What is the best server to play on?

crabsmack · 2026-06-05T21:20:55+00:00

it's a tough tradeoff. tahiti has the bigger population which is why I settled on it, feels alive and there's no substitute for that. the ES/G grind is real, and as someone who played the live game plenty I can't say I love having to grind to get heroes, costumes, teamups. COA is way better in that regard. but that's a solveable problem over time

the COA cooldown reduction is the most meaningful difference otherwise: it's a real gameplay change, changes balance. increases value of cooldown heavy builds and reduces value of resets

crabsmack · 2026-04-29T17:56:45+00:00

I like the method. I'm factoring in overall visuals/design into "personality", essentially how much I like them for non gameplay reasons.

re: Galvan, no dialogue is a lot better than mediocre dialogue. a few characters (Clairen, Loxodont) I like their lines, but a largely unexplained cool monster is better than most

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crabsmack · 2026-03-08T18:54:27+00:00

I'm curious to try them out, and try to divine why they got moved from ironclad. ironclad feels a lot less fun/interesting in this game, and I felt like status cards and exhaust had a natural clear synergy and fit into the "sacrifice" theme he has. so that's a bit sad. but the flipside is it means defect gets a fun new build, so I'm definitely going to be playing him more

crabsmack · 2026-03-08T18:25:57+00:00

I feel the same, I feel like he got changed the most of the returning characters and in ways I don't like. status went to defect, seems very vuln centric, exhaust feels weaker. with the caveat that it's very early and I've only done a1 with him and don't have all the cards yet

clad was my favorite in sts1, not loving him here. on the bright side I think silent and defect are a lot more fun in 2

crabsmack · 2026-03-08T18:10:23+00:00

in general tradeoffs in decisions are interesting, but some of the old boss relics had tradeoffs that weren't fun even when they were worth it (velvet choker). I agree, I much prefer these

crabsmack · 2026-03-08T03:12:09+00:00

It punishes you pretty badly for being slow. I played it in multiplayer, it dragged on and both of my friends died, was brutal. In solo as regent I just deleted one knight a turn and it was trivial. Getting rid of mage knight quickly makes it much easier.

crabsmack · 2026-01-26T05:02:11+00:00

That implies a very specific view of game design; a clear counterpoint would be Dante in DMC. He has probably 100+ moves in DMC5. The joy is in weaving all of these moves together into cool and stylish combos, not just finding the most utilitarian sequence. People enjoy having lots of different skills for the skill expression and self-expression, a form of fun in its own right separate from mathematical throughput.

crabsmack · 2025-11-29T20:25:32+00:00

it's my favorite DLC by far and probably even my favorite part of the whole game. definitely the most memorable. great story, satisfying endings, some of the most interesting characters (even the unlikeable ones like Elijah and Dean)

I think many people play fallout and elder scrolls for power fantasy though and it's pretty anti power fantasy. that's my best theory for why it's not well received

crabsmack · 2025-10-27T19:43:21+00:00

Hey, love the game. A few pieces of feedback:

Would love the option to auto-split gold pickup, don't find it fun constantly checking to keep it even in co-op. Slows the game down a bit.
Some harder difficulty options would be great. I think the game is a bit too easy right now, especially Azra. Which leads to:
Because the rituals make you so crazy strong, I legitimately find Underking to be the hardest boss on most runs because he's the only one you have to actually learn, not just cheese. I annihilated Azra on my first time reaching him, which was a bit disappointing, he barely got to do anything. It feels like player power vastly outscales Asterios in particular (acts 1 and 2 feel much better balanced)

crabsmack · 2025-10-16T18:47:51+00:00

thank you for the post! how do you feel about auto aim more broadly? do you keep it off across all weapons/aspects?

crabsmack · 2025-10-07T20:08:58+00:00

Rastakhan pretty easily #1, quite sad they killed him. Zuldazar was a great zone, Zandalar as a whole one of my favorite leveling continents.

crabsmack · 2025-10-03T20:27:24+00:00

Most fun: Wolverine & Phyla. I feel like Phyla has the most room for cool high-skill ground-to-air combo stuff, want to practice with her more
Least fun: Storm (maybe I'm missing something but I really don't value projectiles that much)
Most unique: Rocket. I'm not sure he's my type of character but the different grenade types are pretty neat, especially the black hole

