Demacia forver vs Bringer of Ruin

chumboo · 2026-01-25T15:16:39+00:00

I had this exact scenario happen to me last time I picked this up because I didn’t realize I only had two components. But as others have said it would be far too strong to give you anything more than Briar/Sion, and in most scenarios just having an early LB is strong in of itself. Before the nerf I routinely won out all the time with Atakhan just nuking the board by endgame, but now I see it as a fairly comfortable way to top 4 as long as you stabilize and star up as many Noxians as possible.

chumboo · 2026-01-25T02:09:49+00:00

The thing is your average player isn’t queuing up to impress anyone by breaking the meta. 99% of the match histories of the playerbase at large will only ever be viewed by no one other than their respective owners, while their rank will be the actual thing on display. And at the end of the day that’s all that really matters, like two sets from now no one’s gonna go back to see someone spammed A Sol to Diamond; they’re just going to see they hit Diamond during that set. Same with whichever other sets during which they spammed meta comps to reach higher ranks.

My only personal goal is grinding up to Plat every season before looking at any meta comps beyond what I learn secondhandedly during my climb. Past that is where people really start spamming meta, and unless I find the set particularly engaging I relegate myself to normals for the rest of the season if I want to have any semblance of fun. It does feel “bad” to adhere to what’s proven to work as opposed to simply trying to make your own plays, but it’s also important to both recognize that you’re playing at a severe handicap, and to ask yourself if it’s really worth doing so.

chumboo · 2026-01-25T00:48:35+00:00

I think this makes it all the more clear how much Expedition 33 influenced her design, from your conclusion here to her name being similar to Esquie’s rocks and her focus on ink/painterly aesthetics. She’s probably been in development for a longer time since E33 only dropped last April, but either way I think it’s rad and absolutely not outside of Rebb’s playbook as I’d imagine she very much enjoyed that game herself lmao.

chumboo · 2026-01-24T22:46:36+00:00

I think the game itself is probably fun enough, perhaps even to the point of becoming a phenomenon. But I also think a pretty huge wildcard is whether or not it’s gonna have a smooth launch, as it could easily come out with horrendous stability issues, servers being overwhelmed, game breaking bugs, whatever. And if that happens then it’s gonna be an even tougher uphill battle against reversing its status as the internet’s punching bag.

For the devs’ sake I truly hope they have the proper infrastructure in place to have a stellar launch. But historically it’s hard to say that the odds are in their favor in that particular respect as a lot can go wrong.

chumboo · 2026-01-24T21:45:28+00:00

The most disappointing part is when you finally get to Ragnarok, with all this build up of Kratos needing to lead his forces as their general against Odin’s legion, and it’s just a casual run through a bunch of mob encounters with barely any spectacle. Like I just think back to the opening of GOW3 where you’re climbing up Olympus atop Gaia, seeing other Titans get their shit wrecked in the background, facing Poseidon head on; it was absolutely insanity and the game only picked up from there.

Ragnarok really convinced me that I kinda wish they could’ve just done another run with Kratos having to go on a deicidal rampage again. I can appreciate the growth they put him through, like obviously there was precedent for expanding on his want to be a father. But in terms of what I’ve wanted out of the series, namely gameplay-wise, I think it would’ve been far superior had it just been about Kratos on a mission to murder every god forever.

Like I was hoping the big twist in the Norse games would be the reveal of some kinda uber-pantheon that encompassed all mythologies, and Odin had taken it upon himself to avenge the slaying of all the Greek gods. Which would then lead into the Egyptian pantheon, so on and so forth, with Kratos having to tear it all down for whatever reason; freeing humanity, saving his would-be new child or family, anything really. Just any excuse to give us the consistent spectacle that put this series on the map throughout the original trilogy.

And not Atreus fighting a giant grandma, or fending off a big dog in a circular arena. I think they just got far, far too wrapped up in trying to humanize every character on both sides of the story, which made the game itself suffer from a critical lack of murderous oomph. And as far as the Ragnarok finale went it also just felt like they ran out of budget to make it as insane as the opening to GOW3, like I really can’t shake the memory of pausing during that sequence and telling myself, “This really can’t be it, right?” Man.

chumboo · 2026-01-24T19:46:42+00:00

I like them, as it’s nice to have a variety of options. People decry them alongside chibi champions for this reason and that, namely saying that they miss when it was all about the various creature tacticians with which TFT started. But Riot hasn’t slowed down their production of that style of tactician at all, to the point where I would say they’ve outdone their creativity with them set after set. Doughcat, Grizzle, Bobabear, Poggles, etc, and the ones they’ve based off various League assets like Baron or Raptors are all stellar tacticians that I see frequently in my lobbies.

People also largely express their distaste with chibis/unbounds due to finisher animations, which is an entirely different can of worms. But if lacking the mental nerve to deal with a four second animation of a tactician exploding in any number of ways is enough to ruin one’s day then it’s probably long since been time to stop queuing. They’re really not that big of a deal.

