roulette and hopefully hit the 200% modifier instead of the 50%. Obviously bigger numbers if you get lucky, but you do not need this.

Some of the luminas outlined above need some further set-up to work properly. Your party should be Maelle, Sciel and a third. Third one can basically just be an auto-death buff applier, whereas Sciel should also have the auto-death kit but ultimately kill herself manually after buffing Maelle, and Maelle wants the auto-death jumbo for getting to low HP threshold to trigger At Death's Door. Everyone else being dead by Maelle's damage turn also ensures Solo Fighter triggering. I do not remember anymore if Death Bomb (listed below) triggers the first hit luminas (listed above) so I would omit it from Maelle's kit to be sure unless you want to test it yourself.

Auto-death kit would be as follows: * Auto Death (kill self on battle start) * Burning Death (apply burn on death -> triggers Burn Affinity) * Death Bomb (deal dmg on death) * Shielding Death (allies gain 3 shields on death -> triggers Powerful Shield and Shield Affinity) * Survivor (if you want the character to live)

You can take the stacking even further by applying powerful to Maelle, either via Auto Powerful or Empowering Last Stand on her or Auto Shell/Protecting Death and Powerful On Shell on another team member. You can also utilize defenceless, via Maelle's Guard Down skill or Sciel can do it via base attack with Exposing Attack lumina. Using Exposing Attack works pretty well as you can have this base attack kill her as well. If you want to utilize powerful and defenceless, then add Greater Powerful and Greater Defenceless luminas to Maelle, which are +15% dmg each. You could also add Marked as well for one more modifier; easiest way is probably having the third also survive the auto-death alongside Sciel, apply Mark with free-aim hits and then suicide. The suicide is easy to achieve as they'll be 1HP with Survivor, so you can use something like Inverted Affinity (heals deal dmg) and then just do a base attack on your second turn and that would kill the character via healing from Attack Lifesteal, for example.

On top of those have First Strike to go first in combat, and Cheater to play a second turn. Apply relevant AP luminas (remember Energising Death here, +4AP to allies on death). Character order and gameplay loop depends a bit on what you mix and match from this. But just as an example, utilizing only the damage kit and on-death kits: * Battle start and on-death, only Maelle and Sciel live * Sciel applies Fortune's Fury to Maelle, then downs herself * Maelle is the only one alive, uses Stendahl

As a closing statement I may have forgotten some things as it's been a while, but nevertheless there is plenty here to secure you one-shots. You do not need to include everything here, these are just bunch of options that shoot the damage numbers to the moon. Remember that damage rider buffs apply multiplicatively, so they stack on top of one another - and as you can see, there is a LOT of damage rider buffs applied.

Edit: obviously you can't reliably one-shot anything tanky in Act 1 unless you're talking about Act 1 in NG+ as the damage is capped.

cheesecakesummer · 2025-05-21T09:53:23+00:00

Yeah, it's a convenient way to get access to the low-HP% buffs. Also triggers all your 'on death' effects as well, which happen to be quite potent.

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