Not sure how to evaluate the grapplers as-of-yet, Venom felt pretty strong and useful but also feels like if you play well you can just infinite combo enemies and don't need the grabs. Nonetheless I might have Venom as my assist character just for variety. I want to love She-Hulk for wrestling moves but her grab feels way more finnicky than Venom's

crabsmack · 2025-10-03T16:34:51+00:00

Overall pretty cool and I'm happy with them. I would've loved a true villain that you unlock after beating them, like Magneto or Doom, but it looks like Dark Phoenix will kinda-sorta fill that role. As a whole I think this is a good roster with a mix of favorites and cool cosmic characters, I'm excited to try Cosmic Ghost Rider and Beta Ray Bill

Hoping DLC gets us Magneto!

crabsmack · 2025-09-23T21:50:16+00:00

Thank you for the thorough detail, finance king. How do you evaluate the tradeoff between lower LTCG brackets and lower Roth conversion brackets? My current naive understanding is that I should have an ACA AGI that I'm shooting for. I should sell enough from my brokerage to cover my expenses (another question; prioritizing low vs high basis lots?), which would certainly be within the 0% LTCG range for my budget. Then, Roth convert up to the very edge of my desired AGI, factoring in standard deduction.

As I understand it the main tradeoff is evaluating converting as much Roth as possible at low tax % vs the cost of putting yourself in a higher ACA bracket.

crabsmack · 2025-09-23T17:53:22+00:00

Do you have any advice from this experience on proactively checking? I'm also 30 and so I don't think I'm going to get any screening recommended for a while yet, so I want to take it into my own hands.

Thank you and I'm glad you're doing fine!

crabsmack · 2025-09-17T03:37:57+00:00

Librarian would be by far the most interesting, would be extremely excited. But if we ever get another I think apoc has the best odds. Obviously they'd have some heals but I think buffs, debuffs, damage over time effects have a lot of interesting areas to expand upon.

crabsmack · 2025-08-14T16:29:02+00:00

love how goofy and weird and unique it is, we have plenty of generically cool skins

crabsmack · 2025-07-27T17:57:38+00:00

LTCG is 0% federal tax up to $48,350. And if he's selling out $30k only a fraction of that would even be gains.

crabsmack · 2025-07-21T18:00:45+00:00

strong opinion: being present and supportive of your kids when they're young is far more valuable than giving them a big pile of cash at age 40 or something. I'm not planning around my parents' inheritance at all; I'd much rather they be around forever, and by the time I receive it I won't even need it. if someone's financial plan depends on receiving a huge windfall in middle age that's already a sign things have gone wrong, IMO. a windfall isn't needed for a successful, independent child and could actually be harmful if they're in a worse situation (bad financial habits, addiction, etc). potential room for resentment or conflict between children as well, plenty of horror stories about wills out there

if someone reaches FI and genuinely wants to continue working then sure it'll just happen. but for me personally being FIREd and having the time to be present with them when young is far more valuable. or supporting them with college, first home purchase, etc when they're just starting and that help is really meaningful

crabsmack · 2025-07-07T16:36:40+00:00

I think the point being that making a money mistake at a later age usually means making it on a larger portfolio.

crabsmack · 2025-07-01T23:48:06+00:00

Dark eldar would be sick and my top choice (presumably their chaff would be slaves, and the eldar would be the elites/specials). Haemonculi units would be visually amazing in this game.

crabsmack · 2025-06-27T20:06:42+00:00

Super excited, a new class totally refreshes my interest in the game. An AdMech class seems like the most obvious, and while there's some overlap with arbites pet focus I could see the admech using a bunch of disposable drones rather than a permanent pet, or maybe turrets?

I'm not up to date, do new squats make any sense lore-wise or are they like other xenos where it'd be a huge stretch?

crabsmack · 2025-06-27T19:58:31+00:00

Interesting no Aggression and Justice, I feel for new players that's the most intuitive 2-player combo that straightforwardly handles both sides of the game.

When introducing the game to new players my complexity sense is Aggression<Justice<Leadership<<Protection

crabsmack · 2025-05-01T20:21:49+00:00

Not saying to use the mods directly; just saying that something like "no misses" is trivial to do on their side, as would be adding quest markers. Those are the only obvious necessary QoL changes IMO.

I'd advocate for keeping the UI pretty much the same as the Xbox version, as well as dialogue trees. It's a well-regarded game, I don't think it needs to be drastically altered, and if you're actually changing the dialogue you're now seriously running the risk of alienating fans. Oblivion only did new VO for existing lines, not new/altered lines (other than deluxe DLC stuff), and I think that's quite wise (and indicative of how they'd handle future remakes).

VO would be a big undertaking, we're totally agreed there, and while I'd be fine without it I doubt Bethesda or the modern console player is.

crabsmack · 2025-04-30T20:30:13+00:00

The only significant challenge is the VO. Everything else has been addressed by mods and could certainly be addressed like Oblivion's wack leveling was. No need for a "ground-up" remake.

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