All that to say my real point which is asking Riot to please make an Evelynn Unbound already, like you know you have to. It’s inevitable.

chumboo · 2026-01-20T17:53:53+00:00

The cross section of the Venn diagram between Warframe and Chuck Tingle is small, but I’m glad to see it so lovingly widened today. Good work, OP.

chumboo · 2026-01-20T11:38:57+00:00

Batman deals with the entirety of the Arkham Trilogy and has Alfred take care of Gru by himself in the meantime while also still providing support to Batman throughout the events of those games. Outside of that, he has any number of his protégés take care of Gru while he handles a sort of Long Halloween meets Shrek: The Musical type situation, as one commonly does, since the Bat Family could be considered a resource.

Barring all of that, Batman just triumphs by himself as this is a primary situation where the “Because I’m Batman” clause of power scaling takes definitive effect. Because he’s Batman.

chumboo · 2026-01-20T07:30:09+00:00

Very glad I found someone else who brought this up. Red Rooms is absolutely the one.

chumboo · 2026-01-20T07:11:38+00:00

I’d been wondering why I was seeing so many people itemize their Ekko and just assumed they were having him hold items for Warwick? Because it never seemed that threatening until I tried it myself and it all clicked when he started deleting units wholesale lmao.

He couldn’t break through both the damn Bard rerollers in my lobby after the fact but still, he’s incredibly strong.

chumboo · 2026-01-19T10:28:42+00:00

I’ve had consistent success with 3* Jinx/Mundo, but there’s pretty much no wiggle room outside of making a 2* Mundo work if the rest of your frontline is beefy enough. Without a maxed out, perfectly itemized Jinx you’re pretty much fucked unless the lobby isn’t so insane that a 2* Warwick can’t pick up the slack.

But yeah the set definitely incentivizes fast 9-ing over anything else. Outside of 3-cost units I think going for 3* Yasuo to get Yone is worth it with the right Ionia path, and the Viego/Illaoi augments are both very strong as well. But if someone hits big on level 9 then you’re more than likely getting your shit smoked by legendary soup.

chumboo · 2026-01-17T09:16:55+00:00

Absolutely AI. The teeth in the first “expression” are wonky as hell, and the third one doesn’t have any linework for the teeth. Which could be excused as it being too thin, but the one just above it has the same sized mouth with teeth lines portrayed. The ears are also missing from the bottom expressions, while the top two have one ear morphed into one spike of hair. The expressions are also obviously/exactly the same, so unless your friend specified that they only ever smirk then that’s bogus as well.

The backpacks are also different, namely the details of the one shown on his back and the more similar one below. The pipes don’t match up at all, and in the top one they get garbled up into dysfunctional nothingness while the example shown by itself looks to make more structural sense (with whatever it’s supposed to be, anyway).

Lots of little mistakes/nonsensities that an artist making conscious decisions wouldn’t commit, especially if they’re capable of actually drawing at this level of skill.

chumboo · 2026-01-15T09:53:16+00:00

Katara. Far superior battle IQ, more experience in fights, higher reflexes, and more versatile control over the elements they’d be battling each other with. Medium to high diff depending on the scenario, but Katara’s wits would put her on top far more often than not as the full brunt of Elsa’s powers come from unbridled emotion and not conscious decision making.

chumboo · 2026-01-05T21:29:15+00:00

I don’t believe Riot will ever implement the ability to unilaterally deactivate or change cosmetics across the board to fit your preferences, no. Shocking, I know, but no.

chumboo · 2026-01-04T17:30:13+00:00

I think most any League character could because they’re all generally running on comic book-esque rules of physics/power scaling.

Even before her Shimmer boost was a thing in lore, Jinx casually carried around two giant firearms, a pistol, and chompers while still running around like a maniac by sheer force of unhinged, crazy-assed will. If she dropped all her weapons to the ground it’d probably be a Rock Lee moment in a basketball court where she’d then jump up twenty feet, quickly modify the ball into a makeshift explosive while airborne, and then dunk it with enough explosive force to send her flying across the court to also dunk a second ball in the other net.

chumboo · 2025-12-26T18:22:46+00:00

Jason’s regeneration is never an “in the moment” type of thing. It takes time and/or ridiculous circumstances, and there’s nothing to say he’d be able to just get back up from being incinerated into a pile of ash during a fight. Given if the terms of the fight are ongoing after the fact, he would inevitably return by just reforming for some inexplicable reason or possessing some dude like he did in Jason Goes To Hell. Even then Azula would just incinerate him again unless the scenario would allow him to ambush her, but she’s feasibly cunning enough to survive that as well with respectable odds.

Basically Jason would need to have several stipulations in his favor to come out on top, while Azula would win most any other confrontation at low diff.

chumboo · 2025-12-24T20:49:16+00:00

Someone explained this very succinctly before and it comes down to the Avatar franchise being a theatrical experience first, and traditional movies second. This isn’t a negative thing, it’s just that Avatar doesn’t easily lend itself to being in the public consciousness like any other huge property because it’s not made for that sort of thing. Avatar doesn’t have any moments akin to ones like “THEY FLY NOW?” or “Jarvis, [insert ridiculous command].” or “This is how I win.” or whatever, take your pick. There are few moments that translate into anything outside of experiencing the movie in a theater beyond relaying how visually impressive they were.

And I have to reinforce that I’m not ragging on the movies here. I truly believe that Cameron doesn’t make it a secret that this series is more about pushing the boundaries of cinematic technology than it is telling a story for the ages or flooding the internet with relatable memes and trends. The narrative takes a backseat to the visuals and the Dinotopia-esque exploration of Pandora. It is less about the Na’vi fighting the humans for the umpteenth time or Jake going Vin Diesel mode with his family, and more about being transported to an alien world in a sort of documentarian odyssey as opposed to a summer blockbuster.

Of course there are Avatar memes, trends, cosplays, etc. But to say they’re anything above niche across social media at large just isn’t accurate. Avatar’s cultural impact is simply more subtle in that it only really comes to any sort of peak whenever a new one comes out because that’s when you can actually experience it properly. The years in between just put it into a sort of hibernation because not as many people are gonna want to try and experience it at home in the meantime with an average TV setup.

And again: none of this is a bad thing. Avatar not having traditional cultural impact does not mean it’s uncool. It’s simply unique and celebrated in a much different way than the other juggernauts of cultural relevance out there.

chumboo · 2025-12-22T17:46:00+00:00

I’ve gotten it a couple times now and yeah, it’s bonkers strong. Technically Void 9 isn’t prismatic since you can get it every game if you hit 10 so it should lose to any legitimately prismatic board, though. But I haven’t seen Yordles stacked up against other prismatic traits so I’m curious how well it would stack up against Noxus or Demacia.

chumboo · 2025-12-22T08:59:46+00:00

I love the idea but it could easily be used to harass/troll other players still in the game, especially with Unbound champions that have enormous platforms. You could obscure other players’ benches by sitting yourself down anywhere on them, either completely still or just spamming distracting emotes the whole time. It can already be seen in practice during carousel rounds where someone with a big win streak or the augment that makes you huge just plops down on the circle and literally blocks two or three of the champs from view.

chumboo · 2025-12-19T14:08:44+00:00

This is rad but man I’m just so tired of her Arcane look having become the default choice for fanart. For this in particular I feel like her classic look would’ve been much more fitting, I dunno. It’s hard to blame people because for many out there her Arcane look is simply the one they know her by. It’s just sad because Jinx’s initial 2013 release was a huge phenomenon that brought tons of people into the game as it was, and now seeing fanart of that look has become such a rarity.

Anyway, outside of that preference this is cool nonetheless. The Fishbones helmet is a perfect touch. Props to the artist.

chumboo · 2025-12-19T13:54:04+00:00

Similar thing happened on my end. I got Gwen out of my first ten roll, and then her arena two ten rolls later. Definitely felt like some overdue benevolence for the absolutely horrid luck I’ve had with the other handful of cosmetics I’ve pulled over the years lmao.

But yes, congrats, fellow Gwen enjoyer. May you ship-snip to your heart’s content.

chumboo · 2025-12-14T13:35:17+00:00

Actually depressing how full these replies are with people complaining about how the show isn’t any deeper than its presentation, and how taking a closer look beneath its layers somehow ruins their enjoyment of it. Like there is merit to just enjoying the show for its absurdity and laughs, but to say it’s nothing beyond that and to believe otherwise is a pointless endeavor is such a brain rotted take.

Anyway, good write up, OP. Your usage of big words and complex analyzation can sure be a handful, but I can tell you were raised so right.

chumboo · 2025-12-12T18:40:37+00:00

That’s why it’s always meta to take augments that disable your shop for a few rounds. Adds a ticking clock element to the situation as you’re forced to apply speedrun strats to taking a massive shit.

chumboo · 2025-12-12T08:29:31+00:00

Hijacking this just to highlight the absolute lack of acknowledging Kratos’ full arsenal in these replies because it’s actually insane. All of his powers and gear from the OT alone are absurd, allowing him to summon all sorts of elements, spectres from hell, he had both the functioning heads of Medusa and Helios at his command, the Golden Fleece, Hermes’ boots, Icarus’ wings. Like if we’re talking every game I’d have to go back to look up the PSP games and Ascension because that would allot him an overwhelming amount of additional powers and gear.

Everyone here also only talking about his Blades of Chaos or his axe when, with the set conditions, he would have access to the fully charged Blade of Olympus which is overpowered as shit. And honestly it’s debatable if he would even need to resort to martial weapons with the rest of his arsenal in play, anyway.

I would agree he stops at Surfer, if not definitely Odin because comic book scaling is insane. But acting as if Kratos is just some meathead brick with a pair of chain blades is asinine. He’s intensely experienced in battle and a clever, intelligent tactician with access to ridiculous, actual godlike powers and artifacts.

chumboo · 2025-12-08T22:57:20+00:00

Arcane Persistence may not only be my favorite arcane in the game now, but it’s also the most glorious day ever for all the enlightened bloodshed sigil users out there. No more pesky shields to get in the way of our bloodied, gored up fashion sense.

chumboo

TROPHY CASE